Local aid workers hit the ground running Saturday and Sunday, helping a devastated Port-au-Prince to sort out the requirements of destitute living on streets and enduring hard life amid debris and dead bodies in the wake of Tuesday's catastrophe of a 7.0-magnitude earthquake.

"Driving through Port-au-Prince, everyone wears handkerchiefs as a mask to block the smell of rotting bodies", wrote Cassandra Nelson of Beaverton, working with Mercy Corps, in her Sunday blog.

In addition to four people from Mercy Corps, a Medical Teams International group left for Haiti Thursday, Jan. 14, carrying medical supplies for the region.

Also the Markees, the medical missionaries in Haiti, have sent numerous teams to Haiti. Another group led by Dr. Lew Zirkle, an orthopedic surgeon from Richland, Wash., leaves Sunday.

The Oregon Association of Hospitals and Health Systems in Lake Oswego is conglomerating with the Washington State Hospital Association in a view to lend a helping hand to the Medical Teams International provide medical care in Haiti.

The associations have initiated its help with $100,000 from 156 hospitals to sponsor 10 emergency medical response groups from Medical Teams International. Each medical team requires $10,000 to cover travel, food and basic supplies for volunteers.

Dr. Daniel Diamond with Medical Teams International wrote in his blog on Sunday that he was working to help form a UN field hospital, even though the makeshift site lacked operating rooms.