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Haiti School Collapse Kills At Least 30
Poor repair job, not recent rains, doomed building, mayor says
By Harry Kimball
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Posted Nov 7, 08 4:21 PM CST
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(Newser)
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At least 30 people, many possibly children, died in Haiti today when a school building collapsed, AP reports. The school, in a village in the hills above Port-au-Prince, experienced a partial collapse in 2000. Before today, the building was under construction, and the town’s mayor said structural problems, not recent rains, were behind the disaster.
Aid groups, including the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders, were quickly on the scene. The Dominican Republic, which shares the island with Haiti, sent helicopters, and engineers from Brazil, Chile, and Ecuador arrived to help. UN peacekeepers stationed in Haiti since 2004 also pitched in. Many more are believed buried at the site, and the death toll is likely to rise.