Spiraling Violence And Airline Shutdowns In Haiti Cut Families Off From Adoptive Kids

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spiraling violence and airline shutdowns in haiti cut families off from adoptive kids

The last words Michelle Reed heard from her 6-year-old adopted son , Esai Reed, in early November were "Mom, come get me."

But after U.S. aviation authorities on Tuesday blocked airlines from traveling to Haiti for 30 days following the shooting of a number of planes by gangs, 51-year-old Reed is once again cut off from her adoptive son, who lives in an orphanage in Haiti waiting for paperwork to go through a bureaucratic process hamstrung by Haiti's spiraling crisis.

As violence once again explodes in the Caribbean nation, Reed worries that Esai may never make it to his new home in Florida, where his two biological brothers wait to reunite with him.

"Our kids sit in Haiti with no way out," Reed told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "It's a fear that I feel because I just don't know if he'll come home. I don't know if he'll survive this."

Reed is one of dozens of families cut off from their adoptive children, and many more worried about their loved ones on the island - one of the rippling humanitarian consequences that the recent surge of violence and political turmoil have had in Haiti this week.