Casualties of the 2010 Haiti earthquake
Encyclopedia
Casualties of the 2010 Haiti earthquake include both civilian and government officials, locals and foreigners – however the overwhelming majority of those killed and wounded in the quake
were Haitian civilians. A number of public figures died in the earthquake, including government officials, clergy members, musicians, together with foreign civilian and military personnel working with the United Nations
. As of January 24, Communications Minister Marie-Laurence Jocelyn Lassegue said the death toll was over 150,000 in the Port-au-Prince
metropolitan area alone. Haitian President
René Préval
reported on 27 January that "nearly 170,000" bodies had been counted. On February 21, Preval raised that estimate to 300,000. In February Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive
estimated that 300,000 had been injured. However, non-Haitian sources have place the toll at far less with the Red Cross estimating the death toll at between 45,000 and 50,000.
Speaking in Miami in June 2010 Bellerive also estimated the number of deaths had been 300,000. On the first anniversary of the quake, Bellerive raised the death toll to 316,000. He said that was, in part, because of the recovery of additional bodies.
at 16:53 UTC-5
on the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault system
. The earthquake was measured a magnitude of 7.0 Mw
earthquake
and was followed by a series of aftershock
s, fourteen of them between magnitudes 5.0 and 5.9. The main area affected by the quake was Port-au-Prince and the surrounding region, although it was also felt in several surrounding countries and regions including Cuba
, Jamaica
, Puerto Rico
, and the neighbouring country of Dominican Republic
. No casualties were reported outside of Haiti.
Much of Port-au-Prince's infrastructure was significantly damaged or destroyed in the earthquake, including the Presidential Palace
, the National Assembly
building, the Port-au-Prince Cathedral, hospitals, schools and the main prison
. All hospitals were destroyed or so badly damaged that they were abandoned. In addition, the facilities of foreign governments and non-government organizations were badly damaged in the quake, including the headquarters
of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti
(MINUSTAH), which was destroyed.
Paul Antoine Bien-Aimé
estimated that the dead were between 100,000-200,000. On 12 January Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive
stated that the death toll could be "well over 100,000." Later Red Cross officials issued a death toll estimate of 50,000 killed, while Haitian Interior Minister
Paul Antoine Bien-Aimé
stated that "around 50,000 dead bodies" and "there will be between 100,000 and 200,000 dead in total, although we will never know the exact number." Prime Minister Bellerive then announced that over 70,000 bodies have been buried in mass grave
s. Several days after the quake Haitian authorities estimated the number of injured at 250,000. According to Belgian
disaster emergency medicine expert Claude de Ville de Goyet "round numbers are a sure sign that nobody knows."Haitian President
René Préval
reported on 27 January that "nearly 170,000" bodies had been counted.
On 10 February the Haitian government reported the death toll to have reached 230,000. However, an investigation by Radio Netherlands has questioned the official death toll, reporting an estimate of 92,000 deaths as being a more realistic figure. Other officials did not even attempt to provide a casualty estimate. Edmond Mulet
, who was appointed head of the United Nations after the quake, stated that "I don’t think we will ever know what the death toll is from this earthquake." And the director of the Haitian Red Cross, Guiteau Jean-Pierre, noted that his organization didn't "have time to count" bodies, as they were too busy trying to treat survivors.
The complications of coming up with an accurate casualty count were revealed in an interview by New York Times reporters with the employees at the mortuary in the largest hospital in Port-au-Prince. In the interview, Alix Lassegue, the head physician at the morgue, provided a rough estimate of the number of bodies that had been passed through the mortuary by tabulating the square yardage of the area where bodies had been placed and the space that each body occupied times the number of times bodies were removed from the grounds. Lassegue's estimate was an even 10,000. Other employees estimated the number of bodies that had passed through the morgue as 75,000, 50,000 and 25,000. Compounding the problem of calculating casualties was that people were burying the dead in informal graves and many bodies had been thrown into dumps outside the city. In addition, thousands of people were leaving areas affected by the earthquake
, without any centralized method of tabulating who had left.
There were reports of more precise numbers of casualties for certain areas of the country. On 18 January ACTED
reported that 145 had died and 380 were wounded in Jacmel, the country's fourth largest city located in the south of Haiti.
An alternative method that may be used to tabulate casualties is by using the satellite imagery of Port-au-Prince located on Google Maps
so that destroyed buildings can be catalogued and an estimate of casualties can be calculated using data on the inhabitants. But this method is complicated by the fact that such data may be inaccurate and infectious disease
s, such as dysentery
, malaria
and dengue fever
, could take their toll on survivors.
A statistical
study by a specialist group at the Children's Hospital Los Angeles
and the University of Southern California
estimated that the number of children injured was 110,000, or roughly half the total number of injuries.
Some local communal leaders were attempting to count the number of dead in their community. The New York Times reported that in the Edmond Paul region in southern Port-au-Prince, lawyer and community leader Isaac Jean Widner was organizing a list of the dead. Widner estimated that of the 3,000 people that had lived in his neighborhood before the quake, 1,000 had died, but he added that "between the exodus and those still trapped it was impossible to confirm."
Soon after the quake struck appeals for international aid were issued by Haitian government officials, including Raymond Joseph
, Haiti's ambassador
to the United States. Neighboring Dominican Republic
was one of the first countries to give aid to Haiti. And the non-governmental organization
Giving Children Hope
distributed much-needed medicines and supplies. International organization also began large-scale fund raising campaigns for aid to Haiti, including campaigns by the International Red Cross and relief charities in Britain.
On 25 January Handicap International
published a statement that an estimated 1,000 amputations had taken place due to injuries. In response to the quake the organization dispatched 30 rehabilitation and health staff to Haiti and announced that they would eventually increase staff numbers to 100 and provide hundreds of prostheses.
In addition, the government of the United States issued orders for deployment to the U.S. Army's 1st Battalion, 73rd Infantry from Fort Bragg
, North Carolina
, which is scheduled to deploy along with the aircraft carrier . The U.S. Navy also announced on 13 January 2010 that the hospital ship Comfort
and amphibious helicopter carrier will be deployed to assist in the humanitarian relief efforts. The American government also announced that it would provide $100 million dollars for the aid effort in Haiti. Partners in Health, the largest health care provider in rural Haiti, also provided aid to from Port-au-Prince. Despite the domestic and international relief efforts, many Haitians in the initial days after the earthquake did not have access to health care.
Those injured in the quake, including both Haitians and foreign, have been treated in hospitals abroad. Many patients were transferred to hospitals in neighboring Dominican Republic, including to hospitals in the capital Santo Domingo
and in the border towns of Neiba and Jimaní
. The total number of casualties treated in the Dominican Republic reached into the hundreds and on 20 January the Dominican Republican government announced that 600 patients would be repatriated to Haiti. Some casualties were brought to the United States, including nearly 500 patients who were transported to Florida
and treated in hospitals across the state, including University of Miami
's Jackson Memorial Hospital
.
Burial of the dead was one of the most serious concerns in the aftermath of the earthquake as the main cemetery in Port-au-Prince announced that its plots were full and it was not accepting any more bodies. The Haitian law that bodies must be prepared by a funeral parlor before burial
was suspended within the first day of the earthquake. The government then turned to burying the dead in mass graves, including a number of plots in the fields around Titanyen
, located north of the capital. Members of the International Committee of the Red Cross encouraged Haitian authorities to take measures so that the bodies could later be identified, including filling out standard forms on bodies; photographing clothing, jewelry, and special marks on the body; and noting where the body was found and where it was buried.
Religious leader, including both Roman Catholic and Vodou priests, also objected to the mass burials. Max Beauvoir
, the head of Haiti's main Voodoo priests' organization called the mass burials "degrading", "indecent" and "inhuman", due to the fact that in Voodoo the regular maintenance of the tomb and visitation of gravesites by descendants is highly important. There were also confirmed reports of uncollected bodies being burned in the streets.
Joseph Serge Miot
and the vicar general
, Msgr. Charles Benoit, who were killed in the destruction of the Port-au-Prince Cathedral. A number of individuals with connections to the government were killed: Hubert Deronceray, a former Minister of Education and Minister of Social Services and a three-time candidate for President, and opposition leader Micha Gaillard
. An early report also listed Justice Minister Paul Denis as one of the victims but Denis was in fact able to escape the ministry's collapsing building in time.
Among the academics killed were topographer
Gina Porcena and creolist Pierre Vernet. Prominent Women's movement activists were killed, including Magalie Marcelin, who founded the organization Kay Fanm to help shelter victims of rape and violence; Myriam Merlet
, who was currently working for Haiti's Ministry for Gender and the Rights of Women; sociologist
Anne-Marie Coriolan, who founded the organization Solidarite Fanm Ayisyen (Solidarity with Haitian Women); and Myrna Narcisse, Director General of the Ministry of Women's Condition. The Haitian music industry
experienced extensive losses in the quake. The dead included Joubert Charles, the most prominent promoter of music in Port-au-Prince; King Kino, lead singer of the group Phantom; rapper Jimmy O
. and rapper Evenson "Shacan Lord" Francis of the group Gasoline Clan. The music groups Djakout Mizik
, Kreyol La, Nu Look, Krezy Mizik, Mika Ben, Mizik Mizik, and Carimi all reported missing members.
A Haitian press association also reported that more than a dozen journalists
had been killed. Among these were Wanel Fils, a reporter with Radio Galaxie; Henry Claude Pierre, a Jacmel-based correspondent for Radio Magic 9; and Belot Senatus, a cameraman for Radio Tele Guinen. Jean Robert François, a reporter with Radio Magic 9, was seriously wounded.
The Caribbean Football Union
reported that at least 30 people with ties to Fédération Haïtienne de Football
were killed, including players, coaches, referees, and administrative and medical representatives. Among those killed were Alix Avin, head coach of the senior men's team; Gerard Cineus former senior team coach; Antoine Craan
, one of the first black professional soccer players in Canada and a longtime Quebec
soccer official. and Jean Yves Labaze, who coach Haiti to the FIFA U-17 World Cup
in 2007 and coached the national women's team. Some 20 others with ties to Haitian football were feared buried in the ruins. The families of numerous famous Haitians were casualties in the quake, including the family of WBC
welterweight champion Andre Berto
, who withdrew from a January 30 boxing
match after learning of the death of relatives.
Various Roman Catholic orders reported the deaths and injury of dozens of clergy members and the destruction and damage of churches, religious schools and offices. Among the more seriously affected was the Salesian order, which stated that as many as 500 students and staff were killed in the collapse of the buildings and schools operated by the order in Haiti. Those killed included Brother Hubert Sanon, the first Haitian Salesian, and 250 schoolchildren and some 200 young women studying in the schools. Protestant groups also reported casualties, the US-based Southern Baptist International Mission Board, which announced the death of Bienne Lamerique, pastor of the Siloam Baptist Church in Port-au-Prince.
Foreign-based companies doing business in Haiti also suffered casualties. Trilogy International Partners
, which provides mobile phone
service in Haiti through its subsidiary Comcel Haiti
and is one of the largest foreign investors in the country, announced that 5 of its 575 employees had died and 35 remained missing. U.S.-based Citigroup Inc. announced that the bank's headquarters in Haiti had been destroyed, killing and injuring some employees. And Oxfam
reported that a business manager named Amedee Marescot was injured in the collapse of the Oxfam office and later died in hospital.
Universities and religious institutions also reported the losses. The University of Virginia stated that graduate student
Pierrette Stephanie Jean-Charles was killed while at home with her family. The First Church of Christ in Longmeadow, Massachusetts
reported that at least thirty nursing students were killed in the destruction of the CONASPEH School, which the church had been assisting.
The fates of some civilian Haitians received the attention of international media. Both the Washington Post and U.S.-based National Public Radio reported on the story of a nine-year-old girl named Haryssa, who died beneath the remains of her home before rescuers could reach her. As had CNN
with the story of Anaika St. Louis, who was pulled from the rubble of her home in an hours long rescue effort, but died after her family was told at a hospital that they could not care for her. But many Haitian casualties went completely unrecorded. Agence France-Presse reported that in the initial days of the earthquake corpses remained unburied in the streets across the capital and the majority of bodies at the city morgue
remained unidentified and unclaimed. At least two mass grave
s had been dug in Port-au-Prince for interment of the dead. Other bodies were often buried by family members in informal graves. The lack of a centralized system for tabulating casualties means that the exact number of dead and injured is unknown.
The looting
and violence that occurred in the wake of the quake also led to casualties, including fifteen-year old Fabienne Cherisma, who was killed on Marthely Seiee Street in Port-au-Prince when police fired shots to disperse looters. Others identified as looters or thieves were killed by vigilantes.
in Port-au-Prince, suffered a devastating collapse, concentrating early UN rescue efforts on their own personnel. Most of MINUSTAH's 9,000 troops and police were located elsewhere. Many U.N. personnel trapped in the building died, including mission head Hédi Annabi
and deputy head of the UN mission in Haiti, Luiz Carlos da Costa
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
has confirmed that 83 UN staff members had died and 32 remained missing.: Gustavo Ariel Gómez, 33, a gendarme from Buenos Aires
, was fatally wounded in the earthquake. Days after the quake he died in a hospital in Jimaní in the Dominican Republic. Gómez was one of the 600-member Argentine peacekeeping force, which operated an infantry battalion, a field hospital and 2 helicopters.: Three Beninese were confirmed to have died, including police officers Kura Batipi and Okoro Afiss and Constable
S. Imorou Salifou.: Brazil had the largest contingent of UN personnel in Haiti, totaling more than 1,200. In addition to the death of deputy head of the UN mission in Haiti, Luiz Carlos da Costa, eighteen Brazilian military personnel were killed and 25 were injured. A number of the dead were officers, including Coronel Emílio Carlos Torres dos Santos, Coronel João Eliseu Souza Zanin, Lieutenant-Coronel Marcus Vinicius Macedo Cysneiros, Major Francisco Adolfo Vianna Martins Filho, Major Márcio Guimarães Martins, Lieutenant Bruno Ribeiro Mário, and Sub-Lieutenant Raniel Batista de Camargos. Enlisted deaths included Private Antônio José Anacleto, Corporal Arí Dirceu Fernandes Júnior, Sergent Davi Ramos de Lima, Corporal Douglas Pedrotti Neckel, Private Felipe Gonçalves Julio, Private Kleber da Silva Santos, Second Sargent Leonardo de Castro Carvalho, Private Rodrigo Augusto da Silva, Third Sargent Rodrigo de Souza Lima, Private Tiago Anaya Detimermani, Corporal Washington Luis de Souza Seraphin.:Two Royal Canadian Mounted Police
officers of the international training cadre have been confirmed dead, Supt. Doug Coates, the acting commissioner of MINUSTAH, and Sgt. Mark Gallagher are confirmed to have been killed. Canada has an 82-member peacekeeping police force in Haiti. All 42 members of the SPVM, 23 members of the SQ
and the five members of the Canadian Forces
deployed to Haiti with MINUSTAH have been accounted for, as safe. Guillaume Siemienski and Hélène Rivard of the Canadian International Development Agency
were also killed. Siemienski was working as a Political Affairs Officer for the UN. Other casualties include Renée Carrier, Alexandra Duguay, and Philippe Rouzier. Rouzier was a former professor at Université Laval
who was working with the UN as an economist.: One Chadian police officer was killed as a result of the quake.: The United Nations confirmed the death of Human Rights Officer Andrea Loi.: Eight Chinese police officers were killed when they were in the UN headquarters as the earthquake struck, which destroyed the building and trapped their bodies for days afterwards. A Chinese rescue team could only recover the bodies four days after the earthquake struck, due to the difficulties that the heavy debris was causing. Four of the eight were sent by the Ministry of Public Security
, while the other four were peacekeepers who were stationed with 138 other Chinese peacekeepers. The ministry officials who died were: Zhu Xiaoping, director of the ministry's equipment and finance department; Guo Baoshan, deputy director of the ministry's international cooperation department; Wang Shulin and Li Xiaoming, both researchers at the ministry. The four peacekeepers who died were: Zhao Huayu, Li Qin, Zhong Jianqin, and He Zhihong. It is believed that the eight officers were meeting with Hédi Annabi
, whose body was also discovered by the Chinese rescue team, at the time of the earthquake.: The United Nations confirmed the death of Audit Assistant Watanga Lwango: The United Nations confirmed the deaths of Chief Electoral Assistance Section Marc Plum and personal assistant to the principal deputy special representative of the Secretary General Simone Rita Trudo.: The United Nations confirmed the death of secretary Mirna Patricia Rodas Arreola Guatemala.: The United Nations confirmed the death of Haitian nationals Hebert Moisse (driver) and Mesonne Antoine (security guard) : The United Nations confirmed the death of IT Technician/International Contractor Satnam Singh, who had immigrated to Canada.: The Department of Foreign Affairs
confirmed on January 19, 2010 that the body of 44-year-old father of three Andrew Grene had been recovered from the wreckage of Haiti's destroyed UN building. Andrew Grene, who held dual citizenship in United States and Ireland, was the son of noted University of Chicago
professor of classics
David Grene
and his twin brother Gregory Grene
is a member of the music band The Prodigals.: The United Nations confirmed the death of Political Affairs Officer Guido Galli.: Three Jordanian police officers were killed and 21 soldiers and policemen were injured. Among the Jordanian casualties were majors Atta Issa Hussein and Ashraf Ali Jayoussi and corporal Raed Faraj Kal-Khawaldeh.: Nivah Odwori was a citizen of Kenya and a resident of the state of New Jersey
in the United States. She was one of seven Kenyan United Nations Volunteers
in Haiti offering humanitarian assistance to families in Port-au-Prince and working on a program to develop the country's electoral system.: María Antonieta Castillo Santamaría, aged 53, who had spent four years in Haiti working with the United Nations mission, was confirmed killed.: Security Officer Karimou Ide was killed.: Ms. Dede Yebovi Fadairo, an Associate Report Writing Officer with the UN Stabilisation Mission, died in the earthquake. She was among the 121 Nigerians serving with (MINUSTAH) at the time of the earthquake.: Luis Eduardo Chanllio Quispe, who worked in an office of the United Nations in Haiti, was killed when a wall collapsed while he was attempting to rescue others.: Pearly Panangui and Jerome Yap were confirmed dead in the collapse of the Hotel Christopher, and two others, Janice Arocena and Eustacio Bermudez, were still missing in the hotel. Also, Grace Fabian and Geraldine Calican remain trapped in the collapsed Caribbean Supermarket.: One Polish UN worker was confirmed to have been killed in the earthquake.: MINUSTAH head of mission Hédi Annabi
was killed in the collapse of UN HQ at the Christopher Hotel.: Two British, Ann Barnes, personal assistant to the UN Police Commissioner; and Frederick Wooldridge, a dual Australian-British national and senior political affairs and planning officer at the UN, were killed in the collapse of the UN headquarters.: Lisa Mbele-Mbong, who was born to an American mother and Cameroon
ian father and grew up in the United States and Europe, died at the U.N. headquarters when a large slab of concrete struck her head. The United Nations also confirmed the death of Board of Inquiry Officer Ericka Chambers Norman.: Lieutenant Colonel Gonzalo Martirené was in the United Nations headquarters at the time of the earthquake, his body was found on January 17.
holders of Haitian descent. The largest number of foreigners in Haiti was from neighboring countries, including an estimated 40,000-45,000 American citizens, 6,000 Canadians, and 1,200 French. An official of the Dominican Republic reported that there were 2,600 Dominicans living in Haiti as "legal residents." Foreign casualties included government workers, employees of international companies, religious missionaries, and aid workers. Jamaica
-based Digicel
announced that two of their 900 employees were killed in the quake.: 1 killed. Austrian citizen Waltraud Dominique, who was working in Haiti with the German Development Service, died when a wall fell on her.: 1 killed, 33 missing. On January 19, the Flemish newspaper De Standaard
reported that the body of Philippe Dewez, a Belgian citizen working as a consular for president Préval, was found in remains of the collapsed building of the United Nations. 33 other Belgians present in the region have yet to be located.: 1 killed. Pediatrician, relief worker and Nobel Peace Prize
nominee Zilda Arns
, from the organization Pastoral da Criança, was killed in the quake.: 58 killed. About 6,000 Canadians were in Haiti at the time of the earthquake. As of February 8, there were 27 confirmed deaths while 75 Canadians were still unaccounted for. 4,000 had been evacuated on returning aid flights. http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jUxmufCW3tEm4LtNI3OkFtu3oUqA Georges Anglade
, a Montreal
university professor for 30 years, and his wife, Mireille; Denis Bellavance, a professor from Drummondville, Quebec
, The Drummondville resident had been lecturing at Port-au-Prince University when he was buried in the rubble; Montreal native Guillaume Siemienski, an employee working with the Canadian International Development Agency
; Hélène Rivard, a CIDA consultant; Yvonne Martin of Elmira, Ontario
, a missionary with the Evangelical Missionary Church of Canada, died when her guesthouse in Port-au-Prince collapsed, 90 minutes after she arrived in Haiti; and Louise Martin and Roseline Plouffe, both from Quebec
, died in the coastal town of Grand-Goâve. Serge Marcil
, a former Member of Parliament and Member of the National Assembly of Quebec, Katherine Hadley, an environmental engineer from Ottawa
, and Anne Chabot, a civil servant from Montreal who worked for the Quebec government, died in the collapse of Hôtel Montana. Frederick Jean-Michel of Laval, Quebec
died while on holilday in Haiti with his wife. Denis Bellevance was a computer science teacher from Drummondville, Quebec
in Haiti to give a lecture at Port-au-Prince University. And Dominick Boisrond of Montreal died when the house she was staying in collapsed. Approximately 699 Canadians are still missing, as of 19 January, A number of other Canadians remain trapped under the rubble of the Hôtel Montana, including Alexandre Bitton, Claude Chamberland, Roger Gosselin, Anne Labelle, Richard Proteau, and Paquerette Tremblay. Trần Triệu Quân
, the current president of the International Taekwon-Do Federation, whose arrest in the 1990s in his native Vietnam
elicited a national campaign to gain his freedom, was confirmed dead on February 12.: 2 killed, 4 missing. María Teresa Dowling was visiting her husband, general Ricardo Toro, deputy chief of MINUSTAH's military component, when her hotel collapsed. Her body was found in the morning of January 22 and recognized by her husband, although it could not be recovered yet. A Human Rights attorney working for United Nations, Andrea Loi, was found dead under the collapsed building of MINUSTAH. The other four men are still missing.: 1 Killed. Sandra Liliana Rivera Gonzalez working for Delta Air Lines was killed and found under the four star Hotel Montana, her body was repatriated back to Colombia.: 24 killed, 10 missing The Associated Press reported on January 19 that 24 Dominicans had been killed and 24 injured in the earthquake. At least four Dominican engineers, José Rafael Medina and Guillermo Peña Capellán, Luis Bolivar and Manuel Lora who worked for the firm Muñoz Mera y Fondeur died after an office building collapsed. One Dominican citizen working for the Dominican embassy was also killed. Another ten Dominicans are reported as missing. They were working on the Port-au-Prince/Mirebalais highway.: 27 killed, 6 missing including Emmanuel Sanson-Rejouis and his two daughters, who were killed in the collapse of the Karibe Hotel.: 2 killed. 28-year old Christoph Mark Rouven Redeker Kopp died when the roof of the Hôtel Montana collapsed and the 26-year old Olivia-Elisa Bouillé died in her hotel room.: 1 killed. Gigliola Martino, a seventy year old resident of Port-au-Prince, died in the quake.: 1 killed. Kareen Valero Jacques, a language teacher who went to Port-au-Prince to visit her Haitian boyfriend, died in the earthquake. The Mexican government reported that more than 130 Mexican citizens were in the country at the time of the earthquake.: 4 killed, 18 missing. Four Dutch citizens who stayed in hotel Villa Thereza in Haïti to adopt a child, have been killed during the quake. The three adopted children were killed as well. One child with a Dutch residence permit died as well. 18 other Dutch citizens are still missing.: Geraldine Lalican was reported trapped underneath a collapsed supermarket.: 1 killed. A Russian professor of Physics and Mathematics, Nikolay Sukhomlin
, died in the quake. Sukhomlin was a faculty member at Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo
in the Dominican Republic.
2010 Haiti earthquake
The 2010 Haiti earthquake was a catastrophic magnitude 7.0 Mw earthquake, with an epicentre near the town of Léogâne, approximately west of Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital. The earthquake occurred at 16:53 local time on Tuesday, 12 January 2010.By 24 January, at least 52 aftershocks...
were Haitian civilians. A number of public figures died in the earthquake, including government officials, clergy members, musicians, together with foreign civilian and military personnel working with the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
. As of January 24, Communications Minister Marie-Laurence Jocelyn Lassegue said the death toll was over 150,000 in the Port-au-Prince
Port-au-Prince
Port-au-Prince is the capital and largest city of the Caribbean nation of Haiti. The city's population was 704,776 as of the 2003 census, and was officially estimated to have reached 897,859 in 2009....
metropolitan area alone. Haitian President
President of Haiti
The President of the Republic of Haiti is the head of state of Haiti. Executive power in Haiti is divided between the president and the government headed by the Prime Minister of Haiti...
René Préval
René Préval
René Garcia Préval is a Haitian politician and agronomist who was the President of the Republic of Haiti from 14 May 2006 to 14 May 2011. He previously served as President from February 7, 1996, to February 7, 2001, and as Prime Minister from February 1991 to October 11, 1991.-Early life and...
reported on 27 January that "nearly 170,000" bodies had been counted. On February 21, Preval raised that estimate to 300,000. In February Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive
Jean-Max Bellerive
Jean-Max Bellerive is a Haitian politician and outgoing Prime Minister of Haiti. He resigned on 14 May 2011.-Personal life:Bellerive was born in Port-au-Prince in 1958. As the son of a prominent doctor, he left Haiti at a very young age to study in Switzerland, France, and Belgium...
estimated that 300,000 had been injured. However, non-Haitian sources have place the toll at far less with the Red Cross estimating the death toll at between 45,000 and 50,000.
Speaking in Miami in June 2010 Bellerive also estimated the number of deaths had been 300,000. On the first anniversary of the quake, Bellerive raised the death toll to 316,000. He said that was, in part, because of the recovery of additional bodies.
Background
The earthquake occurred on 12 January 2010 approximately 25 kilometres (15.5 mi) WSW from the country's capital Port-au-PrincePort-au-Prince
Port-au-Prince is the capital and largest city of the Caribbean nation of Haiti. The city's population was 704,776 as of the 2003 census, and was officially estimated to have reached 897,859 in 2009....
at 16:53 UTC-5
UTC-5
UTC−05:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of −05.This offset is used in the Eastern Time Zone during standard time and in the Central Time Zone during Daylight Saving Time ....
on the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault system
Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault zone
The Enriquillo–Plantain Garden fault zone is a system of coaxial left lateral-moving strike slip faults which runs along the southern side of the island of Hispaniola, where the Dominican Republic and Haiti are located...
. The earthquake was measured a magnitude of 7.0 Mw
Moment magnitude scale
The moment magnitude scale is used by seismologists to measure the size of earthquakes in terms of the energy released. The magnitude is based on the seismic moment of the earthquake, which is equal to the rigidity of the Earth multiplied by the average amount of slip on the fault and the size of...
earthquake
Earthquake
An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. The seismicity, seismism or seismic activity of an area refers to the frequency, type and size of earthquakes experienced over a period of time...
and was followed by a series of aftershock
Aftershock
An aftershock is a smaller earthquake that occurs after a previous large earthquake, in the same area of the main shock. If an aftershock is larger than the main shock, the aftershock is redesignated as the main shock and the original main shock is redesignated as a foreshock...
s, fourteen of them between magnitudes 5.0 and 5.9. The main area affected by the quake was Port-au-Prince and the surrounding region, although it was also felt in several surrounding countries and regions including Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
, Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
, Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
, and the neighbouring country of Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...
. No casualties were reported outside of Haiti.
Much of Port-au-Prince's infrastructure was significantly damaged or destroyed in the earthquake, including the Presidential Palace
National Palace (Haiti)
The National Palace is located in Port-au-Prince—facing Place L'Ouverture near the Champs de Mars—and is the official residence of the Haitian president. It was almost completely destroyed in the 2010 Haiti earthquake...
, the National Assembly
National Assembly of Haïti
The Parliament of Haiti is the legislature of the Republic of Haiti. It sits at the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince. The Parliament is bicameral, the upper house being the Senate of Haiti and the lower house being the Chamber of Deputies of Haiti....
building, the Port-au-Prince Cathedral, hospitals, schools and the main prison
Prison
A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...
. All hospitals were destroyed or so badly damaged that they were abandoned. In addition, the facilities of foreign governments and non-government organizations were badly damaged in the quake, including the headquarters
Christopher Hotel
The Christopher Hotel was a hotel in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, destroyed in the 2010 Haiti earthquake on 12 January 2010....
of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti
United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti
The United Nations Stabilisation Mission In Haiti , also known as MINUSTAH, an acronym of the French translation, is a United Nations peacekeeping mission in Haiti that has been in operation since 2004. The mission's military component is led by the Brazilian Army and the force commander is...
(MINUSTAH), which was destroyed.
Calculating casualties
Calculating the exact number of casualties in the earthquake is an "impossible" task due to the mass number of victims and a lack of a centralized system for tabulating casualties. In the weeks following the earthquake there number of estimate figures, ranging from the low tens of thousands to the hundreds of thousands. The Red Cross stated that 40,000-50,000 may have died, while Haitian Interior MinisterInterior minister
An interior ministry is a government ministry typically responsible for policing, national security, and immigration matters. The ministry is often headed by a minister of the interior or minister of home affairs...
Paul Antoine Bien-Aimé
Paul Antoine Bien-Aimé
Paul Antoine Bien-Aimé is the current Minister of the Interior and Territorial Collectivity of Haiti. He was appointed to the Cabinet by Jacques-Édouard Alexis on June 6, 2006; the appointment was approved by the Senate on the 7th and Bien-Aimé was sworn in on the 9th.Bien-Aimé has retained his...
estimated that the dead were between 100,000-200,000. On 12 January Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive
Jean-Max Bellerive
Jean-Max Bellerive is a Haitian politician and outgoing Prime Minister of Haiti. He resigned on 14 May 2011.-Personal life:Bellerive was born in Port-au-Prince in 1958. As the son of a prominent doctor, he left Haiti at a very young age to study in Switzerland, France, and Belgium...
stated that the death toll could be "well over 100,000." Later Red Cross officials issued a death toll estimate of 50,000 killed, while Haitian Interior Minister
Interior minister
An interior ministry is a government ministry typically responsible for policing, national security, and immigration matters. The ministry is often headed by a minister of the interior or minister of home affairs...
Paul Antoine Bien-Aimé
Paul Antoine Bien-Aimé
Paul Antoine Bien-Aimé is the current Minister of the Interior and Territorial Collectivity of Haiti. He was appointed to the Cabinet by Jacques-Édouard Alexis on June 6, 2006; the appointment was approved by the Senate on the 7th and Bien-Aimé was sworn in on the 9th.Bien-Aimé has retained his...
stated that "around 50,000 dead bodies" and "there will be between 100,000 and 200,000 dead in total, although we will never know the exact number." Prime Minister Bellerive then announced that over 70,000 bodies have been buried in mass grave
Mass grave
A mass grave is a grave containing multiple number of human corpses, which may or may not be identified prior to burial. There is no strict definition of the minimum number of bodies required to constitute a mass grave, although the United Nations defines a mass grave as a burial site which...
s. Several days after the quake Haitian authorities estimated the number of injured at 250,000. According to Belgian
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
disaster emergency medicine expert Claude de Ville de Goyet "round numbers are a sure sign that nobody knows."Haitian President
President of Haiti
The President of the Republic of Haiti is the head of state of Haiti. Executive power in Haiti is divided between the president and the government headed by the Prime Minister of Haiti...
René Préval
René Préval
René Garcia Préval is a Haitian politician and agronomist who was the President of the Republic of Haiti from 14 May 2006 to 14 May 2011. He previously served as President from February 7, 1996, to February 7, 2001, and as Prime Minister from February 1991 to October 11, 1991.-Early life and...
reported on 27 January that "nearly 170,000" bodies had been counted.
On 10 February the Haitian government reported the death toll to have reached 230,000. However, an investigation by Radio Netherlands has questioned the official death toll, reporting an estimate of 92,000 deaths as being a more realistic figure. Other officials did not even attempt to provide a casualty estimate. Edmond Mulet
Edmond Mulet
Edmond Mulet is a Guatemalan diplomat. He is currently the Special Representative of the Secretary-General and head of mission of MINUSTAH, having assumed the functions of acting head of mission in the immediate aftermath of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, in which the previous head of mission, Hédi...
, who was appointed head of the United Nations after the quake, stated that "I don’t think we will ever know what the death toll is from this earthquake." And the director of the Haitian Red Cross, Guiteau Jean-Pierre, noted that his organization didn't "have time to count" bodies, as they were too busy trying to treat survivors.
The complications of coming up with an accurate casualty count were revealed in an interview by New York Times reporters with the employees at the mortuary in the largest hospital in Port-au-Prince. In the interview, Alix Lassegue, the head physician at the morgue, provided a rough estimate of the number of bodies that had been passed through the mortuary by tabulating the square yardage of the area where bodies had been placed and the space that each body occupied times the number of times bodies were removed from the grounds. Lassegue's estimate was an even 10,000. Other employees estimated the number of bodies that had passed through the morgue as 75,000, 50,000 and 25,000. Compounding the problem of calculating casualties was that people were burying the dead in informal graves and many bodies had been thrown into dumps outside the city. In addition, thousands of people were leaving areas affected by the earthquake
Earthquake
An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. The seismicity, seismism or seismic activity of an area refers to the frequency, type and size of earthquakes experienced over a period of time...
, without any centralized method of tabulating who had left.
There were reports of more precise numbers of casualties for certain areas of the country. On 18 January ACTED
ACTED
ACTED is a non-governmental organization. It was founded in 1993 as a private, non-political non-profit, headquartered in Paris. ACTED stands for Agence d'Aide à la Coopération Technique et au Développement or Technical Cooperation and Development Aid Agency.-Goals:ACTED is a humanitarian...
reported that 145 had died and 380 were wounded in Jacmel, the country's fourth largest city located in the south of Haiti.
An alternative method that may be used to tabulate casualties is by using the satellite imagery of Port-au-Prince located on Google Maps
Google Maps
Google Maps is a web mapping service application and technology provided by Google, free , that powers many map-based services, including the Google Maps website, Google Ride Finder, Google Transit, and maps embedded on third-party websites via the Google Maps API...
so that destroyed buildings can be catalogued and an estimate of casualties can be calculated using data on the inhabitants. But this method is complicated by the fact that such data may be inaccurate and infectious disease
Infectious disease
Infectious diseases, also known as communicable diseases, contagious diseases or transmissible diseases comprise clinically evident illness resulting from the infection, presence and growth of pathogenic biological agents in an individual host organism...
s, such as dysentery
Dysentery
Dysentery is an inflammatory disorder of the intestine, especially of the colon, that results in severe diarrhea containing mucus and/or blood in the faeces with fever and abdominal pain. If left untreated, dysentery can be fatal.There are differences between dysentery and normal bloody diarrhoea...
, malaria
Malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...
and dengue fever
Dengue fever
Dengue fever , also known as breakbone fever, is an infectious tropical disease caused by the dengue virus. Symptoms include fever, headache, muscle and joint pains, and a characteristic skin rash that is similar to measles...
, could take their toll on survivors.
A statistical
Statistics
Statistics is the study of the collection, organization, analysis, and interpretation of data. It deals with all aspects of this, including the planning of data collection in terms of the design of surveys and experiments....
study by a specialist group at the Children's Hospital Los Angeles
Children's Hospital Los Angeles
Children's Hospital Los Angeles, formerly Childrens Hospital Society, is a private, non-profit teaching hospital in Los Angeles. The hospital provides multidisciplinary care to over 93,000 children each year, with physician expertise in over 100 pediatric specialties and subspecialties.The hospital...
and the University of Southern California
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
estimated that the number of children injured was 110,000, or roughly half the total number of injuries.
Some local communal leaders were attempting to count the number of dead in their community. The New York Times reported that in the Edmond Paul region in southern Port-au-Prince, lawyer and community leader Isaac Jean Widner was organizing a list of the dead. Widner estimated that of the 3,000 people that had lived in his neighborhood before the quake, 1,000 had died, but he added that "between the exodus and those still trapped it was impossible to confirm."
Response and treatment of casualties
The earthquake struck in the most populated area of the country and the International Red Cross estimated that as many as 3 million people have been affected by the quake, including injuries and deaths. One factor that contributed to the number casualties in the aftermath of the earthquake was a lack of medical supplies, damage to hospitals, and a shortage of medical and rescue personnel. In addition, Haitian and foreign medical staff, police, and military personnel themselves became victims of the earthquake. An example of this was Port-au-Prince's Grace Children's Hospital, where it was reported on January 19 that of 120 employees, only six had been accounted for and some had been confirmed killed.Soon after the quake struck appeals for international aid were issued by Haitian government officials, including Raymond Joseph
Raymond Joseph
Raymond Alcide Joseph is a Haitian diplomat, political activist and journalist. He was the Haitian ambassador to the United States from 2005 to 2010, when he resigned to present himself as a candidate in the 2010 Presidential Election in Haiti...
, Haiti's ambassador
Ambassador
An ambassador is the highest ranking diplomat who represents a nation and is usually accredited to a foreign sovereign or government, or to an international organization....
to the United States. Neighboring Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...
was one of the first countries to give aid to Haiti. And the non-governmental organization
Non-governmental organization
A non-governmental organization is a legally constituted organization created by natural or legal persons that operates independently from any government. The term originated from the United Nations , and is normally used to refer to organizations that do not form part of the government and are...
Giving Children Hope
Giving Children Hope
Giving Children Hope , founded in 1993 by John Ditty and his wife, is a faith-based non-profit organization that works to alleviate poverty, both domestically and internationally, through disaster relief, health and community development, vocational training and advocacy...
distributed much-needed medicines and supplies. International organization also began large-scale fund raising campaigns for aid to Haiti, including campaigns by the International Red Cross and relief charities in Britain.
On 25 January Handicap International
Handicap International
Handicap International is a non-governmental organization created in 1982 to provide help in refugee camps in Cambodia and Thailand. Based in Belgium and France, it has since opened branches in six other countries : Switzerland, Luxembourg, United Kingdom, Germany, Canada and the United States...
published a statement that an estimated 1,000 amputations had taken place due to injuries. In response to the quake the organization dispatched 30 rehabilitation and health staff to Haiti and announced that they would eventually increase staff numbers to 100 and provide hundreds of prostheses.
In addition, the government of the United States issued orders for deployment to the U.S. Army's 1st Battalion, 73rd Infantry from Fort Bragg
Fort Bragg (North Carolina)
Fort Bragg is a major United States Army installation, in Cumberland and Hoke counties, North Carolina, U.S., mostly in Fayetteville but also partly in the town of Spring Lake. It was also a census-designated place in the 2010 census and had a population of 39,457. The fort is named for Confederate...
, North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
, which is scheduled to deploy along with the aircraft carrier . The U.S. Navy also announced on 13 January 2010 that the hospital ship Comfort
USNS Comfort (T-AH-20)
USNS Comfort is the third United States Navy ship to bear the name Comfort, and the second to join the navy fleet. The USNS prefix identifies the Comfort as a non-commissioned ship owned by the U.S. Navy and crewed by civilians. In accordance with the Geneva Conventions, USNS Comfort and her...
and amphibious helicopter carrier will be deployed to assist in the humanitarian relief efforts. The American government also announced that it would provide $100 million dollars for the aid effort in Haiti. Partners in Health, the largest health care provider in rural Haiti, also provided aid to from Port-au-Prince. Despite the domestic and international relief efforts, many Haitians in the initial days after the earthquake did not have access to health care.
Those injured in the quake, including both Haitians and foreign, have been treated in hospitals abroad. Many patients were transferred to hospitals in neighboring Dominican Republic, including to hospitals in the capital Santo Domingo
Santo Domingo
Santo Domingo, known officially as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city in the Dominican Republic. Its metropolitan population was 2,084,852 in 2003, and estimated at 3,294,385 in 2010. The city is located on the Caribbean Sea, at the mouth of the Ozama River...
and in the border towns of Neiba and Jimaní
Jimaní
Jimaní is the capital and the second largest city of the Independencia Province of the Dominican Republic. It serves as one of the two main thoroughfares to Haiti , with a duty free open air marketplace operating on the border with the Haitian town of Malpasse...
. The total number of casualties treated in the Dominican Republic reached into the hundreds and on 20 January the Dominican Republican government announced that 600 patients would be repatriated to Haiti. Some casualties were brought to the United States, including nearly 500 patients who were transported to Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
and treated in hospitals across the state, including University of Miami
University of Miami
The University of Miami is a private, non-sectarian university founded in 1925 with its main campus in Coral Gables, Florida, a medical campus in Miami city proper at Civic Center, and an oceanographic research facility on Virginia Key., the university currently enrolls 15,629 students in 12...
's Jackson Memorial Hospital
Jackson Memorial Hospital
Jackson Memorial Hospital is a non-profit, tertiary care teaching hospital and the major teaching hospital of the University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine in Miami, Florida...
.
Burial of the dead was one of the most serious concerns in the aftermath of the earthquake as the main cemetery in Port-au-Prince announced that its plots were full and it was not accepting any more bodies. The Haitian law that bodies must be prepared by a funeral parlor before burial
Burial
Burial is the act of placing a person or object into the ground. This is accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing an object in it, and covering it over.-History:...
was suspended within the first day of the earthquake. The government then turned to burying the dead in mass graves, including a number of plots in the fields around Titanyen
Titanyen
Titanyen is a settlement in Haiti, north of the capital, Port-au-Prince and some eight kilometres from Cabaret. It has been described as sparsely populated. Fields outside the settlement were chosen as the site of mass graves dug for victims of the 2010 Haiti earthquake.-Reference:*...
, located north of the capital. Members of the International Committee of the Red Cross encouraged Haitian authorities to take measures so that the bodies could later be identified, including filling out standard forms on bodies; photographing clothing, jewelry, and special marks on the body; and noting where the body was found and where it was buried.
Religious leader, including both Roman Catholic and Vodou priests, also objected to the mass burials. Max Beauvoir
Max Beauvoir
Max Gesner Beauvoir is a Haitian biochemist and houngan.-Career:Beauvoir graduated in 1958 from City College of New York with a degree in chemistry. He continued his studies at the Sorbonne from 1959 to 1962, when he graduated with a degree in biochemistry. In 1965, at Cornell Medical Center, he...
, the head of Haiti's main Voodoo priests' organization called the mass burials "degrading", "indecent" and "inhuman", due to the fact that in Voodoo the regular maintenance of the tomb and visitation of gravesites by descendants is highly important. There were also confirmed reports of uncollected bodies being burned in the streets.
Individuals
The vast majority of those injured and killed in the earthquake were Haitian. Haitian casualties came from all sectors of society, from common citizens to prominent leaders and entertainers. Victims include public figures such as Port-au-Prince ArchbishopRoman Catholic Archdiocese of Port-au-Prince
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Port-au-Prince is a metropolitan diocese, responsible for the suffragan Dioceses of Jacmel, Jérémie, Anse-à-Veau and Miragoâne and Les Cayes....
Joseph Serge Miot
Joseph Serge Miot
Joseph Serge Miot was a Haitian archbishop of the Roman Catholic Church. He was the ninth Archbishop of Port-au-Prince, serving from 2008 until his death as a result of the January 12, 2010 earthquake.-Biography:...
and the vicar general
Vicar general
A vicar general is the principal deputy of the bishop of a diocese for the exercise of administrative authority. As vicar of the bishop, the vicar general exercises the bishop's ordinary executive power over the entire diocese and, thus, is the highest official in a diocese or other particular...
, Msgr. Charles Benoit, who were killed in the destruction of the Port-au-Prince Cathedral. A number of individuals with connections to the government were killed: Hubert Deronceray, a former Minister of Education and Minister of Social Services and a three-time candidate for President, and opposition leader Micha Gaillard
Micha Gaillard
Michel "Micha" Gaillard was a Haitian politician and university professor. He was a major voice of opposition against the 2004 rebellion which ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. In 2005, he helped found the Fusion of Haitian Social Democrats political party...
. An early report also listed Justice Minister Paul Denis as one of the victims but Denis was in fact able to escape the ministry's collapsing building in time.
Among the academics killed were topographer
Topography
Topography is the study of Earth's surface shape and features or those ofplanets, moons, and asteroids...
Gina Porcena and creolist Pierre Vernet. Prominent Women's movement activists were killed, including Magalie Marcelin, who founded the organization Kay Fanm to help shelter victims of rape and violence; Myriam Merlet
Myriam Merlet
Myriam Merlet was a political activist who served as Chief of Staff of the Haitian Ministry of Women’s Affairs. One of the particular focuses of her work was on rape culture. She worked to raise the profile of women in Haiti and abroad, founding the organisation Enfofamn and campaigning for...
, who was currently working for Haiti's Ministry for Gender and the Rights of Women; sociologist
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
Anne-Marie Coriolan, who founded the organization Solidarite Fanm Ayisyen (Solidarity with Haitian Women); and Myrna Narcisse, Director General of the Ministry of Women's Condition. The Haitian music industry
Music of Haiti
The music of Haiti is influenced mostly by Europe, colonial ties, and African migration through slavery. European musical influence derived primarily from the French and by the Spanish-infused influence of Cuba and the bordering Dominican Republic. Styles unique to Haiti include music derived from...
experienced extensive losses in the quake. The dead included Joubert Charles, the most prominent promoter of music in Port-au-Prince; King Kino, lead singer of the group Phantom; rapper Jimmy O
Jimmy O
Jean Jimmy Alexandre , better known by his stage name Jimmy O, was a Haitian hip hop artist who was born in Port-au-Prince and lived in New York City. He was involved with Wyclef Jean's Yéle Haiti Foundation...
. and rapper Evenson "Shacan Lord" Francis of the group Gasoline Clan. The music groups Djakout Mizik
Djakout Mizik
Djakout Mizik is a Haitian compas band based in Carrefour, Haiti, Djakout Mizik is notable for their slow jazzy style and have produced songs such as Septieme Ciel, Naje Pou Souti, and Biznis Pam....
, Kreyol La, Nu Look, Krezy Mizik, Mika Ben, Mizik Mizik, and Carimi all reported missing members.
A Haitian press association also reported that more than a dozen journalists
Journalism
Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...
had been killed. Among these were Wanel Fils, a reporter with Radio Galaxie; Henry Claude Pierre, a Jacmel-based correspondent for Radio Magic 9; and Belot Senatus, a cameraman for Radio Tele Guinen. Jean Robert François, a reporter with Radio Magic 9, was seriously wounded.
The Caribbean Football Union
Caribbean Football Union
The Caribbean Football Union, often referred to by the acronym CFU, is the nominal governing body for Caribbean football. It represents 25 FIFA member nations, as well as 5 territories that are not affiliated to FIFA. Its member associations compete in the CONCACAF region...
reported that at least 30 people with ties to Fédération Haïtienne de Football
Fédération Haïtienne de Football
The Fédération Haïtienne de Football is the governing body of football in Haiti, and is in charge of the Haitian national team.FHF is a member of CONCACAF since 1961 and is in charge of football in Haiti and all lower categories...
were killed, including players, coaches, referees, and administrative and medical representatives. Among those killed were Alix Avin, head coach of the senior men's team; Gerard Cineus former senior team coach; Antoine Craan
Antoine Craan
M. Antoine Craan was a Haitian-Canadian soccer player and one of the first black professional soccer players in Quebec province.-Life:Antoine Craan was born in Port-au-Prince and in 1955 moved to Montreal to play soccer for Le Tricolore de Montréal. Craan was one of the first two black players to...
, one of the first black professional soccer players in Canada and a longtime Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
soccer official. and Jean Yves Labaze, who coach Haiti to the FIFA U-17 World Cup
FIFA U-17 World Cup
The FIFA U-17 World Cup, founded as the FIFA U-16 World Championship, later changed to the FIFA U-17 World Championship and known by its current name since 2007, is the world championship of association football for male players under the age of 17 organized by Fédération Internationale de Football...
in 2007 and coached the national women's team. Some 20 others with ties to Haitian football were feared buried in the ruins. The families of numerous famous Haitians were casualties in the quake, including the family of WBC
World Boxing Council
The World Boxing Council was initially established by 11 countries: the United States, Argentina, United Kingdom, France, Mexico, Philippines, Panama, Chile, Peru, Venezuela and Brazil plus Puerto Rico, met in Mexico City on February 14, 1963, upon invitation of the then President of Mexico, Adolfo...
welterweight champion Andre Berto
Andre Berto
Andre Michael Berto is a Haitian-American professional boxer. On June 21, 2008, Berto became the WBC welterweight champion by defeating Miguel Rodriguez by seventh round technical knockout. He lost his WBC welterweight title on April 16, 2011 to Victor Ortiz via unanimous decision...
, who withdrew from a January 30 boxing
Boxing
Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...
match after learning of the death of relatives.
Various Roman Catholic orders reported the deaths and injury of dozens of clergy members and the destruction and damage of churches, religious schools and offices. Among the more seriously affected was the Salesian order, which stated that as many as 500 students and staff were killed in the collapse of the buildings and schools operated by the order in Haiti. Those killed included Brother Hubert Sanon, the first Haitian Salesian, and 250 schoolchildren and some 200 young women studying in the schools. Protestant groups also reported casualties, the US-based Southern Baptist International Mission Board, which announced the death of Bienne Lamerique, pastor of the Siloam Baptist Church in Port-au-Prince.
Foreign-based companies doing business in Haiti also suffered casualties. Trilogy International Partners
Trilogy International Partners
Trilogy International Partners, LLC is an american privately held wireless telecommunications company based out of Bellevue, Washington. Trilogy's international subsidiaries are NuevaTel Bolivia, Comcel Haiti, 2degrees and Viva República Dominicana...
, which provides mobile phone
Mobile phone
A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
service in Haiti through its subsidiary Comcel Haiti
Comcel Haiti
Communication Cellulaire d'Haiti, S.A. or ', now known as Voilà, is a telephone company in Haiti which primarily deals in mobile phone service. It is a subsidiary of US-based Trilogy International Partners.-History:...
and is one of the largest foreign investors in the country, announced that 5 of its 575 employees had died and 35 remained missing. U.S.-based Citigroup Inc. announced that the bank's headquarters in Haiti had been destroyed, killing and injuring some employees. And Oxfam
Oxfam
Oxfam is an international confederation of 15 organizations working in 98 countries worldwide to find lasting solutions to poverty and related injustice around the world. In all Oxfam’s actions, the ultimate goal is to enable people to exercise their rights and manage their own lives...
reported that a business manager named Amedee Marescot was injured in the collapse of the Oxfam office and later died in hospital.
Universities and religious institutions also reported the losses. The University of Virginia stated that graduate student
Graduate school
A graduate school is a school that awards advanced academic degrees with the general requirement that students must have earned a previous undergraduate degree...
Pierrette Stephanie Jean-Charles was killed while at home with her family. The First Church of Christ in Longmeadow, Massachusetts
Longmeadow, Massachusetts
As of the census of 2000, there were 15,633 people, 5,734 households, and 4,432 families residing in the town. The population density was . There were 5,879 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the town was 95.42% White, 0.69% African American, 0.05% Native American, 2.90%...
reported that at least thirty nursing students were killed in the destruction of the CONASPEH School, which the church had been assisting.
The fates of some civilian Haitians received the attention of international media. Both the Washington Post and U.S.-based National Public Radio reported on the story of a nine-year-old girl named Haryssa, who died beneath the remains of her home before rescuers could reach her. As had CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
with the story of Anaika St. Louis, who was pulled from the rubble of her home in an hours long rescue effort, but died after her family was told at a hospital that they could not care for her. But many Haitian casualties went completely unrecorded. Agence France-Presse reported that in the initial days of the earthquake corpses remained unburied in the streets across the capital and the majority of bodies at the city morgue
Morgue
A morgue or mortuary is used for the storage of human corpses awaiting identification, or removal for autopsy or disposal by burial, cremation or otherwise...
remained unidentified and unclaimed. At least two mass grave
Mass grave
A mass grave is a grave containing multiple number of human corpses, which may or may not be identified prior to burial. There is no strict definition of the minimum number of bodies required to constitute a mass grave, although the United Nations defines a mass grave as a burial site which...
s had been dug in Port-au-Prince for interment of the dead. Other bodies were often buried by family members in informal graves. The lack of a centralized system for tabulating casualties means that the exact number of dead and injured is unknown.
The looting
Looting
Looting —also referred to as sacking, plundering, despoiling, despoliation, and pillaging—is the indiscriminate taking of goods by force as part of a military or political victory, or during a catastrophe, such as during war, natural disaster, or rioting...
and violence that occurred in the wake of the quake also led to casualties, including fifteen-year old Fabienne Cherisma, who was killed on Marthely Seiee Street in Port-au-Prince when police fired shots to disperse looters. Others identified as looters or thieves were killed by vigilantes.
United Nations casualties
The UN headquarters hosting the stabilization mission for Haiti (MINUSTAH), at the Christopher HotelChristopher Hotel
The Christopher Hotel was a hotel in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, destroyed in the 2010 Haiti earthquake on 12 January 2010....
in Port-au-Prince, suffered a devastating collapse, concentrating early UN rescue efforts on their own personnel. Most of MINUSTAH's 9,000 troops and police were located elsewhere. Many U.N. personnel trapped in the building died, including mission head Hédi Annabi
Hédi Annabi
Hédi Annabi was a Tunisian diplomat and Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General, Head of the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti...
and deputy head of the UN mission in Haiti, Luiz Carlos da Costa
Luiz Carlos da Costa
Luiz Carlos da Costa was an international civil servant working for the United Nations. Originally from Brazil, Costa joined the United Nations in 1969 and stayed with the organization for the remainder of his life...
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
Ban Ki-moon
Ban Ki-moon is the eighth and current Secretary-General of the United Nations, after succeeding Kofi Annan in 2007. Before going on to be Secretary-General, Ban was a career diplomat in South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in the United Nations. He entered diplomatic service the year he...
has confirmed that 83 UN staff members had died and 32 remained missing.: Gustavo Ariel Gómez, 33, a gendarme from Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
, was fatally wounded in the earthquake. Days after the quake he died in a hospital in Jimaní in the Dominican Republic. Gómez was one of the 600-member Argentine peacekeeping force, which operated an infantry battalion, a field hospital and 2 helicopters.: Three Beninese were confirmed to have died, including police officers Kura Batipi and Okoro Afiss and Constable
Constable
A constable is a person holding a particular office, most commonly in law enforcement. The office of constable can vary significantly in different jurisdictions.-Etymology:...
S. Imorou Salifou.: Brazil had the largest contingent of UN personnel in Haiti, totaling more than 1,200. In addition to the death of deputy head of the UN mission in Haiti, Luiz Carlos da Costa, eighteen Brazilian military personnel were killed and 25 were injured. A number of the dead were officers, including Coronel Emílio Carlos Torres dos Santos, Coronel João Eliseu Souza Zanin, Lieutenant-Coronel Marcus Vinicius Macedo Cysneiros, Major Francisco Adolfo Vianna Martins Filho, Major Márcio Guimarães Martins, Lieutenant Bruno Ribeiro Mário, and Sub-Lieutenant Raniel Batista de Camargos. Enlisted deaths included Private Antônio José Anacleto, Corporal Arí Dirceu Fernandes Júnior, Sergent Davi Ramos de Lima, Corporal Douglas Pedrotti Neckel, Private Felipe Gonçalves Julio, Private Kleber da Silva Santos, Second Sargent Leonardo de Castro Carvalho, Private Rodrigo Augusto da Silva, Third Sargent Rodrigo de Souza Lima, Private Tiago Anaya Detimermani, Corporal Washington Luis de Souza Seraphin.:Two Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Royal Canadian Mounted Police
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police , literally ‘Royal Gendarmerie of Canada’; colloquially known as The Mounties, and internally as ‘The Force’) is the national police force of Canada, and one of the most recognized of its kind in the world. It is unique in the world as a national, federal,...
officers of the international training cadre have been confirmed dead, Supt. Doug Coates, the acting commissioner of MINUSTAH, and Sgt. Mark Gallagher are confirmed to have been killed. Canada has an 82-member peacekeeping police force in Haiti. All 42 members of the SPVM, 23 members of the SQ
Sûreté du Québec
Sûreté du Québec or SQ is the provincial police force for the Canadian province of Québec...
and the five members of the Canadian Forces
Canadian Forces
The Canadian Forces , officially the Canadian Armed Forces , are the unified armed forces of Canada, as constituted by the National Defence Act, which states: "The Canadian Forces are the armed forces of Her Majesty raised by Canada and consist of one Service called the Canadian Armed Forces."...
deployed to Haiti with MINUSTAH have been accounted for, as safe. Guillaume Siemienski and Hélène Rivard of the Canadian International Development Agency
Canadian International Development Agency
The Canadian International Development Agency was formed in 1968 by the Canadian government. CIDA administers foreign aid programs in developing countries, and operates in partnership with other Canadian organizations in the public and private sectors as well as other international organizations...
were also killed. Siemienski was working as a Political Affairs Officer for the UN. Other casualties include Renée Carrier, Alexandra Duguay, and Philippe Rouzier. Rouzier was a former professor at Université Laval
Université Laval
Laval University is the oldest centre of education in Canada and was the first institution in North America to offer higher education in French...
who was working with the UN as an economist.: One Chadian police officer was killed as a result of the quake.: The United Nations confirmed the death of Human Rights Officer Andrea Loi.: Eight Chinese police officers were killed when they were in the UN headquarters as the earthquake struck, which destroyed the building and trapped their bodies for days afterwards. A Chinese rescue team could only recover the bodies four days after the earthquake struck, due to the difficulties that the heavy debris was causing. Four of the eight were sent by the Ministry of Public Security
Ministry of Public Security of the People's Republic of China
The Ministry of Public Security , is the principal police and security authority of the mainland of the People's Republic of China and the government agency that exercises oversight over and is ultimately responsible for day-to-day law enforcement...
, while the other four were peacekeepers who were stationed with 138 other Chinese peacekeepers. The ministry officials who died were: Zhu Xiaoping, director of the ministry's equipment and finance department; Guo Baoshan, deputy director of the ministry's international cooperation department; Wang Shulin and Li Xiaoming, both researchers at the ministry. The four peacekeepers who died were: Zhao Huayu, Li Qin, Zhong Jianqin, and He Zhihong. It is believed that the eight officers were meeting with Hédi Annabi
Hédi Annabi
Hédi Annabi was a Tunisian diplomat and Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General, Head of the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti...
, whose body was also discovered by the Chinese rescue team, at the time of the earthquake.: The United Nations confirmed the death of Audit Assistant Watanga Lwango: The United Nations confirmed the deaths of Chief Electoral Assistance Section Marc Plum and personal assistant to the principal deputy special representative of the Secretary General Simone Rita Trudo.: The United Nations confirmed the death of secretary Mirna Patricia Rodas Arreola Guatemala.: The United Nations confirmed the death of Haitian nationals Hebert Moisse (driver) and Mesonne Antoine (security guard) : The United Nations confirmed the death of IT Technician/International Contractor Satnam Singh, who had immigrated to Canada.: The Department of Foreign Affairs
Department of Foreign Affairs (Ireland)
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is a department of the Government of Ireland that is responsible for promoting the interests of Ireland in the European Union and the wider world...
confirmed on January 19, 2010 that the body of 44-year-old father of three Andrew Grene had been recovered from the wreckage of Haiti's destroyed UN building. Andrew Grene, who held dual citizenship in United States and Ireland, was the son of noted University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
professor of classics
Classics
Classics is the branch of the Humanities comprising the languages, literature, philosophy, history, art, archaeology and other culture of the ancient Mediterranean world ; especially Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome during Classical Antiquity Classics (sometimes encompassing Classical Studies or...
David Grene
David Grene
David Grene was a professor of classics at the University of Chicago from 1937 until his death. He was a co-founder of the Committee on Social Thought and is best known for his translations of ancient Greek literature.-Life:...
and his twin brother Gregory Grene
Gregory Grene
Gregory Grene is a musician and teacher based in New York City, who grew up between Chicago and County Cavan, Ireland. He is the son of classicist David Grene....
is a member of the music band The Prodigals.: The United Nations confirmed the death of Political Affairs Officer Guido Galli.: Three Jordanian police officers were killed and 21 soldiers and policemen were injured. Among the Jordanian casualties were majors Atta Issa Hussein and Ashraf Ali Jayoussi and corporal Raed Faraj Kal-Khawaldeh.: Nivah Odwori was a citizen of Kenya and a resident of the state of New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
in the United States. She was one of seven Kenyan United Nations Volunteers
United Nations Volunteers
The United Nations Volunteers program is a United Nations organization that advocates the role and benefits of volunteerism for development, integrates volunteers into development programmes, and mobilises volunteers for development projects. It was created to be a development partner for UN...
in Haiti offering humanitarian assistance to families in Port-au-Prince and working on a program to develop the country's electoral system.: María Antonieta Castillo Santamaría, aged 53, who had spent four years in Haiti working with the United Nations mission, was confirmed killed.: Security Officer Karimou Ide was killed.: Ms. Dede Yebovi Fadairo, an Associate Report Writing Officer with the UN Stabilisation Mission, died in the earthquake. She was among the 121 Nigerians serving with (MINUSTAH) at the time of the earthquake.: Luis Eduardo Chanllio Quispe, who worked in an office of the United Nations in Haiti, was killed when a wall collapsed while he was attempting to rescue others.: Pearly Panangui and Jerome Yap were confirmed dead in the collapse of the Hotel Christopher, and two others, Janice Arocena and Eustacio Bermudez, were still missing in the hotel. Also, Grace Fabian and Geraldine Calican remain trapped in the collapsed Caribbean Supermarket.: One Polish UN worker was confirmed to have been killed in the earthquake.: MINUSTAH head of mission Hédi Annabi
Hédi Annabi
Hédi Annabi was a Tunisian diplomat and Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General, Head of the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti...
was killed in the collapse of UN HQ at the Christopher Hotel.: Two British, Ann Barnes, personal assistant to the UN Police Commissioner; and Frederick Wooldridge, a dual Australian-British national and senior political affairs and planning officer at the UN, were killed in the collapse of the UN headquarters.: Lisa Mbele-Mbong, who was born to an American mother and Cameroon
Cameroon
Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon , is a country in west Central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Cameroon's coastline lies on the...
ian father and grew up in the United States and Europe, died at the U.N. headquarters when a large slab of concrete struck her head. The United Nations also confirmed the death of Board of Inquiry Officer Ericka Chambers Norman.: Lieutenant Colonel Gonzalo Martirené was in the United Nations headquarters at the time of the earthquake, his body was found on January 17.
Foreign casualties
At the time of the earthquake there were a large number of foreigners in Haiti, including non-governmental workers, businessmen, Christian missionaries, and foreign passportPassport
A passport is a document, issued by a national government, which certifies, for the purpose of international travel, the identity and nationality of its holder. The elements of identity are name, date of birth, sex, and place of birth....
holders of Haitian descent. The largest number of foreigners in Haiti was from neighboring countries, including an estimated 40,000-45,000 American citizens, 6,000 Canadians, and 1,200 French. An official of the Dominican Republic reported that there were 2,600 Dominicans living in Haiti as "legal residents." Foreign casualties included government workers, employees of international companies, religious missionaries, and aid workers. Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
-based Digicel
Digicel
Digicel is a mobile phone network provider covering parts of Oceania, Central America, and the Caribbean regions. The company is owned by Irishman Denis O'Brien, is incorporated in Bermuda, and based in Jamaica. It provides mobile services in 26 countries and territories throughout the Caribbean...
announced that two of their 900 employees were killed in the quake.: 1 killed. Austrian citizen Waltraud Dominique, who was working in Haiti with the German Development Service, died when a wall fell on her.: 1 killed, 33 missing. On January 19, the Flemish newspaper De Standaard
De Standaard
De Standaard is a Flemish daily newspaper published in Belgium by Corelio . Circulation was about 102.280 in 2007. It was traditionally a Christian-Democratic paper, associated with the Christian-Democratic and Flemish Party, and in opposition to the Socialist Flemish daily De Morgen...
reported that the body of Philippe Dewez, a Belgian citizen working as a consular for president Préval, was found in remains of the collapsed building of the United Nations. 33 other Belgians present in the region have yet to be located.: 1 killed. Pediatrician, relief worker and Nobel Peace Prize
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...
nominee Zilda Arns
Zilda Arns
Zilda Arns Neumann was a Nobel Peace Prize-nominated Brazilian pediatrician and aid worker.A sister of Cardinal Dom Paulo Evaristo Arns, the former Archbishop of São Paulo known for his efforts against the Brazilian military dictatorship, Zilda Arns became internationally known by founding a...
, from the organization Pastoral da Criança, was killed in the quake.: 58 killed. About 6,000 Canadians were in Haiti at the time of the earthquake. As of February 8, there were 27 confirmed deaths while 75 Canadians were still unaccounted for. 4,000 had been evacuated on returning aid flights. http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jUxmufCW3tEm4LtNI3OkFtu3oUqA Georges Anglade
Georges Anglade
Georges Anglade was a Haitian-Canadian geographer, writer and politician. A strong opponent of the Duvalier régime in Haiti, Anglade was imprisoned for political reasons in 1974 and fleed the country upon release...
, a Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
university professor for 30 years, and his wife, Mireille; Denis Bellavance, a professor from Drummondville, Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
, The Drummondville resident had been lecturing at Port-au-Prince University when he was buried in the rubble; Montreal native Guillaume Siemienski, an employee working with the Canadian International Development Agency
Canadian International Development Agency
The Canadian International Development Agency was formed in 1968 by the Canadian government. CIDA administers foreign aid programs in developing countries, and operates in partnership with other Canadian organizations in the public and private sectors as well as other international organizations...
; Hélène Rivard, a CIDA consultant; Yvonne Martin of Elmira, Ontario
Elmira, Ontario
The town of Elmira in Ontario, Canada is the largest community within the Township of Woolwich in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo and is located 15 km to the north of the city of Waterloo.-History:...
, a missionary with the Evangelical Missionary Church of Canada, died when her guesthouse in Port-au-Prince collapsed, 90 minutes after she arrived in Haiti; and Louise Martin and Roseline Plouffe, both from Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
, died in the coastal town of Grand-Goâve. Serge Marcil
Serge Marcil
Serge Marcil, PC was an educator, administrator and politician in Quebec, Canada.After studying to be a teacher in Montreal, Marcil obtained work at various secondary schools as an administrator...
, a former Member of Parliament and Member of the National Assembly of Quebec, Katherine Hadley, an environmental engineer from Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...
, and Anne Chabot, a civil servant from Montreal who worked for the Quebec government, died in the collapse of Hôtel Montana. Frederick Jean-Michel of Laval, Quebec
Laval, Quebec
Laval is a Canadian city and a region in southwestern Quebec. It is the largest suburb of Montreal, the third largest municipality in the province of Quebec, and the 14th largest city in Canada with a population of 368,709 in 2006...
died while on holilday in Haiti with his wife. Denis Bellevance was a computer science teacher from Drummondville, Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
in Haiti to give a lecture at Port-au-Prince University. And Dominick Boisrond of Montreal died when the house she was staying in collapsed. Approximately 699 Canadians are still missing, as of 19 January, A number of other Canadians remain trapped under the rubble of the Hôtel Montana, including Alexandre Bitton, Claude Chamberland, Roger Gosselin, Anne Labelle, Richard Proteau, and Paquerette Tremblay. Trần Triệu Quân
Trần Triệu Quân
Trần Triệu Quân was a Vietnamese-Canadian grandmaster of taekwondo and a professional engineer. He was President of one of the three International Taekwon-Do Federation groups from mid-2003 until his death in the 2010 Haiti earthquake. Trần held the rank of 9th dan black belt in taekwondo.Trần...
, the current president of the International Taekwon-Do Federation, whose arrest in the 1990s in his native Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
elicited a national campaign to gain his freedom, was confirmed dead on February 12.: 2 killed, 4 missing. María Teresa Dowling was visiting her husband, general Ricardo Toro, deputy chief of MINUSTAH's military component, when her hotel collapsed. Her body was found in the morning of January 22 and recognized by her husband, although it could not be recovered yet. A Human Rights attorney working for United Nations, Andrea Loi, was found dead under the collapsed building of MINUSTAH. The other four men are still missing.: 1 Killed. Sandra Liliana Rivera Gonzalez working for Delta Air Lines was killed and found under the four star Hotel Montana, her body was repatriated back to Colombia.: 24 killed, 10 missing The Associated Press reported on January 19 that 24 Dominicans had been killed and 24 injured in the earthquake. At least four Dominican engineers, José Rafael Medina and Guillermo Peña Capellán, Luis Bolivar and Manuel Lora who worked for the firm Muñoz Mera y Fondeur died after an office building collapsed. One Dominican citizen working for the Dominican embassy was also killed. Another ten Dominicans are reported as missing. They were working on the Port-au-Prince/Mirebalais highway.: 27 killed, 6 missing including Emmanuel Sanson-Rejouis and his two daughters, who were killed in the collapse of the Karibe Hotel.: 2 killed. 28-year old Christoph Mark Rouven Redeker Kopp died when the roof of the Hôtel Montana collapsed and the 26-year old Olivia-Elisa Bouillé died in her hotel room.: 1 killed. Gigliola Martino, a seventy year old resident of Port-au-Prince, died in the quake.: 1 killed. Kareen Valero Jacques, a language teacher who went to Port-au-Prince to visit her Haitian boyfriend, died in the earthquake. The Mexican government reported that more than 130 Mexican citizens were in the country at the time of the earthquake.: 4 killed, 18 missing. Four Dutch citizens who stayed in hotel Villa Thereza in Haïti to adopt a child, have been killed during the quake. The three adopted children were killed as well. One child with a Dutch residence permit died as well. 18 other Dutch citizens are still missing.: Geraldine Lalican was reported trapped underneath a collapsed supermarket.: 1 killed. A Russian professor of Physics and Mathematics, Nikolay Sukhomlin
Nikolay Sukhomlin
Nikolay Sukhomlin was a Russian scientist who discovered new solutions and symmetry for the Black-Scholes equation.Sukhomlin died while teaching a class in Haiti during the 2010 earthquake.-External links:*http://www.emis.de/journals/AMEN/2007/060606-2.pdf...
, died in the quake. Sukhomlin was a faculty member at Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo
Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo
The Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo is the public university system in the Dominican Republic with its main campus in Santo Domingo and regional centers across the Republic...
in the Dominican Republic.
- 3 killed. A Spanish couple, María Jesús Plaza and Yves Batroni, were confirmed dead by the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs on January 15, 2010. On January 19 the body of policewoman Rosa Crespo was found; Crespo, aged 47, was working as a security escort for a UN delegate who was also killed in the earthquake. As of January 19 99 of the officially 111 registered Spaniards in Haiti had been contacted or found (including the three deceased).: 2 killed The Syrian Ambassador to LebanonLebanonLebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
Ali Abdel-Karim Ali announced that two Syrian citizens, a couple, were killed in Haiti.: 1 killed. A Taiwanese woman was killed when the house she was in collapsed. She was the daughter of an engineer working for a Taiwanese government-invested company that built roads and bridges.: 104 killed. The U.S. State DepartmentUnited States Department of StateThe United States Department of State , is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministries of other countries...
has confirmed 104 American deaths, including at least four people directly affiliated with the U.S. government. An estimated 45,000 Americans were in Haiti at the time of the quake. As of March 8, 2,000 were unaccounted for. Determining the exact number of Americans and people with dual US-Haitian citizenship presents difficulties because dual citizens do not routinely register with the US Embassy. American casualties came from a variety of backgrounds and include government officials, humanitarian workers, Christian missionariesMission (Christian)Christian missionary activities often involve sending individuals and groups , to foreign countries and to places in their own homeland. This has frequently involved not only evangelization , but also humanitarian work, especially among the poor and disadvantaged...
, and expatriateExpatriateAn expatriate is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country and culture other than that of the person's upbringing...
s living in Haiti. One victim was Victoria DeLong, a cultural affairs officer with the State Department, who was killed when her house collapsed. Retiree Gerald Haig died when the roof of his home collapsed, which also severely injured his wife. Many American victims had ties to non-profit organizations in Haiti. Molly Hightower of Port Orchard, WashingtonPort Orchard, WashingtonPort Orchard is a city in and the county seat of Kitsap County, Washington, United States. It is located 13 miles due west of West Seattle and connected to Seattle and Vashon Island via the Washington State Ferries run to Southworth...
was killed when the orphanage she was working in was destroyed. Flo McGarrellFlo McGarrellFlores "Flo" McGarrell was an American artist, filmmaker, writer and arts administrator. He was raised in Umbertide, Italy and St. Louis, Missouri, United States....
, a transgenderTransgenderTransgender is a general term applied to a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups involving tendencies to vary from culturally conventional gender roles....
visual artist from VermontVermontVermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...
, died in the collapse of the Peace of Mind Hotel in JacmelJacmelJacmel, also known by its indigenous Taíno name of Yaquimel, is a town in southern Haiti founded in 1698. It is the capital of the department of Sud-Est and has an estimated population of 40,000, while the municipality of Jacmel had a population of 137,966 at the 2003 Census.The buildings are...
, where he worked in a non-profit art center. Ryan Kloos of Phoenix, ArizonaPhoenix, ArizonaPhoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...
died in PétionvillePétionvillePétion-Ville is a commune and a suburb of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in the hills east and separate of the city itself on the northern hills of the Massif de la Selle. It was named after Alexandre Sabès Pétion , the Haitian general and president later recognized as one of the country's four founding...
while visiting his sister, who worked in a local orphanageOrphanageAn orphanage is a residential institution devoted to the care of orphans – children whose parents are deceased or otherwise unable or unwilling to care for them...
. A 4-year-old orphanOrphanAn orphan is a child permanently bereaved of or abandoned by his or her parents. In common usage, only a child who has lost both parents is called an orphan...
named Atanie, who was in the process of being adopted by Lorie and Darrell Johnson of Knoxville, TennesseeKnoxville, TennesseeFounded in 1786, Knoxville is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Tennessee, U.S.A., behind Memphis and Nashville, and is the county seat of Knox County. It is the largest city in East Tennessee, and the second-largest city in the Appalachia region...
, died when the roof of her orphanageOrphanageAn orphanage is a residential institution devoted to the care of orphans – children whose parents are deceased or otherwise unable or unwilling to care for them...
, located outside of Port-au-Prince, collapsed. A number of Americans conducting missionary work died in the earthquake. Rev. Sam DixonSam Dixon (humanitarian)Samuel Williams Dixon, Jr. was the Deputy General Secretary of the United Methodist Committee on Relief . He died in Port-au-Prince while being rescued after the 2010 Haiti earthquake....
, Deputy General Secretary of the United Methodist Committee on Relief, and Rev. Clinton Rabb, head of the mission volunteers office of the United Methodist General Board of Global Ministries, were killed in the collapse of Hôtel Montana. Three members of the Free Methodist ChurchFree Methodist ChurchThe Free Methodist Church is a Methodist Christian denomination within the holiness movement. It is evangelical in nature and has its roots in the Arminian-Wesleyan tradition....
, Rev. Jeanne Acheson-Munos, Merle West and Gene Dufour, died together in the collapse of the Friends of Haiti Organization headquarters. Ben Larson, a senior student at Wartburg Theological SeminaryWartburg Theological SeminaryWartburg Theological Seminary is a Lutheran seminary located in Dubuque, Iowa. It offers three graduate-level degrees , a TEEM Certificate, and a Diploma in Anglican Studies, all of which are accredited by the Association of Theological Schools and the Higher Learning Commission of the...
, was in Haiti with his wife and cousin conducting missionary work was killed in the earthquake. Clara Jean Arnwine was one of 12 members of the Highland ParkHighland Park, TexasHighland Park is a town in central Dallas County, Texas, United States. The population was 8,842 at the 2000 census. Located between the Dallas North Tollway and U.S. Route 75 , four miles north of downtown Dallas....
United Methodist ChurchUnited Methodist ChurchThe United Methodist Church is a Methodist Christian denomination which is both mainline Protestant and evangelical. Founded in 1968 by the union of The Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church, the UMC traces its roots back to the revival movement of John and Charles Wesley...
who had gone to run a free eye clinic in Petit-Goâve. Arnwine was in the clinic when the earthquake struck and was rescued and transported to the island of GuadeloupeGuadeloupeGuadeloupe is an archipelago located in the Leeward Islands, in the Lesser Antilles, with a land area of 1,628 square kilometres and a population of 400,000. It is the first overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. As with the other overseas departments, Guadeloupe...
for treatment, but died in hospital. Among those still reported as missing is Diane Caves, who was working with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and PreventionCenters for Disease Control and PreventionThe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are a United States federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services headquartered in Druid Hills, unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia, in Greater Atlanta...
in Haiti. Many Americans were also seriously wounded in the earthquake, including Christa Brelsford, a native of Anchorage, AlaskaAnchorage, AlaskaAnchorage is a unified home rule municipality in the southcentral part of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is the northernmost major city in the United States...
, who was interviewed on CNNCNNCable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
's Larry King LiveLarry King LiveLarry King Live is an American talk show hosted by Larry King on CNN from 1985 to 2010. It was CNN's most watched and longest-running program, with over one million viewers nightly....
after having her lower right leg amputatedAmputationAmputation is the removal of a body extremity by trauma, prolonged constriction, or surgery. As a surgical measure, it is used to control pain or a disease process in the affected limb, such as malignancy or gangrene. In some cases, it is carried out on individuals as a preventative surgery for...
. The extent of injuries to other Americans working or living in Haiti at the time of the earthquake has not been widely reported.