Thousands Feared Dead in 'Total Disaster'

President's palace among scores of collapsed buildings
By Will McCahill,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 12, 2010 8:41 PM CST
Thousands Feared Dead in 'Total Disaster'
A damaged building is seen after an earthquake in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, today.   (AP Photo/Radio Tele Ginen)

The presidential palace and the United Nations field headquarters are among the buildings that have partially or completely collapsed in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, tonight after the 7.0-magnitude earthquake and series of major aftershocks that hit the island nation. “There must be thousands of people dead,” a spokeswoman for a relief group tells the Telegraph of a colleague’s first-hand account. “He reported that it was just total disaster and chaos, that there were clouds of dust surrounding Port-au-Prince.”
(More Haiti earthquake stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X