The American Red Cross says a plan to bring 45,000 evacuees from Haiti to Florida

They're already arriving as of last night!

Evacuees from Haiti have begun arriving in South Florida and across the United States as relief efforts struggled to gain a foothold in the quake-ravaged nation.

Planes carrying the injured and foreign nationals fleeing for safety landed throughout the day at airports from Miami-Dade to Palm Beach counties. The airlifts were part of a massive U.S. relief effort that Vice President Joe Biden said on Saturday would be long and difficult.

"There is going to be a lot of second-guessing," Biden warned at a meeting with Haitian civic and political leaders in Miami-Dade County. "We're going to get all this in shape, but I just want everybody to know this first 72 hours, this first week, is pretty hard to get everything we need in there."

Among those rescued recently was U.S. Army Lt. Col. John Christopher Thomas, of Weston. He was in Haiti for an orientation when the quake struck and became trapped in the Montana Hotel in Port-au-Prince.

"I was on the fifth floor. I got wedged under the door in my room. When the building finally settled, I had to dislodge myself," Thomas told officials at Jackson Memorial Hospital. "I fell further down, and I'm not sure how far down I fell."

Local families with relatives in Haiti have struggled to reach loved ones since Tuesday's devastating earthquake. Biden sought to assure them that the U.S. would do all it could to help.

"How deafening that silence is for so many Haitian-Americans," he said, describing attempts to get news about family members. "I can't imagine how searing the pain they feel is."

That pain was reflected that evening at a vigil at Toussaint L'Ouverture High School in Boynton Beach. More than 100 people crowded the school's lobby as somber faces murmured quiet prayers and community leaders spoke about local relief efforts.

"More help is getting into Haiti. More victims are being found," said Joseph Bernadel, co-founder of the charter school. "More people are receiving food and water."

And more people are learning the terrible toll the earthquake continues to exact.

"I found out I have three or four cousins who died in Haiti," said State Rep. Mackenson Bernard, D-West Palm Beach. "I found my sister's home is destroyed."

But while relief efforts continued at a frenzied pace, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, traveling with the vice president, directed a hard-line message to those who want to help.

Turning to directly toward a bank of television cameras, she told Haitians not to attempt to flee and come to the United States. She said they would be sent back.

Napolitano said attempts to leave the country would hurt the recovery effort by diverting resources from providing relief to interdicting those trying to leave. On Friday, she signed the order granting temporary protected status to Haitian nationals who already in the U.S. when the quake struck. But it doesn't apply to any new arrivals.

"There may be an impulse to leave the island to come here. You will not qualify for TPS status," she said. "This is a very dangerous crossing. Lives are lost every time people try to make this crossing."

Biden promised that the U.S. response would last long beyond short-term, immediate needs, but people need to realize that Haiti has limited capacity to receive people and supplies because of airport and port damage. And the U.S. needs to respect the sovereignty of the nation of Haiti and comply with its requests.

Biden and Napolitano urged people to send money instead of goods, given the country's fractured transportation.

"The number one need of all of these groups is just plain, cold cash," Napolitano said.

[link to www.sun-sentinel.com]

Oh boy!!!!

Nothing new, this has been going on for a long time! The government corporation needs a source of ignorant and cheap labor. They've got lots of repossesed houses for sale, CHEAP! $500 down, $500 a month! Lots of empty commercial spaces available too! Tag em' with an RFID to monitor and track em', give em' an idiot can use electronic device set up to use electronic currency, and let em' go!

Gov doesn't need the cheap labor, they'll make them citizens and register them to vote. Hide and watch.

I say send them to the Gaza strip so Israel will have more to shoot and collect organs to sell