. >> brown: now, the situation as seen by kenneth merten, u.s. ambassador to haiti. this is his third tour of duty there. i talked with him a short time ago at the port-au-prince airport. ambassador merten, thanks for joining us. what's your assessment of the progress, getting food, water and other material to those most in need? >> i think the progress is reasonably good. i think people have to appreciate the logistical and other physical challenges we're dealing with here. port-au-prince particularly is destroyed. i mean there are certain blocks that are vaporized. there's nothing there but dust and debris. getting down there is very, very difficult. it's been a complicating factor. also there's been the first few days zero communications. you've had to communicate with people by going some place where you think you can actually meet face to face with them. those things are gradually getting better. the relief effort is getting better. saturday we were able to get out 130,000 meals to people to families. we were able to get out 140,000 hygiene kits which allow peop