Possibly 50,000 killed in quake – Haitian president says

PORT-AU-PRINCE, (Reuters) – The death toll in  Haiti’s catastrophic earthquake could run to tens of thousands,  the country’s president said today, a day after the  quake demolished schools, hospitals, houses and hillside  shanties across the crowded and improverished capital.
Asked by a CNN reporter how many people had died, President  Rene Preval replied “I don’t know”, adding “up to now, I heard  50,000 … 30,000.”
But he did not say where these estimates came from.
Haitians wandered broken streets in a daze, or tried to  rescue people trapped under rubble. The local Red Cross said it  was overwhelmed.
A five-story U.N. headquarters building was destroyed by  Tuesday’s 7.0 magnitude quake, which the U.S. Geological Survey  said was the most powerful in Haiti in more than a century.  Several bodies were pulled from the wreckage of the U.N.  building and more than 100 staff members were missing, a  spokesman said.
The chief of the U.N. mission to Haiti, Hedi Annabi, was  among those killed, Preval said.
Preval called the damage “unimaginable” and described  stepping over dead bodies and hearing the cries of those  trapped in the collapsed Parliament building, where the senate  president was among those pinned by debris.
Destruction in the capital was “massive and broad,” and  tens — if not hundreds — of thousands of homes were  destroyed, a spokesman for the U.N. mission said.
People sobbed in the streets of Port-au-Prince and voices  cried out from the rubble.
“Please take me out, I am dying. I have two children with  me,” a woman told a Reuters journalist from under a collapsed  kindergarten in the Canape-Vert area of the capital.
The presidential palace lay in ruins, its domes fallen on  top of flattened walls. Preval and his wife were not inside  when the quake hit.
The quake’s epicenter was only 10 miles (16 km) from  Port-au-Prince. About 4 million people live in the city and  surrounding area. Many people slept outside on the ground, away  from weakened walls, as aftershocks as powerful as 5.9 rattled  the city throughout the night and into today.
The devastation crippled the government and the U.N.  security mission that had kept order. There were no signs of  organized rescue efforts, and people clawed at concrete chunks  with their bare hands to try to free trapped loved ones.
Haitian Red Cross spokesman Pericles Jean-Baptiste said his  organization was overwhelmed. “There are too many people who  need help … We lack equipment, we lack body bags,” he told  Reuters.
Normal communications were cut off, roads were blocked by  rubble and trees, electric power was interrupted and water was  in short supply.
Brazil’s army said at least 11 Brazilian members of the  9,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping mission in Haiti were killed.
The poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti is  ill-equipped to respond to such a disaster, lacking heavy  equipment to move debris and sufficient emergency personnel.
FLIMSY HOMES
“I am appealing to the world, especially the United States,  to do what they did for us back in 2008 when four hurricanes  hit Haiti,” Raymond Alcide Joseph, Haiti’s ambassador to  Washington, said in a CNN interview.
“At that time the U.S. dispatched … a hospital ship off  the coast of Haiti. I hope that will be done again … and help  us in this dire situation that we find ourselves in.”
U.S. President Barack Obama called the quake an “especially  cruel and incomprehensible” tragedy and pledged swift,  coordinated support to help save lives. The Pentagon was  sending a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and three amphibious  ships, including one that can carry up to 2,000 Marines.
Medical aid group Doctors Without Borders said its three  hospitals in Haiti were unusable and it was treating the  injured at temporary shelters.
“The reality of what we are seeing is severe traumas, head  wounds, crushed limbs, severe problems that cannot be dealt  with with the level of medical care we currently have available  with no infrastructure really to support it,” said Paul McPhun,  operations manager for the group’s Canadian section.
The University of Miami School of Medicine sent a plane  full of doctors and nurses to set up a field hospital and  planned to fly a group of critically injured people to Miami  for treatment on Wednesday.
The United Nations said $10 million would be released  immediately from the its central emergency response fund and it  would organize a flash appeal to raise more money for Haiti  over the next few days.
The United States, China and European states were sending  reconnaissance and rescue teams, some with search dogs and  heavy equipment, while other governments and aid groups offered  tents, water purification units, food and telecoms teams.
NOWHERE TO GO
The quake hit at 5 p.m. (2200 GMT), and witnesses reported  people screaming “Jesus, Jesus” running into the streets as  offices, hotels, houses and shops collapsed. Experts said the  quake’s epicenter was very shallow at a depth of only 6.2 miles  (10 km), which was likely to have magnified the destruction.
Witnesses saw homes and shanties built on hillsides tumble  as the earth shook, while cars bounced off the ground. “You  have thousands of people sitting in the streets with nowhere to  go,” said Rachmani Domersant, an operations manager with the  Food for the Poor charity.
Haiti’s cathedral was destroyed and media reports said the  archbishop of Port-au-Prince, Monsignor Joseph Serge Miot, had  been found dead in the wreckage of the archdiocese office.