The neighbouring Dominican Republic was the first country to give aid to Haiti,[105] sending water, food and heavy-lifting machinery
The first team to arrive in Port-au-Prince was ICE-SAR from Iceland, landing within 24 hours of the earthquake
A rescue team sent by the Israel Defense Forces' Home Front Command established a field hospital which included specialised facilities to treat children, the elderly, and women in labour near the United Nations building in Port-au-Prince. It was set up in eight hours and began operations on the evening of 16 January
The International Charter on Space and Major Disasters was activated, allowing satellite imagery of affected regions to be shared with rescue and aid organisations
Rescue efforts began in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, with able-bodied survivors extricating the living and the dead from the rubble of the many buildings which had collapsed
treatment of the injured was hampered by the lack of hospital and morgue facilities
The supercarrier USS Carl Vinson arrived at maximum possible speed on 15 January with 600,000 emergency food rations, 100,000 ten-litre water containers, and an enhanced wing of 19 helicopters; 130,000 litres of drinking water were transferred to shore on the first day
The buoy tender USCG Oak and USNS Grasp (T-ARS-51) were on scene by 18 January to assess damage to the port and work to reopen it,[182][183] and by 21 January one pier at the Port-au-Prince seaport was functional, offloading humanitarian aid, and a road had been repaired to make transport into the city easie
The United Kingdom's Secretary of State for International Development Douglas Alexander called the result of the earthquake an "almost unprecedented level of devastation", and committed the UK to ₤20 million (US$32.7 million) in aid
Italy announced it would waive repayment of the €40 million (US$55.7 million) it had loaned to Haiti,[142] and the World Bank waived the country's debt repayments for five years