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4:45pm Haiti Update: First American Quake Victim Identified

A State Department official says the first American reported killed by the earthquake in Haiti was a foreign service officer crushed when her home collapsed. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley says diplomat Victoria DeLong died Tuesday, the first American identified among thousands of fatalities. Crowley said DeLong, a 27-year veteran diplomat, was a cultural affairs officer and had been stationed at the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince since last year. She started at State in 1983. Meanwhile, aid is slowly making its way into Haiti, but supply bottlenecks and a lack of leadership are leaving many to scramble on their own. At the airport, the U.S. Southern Command has taken over flight control operations. Air Force Col. Ben McMullin says about 60 planes carrying 2,000 people landed between the time the airport reopened yesterday and noon today. U.S. military forklift operators are helping unload some foreign flights as well as U.S. cargo, but McMullin says they don't have enough equipment or people to handle it all. Aid workers say the sudden flow of aid is creating confusion. A spokeswoman for Save the Children says some shipments are “coming without notice from very well-meaning groups,” but there's no system yet to get it to those in need. Meanwhile, hundreds and perhaps thousands of people are believed trapped in collapsed buildings, alive or dead. As some people claw through the wreckage in search of friends and relatives, others search a morgue filled with dust-covered bodies. (Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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