Report: Haiti Deaths Estimated at 200,000

(CBS)  A senior Haitian official said Friday that the death toll from the earthquake that flattened the country Tuesday could reach 200,000, the Reuters news agency reports.

Interior Minister Paul Antoine Bien-Aime gave the news agency that estimate Friday. It's the latest in a series of fluctuating estimates that hit as high as 500,000 in the earthquake's immediate aftermath.

Additional Coverage of the Haitian Earthquake

Complete Coverage: Devastation in Haiti
Haiti: The Latest

"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," Bien-Aime told Reuters.

Earlier Friday, Aramick Louis, the secretary of state for public safety, told the news agency that 40,000 bodies have been buried and another 100,000 people probably died in the earthquake.

[kbbpll]

Microsoft has imagery (unfortunately cloudy) taken Thursday. New cloudless imagery will be available later today.

http://www.bing.com/maps/explore/#5872/style=a&lat=18.554516&lon=-72.352066&z=17&pid=5874/5003/0.6002=q:haiti:lat:2.58485933151533:long:82.683351226151&o=&a=0

[sean71z]

Haiti is for the living, not the dead. The United Nations should immediately begin cremation of deceased bodies. Health and safety issues are more significant than an official list of those killed.

[lloydbest1]

A lot of the problem is Haiti's infrastructure was next to nonexistant even before the quake. Average travel time to Petit Goave from Port au Prince was 2 hours. That's like 40 miles and that was BEFORE the highway was chopped up by the tremors and littered from one end to the other with collapsed buildings. Getting to Cap Haitien, a distance of 120 miles, was an all day affair. Now, until the roads are cleared, it can't be done - at least by motorized vehicles.
The harbor - such of it as it ever was - is destroyed; Toussaint L'Ouverture Airport, Haiti's one airfield capable of taking the kind of cargo planes needed can only hold a few dozen and is so badly damaged it's barely functional. There's a harbor of sorts in Cap Haitien and another in Jacmel but neither one is suited for the huge ships that are now steaming toward the island.
Getting the stuff there is not the problem, anyway. It's getting it to the survivors once it hits the beaches. I've seen the aerial shots of P-a-P after the shocks and from the look of the damage it will take days, if not weeks before anyone can get across town other than on foot. That scenario plays out up to 40 miles from the capital.
High temperatures across Haiti are running only a few degrees above average but when average is 85, it doesn't take long before the dead start to rot. There are reports that Haitians have taken matters into their own hands and have dug mass graves and have already buried hundreds (maybe even thousands) of people. They will probably never be counted. For those still trapped, without food or water, three days is an awful lot to ask of those already traumatised to endure. And it may take as many more to get the necessities to those who need them the most.
Bien-Aime really doesn't have any better an idea than I do how many have died. But given how awful the situation has become the 7 to 10 thousand I thought would perish in an earlier post now seems almost ridiculously optimistic. I think it will be a lot higher.
On a related note. Our government can only do so much and Haiti will need to have it's hand held for a LONG time to come. Private donations are going to be essential. There is a list of organizations in the "how to help" section on this and other sites. I donated $30. Doesn't sound like much but if just one-sixth of the country gives that amount that'll total $1.5 billion. Won't completely cover the cost of mitigating this but it will sure help.

[tdentino]

I'm sick and tired of this story, move on.

[democracy1]

by tdentino January 16, 2010 5:01 AM EST
I'm sick and tired of this story, move on.


Then don't bother to read about it anymore, you pathetic loser. YOU move on. Adults don't want you playing here anyway.

[tjburbank]

Would you rather talk about Paris Hilton's new dress? Or maybe Tiger Woods? Idiot grow up...

[mljohns00]

On June 24, 1948, the Soviet Union cut off all rail, road, and water access to West Berlin, pupulation 2,500,000. On June 26, two days later, the Berlin Airlift began, with 32 flights by American C47 aircraft. The U.S. and the RAF flew over 200,000 flights carrying 13,000 tons of food daily to Berlin for almost a year.

It seems we aren't capable of such things anymore.

[mljohns00]

A few more details about the Berlin Airlift. In the beginning, the average time to load/unload an aircraft was 27 minutes. By the airlift's end, the time was reduced to 8 minutes. Germans were hired at both ends of the route to do the loading and unloading.

Nowadays, there's no reason why supplies couldn't be containerized, loaded and unloaded in minutes, and then rolled to where helicopters could pick them up and drop them off at multiple security sites/food sites throughout Port-au-Prince.

[nojoy01]

by mljohns00 January 16, 2010 12:23 AM EST

On June 24, 1948, the Soviet Union cut off all rail, road, and water access to West Berlin, pupulation 2,500,000. On June 26, two days later, the Berlin Airlift began, with 32 flights by American C47 aircraft. The U.S. and the RAF flew over 200,000 flights carrying 13,000 tons of food daily to Berlin for almost a year.

It seems we aren't capable of such things anymore.
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by mljohns00 January 16, 2010 1:33 AM EST

A few more details about the Berlin Airlift. In the beginning, the average time to load/unload an aircraft was 27 minutes. By the airlift's end, the time was reduced to 8 minutes. Germans were hired at both ends of the route to do the loading and unloading.

Nowadays, there's no reason why supplies couldn't be containerized, loaded and unloaded in minutes, and then rolled to where helicopters could pick them up and drop them off at multiple security sites/food sites throughout Port-au-Prince.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

mljohns00, to quote a President, yes we can. We have an increased capacity for both supplies and to transport them to the scene of a disaster. There are, however, some differences between the Berlin airlift you chose as an example and the situation in Haiti. Berlin had a functioning major airport and at this time, Haiti does not. Berlin had a functioning government to work with. As a result of the earthquake even the poor excuse of a government that Haiti has isn't functioning. There was transport for the supplies and open roads for the trucks to move on. Haiti has neither. As for containerized supplies being "rolled to where helicopters could pick them up and drop them off" there are NO port facilities. There is no place to roll the containers off to, the wharves and piers are destroyed. This was an earthquake. It destroyed all of the infrastructure needed to do things quickly. As a best analogy for the situation, all of the relief can best be imagined as trying to pour a 100lb sack of flour through a drinking straw. Yes, we can deliver an incredible amount of relief supplies to Haiti, but chaos, destruction, and the victims' dispair will provide incredibly frustrating blockages to the relief effort.

[Mach1Pony]

Stop comparing Haiti to Katrina. 200,000 people are dead or dying. Americans are such....

[us_1776]

Everybody is just ignoring the right-wing nitwits Limbaugh and Robertson, Beck, Hannity, etc. and just trying to get as much help for this human tragedy as we possibly can. C-17's have been leaving our nearby Air Force base today loaded with heavy equipment. And we have organized fund raisers around town to help raise money and relief supplies.

[democracy1]

As it should be. Let the real decent Americans show the world what we're made of.

[gmw7777]

It's tragic that a major earthquake had to occur for the people of Haiti to get the help they have needed for a few centuries.

[erb0087]

If he was quoted accurately, Rush Limbaugh is a liar.

Barack Obama did not campaign on the promise to bring the troops home from Afghanistan.

He promised just the opposite.

Politifact.com:

"Obama often said during the campaign that Afghanistan required more troops and attention than it was receiving from the Bush administration. Obama said the United States "had taken our eye off the ball" by invading Iraq instead of concentrating on Afghanistan.

"Our troops have fought valiantly there, but Iraq has deprived them of the support they need - and deserve," Obama said in a speech on Aug. 1, 2007. "As a result, parts of Afghanistan are falling into the hands of the Taliban, and a mix of terrorism, drugs and corruption threatens to overwhelm the country. As president, I would deploy at least two additional brigades to Afghanistan to reinforce our counterterrorism operations and support NATO's efforts against the Taliban."

In his Feb. 17 action, Obama said he would deploy a Marine Expeditionary Brigade during the spring of 2009 and an Army Stryker Brigade with support troops by the summer. That's two, just as he said he would.

Promise Kept."

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/promise/134/send-two-additional-brigades-to-afghanistan/

[troutfishyman]

Rush Limbaugh must be ecstatic over the increasing death toll.

[erb0087]

by troutfishyman January 15, 2010 8:31 PM EST
Rush Limbaugh must be ecstatic over the increasing death toll.
=================================

Yes he is. He wants Obama to fail in Haiti.

Limbaugh hasn't been this happy since he heard about Fort Hood.

[erb0087]

RE: "Limbaugh hasn't been this happy since he heard about Fort Hood."

"The other day Rush Limbaugh made the gutter a little dirtier when he suggested that you could blame the massacre at Fort Hood on Barrack Obama.

And on what great insight and piece of logic did Limbaugh base this intelligent assessment? On the fact that Obama had promised to bring the troops home from Afghanistan [...Iraq, not Afghanistan...], and that it was orders to deploy to Afghanistan that supposedly were the motivation for Hasan's murderous rampage. The idea is, if Obama would have kept his promise to bring the troops home ( something Limbaugh and conservatives would have lambasted him for) the massacre never would have happened.

This was Limbaugh, not simply plying his trade in the gutter of American politics. This was Limbaugh becoming the gutter."

http://www.examiner.com/
November 10, 2009

(*) It was a Barack Obama CAMPAIGN PROMISE to send more troops to Afghanistan !!