Haiti Raises Death Toll to 230,000

(CBS/ AP)  Haiti's government has raised the death toll for the Jan. 12 earthquake to 230,000 from 212,000 and says more bodies remain uncounted.

The government initially estimated 150,000 dead on Jan. 24, apparently from bodies being recovered in the rubble of collapsed buildings in Port-au-Prince, the capital that was near the epicenter.

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Communications Minister Marie-Laurence Jocelyn Lassegue said Tuesday the government now counts 230,000 deaths. CBS News reports that 300,000 others were hurt and up to 4,000 have had limbs amputated.

But she says the new figure is not definitive. She says it does not include bodies buried by private funeral homes in private cemeteries or the dead buried by their own families.

The new figure gives the quake the same death toll as the 2004 Asian tsunami.

Four weeks after the earthquake, housing is still a big problem. Nearly half a million people are living in tent cities that have sprung up on the streets of Port-au-Prince.

On Tuesday, medical teams began vaccinating the children living there to protect them from measles and other diseases - they are worried about an o outbreak when the rainy season begins next month.

Violence bred of food shortages and inadequate security is also producing casualties. Dr. Santiago Arraffat of Evansville, Ind., said he treats several gunshot wounds a day at General Hospital.

"People are just shooting each other," he said. "There are fights over food. People are so desperate."

(CBS)

Nearly a month after the quake, respiratory infections, malnutrition, diarrhea from waterborne diseases and a lack of appropriate food for young children may be the biggest killers, health workers say.

A shortage of medical equipment and spotty electrical power - service has been restored to about 20 percent of Port-au-Prince - have worsened the medical emergency.

Friday will be a national day of mourning in Haiti.

[Sky017]

The long-standing problem is not at all that the Haitian Government is corrupt.

globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=17130

[SIKCHUTNAY]

THIS IS A HIGHLY BALLOONED COUNT, THE HAITIAN GOV'T IS TRYING TO FOSTER SYMPATHY TO GET MORE AID MONEY. BESIDES HAD SO MANY PEOPLE DIED THERE WOULD HAVE BEEN A TREMOR IN THE FORCE!!

[SIKCHUTNAY]

DOES THIS TOTAL INCLUDE THOSE MURDERED BY POLICE?

[bradkt1]

What happened in Haiti is an unspeakable tragedy, but it has been magnified ten thousand fold by the totally corrupt, incompetent and dysfunctional government that Haiti has been cursed with ever since its independence. Had this happened on the U.S. West Coast, there might have been a few dozen people killed at most...and most of the buildings would not have collapsed. Buildings and physical infrastructure built pursuant to non-existant building standards killed almost all of these people. Many government officials and emergency service personnel died as well.

While it will take Haiti decades to recover from this tragedy (if ever), what will the end result be? I have no reason to believe that it will be any better than it was before this earthquake happened. The government will be just as corrupt and incompetent and millions of dollars in emergency aid will have been stolen by government officials...

...and come the next natural disaster to hit Haiti, it will happen all over again...

...and that's the greatest tragedy of all.

[newsterl]

You can blame the god who caused this or stood by and LET it happen, but thank you jayzus!!! 250,000 less mouths for this over burdoned finite planet and finite resources to cope with.

Greatest tragedy of all is that we are pouring billions of OUR dollars into this when we can least afford it, our own economy is on the verge of bankruptcy with people out of work, homes and food.

[Justme8811]

newsterl; I have seen more pain than anyone should. There is no God as a God would never let happen in my life or Hatti or whatever else. If you believe that's your choice, yet how would any God cause or let all this pain??

[erich_1-2009]

Four weeks after the earthquake, housing is still a big problem. Nearly half a million people are living in tent cities that have sprung up on the streets of Port-au-Prince.

Any Baptist volunteers to help get them out? NOT!

[stychokiller]

At least when a tent falls on you in an earthquake, you won't be crushed.
bradkt1 already hit the nail on the head: The real criminals in Haiti are in the government of Haiti. Haitian Government is an oxymoron.