Casualties of the 2010 Haiti earthquake
A number of public figures died in the earthquake, including government officials, clergy members, musicians, together with foreign civilian and military personnel working with the United Nations.
[8] The earthquake occurred on 12 January 2010 approximately 25 kilometres (16 mi) WSW from the country's capital Port-au-Prince at 16:53 UTC-5[9] on the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault system.
[17] In addition, the facilities of foreign governments and non-government organizations were badly damaged in the quake, including the headquarters of the United Nations Stabilisation Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), which was destroyed.
[20] On 15 January, the Red Cross stated that 40,000–50,000 may have died, while Haitian interior minister Paul Antoine Bien-Aimé estimated that the dead were between 100,000 and 200,000.
Edmond Mulet, who was appointed head of the United Nations after the quake, stated that "I don’t think we will ever know what the death toll is from this earthquake.
"[26] And the director of the Haitian Red Cross, Guiteau Jean-Pierre, noted that his organization didn't "have time to count" bodies, as they were too busy trying to treat survivors.
[26] The complications of coming up with an accurate casualty count were revealed in an interview by The New York Times reporters with the employees at the mortuary in the largest hospital in Port-au-Prince.
[26] Compounding the problem of calculating casualties was that people were burying the dead in informal graves and many bodies had been thrown into dumps outside the city.
[19] But this method is complicated by the fact that such data may be inaccurate and infectious diseases, such as dysentery, malaria and dengue fever, could take their toll on survivors.
On 18 January, Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development (ACTED) reported that 145 had died and 380 were wounded in Jacmel, the country's fourth largest city located in the south of Haiti.
The New York Times reported that in the Edmond Paul region in southern Port-au-Prince, lawyer and community leader Isaac Jean Widner was organizing a list of the dead.
Widner estimated that of the 3,000 people that had lived in his neighborhood before the quake, 1,000 had died, but he added that "between the exodus and those still trapped it was impossible to confirm.
"[26] The earthquake struck in the most populated area of the country and the International Red Cross estimated that as many as 3 million people have been affected by the quake, including injuries and deaths.
[33] Soon after the quake struck appeals for international aid were issued by Haitian government officials, including Raymond Joseph, Haiti's ambassador to the United States.
[39] The U.S. Navy also announced on 13 January 2010 that the hospital ship Comfort and amphibious helicopter carrier Bataan will be deployed to assist in the humanitarian relief efforts.
[47][48] Burial of the dead was one of the most serious concerns in the aftermath of the earthquake as the main cemetery in Port-au-Prince announced that its plots were full and it was not accepting any more bodies.
[50] The government then turned to burying the dead in mass graves, including a number of plots in the fields around Titanyen, located north of the capital.
Victims include public figures such as Port-au-Prince Archbishop Joseph Serge Miot and the vicar general, Msgr.
[79] Those killed included Brother Hubert Sanon, the first Haitian Salesian, and 250 schoolchildren and some 200 young women studying in the schools.
Both The Washington Post and U.S.-based National Public Radio reported on the story of a nine-year-old girl named Haryssa, who died beneath the remains of her home before rescuers could reach her.
[89][90] As had CNN with the story of Anaika St. Louis, who was pulled from the rubble of her home in an hours long rescue effort, but died after her family was told at a hospital that they could not care for her.
The looting and violence that occurred in the wake of the quake also led to casualties, including fifteen-year-old Fabienne Cherisma, who was killed on Marthely Seiee Street in Port-au-Prince when police fired shots to disperse looters.
[citation needed] The UN headquarters hosting the stabilization mission for Haiti (MINUSTAH), at the Christopher Hotel in Port-au-Prince, suffered a devastating collapse, concentrating early UN rescue efforts on their own personnel.
The largest number of foreigners in Haiti was from neighboring countries, including an estimated 40,000–45,000 American citizens,[143] 6,000 Canadians,[144] and 1,200 French.
