DEBORAH AMOS, host:
This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Deborah Amos.
STEVE INSKEEP, host:
And I'm Steve Inskeep. We're going to spend much of the next few days learning about the effort to get relief to a Caribbean Island struck by an earthquake this week. A massive effort is cranking up to get supplies and medical facilities and other things to Haiti. American ships, helicopters, transport planes and Marine units will soon converge.
Relief agencies on the ground say this can't come too soon. The Red Cross has already run out of medical supplies and the chief of the organization there predicts the misery is likely to get worse. NPR's Richard Knox reports.
RICHARD KNOX: As soon as the shaking stopped, Matthew Marek and his colleagues at the Red Cross in Port-au-Prince crawled out from under their desks and went to work.
Mr. MATTHEW MAREK: We set up a triage clinic very quickly and tried to administer some type of first aid for those that we could, but it was very limited. We're talking pressure, you know, on lacerations and clean some of the wounds.
KNOX: But they couldn't keep up. Thousands of people streamed into central Port-au-Prince from what was left of the shantytowns perched precariously on the hills above the city.
Mr. MAREK: Walking around neighboring areas, it was extremely intense and surreal to see all the Haitians gathered together under, you know, light sheets and bedding on the street. We did that up until the sun came up.
KNOX: Last night, Marek says, the mood of the city matched the ominous, dark rain clouds overhead.
Mr. MAREK: The emotions are all over the place. There is frustrations. There are tensions. People are shocked. It's everything you can imagine. I mean, this is an - it looks like a bomb has gone off in Port-au-Prince.
KNOX: Relief workers and public health experts fear even more misery in the days ahead.
Dr. DAN FITZGERALD (Cornell Weill Medical College): I think there's going to be a series of health aftershocks.
KNOX: That's Dr. Dan Fitzgerald of Cornell Weill Medical College. He knows Haiti Well. He says for the next few days many more will die from their untreated injuries.
Dr. FITZGERALD: That's sort of the first wave. The second wave will be a lack of clean water, housing and sanitation. So people are going to start suffering from diarrheal diseases, respiratory tract infections.
KNOX: The next phase comes when what little food there is runs out.
Dr. FITZGERALD: There's no food. Haiti's already one of the most food insecure countries in the world. So people are going to start starving over the next week.
KNOX: And he predicts increasing chaos.
Dr. FITZGERALD: When you have three million people who are traumatized, have no clean water, no housing, no food, unfortunately, security is going to become a big issue where people are going to be fighting to survive.
KNOX: There's an outpouring of international aid trying to head off these catastrophes. But the Red Cross's Matthew Marek says the survivors are in for some very harsh times.
Mr. MAREK: I don't think all of our good intentions is going to be able to relieve the effect that this tragedy has had.
KNOX: Marek says all the aid in the world won't be enough.
Richard Knox, NPR News.