Naval medical ship approaches quake-ravaged Haiti

Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- Much-needed medical reinforcement arrives in Haiti on Wednesday in the form of a state-of-the-art hospital aboard a U.S. naval ship.
The USNS Comfort, which saw duty in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the 2001 terror attacks in New York, is to arrive mid-morning in the flattened capital, Port-au-Prince. U.S. helicopters will ferry patients aboard, bringing relief to overloaded hospitals and clinics.
Two severely injured Haitians have already been transported to the hospital ship as it sailed toward Haiti, according to the Department of Defense.
The patients -- a 6-year-old boy with a crushed pelvis and 20-year-old man with a broken skull and possibly fractured cervical vertebrae -- had been treated initially on the USS Carl Vinson, a U.S. aircraft carrier docked off the Haitian capital.
The Comfort is carrying nearly 550 doctors, nurses, corpsmen, technicians and support staff, who will be joined by 350 other medical staffers once the ship reaches Haiti, according to the U.S. Southern Command. The ship will have six operating rooms available and can house up to 1,000 patients.
The United States has been conducting some medical operations aboard the USS Carl Vinson, docked off Haiti's coast.
More than a week after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake devastated the impoverished nation, efforts to get hospitals back into working shape were seeing some results, but the injured were still streaming in.

Haiti's tent cities offer respite, stoke fears

Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- In the best of times, the Champs de Mars square in downtown Port-au-Prince was an awe-inspiring sight for Haitians. The broad boulevard was home to the majestic presidential palace, the seat of the country's power and prestige. Not anymore. The century-old gleaming white palace is in ruins. And in the shadow of its wrought-iron gates, the immaculately maintained plaza has been overtaken by row upon haphazard row of makeshift shacks as far as the eye dwells. These are the new homes of the capital's displaced residents: rickety quarters comprised of bed sheets, propped up on sticks and held together with ropes. Nearly 500,000 Haitians have moved here, rendered homeless by a 7.0-magnitude earthquake that devastated the impoverished island-nation a week ago. Throughout the capital, and in other affected areas of the country, similar tent cites have risen -- cramped, squalid encampments filled with the few belongings that residents have salvaged. As rescue and recovery efforts continue, these mini-cities pose Haiti's next challenge.