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Up to 50,000 feared dead PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Doctors and search dogs, troops and res- cue teams flew to this dev- astated land of dazed, dead and dying people Thursday, finding bottlenecks every- where, beginning at a main airport short on jet fuel and ramp space and without a control tower. The international Red Cross estimated 45,000 to 50,000 people were killed in Tuesday's cataclysmic earthquake, based on infor- mation from the Haitian Red Cross and government officials. Worries mounted, meanwhile, about food and water for the survivors. ''People have been almost fighting for water,'' aid worker Fevil Dubien said as he distributed water from a truck in a northern Port-au-Prince neighbor- hood. From Virginia, from China, a handful of rescue teams were able to get down to work, scouring the rubble for survivors. In one ''small miracle,'' searchers pulled a security guard alive from beneath the collapsed con- crete floors of the U.N. peacekeeping headquarters, where many others were entombed. But the silence of the dead otherwise was over- whelming in a city where uncounted bodies littered the streets in the 80-degree heat, and dust-caked arms and legs reached, frozen and lifeless, from the ruins. Outside the General Hospi- tal morgue, hundreds of col- lected corpses blanketed the parking lot, as the grief- stricken searched for loved ones. Brazilian U.N. peace- keepers, key to city security, were trying to organize mass burials. Patience already was wearing thin among the poorest who were waiting for aid, said David Wimhurst, spokesman for the U.N. peacekeeping mis- sion. ''Unfortunately, they're slowly getting more angry and impatient, because when they see us moving — and we're patrolling the streets, the military and the police are out patrolling the streets in order to maintain a calm situation, so that humanitarian aid can be delivered,'' he said. In Washington, Presi- dent Barack Obama announced ''one of the largest relief efforts in our recent history,'' starting with $100 million in aid. The first of 800 paratroop- ers of the 82nd Airborne Division were to deploy to Haiti from North Carolina, to be followed by more than 2,000 Marines. From Europe, Asia and the Americas, other govern- ments, the U.N. and private aid groups were sending planeloads of high-energy biscuits and other food, tents, blankets, water-purifi- cation gear, heavy equip- ment for removing debris, helicopters and other trans- port, and teams of hundreds of search-and-rescue, med- ical and other specialists. But two days after much of this ramshackle city was shattered, the global helping hand was slowed by the poor roads, airport and sea- port of a wretchedly poor nation. Some 60 aid flights had arrived by midday Thurs- day, but they then had to contend with the choke- point of an overloaded Tou- ssaint L'Ouverture Interna- tional Airport. At midday, the Federal Aviation Administration said it was temporarily halting all civil- ian flights from the U.S. at Haiti's request, because the airport was jammed and jet fuel was limited for return flights. The control tower had been destroyed in Tues- day's tremor, complicating air traffic. Civilian relief flights were later allowed to resume. Those which did land then had to navigate Haiti's inadequate roads, some- times blocked by debris or by quake survivors looking for safe open areas as after- shocks still rumbled through the city. The U.N. World Food Program said the quake-damaged seaport made ship deliveries of aid impossible. The looting of shops that broke out after the 7.0-mag- nitude quake struck late Tuesday afternoon added to concerns. The Brazilian military warned aid con- voys to add security to guard against looting by the desperate population. ''There is no other way to get provisions,'' Ameri- can Red Cross representa- tive Matt Marek said of the store looting. ''Even if you have money, those resources are going to be exhausted in a few days.'' The city's ''ti-marchant,'' mostly women who sell food on the streets, were expected to run out soon. The quake brought down Port-au-Prince's gleaming white National Palace and other government buildings, disabling much of the national leadership. That vacuum was evident Thurs- day. ''Donations are coming in to the airport here, but there is not yet a system to get it in,'' said Kate Con- radt, a spokeswoman for the Save the Children aid group. ''It's necessary to create a structure to stock and distribute supplies,'' the Brazilian military said. Edmond Mulet, a former U.N. peacekeeping chief in Haiti, was expected to arrive later Thursday from U.N. headquarters in New York to coordinate the relief effort. The first U.S. mili- tary units to arrive took on a coordinating role at the air- port, but State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley underlined, ''We're not tak- ing over Haiti.'' The unimaginable scope of the catastrophe left many Haitians, a fervently reli- gious people, in helpless tears and prayer. Reached by The Associ- ated Press from New York, Yael Talleyrand, a 16-year- old student in Jacmel, on Haiti's south coast, told of thousands of people made homeless by the quake and sleeping on an airfield run- way, ''crying, praying and I had never seen this in my entire life.'' Earlier, one woman had run through Jacmel's streets screaming, ''God, we know you can kill us! We know you're strongest! 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To nominate a Senior please send the name of the senior and their phone number to: PO Box 338 Red Bluff CA 96080 HAITI EARTHQUAKE MCT photos Gladys Loiuis Jeune is pulled alive from the rubble of her home after nearly 43 hours and was greeted by her ecstatic daughter in Port-au- Prince, Haiti, Thursday. A church is destroyed from the earthquake in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The world's deadliest earthquakes since 1970 Here is a list of the world's 10 most deadly quakes over the last 40 years. The list does not include Haiti's magnitude 7.0 earthquake Tues- day where officials estimate the death toll at more than 45,000. — July 27, 1976: A magnitude 7.5 earthquake in China killed at least 242,000 people. — Dec. 26, 2004: A magnitude 9 quake off the Indonesian island of Sumatra triggered a tsunami that killed 226,000 people in 12 countries, includ- ing 165,700 in Indonesia and 35,400 in Sri Lanka, and affected 2.4 million. — May 12, 2008: A magnitude 7.9 earthquake in Eastern China killed 88,000 people and affect- ed nearly 45 million people in 10 provinces. — Oct. 8, 2005: A magnitude 7.6 earthquake in Pakistan killed 75,000 people and affected nearly 5.3 million people. — May 31, 1970: A magnitude 7.9 quake in Peru killed 67,000 and affected 3.2 million. — June 20, 1990: A magnitude 7.4 earthquake in Iran killed at least 40,000 and affected 710,000. — Dec. 26, 2003: A magnitude 6.5 earthquake in Iran killed 27,000 and affected 268,000. — Dec. 7, 1988: A magnitude 6.9 earthquake in Armenia killed at least 25,000 and affected more than 1.6 million. — Sept. 16, 1978: A magnitude 7.8 earthquake in Iran killed 25,000 and affected 40,000 — Feb. 4, 1976: A magnitude 7.5 earthquake in Guatemala killed more than 23,000 and affect- ed nearly 5 million. Source: U.S. Geological Survey and WHO's International Disaster Database