Natural Disasters - January 22
London, Jan 22 -- A press report, dated today, states: US military officials in Haiti say damage to the only functional industrial pier in Port au Prince is so extensive they do not know when it will be able to handle large aid shipments. The US Army, Navy and Coast Guard are trying to patch up the pier, where only four vessels have been able to dock. Fifteen-inch-wide cracks mean only one truck can work at a time and the port's cranes are damaged or destroyed. One businessman says he won't risk his workers so he'll move to another port, which is at least 12 hours from the capital over bad roads. He says that means his prices will soar. No fuel tankers have been able to land at the badly damaged main oil terminal at another port. That has forced gas stations to depend on tankers driving in from the neighbouring Dominican Republic. (See issue of Jan 22.)