Help steps up, but so does scale of Haiti tragedy

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — The staggering scope of Haiti’s nightmare came into sharper focus Monday as authorities estimated 200,000 dead and 1.5 million homeless in the heart of this luckless land, where injured survivors still died in the streets, doctors pleaded for help and looters slashed at one another in the rubble.

The world pledged more money, food, medicine and police. Some 2,000 U.S. Marines steamed into nearby waters. And ex-president Bill Clinton, special U.N. envoy, flew in to offer support.

But hour by hour the unmet needs of hundreds of thousands grew.

“Have we been abandoned? Where is the food?” shouted one man, Jean Michel Jeantet, in a downtown street.

The U.N. World Food Program (WFP) said it expected to boost operations from feeding 67,000 people on Sunday to 97,000 today. But it needs 100 million prepared meals over the next 30 days, and it appealed for more government donations.