Haiti ends quake rescue operations

The Haitian government has declared an end to the search and rescue phase of the country's post-earthquake operations after deciding there is little hope of finding more people alive, the United Nations said today.

The decision came the day after two people, an 84-year-old woman and a 21-year-old man, were pulled alive from the rubble in the capital, Port-au-Prince.

The UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs said 132 people had been rescued from the rubble by international teams.

Spokeswoman Elizebeth Byrs said the move would not prevent rescue teams who were still searching through the rubble from carrying out any work they felt necessary. "It doesn't mean the government will order them to stop. In case there is the slightest sign of life, they will act."

But she added: "Except for miracles, hope is unfortunately fading."

Humanitarian relief efforts were still being increased in Port-au-Prince, Jacmel, Leogane and other areas affected by the quake, Byrs said.

The magnitude-7 tremor killed up to 200,000 people and has left more than 2 million others homeless. Clinics have been overwhelmed by an estimated 250,000 wounded, with shortages of surgeons, nurses, medicine and supplies hindering medical aid.

Thousands more bodies remain buried in collapsed buildings in the capital, according to the US Agency for International Development.

An 84-year-old woman, who was pulled from a wrecked building yesterday, remained in a critical condition in Port-au-Prince's general hospital, doctors said.

Elsewhere in the capital, an Israeli rescue team freed 21-year-old Emmannuel Buso from the rubble. From his bed in an Israeli field hospital, Buso described coming out of the shower when the quake hit. "I felt the house dancing around me. I didn't know if I was up or down."

Buso said he passed out in the rubble and sometimes dreamt he could hear his mother crying. The furniture in his room had collapsed around him in such a way that it created a small space for him amid the ruins. He had no food. When he got desperately thirsty, he drank his urine.

"I am here today because God wants it," he said.

Rescuers said yesterday they were encouraged that people were still being found alive nine days after the quake but stressed that few trapped people could survive for that long.

"Statistically you can say that the chances of survival is very low," said Fernando Alvarez Bravo, a Mexican rescue worker. "But the hope it gives the population to recover and find their loved ones helps them to recover quickly. They don't feel abandoned."

The end of the search and rescue effort comes the day after Michael Schuster, a volunteer US ­doctor running a ward in the capital's general hospital, said thousands of lives could have been saved if aid efforts had focused more on injured survivors rather than rescuing trapped people.

"We end up chasing our tails. By the time we have the supplies for the masses it is almost too late. I think if we mobilised for the masses and put less media emphasis [on those under the rubble] many lives could have been saved," he said.

It could take up to four months to restore electricity in Port-au-Prince, where generators are currently being used.

Amid a scarcity of goods, prices have tripled for some products in Haiti, a poor Caribbean nation where 80% of the population survives on less than $2 a day.

"Inflation is eating them alive," said the UN Development Programme worker Eliane Nicolini.