50,000 to 100,000 Dead in Haiti, Considered a “Conservative” Estimate
Posted on January 16th, 2010 by John SostakThe Haiti death tolls have gone up non-stop since the earthquake days ago. The current Haiti death tolls are only in the tens of thousands, but unofficially, it may already be much more.
At this current time, they have collected 50,000 dead, according to Haitian officials. But for days, estimates have been in the hundreds of thousands range, at the very. For the moment, the Haiti death tolls have been estimated at 200,000, though that is down from the original 500,000 estimation.
Haiti’s Interior Minister, Paul Antoine Bien-Aime, told Reuters that the death toll is at 50,000 for now. His estimation is that 100,000 to 200,000 people are actually dead. But sadly, that kind of estimate is actually good news, compared to early predictions of 500,000 killed.
If the total reaches the hundreds of thousands, it will be among the deadliest earthquakes of all time. But given how many may be buried underneath rubble, and how many may never be found, it could be impossible to get a final total. Even Bien-Aime admitted that they will probably never know the exact number.
The Pan American Health Organization has a conservative estimate of between 50,000 and 100,000. However, even they really don’t have an accurate number. In any case, the Haiti death tolls may not take the aftermath into account.
No one will ever know how many people were directly killed by the earthquake, or from the horror afterward. With aid still slow to actually come in, virtually no authority in Haiti, and with the capital city practically destroyed, there is virtually nothing to stop further bloodshed.
Lawlessness, a lack of clean water, and disease could kill many more in the weeks and months ahead. Thanks to all of those factors, the true Haiti death tolls may take years to truly measure.
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Comment By: John
February 9th, 2010 at 6:43 pm
When Haiti rebuilds, do you think they will do it with safe, economical buildings or are they going the old way, with whatever they can?
The world will be supplying a lot of financial aid to Haiti. They will be able to rebuild to the highest quality. I hope they consider dome homes as an excellent alternative to conventional construction.
Domes stand up to hurricanes and earthquakes many times better than other structures and they require less material to enclose an equal amount of square footage.
Comment By: John Sostak
February 10th, 2010 at 1:01 am
Great comment, and great ideas. I hope they do. The problem is, Haiti is chaos, and it will take time to pull it back together. I don’t think money or support is an issue, I believe it is logistics. Dome buildings sound like a great way to mitigate future damage. Thank You!