Thousands feared dead after quake
Source: Agencies |
January 14, 2010, Thursday
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HAITIANS piled bodies along devastated streets of their capital of Port-au-Prince yesterday after a powerful earthquake crushed thousands of structures, from schools and shacks to the National Palace and the United Nations peacekeeping headquarters.
Untold numbers were still trapped and President Rene Preval said he believed thousands of people were dead from Tuesday afternoon's magnitude-7.0 quake.
"Parliament has collapsed. The tax office has collapsed. Schools have collapsed. Hospitals have collapsed," Preval told the Miami Herald. "There are a lot of schools that have a lot of dead people in them."
The Catholic archbishop of Port-au-Prince is among the dead, and the head of the UN peacekeeping mission is missing.
The international Red Cross said a third of Haiti's 9 million people may need emergency aid and that it would take a day or two for a clear picture of the damage to emerge.
Many nations said they would send in aid workers and rescue teams. Cuba said its existing field hospitals in Haiti had already treated hundreds of quake victims.
The UN said Port-au-Prince's main airport was "fully operational" and open to relief flights.
People stunned
Aftershocks continued to rattle the capital of 2 million as women covered in dust clawed out of debris, wailing. Stunned people wandered the streets holding hands. Thousands gathered in public squares to sing hymns.
People pulled bodies from collapsed homes, covering them with sheets by the side of roads. Passers-by lifted the sheets to see if loved ones were underneath. Outside a crumbled building, the bodies of five children and three adults lay in a pile.
The prominent died along with the poor: the body of Archbishop Joseph Serge Miot, 63, was found in the ruins of his office, said the Rev Pierre Le Beller of the Saint Jacques Missionary Center in Landivisiau, France. He told The Associated Press by telephone that fellow missionaries in Haiti had told him they found Miot's body.
President Preval said that Haiti's senate president was among those trapped alive inside the parliament building. Much of the National Palace pancaked on itself.
Hospitals rushed
The International Red Cross and other aid groups announced plans for major relief operations in the Western Hemisphere's poorest country.
Tens of thousands of people lost their homes as buildings that were flimsy and dangerous even under normal conditions collapsed. Nobody offered an accurate estimate of the dead, but the numbers were clearly enormous.
"The hospitals cannot handle all these victims," said Dr Louis-Gerard Gilles. "Haiti needs to pray. We all need to pray together."
An AP videographer saw a wrecked hospital where people screamed for help in Petionville, a hillside district that is home to many diplomats and wealthy Haitians as well as the poor.
"A school near here collapsed totally," Petionville resident Ken Michel said after surveying the damage.
Untold numbers were still trapped and President Rene Preval said he believed thousands of people were dead from Tuesday afternoon's magnitude-7.0 quake.
"Parliament has collapsed. The tax office has collapsed. Schools have collapsed. Hospitals have collapsed," Preval told the Miami Herald. "There are a lot of schools that have a lot of dead people in them."
The Catholic archbishop of Port-au-Prince is among the dead, and the head of the UN peacekeeping mission is missing.
The international Red Cross said a third of Haiti's 9 million people may need emergency aid and that it would take a day or two for a clear picture of the damage to emerge.
Many nations said they would send in aid workers and rescue teams. Cuba said its existing field hospitals in Haiti had already treated hundreds of quake victims.
The UN said Port-au-Prince's main airport was "fully operational" and open to relief flights.
People stunned
Aftershocks continued to rattle the capital of 2 million as women covered in dust clawed out of debris, wailing. Stunned people wandered the streets holding hands. Thousands gathered in public squares to sing hymns.
People pulled bodies from collapsed homes, covering them with sheets by the side of roads. Passers-by lifted the sheets to see if loved ones were underneath. Outside a crumbled building, the bodies of five children and three adults lay in a pile.
The prominent died along with the poor: the body of Archbishop Joseph Serge Miot, 63, was found in the ruins of his office, said the Rev Pierre Le Beller of the Saint Jacques Missionary Center in Landivisiau, France. He told The Associated Press by telephone that fellow missionaries in Haiti had told him they found Miot's body.
President Preval said that Haiti's senate president was among those trapped alive inside the parliament building. Much of the National Palace pancaked on itself.
Hospitals rushed
The International Red Cross and other aid groups announced plans for major relief operations in the Western Hemisphere's poorest country.
Tens of thousands of people lost their homes as buildings that were flimsy and dangerous even under normal conditions collapsed. Nobody offered an accurate estimate of the dead, but the numbers were clearly enormous.
"The hospitals cannot handle all these victims," said Dr Louis-Gerard Gilles. "Haiti needs to pray. We all need to pray together."
An AP videographer saw a wrecked hospital where people screamed for help in Petionville, a hillside district that is home to many diplomats and wealthy Haitians as well as the poor.
"A school near here collapsed totally," Petionville resident Ken Michel said after surveying the damage.
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