Haiti earthquake kills estimated 50,000 people

2010-01-15 08:51 BJT

Special Report: Strong Quake Hits Haiti |

It's been more than two days since Haiti was rocked by its most powerful quake in 200 years.

Survivors in Port-au-Prince have set up camps amid piles of salvaged goods, including food scavenged from the rubble.

Neighbors and volunteers desperately dug through rubble - often with bare hands - to free trapped residents. Most survivors have been left with nothing.

Earthquake victim Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, said, "My house was destroyed. We are homeless and sleeping in the street. We have no money or anything to eat."

Regular hospitals have collapsed or are filled beyond capacity. In their place makeshift hospitals have been set up to provide medical care to thousands of the injured.

In one temporary hospital, injured people with bandaged faces and limbs lay on makeshift beds. Staff are making use of limited medical supplies they have access to.

Gary Fish is an American optometrist who was working in Haiti when the quake stuck. Five of his colleagues were injured when their clinic collapsed.

Dr. Gary Fish, American Optometrist, said, "We have an eye clinic in Petit Goave, run by Dallas Church, and the church down here, and our clinic building was collapsed - concrete building with concrete roofs - and it injured five of us, some of us more severely than others, she's the most severe."

The International Red Cross has estimated that up to 50,000 people were killed in the earthquake. The focus now turns to 3 million people - or a third of the population - in urgent need of emergency relief.

Editor: Zhang Ning | Source: CCTV.com