from Reuters

Thousands feared dead as major quake strikes Haiti
Wed Jan 13, 2010 11:56am EST


By Joseph Guyler Delva
PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Thousands died in a major earthquake that destroyed the presidential palace, schools, hospitals and hillside shanties in Haiti, the country's president said on Wednesday, and the United States and other nations geared up for a big relief operation.
A five-story U.N. headquarters building was also brought down by Tuesday's 7.0 magnitude quake, which the U.S. Geological Survey said was the most powerful in Haiti in over 200 years. Many casualties were feared in the U.N. building.
President Rene Preval called the damage "unimaginable" and told The Miami Herald he believed thousands were dead in the rubble across the impoverished capital.
He 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.
"There are a lot of schools that have a lot of dead people in them," he told the Herald. "All of the hospitals are packed with people. It is a catastrophe."
Sobbing and dazed people wandered 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.
GROUND STILL TREMBLING
The quake's epicenter was only 10 miles 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 Wednesday.
The devastation crippled the government and the U.N. security and assistance mission which had kept order, and there were no signs of any organized rescue efforts.
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 on Wednesday.
Reports on casualties and damage were slow to emerge due to communication outages.
In New York, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said those unaccounted for at the U.N. mission headquarters included the chief of the mission, Hedi Annabi, but he could not confirm reports Annabi had died. He said 100 to 150 people were in the building when the quake struck.
Brazil's army said at least 11 Brazilian members of the U.N. peacekeeping mission were killed and many soldiers were missing.
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."
He said that it was impossible to estimate casualties.
U.S. President Barack Obama said his "thoughts and prayers" were with the people of Haiti and pledged "unwavering support".
In Geneva, U.N. officials said they expected the world body would issue an international emergency appeal for funds and other assistance, once needs on the ground had been assessed.
Germany was sending 1 million euros in immediate aid, and the EU's executive European Commission pledged 3 million Euros ($4.37 million) of fast-track funding.
The United States, Britain, Canada, France, Belgium, Sweden, Luxembourg and Netherlands were sending reconnaissance and rescue teams, some with search dogs and heavy equipment, while other government and aid groups offered tents, water purification units, doctors and telecommunications 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, 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.
Media reports said the archbishop of Port-au-Prince, Monsignor Joseph Serge Miot, has been found dead in the wreckage of the archdiocese office.
U.N. officials said normal communications had been cut off and the only way to talk with people on the ground was via satellite phone. Roads were blocked by rubble.
Some 9,000 U.N. police and troops are stationed in Haiti to maintain order and many countries were trying to determine the welfare of their personnel. (Additional reporting by Sophie Hardach, Raymond Colitt, Alister Bull, David Morgan, Jane Sutton, Phil Barbara, Patrick Worsnip; Writing by Jane Sutton and Pascal Fletcher; Editing by David Storey)