Gates says U.S. sending port-clearing ship
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Jan. 20 (UPI) -- The Pentagon will send a port-clearing ship to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and evaluate other ways to help, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Wednesday.
Gates, meeting with his counterparts in India, said he signed deployment papers to send a port-clearing ship equipped with cranes to get the port, ravaged by the 7-magnitude earthquake Jan. 12, operating within a week or two to speed up aid distribution, the Pentagon said in a release.
Meanwhile, Port-au-Prince residents were recovering from a strong early-morning aftershock that rocked buildings for several seconds. The U.S. Geological Survey said the revised 5.9-magnitude quake was near the city of Petit-Goave.
A U.N. disaster team in Petit-Goave said there appeared to be little new damage from Wednesday's temblor, The Miami Herald reported. The Jan. 12 earthquake smashed about 30 percent of the city's buildings.
Mike Morton, a member of the U.N. team, said preliminary reports indicated more buildings and more people may have been injured in Wednesday's aftershock, the Herald said.
"There could be people trapped," Morton said, "but the initial impression is that the additional damage is not hugely significant compared to the initial quake."
Aid was still slow in reaching areas beyond Port-au-Prince because of roads needing to be cleared, the Herald said.
The U.N. Development Program said Wednesday it hired nearly 400 Haitians, paying them in cash to help deliver humanitarian supplies. Officials of the program said they planned to hire another 700 people by the end of the week to remove rubble and repair streets.
Getting around Port-au-Prince remains challenging, Gates said during a media availability in New Delhi, expressing hope that more routes will be cleared within the next 24 to 48 hours so trucks can deliver more aid.
The Pentagon reported the hospital ship USNS Comfort received patients Tuesday as it was heading toward Haiti. The patients -- a 6-year-old boy and 20-year-old man, both in serious condition -- were treated on board the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson before being sent to the floating hospital.
President urges hold on health care
WASHINGTON, Jan. 20 (UPI) -- President Barack Obama Wednesday urged Democrats not to try to "jam" healthcare reform through Congress before Sen.-elect Scott Brown, R-Mass., takes office.
"The Senate certainly shouldn't try to jam anything through until Scott Brown is seated," Obama said. "People in Massachusetts spoke. He's got to be part of that process."
Brown won the senate seat formerly held by the late Ted Kennedy, defeating the heavily favored Democrat Martha Coakley. He becomes the 41st Republican vote in the Senate, depriving Democrats of the 60-seat majority that could avoid a Republican filibuster.
Referring to Brown's victory, the president compared the voters' feelings to the same ones that swept him into the White House.
"People are angry and they are frustrated," Obama said. "Not just because of what's happened in the last year or two years, but what's happened over the last eight years."
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., both said Wednesday the Democrats' plan for healthcare reform will move forward.
Storm series batters California, Arizona
LOS ANGELES, Jan. 20 (UPI) -- Three consecutive storms from the northern Pacific brought Southern California 20 inches of rain, 15-foot surf and 60 mph coastal winds, forecasters said.
The National Weather Service reported a storm "with tornado-like strength pounded the Southern California coast" Wednesday. The storm caused more than 10,000 customers of Southern California Edison to be without power in areas such as Newport Beach, Lake Forest, Redlands and Mira Loma, KTLA-TV, Los Angeles, reported.
"It is inevitable that the storms today into Thursday will trigger more flooding and mudslides across California and Arizona," AccuWeather forecaster Kristina Pydynowski said. "While this is especially true for areas recently burned by wildfires, the danger is heightening elsewhere as rain further saturates the ground."
Residents in the Flagstaff, Ariz., area were warned the same storms would be inundating Northern Arizona with heavy snow this week. The (Flagstaff) Arizona Daily Sun said residents were urged to clear snow off their roofs and plan to stay home for a few days.
"If we get 3 or more feet of snow in the third storm system, it's going to take us several days to reach residential neighborhoods," said Flagstaff Vice Mayor Al White.
Explosives found at suspect shooter's home
APPOMATTOX, Va., Jan. 20 (UPI) -- The property in rural Virginia owned by a man suspected of killing eight people was booby trapped with explosives, police said Wednesday.
Investigators were searching Christopher Speight's house and land outside Appomattox Courthouse, looking for explosives and detonating them, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported. Police Sgt. Thomas Molnar said there were a "multitude" of devices on the property.
Speight, 39, surrendered Wednesday morning after spending the night in a wooded area near his home. Connie Geller, a spokeswoman for the Virginia State Police, said Speight was wearing a bullet-proof vest and police were searching for his weapons.
Police got a call early Tuesday afternoon when someone spotted a wounded person in the road near Speight's home. Officers who responded to the call heard gunshots.
Three bodies were found inside Speight's log-cabin home and four outside. Geller said the names of the victims would not be released until relatives had been notified.
Connie Anderson, a co-owner of the Sunshine Market in Lynchburg, where Speight sometimes worked as a security guard, told the Times-Dispatch Speight and his married sister inherited the property from his mother, who died in 2006. She said the sister and her family had moved in with him.
"Chris felt like they were trying to get him out of the house, and it was his too," Anderson said.
