Haitian authorities estimate that 300,000 had been injured and as many as one million Haitians were left homeless. Many are skeptical that the world will ever know the total casualties resulting from this quake. Mirroring that speculation was the thoughts of the Haitian Red Cross director, who said his people did not have the time to count bodies, as their focus had been the treatment of survivors.
The vast majority of casualties were Haitian civilians, but among the dead were aid workers, embassy staff, foreign tourists and a number of public figures which included Archbishop of Port-au-Prince Monsignor Joseph Serge Miot,[10] aid worker Zilda Arns and officials in the Haitian government, including opposition leader Michel "Micha" Gaillard.[11] Also killed were a number of well-known Haitian musicians[100] and sports figures, including thirty members of the Fédération Haïtienne de Football.[101] At least 85 United Nations personnel working with MINUSTAH were killed,[102] among them the Mission Chief, Hédi Annabi, and his deputy, Luiz Carlos da Costa.[14] Around 200 guests were killed in the collapse of the Hôtel Montana in Port-au-Prince.[103]
Burials:
A sign points the area where thousands of earthquake victims are buried. Mass graves dug by a back hoe and sealed with help of a bulldozer are part of the government's hard answer for disposal of the many unnamed victims of Haiti's worst earthquake in two hundreds years. The dusty fields near the town of Titanyen were used to disposed Duvalier's political enemies.
A small skull rests near trash. One by one the bodies of earthquake victims enter the city's cemetery for burial. Arriving on flat bed trucks, ambulances, and cars the decease's love ones find a final resting places for their relatives. Sometime up to sixty-five bodies are cramped inside a crypt. Coffins and remains of prior occupants liter the large cemetery. On the perimeter bodies and body parts are dumped in the cemetery's waterway.
An outraged cemetery, Victor Planesse, attends points to a coffin that left outside the large cemetery. One by one the bodies of earthquake victims enter the city's cemetery for burial. Arriving on flat bed trucks, ambulances, and cars the decease's love ones find a final resting places for their relatives. Sometime up to sixty-five bodies are cramped inside a crypt. Coffins and remains of prior occupants liter the large cemetery. On the perimeter bodies and body parts are dumped in the cemetery's waterway.
Above-ground tombs damaged by the earthquake lie at the Grand Cementerie in Port-au-Prince on Saturday.
