ROBERT SIEGEL, host:
And Jason joins us now for more on this question of aid. Jason, from what you've seen on the ground there and in other humanitarian crises that you've covered, would you say that there has been a slow response to Haiti's needs?
JASON BEAUBIEN: You have to understand that this earthquake knocked out the port. The airport has been taken over by the U.S. Air Force, so they're now running things that took them a while to get that up and going. I think it is unrealistic to think that you are going to have a huge influx of food and water. It has been a little slow in terms of medical supplies, things like that which aren't as bulky. I think that the questions that people are raising about this being a bit on the slow side in terms of those such things, it is fair. But the logistical challenges are huge. This city was incredibly damaged and that's a lot of what's causing the bottlenecks in terms of aid delivery.
SIEGEL: If bottlenecks are now easing, why are they easing? What's happened to increase the flow of aid?
BEAUBIEN: I'm not quite sure that the bottlenecks are easing. I just think that people are actually getting their logistics up and running. There's lot of aid sitting at the airport and I think that basically what's happening is that the aid agencies and the U.S. military and the U.N. are finally getting that aid from the airport out to some degree. I have to say, we still have not seen very many distributions. But I think what's happening is that these systems are getting up and one week after the quake, it looks like that the aid is about ready to start flowing into the streets.
SIEGEL: Also, can you give us some sense of the road, or roads, I don't know the area, from the airport into the city or out to Carrefour on the west side of the city?
BEAUBIEN: The airport is basically in the city, that isn't an issue and there are roads that are completely functional between the airport and the city itself. Out to Carrefour, those roads are actually in really rough shape. And there have also been civilians setting up road blocks on them. From what I hear, they've been allowing aid agencies to go through, but they've been either demanding money or making other problems for civilians who are trying to move along those roads. And then at a certain - the roads are just completely destroyed and you can only pass them on motorcycles.
SIEGEL: NPR's Jason Beaubien in Port-au-Prince. Jason, take care, thanks.
BEAUBIEN: Thank you, Robert.