Throughout yesterday and overnight into early Tuesday morning, military planes carrying more evacuees from Haiti continued to arrive at Orlando Sanford International Airport (SFB). Among the passengers were orphans and persons in need of immediate medical attention.
More than 200 people, among them 53 orphans, arrived around 4:30 am on Tuesday, January 19th, on one of the flights, reports wftv.
Pennsylvania’s Governor Edward Randall, who had flown to Haiti last Friday, led more than two dozens orphans out of battered Port-au-Prince. They arrived in Pittsburg earlier this morning where they would stay in group homes until details of their adoptions can be finalized. Other children who have been evacuated are on their way to family members in the U.S.
Many of the evacuees who landed at Sanford were headed to Orlando International Airport for connecting flights to other destinations in the U.S.
Red Cross volunteers and the Department of Children and Families were on hand at SFB to assist the returning evacuees with food, water and other necessities.
All American citizens and Haitian-Americans who were visiting or living in Haiti at the time of the killer quake are being flown back to the U.S., at their request.
Meanwhile, hundreds of Haitians have begun to apply for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) following the Obama administration’s announcement last Friday, to grant temporary asylum to thousands of Haitians already living in the United States.
Following the killer earthquake one week ago, the U.S. indicated that Haitians who were in the U.S. as of January 12th 2010, could apply for TPS, allowing them to live and work for the next 18 months in the country.
South Florida is home to some 30,000 illegal Haitian immigrants.
