Scale of the Haiti Earthquake Disaster
Haiti has a population of just under 10 million and Port au Prince the devasted capital has a population of about 3 million.
If the 100,000 figure proves to be accurate that would be 1% of the population of Haiti killed in the earthquake and over 3% of the capital of Port au Prince.
The New York Post reports of fears of the Haiti death toll reach half a million (500,000).
Whole shantytowns had slid off the side of hilltops, and even the mightiest of buildings — including several hospitals, the presidential palace and the United Nations headquarters — had fallen like houses of cards
Officials said they feared it could rise to a staggering 500,000, although they cautioned those figures were highly speculative.
“I don’t know,” Preval told CNN when asked how many were killed.
Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive said he thought the total would “be in the range of hundreds of thousands dead.”
The terrifying 7.0-magnitude quake sent millions of residents into the streets.
“We have a lot of people here that need help. They need food. They need water,” said Vanessa Charlamagne, 27, who sat in a park with hundreds of others.
Corpses lined the streets, which were devoid of any signs of rescue work — no wailing sirens or heavy equipment.
As many as 150 members of the 9,000-person strong UN peacekeeping mission were unaccounted for — including the mission’s chief, Hedi Annabi, who was presumed dead
If the UN peacekeeping force was representative of the death ratio then the earthquake had a 1.6%. If the UN peacekeepers were in stronger buildings and ten times safer then the 16% rate of the 500,000 death toll would make sense.
At least 1500 bodies are in the morgue and pickup trucks continue bring the dead.
Haiti’s Red Cross said earlier the death toll from Tuesday’s earthquake could be between 45,000 and 50,000, with a further 3 million people hurt or homeless.
In the shattered Haitian capital bodies could be seen buried under the rubble, lying by the side of streets, or piled into vehicles
Wikipedia has a list of earthquakes by death toll
List of deadly earthquakes since 1900 at wikipedia
