
While Sunday the US federal government agreed to resume emergency flights of Haitians critically injured by the January 12 earthquake, Monday the White House gave additional assurances that all states would have their expenses reimbursed.
{dybanners}12{/dybanners}
The move ends a week of uncertainty about the fate of Haiti’s most critically wounded, who have been unable to take US military flights to hospitals in the United States. The controversy began last week when military officials announced the flights would be suspended due to concerns by the state of Florida that it lacked the funds to care for the additional wounded.
Florida governor Charlie Crist defended rounds of criticism after the flights stopped, claiming that he never asked for the flights to stop, only that he wanted the federal government to activate the National Disaster Medical System, an existing mechanism that reimburses hospitals in times of disaster. David Halstead, an official with the Florida Division of Emergency Management, told the New York Times that both he and Governor Crist welcomed the decision.
“Having received assurances that additional capacity exists both here and among our international partners, we determined that we can resume these critical flights,” Thomas F. Vietor, a White House spokesman, said on Sunday.






