Haiti estimates 140,000 dead, violence breaks out

[FourScore]

Haiti estimates 140,000 dead, violence breaks out
Catherine Bremer and Andrew Cawthorne
Reuters US Online Report World News
Jan 15, 2010 16:27 EST

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Haitian authorities said on Friday they believe 140,000 people were killed in the earthquake that devastated the Caribbean nation and said gangs of robbers were preying on survivors desperately awaiting aid.

"We are cleaning the streets of the dead bodies and putting them in mass graves. We have buried 40,000 people. We think there are 100,000 more on top of that," Aramick Louis, secretary of state for public safety, told Reuters. "There are a lot of people under the rubble."

He said the main concern of the president and prime minister, who were coordinating the Haitian government's response from the judicial police headquarters near the airport, was that desperation was turning to violence.

"We are sending our police into areas where bandits are starting to operate. Some people are robbing, are stealing. That is wrong," Louis said.

"The people in the refugee places, once they do not find food and assistance, they are getting angry and upset. Our message to everyone is to stay calm."

Some looting broke out in downtown Port-au-Prince, with a body burned and at least two shots fired, a witness said.

Three days after the earthquake, governments across the world were pouring relief supplies and medical teams into the quake-hit Caribbean state -- already the poorest in the Western Hemisphere.

But huge logistical hurdles, including a clogged airport and badly damaged port, and the sheer scale of the destruction meant aid was not yet reaching hundreds of thousands of victims.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2010/01/haiti_estimates_140000_dead_violence_breaks_out.php?ref=fpa

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

1. Why can't they just starve and suffer in quiet. The nerve of some people...

"The people in the refugee places, once they do not find food and assistance, they are getting angry and upset."
:eyes:

[gateley]

2. "Our message to everyone is to stay calm."

Just heard a report from Haiti on Tweety that there is absolutely no power available -- these people can't even listen to a radio to learn what's going on. How frightening.

[HipChick]

3. If I was stumbling into dead bodies,had injuries with no pain medication, no water or food for 3 day

being outside in the heat all day...I cannot predict how I might act...

[zonkers]

5. self delte.

[gateley]

7. I'd be batshit crazy by now. nt

[janedum]

4. No food, No water, No electricity, No toilets, but Please "stay calm" ... Katrina revisited.

[zonkers]

6. They must airdrop thousands of crank powered radios and put a familiar person on the radio to call

for calm.

[GCP]

8. It's all a fucking nightmare

I feel so desperately sorry for these poor people and hopeless in the enormity of this tragedy. NPR just interviewed the guy that Obama appointed to lead the US efforts and he seemed indifferent - like 'we're doing what we can, but the airport's a problem'.
Well, how about helicoptering in supplies and help?

[sweettater]

10. I suggested that

on another thread and the response was rather mean spirited. Some said if supplies are air dropped it would hit people on the ground.....well, duh, looks they are going to die anyway if they don't get food, water and medical supplies. There has to be a way! I say air drop!

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. Help is already comming in

air drops, a last resort with EMRATS, will not even considered.

And if you think this reality is mean, well so be it. That was me.

I know they do it in the movies all the time, but here is a reference for you. When was the last time the US actually did a large scale sirdrop? (And this is not counting EMRATS in Afghanistan). The Ardennes Campaign. It is not that they are out of practice, is that there are reasons why it is not done.

But resources are here, CNN just showing food distribution RIGHT NOW.

By the way the High Energy Buiscuits ARE EMRATS, emergency rations.

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. They are ALREADY using choppers

things are moving faster now that the Vinson showed up with choppers.

What you heard was a rescue professional... and what you heard was not indifference, but that is the way it is. There is only how fast you can move.

[doc03]

9. Boy that will get Faux News attention

They will drop all their right wing rhetoric to cover a bunch of black people being unruly.