Thousands of Haitians roam the streets of Port au Prince
Bodies pile up on the streets, while the people wait for help
Port au Prince, Haiti. It is 3:30 in the afternoon of the day after the strong earthquake that was 7.0 on the Richter scale shook this country. On the outskirts of Port au Prince hundreds of Haitians walk around with no place to go. Some with their belongings on their heads, others identifying the bodies (Still not counted) that are piling up on the corners, sidewalks, medians, and even in front of the United Nations campsite.
A short distance away, in the collapsed building that housed the Elsamex Construction Company, belonging to Dominican engineers, several persons try to get a man they can hear asking for help, out of the rubble. He is trapped under huge blocks of cement. From this building, they had previously taken the bodies of Jose Rafael Medina and Guillermo Peña, executives of the company, and two Haitians, and Renato Polanco, alive, and sent to the hospital of the Plaza de la Salud in Santo Domingo.
At 4:15 in the afternoon, dozens of drivers gather at the Total gasoline station on L'Ouverture Boulevard, one of the few with fuel supplies. There, they line up and talk about how to get fuels with scarcity a certainty.
Nearby, thousands of persons continue to walk around with no place to go in the middle of traffic snarls, On their faces there are no cries, no expressions of pain. They walk, just walk.
"Where are they going?", this reporter asks a young girl named Mery. "They are going to churches, to friends," she responds.
Following the L'Ouverture Boulevard, the dead on the avenue increase. On the median in the middle of the street, three adults and two children covered with sheets and cardboard. "Are they your family?", some Haitians are asked, hampered by the language barrier. "No", they say. Nobody knows who they are.
Across from them, on the other corner, there are some 25 bodies, which, nearly 24 hours after their deaths are covered in flies. The stench is evident from far away. Robert Toussaint, who no longer has a house, explains that, of the dead, there is a mother and her daughter, He identified them as Josef Naria Dia and Josef Nesly.
Beazlin Dk said he lost his house. Standing in front of the bodies, he indicated to this reporter the body of his father who house collapsed with him inside. As a way of identifying the bodies, white and black ribbons are tied to the feet.
At 5:00 p.m. the people keep walking. From far away a Haitian woman is seen shouting and raising her hands in a show of desperation.
After the earthquake some buildings and houses are still standing. But, among these, there are hundreds of houses, shopping centers, businesses of more than one story that are totally destroyed. In one of the ruins, only the arms and legs of the persons who were crushed can be seen.
In the middle of the multitude appears a young Haitian girl that in English says that her house suffered serious damage. "Where are you going?" she is asked. "I don't know," she answers.
In the coming and going of vehicles of the United Nations, ambulances and police, Port au Prince lives through the afternoon of the day after the 7.0 degree earthquake.
The well known Hotel Montana collapsed with some 200 persons inside. The impressive National Presidential Palace is just one more collapsed ruin.
Improvised refugee camps are common in the city. There mothers with their children, family and friends are seated or laying down, awaiting an uncertain future.
One of the largest is in the football field across the street from the Toussaint L'Ouverture International Airport. At 6:00 p.m. the people there sell food, take baths, and even play.
At this hour the Dominican delegation is seen, in caravan, carrying medical supplies and mobile kitchens and civil defense personnel.
It is not known when the Haitians will stop roaming the streets. At best it will be some time before normality returns.
Wounded
At 7:30 at night at the entrance to the Provincial Hospital General Melenciano, the Creole speech is heard among the wounded that arrive. The director, Dr Francisco Moquete, had counted , as of 5:45 in the afternoon, 70 wounded persons that had been hospitalized, from six month old infants to persons more than 60 years old.
The great majority was Haitian and present severe traumas. Son have been taken to the Jaime Mota Regional Hospital in Barahona, and some to the Dario Contreras trauma center in Santo Domingo.
The center was not prepared for so many emergency patients at one time. The Region Four Network sent a contingent from Public Health composed of general doctors and specialists and nurses.
"Where will they send the ones that are released?", they are asked. "We are going to send them to a center set up by the Catholic Church in a barrio here. There we are going to sent their relatives and from there....?" , he did not know.
A short distance away, in the collapsed building that housed the Elsamex Construction Company, belonging to Dominican engineers, several persons try to get a man they can hear asking for help, out of the rubble. He is trapped under huge blocks of cement. From this building, they had previously taken the bodies of Jose Rafael Medina and Guillermo Peña, executives of the company, and two Haitians, and Renato Polanco, alive, and sent to the hospital of the Plaza de la Salud in Santo Domingo.
At 4:15 in the afternoon, dozens of drivers gather at the Total gasoline station on L'Ouverture Boulevard, one of the few with fuel supplies. There, they line up and talk about how to get fuels with scarcity a certainty.
Nearby, thousands of persons continue to walk around with no place to go in the middle of traffic snarls, On their faces there are no cries, no expressions of pain. They walk, just walk.
"Where are they going?", this reporter asks a young girl named Mery. "They are going to churches, to friends," she responds.
Following the L'Ouverture Boulevard, the dead on the avenue increase. On the median in the middle of the street, three adults and two children covered with sheets and cardboard. "Are they your family?", some Haitians are asked, hampered by the language barrier. "No", they say. Nobody knows who they are.
Across from them, on the other corner, there are some 25 bodies, which, nearly 24 hours after their deaths are covered in flies. The stench is evident from far away. Robert Toussaint, who no longer has a house, explains that, of the dead, there is a mother and her daughter, He identified them as Josef Naria Dia and Josef Nesly.
Beazlin Dk said he lost his house. Standing in front of the bodies, he indicated to this reporter the body of his father who house collapsed with him inside. As a way of identifying the bodies, white and black ribbons are tied to the feet.
At 5:00 p.m. the people keep walking. From far away a Haitian woman is seen shouting and raising her hands in a show of desperation.
After the earthquake some buildings and houses are still standing. But, among these, there are hundreds of houses, shopping centers, businesses of more than one story that are totally destroyed. In one of the ruins, only the arms and legs of the persons who were crushed can be seen.
In the middle of the multitude appears a young Haitian girl that in English says that her house suffered serious damage. "Where are you going?" she is asked. "I don't know," she answers.
In the coming and going of vehicles of the United Nations, ambulances and police, Port au Prince lives through the afternoon of the day after the 7.0 degree earthquake.
The well known Hotel Montana collapsed with some 200 persons inside. The impressive National Presidential Palace is just one more collapsed ruin.
Improvised refugee camps are common in the city. There mothers with their children, family and friends are seated or laying down, awaiting an uncertain future.
One of the largest is in the football field across the street from the Toussaint L'Ouverture International Airport. At 6:00 p.m. the people there sell food, take baths, and even play.
At this hour the Dominican delegation is seen, in caravan, carrying medical supplies and mobile kitchens and civil defense personnel.
It is not known when the Haitians will stop roaming the streets. At best it will be some time before normality returns.
Wounded
At 7:30 at night at the entrance to the Provincial Hospital General Melenciano, the Creole speech is heard among the wounded that arrive. The director, Dr Francisco Moquete, had counted , as of 5:45 in the afternoon, 70 wounded persons that had been hospitalized, from six month old infants to persons more than 60 years old.
The great majority was Haitian and present severe traumas. Son have been taken to the Jaime Mota Regional Hospital in Barahona, and some to the Dario Contreras trauma center in Santo Domingo.
The center was not prepared for so many emergency patients at one time. The Region Four Network sent a contingent from Public Health composed of general doctors and specialists and nurses.
"Where will they send the ones that are released?", they are asked. "We are going to send them to a center set up by the Catholic Church in a barrio here. There we are going to sent their relatives and from there....?" , he did not know.
En portadaVer todos
Trump no se preocupa por los aranceles chinos: "Nos va a ir muy bien contra China"
Acusan a dos empleados del aeropuerto de Washington de filtrar video del accidente
Andrés Cueto asume la dirección de la Corporación del Acueducto y Alcantarillado de Santiago
Policía confirma una decena de muertos en tiroteo en escuela para adultos en Suecia