The main port at Port au Prince is now open for business

[nadinbrzezinski]

per BBC news...

[Quixote1818]

1. Thats good news! Should take off pressure from the tiny airport. nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. They are also running out of gas, for vehicles

so that may put a crimp on thing. If it is not one thing it is another.

Though that is somewhat easy to solve... perhaps the Navy will share some for priority goods

They have another problem... the Haitian government wants to get the economy going, so opening the banks I get it, kicking storage from local bidness center, that is another story...

Ah host governments can be a pain to work with at times.

[frog92969]

3. Good timing for the port then

Much easier to bring fuel by sea.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. Exactly and some hard hat divers busted their ass to get that going

[tabatha]

5. That was fast. Well done.

Wonder how long CNN will take to report that.

[FrenchieCat]

6. Aren't they too busy sticking their microphone in hungry folks faces

asking...."Tell me how you are feeling right nowwww?"

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. Don't know, was watching the AC 360 beggining now and my apologies

they did tell us the fate of Izzy, she is now on the USS Bataan... Best of luck to her and her family. Just that they left another impression last night.

[TxRider]

8. Good news

The initial report I read after the Navy inspected it was more like several days from now.

Though they also said they might open it using shipboard cranes and landing craft.

[KharmaTrain]

9. Not Much Of A Port...

But better than nothing. I downloaded the Google Earth maps of the quake area...a great reference to see where things are at and the extent of the destruction. The harbor was hammered hard...but looks like it's going be be another bottleneck as it doesn't look like they can handle the big ships...but at least we're seeing progress.

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. Even a small ship brings more cargo than a plane

and they did use some container ships before. So if need be they could even use the Newport Class leaving Mexico today and a few other Amfibs to create a bridge. I susepct that if they said open for business they mean good enough to get rolling.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

13. The container part is still an open question

The crane that went down was for containers. Its not clear if it there is a temporary replacement or they are going to use another ship's crane to unload container ships. Obviously not an issue for fuel tankers.

[mzmolly]

11. I hope that doctors will get much needed supplies now. Not to mention

food/water for the people of Haiti. Thanks for the info.

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. Well now they should have the capacity to distro

the crap, as long as they unload the lift.

We should see capacity go up by quite a bit.

[mzmolly]

16. They're amputating limbs with the help of motrin and no antibiotics.

I hope it's VERY soon.

[nadinbrzezinski]

17. And if this was Los Angeles, sadly they woudl as well

That is the reality in the extent of this.

[backscatter712]

14. Very good news.

Even small ships can carry far more cargo than an aircraft. There's only so much that can go through the Port au Prince airport - this will increase the volume of aid supplies significantly.

[ljm2002]

15. Wonderful news!

Thanks for sharing! Here is to all the rescuers and everyone who is over there trying to help.