Haiti Quake Toll Rise

Haiti Quake Toll Continues To Rise

As many as 200,000 people died in the earthquake that devastated Haiti on Wednesday and and three-quarters of the capital, Port-au-Prince, will need to be rebuilt, say authorities in the Caribbean country.

"We have already collected around 50,000 dead bodies. We anticipate there will be between 100,000 and 200,000 dead in total, although we will never know the exact number," Interior Minister Paul Antoine Bien-Aime has told Reuters.

About 40,000 bodies have been buried in mass graves, Secretary of State for Public Safety Aramick Louis says.

If the casualty figures turn out to be accurate, the 7.0 magnitude quake that hit impoverished Haiti on Wednesday will be one of the 10 deadliest earthquakes ever recorded.

Three days after it struck, gangs of robbers have begun preying on survivors living in makeshift camps on sidewalks and streets strewn with rubble and decomposing bodies, as quake aftershocks ripple through the hilly neighbourhoods.

Louis says President Rene Preval and Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive are living in and co-ordinating the government response from the judicial police headquarters near the airport and their main concern is that desperation was turning to violence.

"We are sending our police into areas where bandits are starting to operate. Some people are robbing, are stealing. That is wrong," Louis says.

"The people in the refugee places, once they do not find food and assistance, they are getting angry and upset. Our message to everyone is to stay calm."

Governments and aid groups around the world have poured relief supplies and medical teams into the Caribbean state - already the poorest in the Western Hemisphere.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is due to visit on Sunday and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says he will go "very soon" as major powers race to save lives, speed up supplies and avert unrest in a state with a history of internal conflict.

Planes and ships have arrived with rescue teams, search dogs, heavy equipment, tents, water purification units, food, doctors and telecoms teams

Haiti Earthquake Survivors

Washington: A mammoth relief operation slowly geared up on Thursday in a race against time to help survivors of the earthquake that devastated the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince.

People desperately tried to free those who remained totally or partially trapped by tons of concrete, while relief teams were distributing small quantities of food as thousands of hungry and traumatized residents wandered aimlessly through the streets of the Haiti city of 1.9 million.

The capital and its surroundings were the areas hardest hit by the powerful 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck the impoverished Caribbean country on Tuesday afternoon.

Relief workers spoke of chaotic conditions and a crippled infrastructure that made it difficult to reach people trapped under the rubble of hundreds of buildings destroyed by the quake.

After plane traffic mostly carrying relief supplies and personnel backed up at Port-au-Prince's airport, the US temporarily suspended Haitian-bound flights at the request of the Haitian government.

The true scale of the disaster remained unclear, with various government officials speaking of tens of thousands, or even up to 100,000 feared dead, and one-third of 9 million population in need of assistance.

Obama Announces $100M US Aid Package

Barack Obama today announced a large US relief effort for Haiti, where between 45,000 and 50,000 people are feared dead after a devastating earthquake.

The US president said America would give $100m to the aid effort for the stricken Caribbean country and pledged that the people of Haiti "will not be forgotten".

Obama said he had told US agency and department heads to put Haiti at the top of their agenda. "This is one of those moments that cries out for American leadership," Obama, flanked by his most senior officials, told reporters.

Obama's impassioned remarks came as international rescue teams today began arriving in Haiti, where the death toll from Tuesday's earthquake has been put at between 45,000 and 50,000 by the Haitian Red Cross, the first estimate released by a relief organisation.

Aid aircraft from China, France, the US and Spain flew into Port-au-Prince, while a British specialist rescue team that arrived overnight in the neighbouring Dominican Republic also arrived in the Haitian capital.

Gordon Brown described the earthquake as a "tragedy beyond imagination" and urged the British public to support emergency appeals.

"The past 24 hours have been truly horrific for the people of Haiti. It is a catastrophe that is still unravelling," he told a news conference.

He said many people were still buried in the rubble and in need of urgent rescue.

Thousands feared dead in Haiti quake

Thousands feared dead in Haiti quake

Written By:BBC , Posted: Wed, Jan 13, 2010

A 7.0-magnitude quake which hit south of the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince is feared to have killed hundreds of people across the Caribbean country.

In the space of a minute, Haiti's worst quake in two centuries wrecked the Headquarters of the UN mission, the national palace and numerous other buildings.

A "large number" of UN personnel were reported missing by the organisation.

Describing it as a "catastrophe", Haiti's envoy to the US said the cost of the damage could run into billions.

The quake, which struck about 15km (10 miles) south-west of Port-au-Prince, was quickly followed by two strong aftershocks of 5.9 and 5.5 magnitude.

The tremor hit at 1653 (2153 GMT), the US Geological Survey said. Phone lines to the country failed shortly afterwards.

Aid workers and reporters at the scene estimated the number of dead to be in the hundreds or even thousands.

Vehicles ferrying the injured to hospital were hampered by rubble blocking the capital's streets.

Bodies, white with dust, could be seen piled on the back of a pick-up truck.

As the poorest country in the western hemisphere, Haiti is likely to need international aid in order to cope with the quake's impact.

'Three million affected'

In a statement issued in New York, the UN said that its local HQ in Haiti had "sustained serious damage along with other UN installations" and "a large number" of personnel were missing.

UN peacekeeping chief Alain Le Roy said it was unclear how many people had been inside the building.

The UN's stabilisation mission plays a vital role in ensuring security in Haiti.

Raymond Joseph, Haiti's ambassador to the US, said the presidential palace, the tax office, the ministry of commerce and the foreign ministry had all been damaged, but the airport was intact.

He and Haiti's ambassador to Mexico, Robert Manuel, both said that President Rene Preval and his wife had survived the quake.

The World Bank, which said its local offices were destroyed but that most staff were accounted for, planned to send a team to help Haiti assess damage and plan a recovery, Reuters reported.

Mike Blanpied of the US Geological Survey said that, based on the location and size of the quake, about three million people would have been severely shaken by its impact.

US President Barack Obama said in a statement that his "thoughts and prayers" were with the people of Haiti and America stood ready to assist them.

In the minutes after the quake, Henry Bahn, a visiting official from the US Department of Agriculture, said he had seen houses which had tumbled into a ravine.