Haitian Prime Minister saying on CNN now that "hundreds of thousands" could be dead.

[highplainsdem]

I've been fearing this, but this is the first time I've heard a top Haitian official make that estimate.

[cali]

1. it seems like only a miracle could keep that from being the case.

[tekisui]

2. And, he hopes the government is still in control.

This is a catastrophe I can't quite get my mind around.

[charlie and algernon]

4. the presidential palace and parliament are destroyed

who knows how many government officials are dead or wounded. :(

[maddezmom]

3. just heard the same

:(

[Coventina]

5. This could be as big as the SE Asian tsunami.

Horrific.

I hope that we, as a global community, can pull together our resources to help.

[WeDidIt]

8. Probably bigger

Sadly, I think the death toll will top that disaster.

[FarCenter]

6. Seems high -- there have only been about a dozen with more than 100 thousand dead

A lot of people might have been outside or in shelters that are not very heavy.

[cali]

7. the epicenter was virtually in the capital. there are 3 million people there

the city is virtually destroyed. And even shelters that are light can kill those they collapse upon.

[WeDidIt]

9. Add to that the devestating poverty and lack of clean water

and you have a human tragedy of epic proportions.

Disease will devestate the country because 50% of the people already have no access to clean water.

[cali]

10. Yes. fire, famine, lack of potable water are sure to take a terrible toll

The U.S. is bringing in the Vinson. It can produce hundreds of thousands of gallons of potable water a day. Hopefully that will help a little.

[Baclava]

12. I suspect we'll soon see massive violence and a total breakdown of society

Even in the best of situations, civilization ends when the power goes out.

[malaise]

24. The prison collapse won't help

:D

[qanda]

11. When you look at the pictures

It really makes you wonder where all the people are. I hope it's less than what the Prime Minister said but I wouldn't be surprised.

[Hansel]

20. I keep wondering where they are too.

It does not look good.

[Are_grits_groceries]

13. I think he may be right unfortunately.

There are 3M people in the area that caught the brunt of the quake. The construction is poor to say the least. The other very real danger are the secondary problems. Dysentery and cholera could finish off many people.

IMHO that's one reason they are moving as quickly as you will ever see a large group move. The real search and rescue effort may begin closer to the 72 hour time. People can survive that, but it makes the odds much longer. The people going in will be trying just as hard to put into place a crude framework to give people clean water and care. They are trying to beat the outbreak of any disease.

Haiti doesn't have a government in the sense one would normally think of one. (Of course, my idea of what one normally thinks about government has been thrown out of the window.) They may have elected titles and powers. Force and fear still rule a lot.

Those people in that one small half of Hispaniola have been through more misery than most places on Earth.

[dulurkernomore]

14. Heard on CNN

last night that Haiti doesn't even have what we would consider as an organized fire dept. They had some semblance of an ambulance corp but since the hospitals have collapsed, where would the ambulances take the injured to. Such a horrific situation that I can't wrap my brain around the enormity of this tragedy. I am trying to organize a fund raising drive at my church so that we can start getting funds to them. I wish there was so much more I could do. This has really made me realize that we do have it so much better here than other parts of the world that are right on our back door.

[Withywindle]

18. Welcome to DU, dulurkernomore!

:hi:

Yes, it's hard for us to wrap our brains around here. Haiti was such a poor country to begin with, and what little infrastructure they had is just...GONE. Thank you for doing something to help.

[BolivarianHero]

15. Would not be surprising...

And I bet this will get 0.0001% of the resources that the response to 9/11 got.

[ectoendomezo]

16. H2O and Oil Depletion and..Mega Quakes?

I have seen this "Hypothesis"..possibly even still in the 'Intuitive' stage..proffered quite a number of times and in varying places...

The Hypothesis being that the depletion of Oil and Water from Fault Lines..and the surrounding tectonic environment..has reduced the Earth's capacity for..movement with LESS sudden friction..Snaps...Quakes!

This idea works Intuitively..if you consider the image in yer 'Minds Eye' of two...indescribably heavy..pieces of rock..with jagged and random surfaces..seperated by an incredibly thin..in terms of scale of the plates...'Fluid'.water and oil and material..and you basically..remove that think layer of "Lubricant" and..Ooops! That seems very reasonable to me...the idea that in a ENORMOUSLY.."Reduced" Lubrication scenario..your gonna have 'Movement'.that is due to SHERE..'Force'..so that when that Ol' 'Delta V' comes around...and you have Force times momentum and NO LUBRICANT...well.."Kuh-Thump!" The Big Snap Back!

Don't get me wrong..i'm not 'Blaming' anyone etc..I'm not...its just that like the Hurricanes and Storms the QUAKES are gettin more destructive...30,000 here..10,000 there.."Hundreds of Thousands" its grim...it really is...Terrifying..and grim...

We here in Eureka just had the big quake for US..in this area it was big..a 6.5..and it was...well..I was really actually..'Surprised' at the Immediate..instant..'Zero to 60' ANXIETY response that became my reality...as the house rocked like a Boat On The Ocean..I was just..in a weird..Limbo...All I could think was.."This is NOT ending..uhhh..yet! This should have been OVER by now..Oh..oh boy..I think this is IT! I really think my house is about to fall apart..I do not have the resources to deal with this...its raining...what will I do? Where's the Cat? what about my Good Stuff?"

Y'know? And thus..I cannot IMAGINE..what these poor people are experiencing..i really..CANNOT..and I just HAD the 'Physical' reality shown to me by Momma Earth..and STILL...I did not have to see that FINAL Horror..when the Quake..ACTUALLY...DOES....NOT..'Stop'..but goes ON..until everything is..Destroyed!

See..One thing i realized after this one..and that I have yet to hear anyone really explain to the Human Race..is that..DURING the Quake..your MIND..cannot really FUNCTION..'Properly'..and I'm NOT Referring to 'Panic'..I'm not..I'm talking about ZERO PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE with that kind of MOVEMENT..the movement is..RANDOM..your mind is USED to having SOME...immediate..as in too fast to process consciously.."CLUE" as to..'Okay..now step There..now There...now you have arrived.." You can't DO that in a Quake..because you have..NO..Visual..or ANY other "Information"..there is no way to intrinsically 'Maintain Your Balance'...Its like being on a Surfboard for the FIRST TIME...but even then..you can SEE the wave and its direction...so this would be like surfing..BLINDFOLDED..but..hey..EVEN THEN..you have clues..in the quake..there are NONE..

Also..stuff didn't "Fall" off our walls..I watched it.."FLY" off the walls...I am not kidding..stuff "FLEW" off the walls..the drawers opened..it was like a seen from some ghost movie..some psychotic poltergeist on a rampage..pulling drawers open and yanking stuff off shelves and THEN throwing it to the ground..you dig?

So..Haitians....there's nothing one can say...The best I can do is.."It really Isn't Fair.."

BTW-Folks..fer what its worth..Words for 2010: "ONCE IN A BLUE MOON" See..December 31st was a BLUE MOON..and I'm tellin ya..the WHOLE YEAR is gonna be like this..Prepare yerselves..the '20 year flood' the '10 year reunion' etc...the "One-Off's"..take it or leave it!

[Codeine]

17. I wish I could Unrec a comment,

because that's the most patently stupid fucking thing I've ever read on DU outside of the moon/menstruation threads.

[laundry_queen]

27. Well, it's not entirely stupid.

Only it's not a 'friction' thing. Oil and water have different densities and many oil companies pump a lot of water down those wells. The earth settles differently. I live in an area that was deemed to not be earthquake prone and yet there was a 5.5 here a few years ago (before I lived here). At the time they were saying how it probably had a lot to do with the oil and gas activity in the area. I don't believe at all that this is the case with Haiti, nor do I believe it will cause mega quakes, but there is some scientific proof that there can be small seismic disturbances due to oil and gas activities.

[laundry_queen]

28. okay just reread the post above yours.

That's a little out there. lol.

[dana_b]

19. horrible. my friend won't know for days, I guess,

whether or not his father is alive. He's in Oakland, his dad is in Port au Prince. fuck.

[renate]

23. oh no. how awful

I'm so sorry.

Whether your friend's situation is multiplied by hundreds of thousands or just by one, it's horrible beyond words. Best wishes to your friend and his family. :hug:

[dana_b]

26. thanks n/t

[jberryhill]

21. Numbers fail

While I certainly understand the urge to quantify, there is an aspect to putting a number on these things that is uncomfortable.

Maybe it is turning the feared "unknown" into a "known", in some regard, but a number can never really encapsulate the horror of these sorts of things.

[EFerrari]

22. So true.

[Odin2005]

25. Words fail me...

:cry:

[Maru Kitteh]

29. It's too horrible to think about now, and only going to get worse.

There just aren't words.