Haiti Earthquake Damage: Death Toll Rises, Relief Mobilized

Port-au-Prince in Ruins; Obama Calls Haiti Tragedy ‘Incomprehensible’

ABC-TV News
Jan. 13, 2010
By BRINDA ADHIKARI and NED POTTER

A day after the great Haiti earthquake, the country’s president, Rene Preval, speculated that 30-50,000 people may have died — though officials condeded there was no real way to make an estimate amid the chaos in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

Stunned Haitians piled their dead on the crumbling streets of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and Preval reported stepping over dead bodies.

“Dead bodies are everywhere,” said Frederic Dupoux, a resident of the city, in a Twitter feed. “I haven’t seen one ambulance or any professional medical care anywhere in Port-au-Prince.”     more …