82 children dead in Haitian school collapse

by Amitjha | November 8, 2008 at 08:12 am

433 views | 14 Recommendations | 10 comments

In a tragic incident of school buiding collapse in capital of Haiti, more than fifty children died, and almost 120 injured.Rescue operation is still on, the relatives of children are searching the body of their near and dear ones.There has been no official comment on the cause of the collapse, but the residents in the area suspect the school was poorly rebuilt after it partially collapsed several years ago.Reports say that the upper floor of the school was still under construction...

A ramshackle church school collapsed in a shanty town on the outskirts of Haiti's capital on Friday, burying dozens in rubble and killing at least 50, many of them children, rescue workers said.

The three-story La Promesse school caved in while class was in session, and some of the walls and debris crushed neighboring residences in the Nerettes community near Port-au-Prince, injuring still more, civil protection service official Nadia Blachard told Haitian radio.

"There are 50 killed and 124 wounded, including 20 in serious condition," Blachard said.

Crowds of screaming and crying parents swarmed the ruins in the aftermath searching for their children. The work continued after nightfall with the help of U.N. peacekeepers, relatives and rescue services.

President Rene Preval said the poorly constructed building did not meet building standards, but the priority of authorities was to continue to hunt for those trapped under debris but still alive.

At the scene, crying and screaming parents searched desperately for their children while bodies of students lay crushed under blocks of concrete.

"It's like an earthquake," said Brazilian Maj. Gen. Carlos dos Santos Cruz, the commander for U.N. troops in Haiti.

One boy was trapped by debris that pinned his legs. He begged the rescuers to "please cut my feet off," a firefighter told Reuters.

The roads around the school were so jammed with people looking for loved ones that some of the rescuers had to be brought in by helicopter.

"My son who is 15 years old, he's dead. He's my only son," sobbed 40-year-old Josiane Dandin. "I don't know what I'm going to do."

Another woman screamed for her missing 12-year-old daughter. "I don't know if she is dead or alive," she said.

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Amitjha

at 02:53 on November 8th, 2008

This world is really full of prejudices, just see, death of 50 children from the small country ,specially BLACK, Is attracting neither the intellectual commentators nor the NP editors team.Wakeup , coming decade will see the power of melanin , Obama is just begining of that.

politisite

at 22:31 on November 8th, 2008

I post stories about Haiti often here. Please don't assume that folks do not care about Haiti. NP is one of the Few CJ sites that post Haitian stories. The color of their skin means nothing.. these are Human beings. One tag search of Haiti will show that NP writers have an interest in the people of Haiti. In the last several weeks NP writers have written no less then 20 stories on Haiti

Talkingstick

at 03:16 on November 8th, 2008

When children are involved, it supplies us with one of the few opportunities in life to look outside our own self interests. The fact that these children were Black is secondary to the fact that they were children.

Children supply us with the passport to see beyond color.

The parents of those children worked for bare subsistence for a powerful elite whose sole purpose is self perpetuation. These children were allowed to occupy an unsafe structure, in an overcrowded manner. The results were tragic. The results were foreseeable.

The idea of "the power of melanin" betrays the existence of two forms of racism in America. Just and unjust.

One is not to be preferred over the other.

Jordan Yerman

at 08:10 on November 8th, 2008

Update: the death toll has risen to 82, according to AFP.

The death toll from a school collapse in a Haitian shanty-town rose to 82 after rescue workers uncovered a classroom with 20 dead students and their teacher, officials said on Saturday.

(I brought this story current and adjusted the headline accordingly)

Rhonda J Mangus

at 08:15 on November 8th, 2008

Thank you for the update, Jordan.

Amy Judd

at 15:53 on November 8th, 2008

Two children have been pulled out alive:

Two uninjured children were pulled from the rubble Saturday and reunited with their families, said Rob Drouen, spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross.

But rescue workers are saying between 100 and 200 could still be buried in the rubble.

Rhonda J Mangus

at 15:58 on November 8th, 2008

Thank you for the update, Amy.

Amy Judd

at 16:58 on November 8th, 2008

According to reports, now four children have been pulled out alive, but most are still buried under all the rubble.

With as many as 200 children and staff feared still unaccounted for at the College of the Evangelic Promise in the suburb of Petionville, parliamentarians demanded an inquiry into its construction and called for urgent tests on similar buildings.

Rescuers were due to work throughout the weekend, dropping biscuits and bottled water through the rubble to those who appeared to be alive. 'Last night, we were sure there were still seven children alive,' said Haitian president René Préval yesterday. 'We got one of them, but we have lost all signs of the other six being alive. Some say they might be sleeping. Others believe they have died.'

Amy Judd

at 18:07 on November 8th, 2008

The death toll has risen to 90 now.

The death toll in the collapse of a ramshackle school in Haiti rose above 90 on Saturday after rescue workers uncovered a room full of dead, many of them children, officials said.