Law and Order in Haiti
LEMON: This is a developing story when it comes to Haiti. There's a bit of back-and-forth over whether the U.S. military is suspending medevac flights out of Haiti. The White House releases a statement saying, in part, "There has been no policy decision by anyone to suspend evacuee flights. This situation arose as we started to run out of room. Agencies across the U.S. are working on solutions." Now, the state of Florida has incurred a lot of expense for these flights. Governor Charlie Crist asked the federal government to help, to chip in.</s>GOV. CHARLIE CRIST (R), FLORIDA: They're not stop in coming into Florida. I wrote a letter to Secretary Sebelius expressing saying federal assistance would be helpful to us. And if we could share that with some of our sister states, it would make a big difference. Obviously, because of Florida's proximity to Haiti, we've really born the brunt of it, but we're happy to continue.</s>LEMON: OK. This is according to the White House, a representative there, there had been 435 medevac flights from Haiti to the U.S. so far and they said it's not an official policy. We're digging deeper on that one. Meantime, Haiti's president is talking. We really haven't seen or heard much from him since the earthquake. CNN international correspondent Karl Penhaul is in Port-au-Prince for us tonight. Karl, good to see you. We really haven't seen much from the president. Why is that? To some, it feels like the government -- Haiti's own government is not taking the lead. But you saw him today.</s>KARL PENHAUL, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Exactly. We did see him today. We saw him in both the press conference and surprisingly down at the ruins of the presidential palace. He appeared there towards late afternoon and crowd, a mob really, I would describe it, quickly gathered as they got wind that he was actually in that location. And I think it's fair to describe it as an angry mob. They also feel that the Haitian government has not shown any crisis leadership after that earthquake. People in the crowd were chanting for the president, Rene Preval, to resign. Others in the crowd were chanting for a return of the priest-turned-president, Bertrand Aristide, the man is deposed twice in military coups and other sections of the crowd were chanting for the U.S. President Barack Obama to declare Haiti a protectorate and take over a government here indirectly. In that press conference, I believe we brought some sound from that, this is really all that President Preval had to say about the earthquake and the way he's been handling it.</s>PRES. RENE PREVAL, HAITI: An earthquake is not a planned event. This happened in one minute. We have 1 million people in the streets</s>LEMON: So, Karl, we're hearing from Rene Preval, the president from Haiti, but what about the food and water distribution? How is that going?</s>PENHAUL: The United Nations, as of tomorrow, is planning to try and set up fixed food distribution points around the city. And they will dictate who comes each day to receive food with a different colored coupon. Now, initially, they're giving those coupons to women only, hoping that this will now not be a question of survival of the fittest and the fastest when men typically have been racing to the front of lines and pushing their way.</s>LEMON: Yes, we saw the men, you know, they are able to carry the big sacks of rice or whatever it is and the women can't do it. Listen, we're getting some reports, I don't know if they're true or not, about looting. What do you know?</s>PENHAUL: Well, again, the Haitian people, a lot of the Haitian people are sick and tired of waiting for NGOs, for aid organizations to give them food and water. They're doing it for themselves. And this is another mood change that I sense on the street, desperation is growing, frustration is growing. Actually, we've seen bands of looters, sometimes organized by criminal gangs. And so, they will go into the remains of warehouses, ruined warehouses, and pull out anything they can find -- sometimes food, sometimes items that they can sell to get money to go and buy food. That's creating a problem on the streets because you get the Haitian police coming along...</s>LEMON: Yes.</s>PENHAUL: ... sometimes shots are fired, private security are there. We know they've killed people. You also got American soldiers on the street, and the lieutenant to me today said, "It is a difficult mission. It's the one we have been given," he says, "But I don't really know what we're supposed to be doing."</s>LEMON: It's a struggle to survive. Karl Penhaul on the ground in Port-au-Prince, thank you, sir. Time now for our top stories coming up on CNN. We'll bring it to you after the break. Plus more news.