Haiti storm aid efforts called ineffective

GONAIVES, Haiti, Nov. 2 (UPI) -- Slightly more than a third of the hoped-for $106 million in disaster recovery funds for Haiti have arrived in the hurricane-ravaged country, officials said.

The United Nations sought to have all of the money lined up by now, but donations are short and the effort is plagued by a lack of leadership, infighting by political and relief organizations and profiteering, the Miami Herald reported Sunday.

"We Haitians are living like animals, and the government doesn't care," said Luca Junior Limose, 47, among 200 Haitians living in a crowded wing of an abandoned hotel in Gonaives, Haiti.

A string of storms left more than $1 billion in damage, 793 people dead and more than 100,000 homes destroyed or damaged in Haiti. While the U.N. World Food Program has distributed more than 5,000 tons of food to 520,000 storm victims, the efforts have been scattershot and less effective than they should be, critics say.

"Normally, if you have an emergency, you have some plans," Vikki Stienen, Gonaives project coordinator for Doctors Without Borders, told the Herald. "You have some emergency preparedness plans. … There are none."