Maybe a bit more optimistic note: Haiti is an extremely poor country. The extent of the devasation in Port au Prince is so severe, that there is the opportunity to rebuild areas to a new standard, including sanitation, water and water treatment. Building to code requires establishing a building code - building codes for extremely poor countries either don't exist, or exist but are easily built around, resulting in new devastation in the next hurricane (frequent), or earthquake (more rare, but uppermost on their minds). That's a difficult policy decision. But when they build, they can do better for themselves, and a big part of development aid should be providing training to Haitians in building to code, whatever they settle on. And historically, you can't ignore the corruption that funnels off funds for private benefit instead of putting them into public works projects.

This effort at rebuilding and improving the lot of the people of Haiti already goes on - alot of private charities and NGOs already build for long term survival and improving the lot of Haitian communities. See this one by a local church, going on as we speak 160 miles north of the area of devastation - http://upcconvergence.wordpress.com/. Its an effort constructed one foundation and one project at a time. Progress is slow, but it is noticeable. To reconstruct Port au Prince with anything other than a repeat of favelas and poverty exposing its citizens to the next disaster, it will require a plan that attempts something more than what they had, and a whole lotta effort to stick to it.