WORLD OF CRISIS

Jan 17, 2010

Extent of damage in Haiti now clear




First reports from the epicentre of Tuesday‘s earthquake in Haiti suggest the damage is even more dramatic than in the capital, according to a British Broadcasting Corporation report.

They say the scene in Leogane, west of Port-au-Prince, is ”apocalyptic”, with thousands left homeless and almost every building destroyed.

In the capital, survivors have become desperate as they wait for aid being handed out by international agencies.

But in a sign of hope, rescuers pulled a woman alive from rubble on Sunday.

”It‘s a little miracle,” BBC quoted the woman‘s husband, Mr. Reinhard Riedl, as telling the Associated Press news agency after she was rescued from a luxury hotel.

The United Nigerian says up to 80-90 percent of buildings in Leogane, about 19km west of Port-au-Prince, have been destroyed.

The BBC‘s Mark Doyle - who travelled to the town on Saturday - said people had taken refuge in the surrounding sugarcane fields or mangrove swamps.

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