"Very little sign of officialdom"

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Transcript of first-hand account from The Globe and Mail's Les Perreaux:

This is Jill Mahoney from theglobeandmail.com. I have on the line The Globe and Mail's Les Perreaux, who is in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

OK Les, can you tell me where you are and what you're seeing?

I'm actually still just sitting outside the hotel in Port-au-Prince where a lot of journalists have congregated. It's much like yesterday. At the start, people are still camped out in the middle of the street. And there's a little more sign of life as far as the aid side goes. A truck full of Belgian military just passed by and there seems to be people, people seem to be walking around with containers of water and that sort of thing. So supplies have not run out completely at this stage.

Les, in your story in today's Globe you describe improvised rescues of people trapped in the rubble by people using little more than their bare hands. Do you have any sense of whether professional search and rescue crews are reaching the streets and the people trapped there?

In the six hours I spent walking around downtown Port-au-Prince yesterday, I saw no signs of any kind of organized search and rescue. Basically, it's people taking maters into their own hands, trying to get at loved ones. Even their attempts, I mean, didn't see people even with shovels or picks. So even on the sort of manual labour front, people are not very well equipped for the job. And they're taking great risks. The rescue I witnessed yesterday, people were climbing beneath a building that was about five or six stories tall and is now about four stories tall. The main floor's completely collapsed. And they're literally crawling 10 or 15 feet under this teetering building to try and get people out. It was quite a dramatic scene to watch.

Now it's been more than 48 hours since the earthquake struck. Are people receiving relief? Is it getting to people throughout the city?

There are a few more signs that help is on the way. In just my brief outing this morning, I saw people walking with containers of water and other food supplies, so obviously things haven't run out at least. I'm not sure, it's hard to tell at this stage whether this is new material making its way in or just people relying on stocks that are available. There's been very little sign of officialdom. You see no heavy equipment out working on any of the wreckage scenes, with the exception of the cathedral. Whatever processes are under way, there's little sign of it so far.

And how would you describe the mood there among the people?

You know, last night it was quite a haunting experience sleeping here. From across downtown, we sit on an edge of a hill overlooking downtown here. We're not super high up, but all through the night you could hear women singing church songs. These are people who are sleeping on the street because their homes are smashed and you get the sense that this is a way that people are trying to keep their spirits up and keep the fear down as tremors continue with aftershocks. And, you know, there's anxiety about security. My sense from talking to people who've been here a lot longer than me is that things are calm now and people are still quite shocked by the traumatic experience they've had. But as supplies dwindle and there's no progress, no movement, people are looking at the heaps that used to be their house, frustrations are bound to build. And with a power vacuum that we seem to be seeing at the moment - you know, nature abhors a vacuum - and it wouldn't be surprising to see some violence and to see organized gangs stepping in where authorities seem to be failing to.

Do you have any other impressions you'd like to leave us with, Les?

Just that 48 hours into this, I can't help but remark about how strong Haitian people seem to be. I mean, you see young families with babies camped out on the street in the open air. And the weather's pretty nice here at this time of year, but you put babies outside even in 18 degree heat with no shelter and limited food and none of the normal resources and you can't help but wonder how people cope. And you try to imagine how we would cope in similar situations. But Haitians have been through tough times before, and it's not just tough times before, but it's tough times about every two or three years it seems.

Well you take care there.

Thanks a lot, Jill.