PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) – The death toll in the collapse of a ramshackle school in Haiti rose above 90 on Saturday after rescue workers uncovered a room full of dead, many of them children, officials said.
Civil protection service head Alta Jean-Baptiste said there were 84 people confirmed dead and 150 injured as of noon. Another civil protection official, Michel Joseph Jr., said he had seen eight more bodies, bringing the count to 92.
"We haven't been able to get them out yet," Joseph said as rescue workers arrived from the United States and the French Caribbean island of Martinique to help the ill-equipped and impoverished country and U.N. peacekeepers posted there search for survivors.
Officials said 700 children were enrolled at the three-story La Promesse school, but it was not known how many were in the building when it caved in on Friday while class was in session.
The disaster struck as the poorest country in the Americas struggled to recover from four tropical storms and hurricanes that killed more than 800 people and destroyed 60 percent of its crops in August and September
Civil protection service head Alta Jean-Baptiste said there were 84 people confirmed dead and 150 injured as of noon. Another civil protection official, Michel Joseph Jr., said he had seen eight more bodies, bringing the count to 92.
"We haven't been able to get them out yet," Joseph said as rescue workers arrived from the United States and the French Caribbean island of Martinique to help the ill-equipped and impoverished country and U.N. peacekeepers posted there search for survivors.
Officials said 700 children were enrolled at the three-story La Promesse school, but it was not known how many were in the building when it caved in on Friday while class was in session.
The disaster struck as the poorest country in the Americas struggled to recover from four tropical storms and hurricanes that killed more than 800 people and destroyed 60 percent of its crops in August and September
As anywhere in the world, children comes the closest to any people's heart. Maybe because of the fact that they reflect the youth we once had. The vigor, agility and the brightness of the future could be seen in their innocence and their curiousity to seek knowledge. Upon glancing a news at one site, it breaks my heart to know of another tragedy that claims the life of many children, unknowingly. Again with factors that could have been monitored and avoided. It is so irony that awareness and pointing fingers arise, when lives had been lost and cannot be regain anymore. It is always told as lessons learn but it continous to happen . The lives of innocent children were stolen, even their dreams and their parents dreams for them. With prayers that awareness of any condition to somewhat minimize endangering properties and lives will be a way of life and put as a normal practice anywhere at a given time. It takes every individual responsibility to contribute to minimize if not completely eradicate the risk.
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