The United Nations planned to launch on Friday an appeal for a large amount of funds and other donations to assist quake-stricken Haiti, but said the immediate needs are for medical doctors and healthcare workers, according to dpa. John Holmes, the top UN humanitarian coordinator in New York, said the main international airport in Port-au-Prince has become blocked by the large number of planes carrying relief supplies that have landed there. "It"s not so much the distribution of supplies, it"s the arrivals of a large number of planes," Holmes said in an update on the humanitarian situation in Haiti two days after the massive earthquake destroyed swathes of Port-au-Prince. Holmes declined to give a specific monetary figure for the flash appeal on Friday because of the fluid post-quake situation, in which search and rescue operations are the priority in light of the great number of people still buried under rubble. "It will be rough and ready and not based on any evidence as we would like it," Holmes said. "Like any flash appeals, we expect to revise them in three or four weeks when we got better evidence, up or down, and the changing nature of it." Holmes said, however, the appeal would be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. He said while the outpouring of generosity of the international community is much appreciated, the aid supplies would only slowly reach those in need because of conditions in the capital, where hospitals, banks and government offices and infrastructure were destroyed. "The local medical infrastructure is badly damaged and overwhelmed by the number of injuries so the top priority is to get doctors, all medical teams, field hospitals and medical supplies" into Haiti in order to tackle the dire situation, Holmes said. He praised the international community for its extreme focus on quickly sending relief supplies to Haiti. "What we are trying to do is for the right teams are getting in and that the aid will arrive as quickly as possible as well as the search and rescue teams," he said. The international airport was reopened on Wednesday after the United States provided technicians and capacity for a control tower to direct air traffic. The tower was knocked down by the earthquake on Tuesday. But the airport was quickly filled with cargo planes carrying supplies.
