Haiti says 200,000 may be dead in quake chaos
Source: Agencies |
January 17, 2010, Sunday
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HAITIAN authorities yesterday estimated the death toll from the devastating earthquake could be as high as 200,000 as tensions rose among the desperate population awaiting international aid and hunting for missing relatives.
Haiti's shell-shocked government gave the United States control over its main airport to bring order to aid and food flights from around the world and speed relief to the impoverished Caribbean nation.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton left for Haiti yesterday on a plane carrying relief supplies for the quake-stricken nation, US officials said.
US President Barack Obama invited former presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton to the White House to announce their Website, www.clintonbushhaitifund.org for fund-raising.
Trucks piled with corpses have been carrying bodies to hurriedly excavated mass graves outside the city, but thousands of bodies still are believed buried under rubble.
"We have already collected around 50,000 dead bodies," Interior Minister Paul Antoine Bien-Aime said. "We anticipate there will be between 100,000 and 200,000 dead in total, although we will never know the exact number."
If the casualty figures turn out to be accurate, the 7.3-magnitude quake that hit Haiti on Tuesday and flattened much of its capital city would be one of the 10 deadliest ever.
Some 40,000 bodies had been buried in mass graves, said Secretary of State for Public Safety Aramick Louis.
Dig out survivors
US rescuers worked through the night to dig out survivors from one collapsed supermarket where as many as 100 people could have been trapped inside. They were about to give up, when they were told a supermarket cashier had managed to call someone in Miami to say she was still alive inside.
Health Minister Alex Larsen said three-quarters of Port-au-Prince will have to be rebuilt.
Three days after the quake, gangs of robbers had begun preying on survivors living in makeshift camps on streets strewn with debris and decomposing bodies, as aftershocks rippled through the hilly neighborhoods.
Authorities reported some looting and growing anger among survivors despairing over the delay in life-saving assistance. Meanwhile, the United States and other nations rushed to deliver food, water and medical supplies through a jammed airport, a smashed seaport and roads littered with rubble.
Hungry residents fought each other for bags of foods handed out by UN trucks in downtown Port-au-Prince.
A senior UN official warned that hunger will fuel trouble if aid does not arrive soon, although the law and order situation remains under control "for the time being."
Fight for food
"There have been some incidents where people were looting or fighting for food. They are desperate, they have been three days without food or any assistance," said UN Undersecretary General for Peacekeeping, Alain Le Roy.
The Pan American Health Organization said at least eight hospitals and health centers in Port-au-Prince had collapsed or sustained damage and were unable to function.
Up to 10 trucks carrying a "huge amount" of aid headed yesterday from the Dominican Republic to quake-struck Haiti, the Red Cross said. It was bringing a 50-bed field hospital, surgical teams and an emergency telecommunications unit in. The convoy includes specialists from Norway, Spain and Japan.
Haiti's shell-shocked government gave the United States control over its main airport to bring order to aid and food flights from around the world and speed relief to the impoverished Caribbean nation.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton left for Haiti yesterday on a plane carrying relief supplies for the quake-stricken nation, US officials said.
US President Barack Obama invited former presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton to the White House to announce their Website, www.clintonbushhaitifund.org for fund-raising.
Trucks piled with corpses have been carrying bodies to hurriedly excavated mass graves outside the city, but thousands of bodies still are believed buried under rubble.
"We have already collected around 50,000 dead bodies," Interior Minister Paul Antoine Bien-Aime said. "We anticipate there will be between 100,000 and 200,000 dead in total, although we will never know the exact number."
If the casualty figures turn out to be accurate, the 7.3-magnitude quake that hit Haiti on Tuesday and flattened much of its capital city would be one of the 10 deadliest ever.
Some 40,000 bodies had been buried in mass graves, said Secretary of State for Public Safety Aramick Louis.
Dig out survivors
US rescuers worked through the night to dig out survivors from one collapsed supermarket where as many as 100 people could have been trapped inside. They were about to give up, when they were told a supermarket cashier had managed to call someone in Miami to say she was still alive inside.
Health Minister Alex Larsen said three-quarters of Port-au-Prince will have to be rebuilt.
Three days after the quake, gangs of robbers had begun preying on survivors living in makeshift camps on streets strewn with debris and decomposing bodies, as aftershocks rippled through the hilly neighborhoods.
Authorities reported some looting and growing anger among survivors despairing over the delay in life-saving assistance. Meanwhile, the United States and other nations rushed to deliver food, water and medical supplies through a jammed airport, a smashed seaport and roads littered with rubble.
Hungry residents fought each other for bags of foods handed out by UN trucks in downtown Port-au-Prince.
A senior UN official warned that hunger will fuel trouble if aid does not arrive soon, although the law and order situation remains under control "for the time being."
Fight for food
"There have been some incidents where people were looting or fighting for food. They are desperate, they have been three days without food or any assistance," said UN Undersecretary General for Peacekeeping, Alain Le Roy.
The Pan American Health Organization said at least eight hospitals and health centers in Port-au-Prince had collapsed or sustained damage and were unable to function.
Up to 10 trucks carrying a "huge amount" of aid headed yesterday from the Dominican Republic to quake-struck Haiti, the Red Cross said. It was bringing a 50-bed field hospital, surgical teams and an emergency telecommunications unit in. The convoy includes specialists from Norway, Spain and Japan.
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