The doors to America opened a crack for a group of Haitian orphans and the two Pittsburgh women who have stood between them and death, as volunteers scrambled for a way to move them out of an increasingly unstable Port-au-Prince.

Pittsburgh immigration lawyers worked to gain refugee status for the orphans -- many of whom have adoptions pending but not complete in the United States -- while volunteers sought out an airplane to bring them here.

The children reside at the BRESMA orphanage in Port-au-Prince, a home run by two Pittsburgh sisters, Jamie McMutrie Heckman and Ali McMutrie, both of Ben Avon.

A series of e-mail messages from the pair in the hours after this week's earthquake gave a darkening forecast, saying the children had no food, water, supplies and that, left there, they would likely perish.

"We have obtained approval to allow the children to enter the United States on a humanitarian parole," said former U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan, who spearheaded one part of a two-prong push to get permission for the children to enter the country early.

The question yesterday was how many of the orphans would be included. There are 150 at the BRESMA orphanage but only an estimated 30 have pending U.S. adoptions.

Ms. Buchanan declined to offer further details, calling such talk "premature." That view was echoed by Valerie May, a Pittsburgh immigration lawyer working with Ms. Buchanan to obtain the parole.

"Everything about this operation is complex," Ms. May said.

The other prong of the effort was being led by members of Pennsylvania's congressional delegation, principally U.S. Rep. Jason Altmire, D-McCandless.

His office reported continual talks with the Department of State on the orphans' plight. A message from Mr. Altmire suggested that the delegation is working to guarantee that all of the children, including those who do not have pending adoptions, will be rescued.

Yesterday, Mr. Altmire said that the State Department was open to fast-tracking the status of the 30 orphanage children who were at various stages of adoption within the U.S. but that the status of the remaining 120 was less clear.

The McMutrie sisters have said they will not leave Haiti without all the children in their charge, raising the possibility of 30 of the orphans being evacuated with the sisters staying behind with the remainder.

"We are exploring other ways to deal with the 120 kids. We're doing the best we can because we want to get the two, Ali and Jamie home," Mr. Altmire said.

The urgency of the situation increased yesterday with reports of looting in Port-au-Prince and young men armed with machetes prowling the streets in search of food.

The U.S. government prepared to deploy 10,000 troops to Haiti to restore order.

Through the crisis, the sisters have been able to send three e-mails to family in the U.S.

The latest stressed the urgency. The sisters said they had rejected a U.S. Embassy offer to fly out "because if we leave the kids ... they will literally be left in our driveway with a handful of nannies who will not stick around.

"As for if everyone is 'safe,' please understand the answer is NO!!!! there is no safety here for anyone ... the supplies will be stolen, our house will be looted, it is simply inevitable and we are just praying for time, it's going to happen."

Should the rescue be pulled off, Allegheny County officials instructed human services agencies to be ready for a possible influx of children needing care.

"What we're doing right now is working through our foster care system getting a sense of the capacity we have," said Kevin Evanto, a spokesman for Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato.

Mr. Evanto likened the preparations to plans laid out in 2005 when the county braced for a possible rush of evacuees following Hurricane Katrina.

Looking for more from the Post-Gazette? Join PG+, our members-only web site. You'll get exclusive sports content, opinion, financial information, discounts from retailers and restaurants, and more. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.