 President Préval and government ministers used police headquarters near the Toussaint L 'Ouverture International Airport as their new base of operations , although their effectiveness was extremely limited ; several <unk> were still trapped in the Presidential Palace , and offices and records had been destroyed . Some high @-@ ranking government workers lost family members , or had to tend to wounded relatives . Although the president and his remaining cabinet met with UN planners each day , there remained confusion as to who was in charge and no single group had organized relief efforts as of 16 January . The government handed over control of the airport to the United States to hasten and ease flight operations , which had been hampered by the damage to the air traffic control tower . 
