RE: Donate Guy's They need our Help in HaitiRed Cross Estimates 50,000 Died in Haitian Quake
Source: CBC News
Posted: 01/14/10 4:48PM
Filed Under: World
The Red Cross federation estimated Thursday that between 45,000 and 50,000 people might have died in the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that devastated the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince.
The Haitian Red Cross based the casualty figure on reports from a network of volunteers across the city, said Jean-Luc Martinage, a spokesman for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
An earthquake survivor stands in Port-au-Prince Tuesday.The quake was the strongest to hit Haiti in 200 years.
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'Total Disaster and Chaos'
An earthquake survivor stands in Port-au-Prince Tuesday.The quake was the strongest to hit Haiti in 200 years.
AP Photo
AP
Rescuers pull a teenage college student from the rubble of her school in Indonesia Friday, 40 hours after two earthquakes struck the island nation. Ratna Kurniasari Virgo, 19, was pulled out by her hands via a hole drilled through the rubble in the city of Padang, on the island of Sumatra. The United Nations on Thursday put the death toll from the quakes at 1,100.
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Virgo was conscious, and didn't suffer any life-threatening injuries, a nurse said. Here, Virgo smiles from a stretcher born aloft by rescuer workers. Cries were heard coming from the rubble as long as 44 hours after the quake, giving rescuers hope that they would find more people alive.
AP Photo
Yose Andre, 34, grieves for his missing cousin in the rubble on Friday, Oct. 2, 2009 in Padang, Indonesia. Two days after Wednesday's 7.6-magnitude quake that toppled thousands of buildings on Sumatra island, stricken residents in a district north of the hard-hit city of Padang, had yet to receive help.
AP Photo/Binsar Bakkara
The ruins of Ambacang Hotel is lit against the dask sky as rescue workers search for survivors on Friday, Oct. 2, 2009 in Padang, Indonesia. Two days after Wednesday's 7.6-magnitude quake that toppled thousands of buildings on Sumatra island, stricken residents in a district north of the hard-hit city of Padang, had yet to receive help.
AP Photo/Binsar Bakkara
A man leans on a car crushed by a minaret of a mosque that fell onto it after an earthquake in Padang, West Sumatra, Indonesia, Thursday, Oct. 1, 2009. A second powerful earthquake rocked western Indonesia on Thursday as rescuers struggled to reach survivors of the previous day's quake, which killed more than 500 people and left thousands trapped under collapsed buildings.
AP Photo/Dita Alangkara
A firefighter works near a burning houses after a powerful earthquake in Padang, West Sumatra, Indonesia, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2009. A powerful earthquake that struck western Indonesia trapped thousands of people under collapsed buildings, including hospitals, a hotel and a classroom, officials said.
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A boy stands near a building flattened by AN earthquake in Padang, West Sumatra, Indonesia, Thursday, Oct. 1, 2009. A second powerful earthquake rocked western Indonesia on Thursday as rescuers struggled to reach survivors of the previous day's quake, which killed more than 500 people and left thousands trapped under collapsed buildings.
AP Photo/Dita Alangkara
People carry an earthquake victim from inside a destroyed building in Padang, West Sumatra, Indonesia, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2009. A powerful earthquake that struck western Indonesia trapped thousands of people under collapsed buildings, including hospitals, a hotel and a classroom, officials said.
AP Photo
Indonesian soldiers and rescue workers search for earthquake victims trapped under a destroyed building in Padang, West Sumatra, Indonesia, Thursday, Oct. 1, 2009. A second earthquake with a 6.8 magnitude rocked western Indonesia Thursday, a day after the region was devastated by an undersea quake of 7.6 magnitude.
AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim
A man walks past by a building damaged by earthquake in Padang, West Sumatra, Indonesia, Thursday, Oct. 1, 2009. A second earthquake with a 6.8 magnitude rocked western Indonesia Thursday, a day after the region was devastated by an undersea quake of 7.6 magnitude.
AP Photo/Dita Alangkara
See Also: Three Canadians Confirmed Dead in Haiti
"We consider this as an estimate," Martinage said.
Emergency aid from around the world began arriving in ravaged Haiti on Thursday as the frantic search for survivors continued.
However, relief groups said the destruction from the deadly earthquake was making it difficult to get supplies to people.
"It's chaos," UN humanitarian spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs told The Associated Press. "It's a logistical nightmare."
Planes carrying teams from China, France and Spain landed at Toussaint L'Ouverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince with searchers and tonnes of food, medicine and other supplies. A Canadian CC-177 military plane with emergency supplies also arrived around midday Thursday.
CBC News reporter Sasa Petricic arrived on that plane with the advance element of Canada's Disaster Assistance Response Team. He said the jet had to circle the Port-au-Prince airport for about three hours before it could land, because the tarmac was too crowded with aircraft.
An Air China plane carrying a Chinese search-and-rescue team, medics and aid landed at the capital city's airport on Thursday, led by more than 50 people in orange jumpsuits being accompanied by trained dogs.
"Most of the members are very experienced," Liu Xiangyang, deputy chief of the National Earthquake Disaster Emergency Rescue Team, told the official Xinhua News Agency before its departure, referring to the May 2008 quake in southwestern China that left almost 90,000 people dead or missing.
AP Graphic
Three French planes touched down Thursday to transport about 60 injured people to hospitals in the Caribbean islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe.
While the airport in the capital was damaged and the control tower collapsed in the quake, the runways are clear for landing.
But the World Food Program said the airport is straining to handle dozens of incoming flights of supplies and rescuers. It also remains difficult to travel from the airport to the city as debris from collapsed buildings is littering the streets.
As well, the organization said damage to the port in Port-au-Prince is preventing ship deliveries to quake-struck region.
John Holmes, the UN's relief co-ordinator, praised the international community for its response, but he acknowledged that the people in desperate need in Haiti may feel that help isn't coming fast enough.
"Inevitably the reality is that, however fast we try to move, it will always be too slow for those people who are on the ground who are waiting impatiently for help, and that's something which is very frustrating, particularly for them, but, of course, it's very frustrating for us too," he said.
"If we could snap our fingers and make these things arrive, we would do that, but that's not possible," Holmes told reporters in New York City.
Canada has promised humanitarian aid to the island. Two ships — HMCS Athabaskan and HMCS Halifax — departed from Halifax Thursday afternoon loaded with supplies and equipment, including a helicopter, first-aid kits and 500 Canadian soldiers.
The International Red Cross has estimated three million people — a third of the population — may need emergency relief that includes shelter, food and clean water.
"We'll be using whatever roads are passable to get aid to Port-au-Prince, and if possible we'll bring helicopters in," said Emilia Casella, a spokeswoman for the United Nations food agency in Geneva.
Survivors used sledgehammers and their bare hands to try to find victims in the rubble. Survivors were being transported by pickup trucks, wheelbarrows and doors converted into makeshift stretchers.
Thousands of Haitians spent another night outside as survivors set up camps amid piles of salvaged goods, including food scavenged from the rubble. Many won't return to their homes, fearing aftershocks that have continued to hit the country will knock down the already weakened structures.
Thousands of homes have been destroyed and damaged, including the National Palace.
UN casualties
UN officials in Port-au-Prince confirmed that 19 UN peacekeepers, four international police officers, and 13 UN staff members are dead. About 100 UN workers are trapped in the rubble of the UN headquarters that collapsed in the quake, while another 50 UN staff are unaccounted for elsewhere.
David Wimhurst, a senior UN official in Haiti, said that more bodies are expected to be found in the coming days.
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon earlier said there was a "small miracle" as one Estonian security guard, Tarmo Joveer, was pulled alive from the destroyed UN headquarters.
Wimhurst said another seven rescues were made at the headquarters building.
UN mission head Hedi Annabi of Tunisia and his chief deputy, Luis Carlos da Costa, are among the missing.
Canadian Kim Bolduc, the UN Development Program co-ordinator in Haiti, is now heading the mission. Leadership will be taken over by Edmond Mulet, the UN assistant secretary general for peacekeeping operations, when he arrives.
Speaking to reporters via video conference, Bolduc said it was "a real challenge" for the UN with their top management missing.
Three Canadians — a Montreal couple and an Ontario nurse — have been confirmed among the dead.
Calls from victims seeking help from emergency services weren't getting through because systems that connect different phone networks were not working, said officials from a telecommunications provider in Haiti.
About 3,000 police and international peacekeepers cleared debris, directed traffic and maintained security in the capital.
But law enforcement was stretched thin even before the quake and would be ill-equipped to deal with major unrest. The UN's 9,000-member peacekeeping force sent patrols across the capital's streets while securing the airport, port and main buildings.
Looting began immediately after the quake, with people seen carrying food from collapsed buildings. Inmates were reported to have escaped from the damaged main prison in Port-au-Prince, said the UN's Byrs.
The quake struck at 4:53 p.m., centred 16 kilometres west of Port-au-Prince at a depth of eight kilometres, the U.S. Geological Survey said. USGS geophysicist Kristin Marano called it the strongest earthquake since 1770 in what is now Haiti, on the island of Hispaniola.