Haiti earthquake: devastation emerges

The extent of the devastation from a huge quake in Haiti is slowly emerging, with its President Rene Preval saying thousands of people are feared dead.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon said the head of the UN mission in Haiti and his deputy were among more than 100 staff missing.

The 7.0-magnitude quake, Haiti's worst in two centuries, struck south of the capital, Port-au-Prince, on Tuesday.

The Red Cross says up to 3m people have been affected. Port-au-Prince's Roman Catholic archbishop is reported killed.

A priest at the Saint Jacques Missionary Centre in western France told Associated Press news agency Monsignor Joseph Serge Miot had been found dead in his office by fellow missionaries.

Haiti's President Rene Preval told the Miami Herald newspaper in the US he feared thousands of his people had died.

Describing the scene in the capital as "unimaginable", he said: "Parliament has collapsed. The tax office has collapsed. Schools have collapsed. Hospitals have collapsed.

"There are a lot of schools that have a lot of dead people in them."

A number of nations, including the US, UK and Venezuela, are gearing up to send aid.

Speaking in Washington, US President Barack Obama vowed "unwavering support" for Haiti after what he called a "particularly cruel" disaster.

He said the first US rescue teams would arrive later on Wednesday.

Ban Ki-moon: 'We are facing a major humanitarian emergency'

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

The first tremor had hit at 1653 local time (2153 GMT) on Tuesday, the US Geological Survey said. Phone lines to the country failed shortly afterwards.

UN officials said at least five people had died when the UN's headquarters in Port-au-Prince collapsed and that more than 100 staff were unaccounted for and feared to be under the rubble.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said: "It would appear that all those who were in the building, including my friend [UN mission head] Hedi Annabi... and all those who were with him and around him are dead."

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon confirmed the Tunisian head of the UN mission in Haiti and his deputy were missing, along with many others.

He said hundreds of people were feared dead and aerial reconnaissance showed Port-au-Prince had been "devastated" by the quake, although other areas were largely unaffected.

Stressing a major international relief effort would be needed, Mr Ban said the UN would immediately release $10m (£6.15m) from its emergency response fund.

The airport in Port-au-Prince and a UN logistical base are operational, the UN said, allowing aid to start arriving soon.

China has already indicated in reports in state media that eight of its peacekeepers are dead, with another 10 unaccounted for.

The AFP news agency quoted the Jordanian army as saying three of its peacekeepers had been killed and 21 wounded.

The Brazilian army said 11 of its peacekeepers had been killed and a large number were missing.

A French official also told AFP that about 200 people were missing in the collapsed Hotel Montana, which is popular with tourists.

There were also some reports of looting overnight.

Rachmani Domersant, an operations manager with the Food for the Poor charity, told Reuters the capital had been in total darkness overnight.

"You have thousands of people sitting in the streets with nowhere to go."

People were "trying to dig victims out with flashlights", he said. "Hundreds of casualties would be a serious understatement."

Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere and has suffered a number of recent disasters, including four hurricanes and storms in 2008 that killed hundreds.

'Thoughts and prayers'

With communications destroyed by the earthquake, it is not yet possible to confirm the extent of the destruction, although there were reports on Wednesday of many bodies piled in the streets.

People in the capital were lifting sheets on bodies to try to identify loved ones.

Haiti's ambassador to the US, Raymond Joseph, said there was "no way of estimating" the casualties.


"I'm quite sure we're going to face a disaster of major proportion," he told ABC, adding that the cost of the damage could run into billions of dollars.

Mr Joseph said the presidential palace, the tax office, the ministry of commerce and the foreign ministry had all been damaged.

US President Barack Obama said his "thoughts and prayers" were with the people of Haiti and that he expected "an aggressive, coordinated [aid] effort by the US government".

Venezuela says it will send a 50-strong "humanitarian assistance team".

The Red Cross is dispatching a relief team from Geneva and the UN's World Food Programme is flying in two planes with emergency food aid.

The Inter-American Development Bank said it was immediately approving a $200,000 grant for emergency aid.

The UK said it was mobilising help and was "ready to provide whatever humanitarian assistance may be required".

Canada, Australia, France and a number of Latin American nations have also said they are mobilising their aid response.

Pope Benedict XVI has called for a generous response to the "tragic situation" in Haiti.

'Shouting and screaming'

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.

"Everybody is just totally, totally freaked out and shaken," said Mr Bahn, who described the sky as "just grey with dust".

He said he had been walking to his hotel room when the ground began to shake.

"I just held on and bounced across the wall," he said. "I just heard a tremendous amount of noise and shouting and screaming in the distance."

Reports on the Twitter message site, which cannot yet be verified by the BBC, expressed the chaos in the wake of the quake.

One writer said: "4 new aftershock in Haiti at 07:27, 07:41, 09:43 and 09:43: magnitude ranging from 4.5 to 5.4."

Tweets from troylivesay spoke of the worst damage being in the Carrefour district, where "many two and three storey buildings did not make it".

In the immediate aftermath of the quake, a tsunami watch was put out for Haiti, Cuba and the Bahamas, but this was later lifted.



Source: BBC News
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God help them.

Been following this very closely on my end. I've got some friends that are down there on a humanitarion, mission trip.