Submitted by Bryan Schaaf on Mon, 11/10/2008 - 11:20.
Angry relatives storm school
Slow progress in search for victims sparks confrontation with Haitian police
By JONATHAN KATZ The Associated Press
Mon. Nov 10 - 5:50 AM
A relative of a victim argues with police at the site of a school collapse in Petionville, Haiti, on Sunday. Haitian police were holding the owner of the school that collapsed, killing at least 88 people and setting off a desperate search for survivors trapped in tons of rubble. (Ramon Espinosa / AP)
PETIONVILLE, Haiti — Angry Haitians have stormed the twisted wreckage of a collapsed school to demand rescuers speed up a search for victims. At the same time, officials worried about the stability of other buildings across the desperately poor country. The collapse crushed at least 88 students and adults in a slum below a relatively wealthy enclave near Port-au-Prince.
It has brought global attention to a country where chronic poverty and unrest spawn chaotic jigsaws of neighbourhoods and building codes are widely ignored.
President Rene Preval, who has made several visits to the disaster site, blamed continual government turnover and poor oversight by building inspectors for the deadly collapse at the College La Promesse.
Stephen Benoit, Petionville’s representative in Parliament, called the tragedy a golden occasion to address anarchic construction.Benoit estimated that as many as two million Haitians live in ramshackle slums across the Caribbean nation of nine million.
Haiti’s mountainsides are blanketed with squalid homes, shabby churches and poorly constructed schools like the one that tumbled down Friday. Rescuers, including a U.S. crew from Fairfax County, Va., and French firefighters from Martinique continued searching for survivors and the dead for a third day Sunday.
They are using pole-mounted digital cameras and are cutting through concrete with saws. Anger boiled over as thousands of Haitians looked on in the blazing sun, with the stench of rotting bodies beginning to rise from the rubble. About 100 men rushed the unstable pile at one point, hammering at the debris and trying to pull down a massive concrete slab that firefighters worry could trigger a second collapse.
Thousands cheered them on, chanting: "We don’t need money to do the work!" Rumours have circulated that the international rescuers were working slowly to inflate their wages. Baton-swinging Haitian police and UN peacekeepers in riot gear drove the men away, only for them to return and throw rocks.
Tensions eased after authorities let several dozen locals help clear rubble under UN supervision. "Everybody is frustrated. We smell the bodies," said 25-year-old Emmane Petitehomme. "If they don’t do something quickly, we may have to leave here for a few days."
Some have reported hearing voices from the pile or receiving cell phone calls from trapped survivors. Rescuers say they investigated those claims but couldn’t confirm them. The school’s owner and builder, Protestant preacher Fortin Augustin, was arrested late Saturday on charges of involuntary manslaughter, police spokesman Garry Desrosier said.
Neighbours said they have long complained that the three-storey school building was unsafe, and people living nearby have been trying to sell their homes ever since a section of it collapsed eight years ago.
"You can see that some sections just have one iron (reinforcing) bar. That’s not enough to hold it," said 55-year-old Notez Pierre-Louis, whose children used to attend the school.
"I said all the time, one day this is going to fall on my house." Kaje Pierre, a 27-year-old food vendor who lives up the street, said he fears for the rest of the neighbourhood, where many homes are worth about $9,000 — several years’ salary for most Haitian workers.
"I’m worried these other houses might fall because they’re too close to the ravine," he said. "But we have no choice. This is what you can get for the money we have." The tragedy has elicited shock and sadness around the world. Pope Benedict sent a message expressing his condolences, Vatican Radio said Sunday. In addition to the 88 students and adults found dead, at least 150 people have been treated for injuries in the collapse.
Slow progress Sparks Confrontations (11/10/2008)
Angry relatives storm school
Slow progress in search for victims sparks confrontation with Haitian police
By JONATHAN KATZ The Associated Press
Mon. Nov 10 - 5:50 AM
A relative of a victim argues with police at the site of a school collapse in Petionville, Haiti, on Sunday. Haitian police were holding the owner of the school that collapsed, killing at least 88 people and setting off a desperate search for survivors trapped in tons of rubble. (Ramon Espinosa / AP)
PETIONVILLE, Haiti — Angry Haitians have stormed the twisted wreckage of a collapsed school to demand rescuers speed up a search for victims. At the same time, officials worried about the stability of other buildings across the desperately poor country. The collapse crushed at least 88 students and adults in a slum below a relatively wealthy enclave near Port-au-Prince.
It has brought global attention to a country where chronic poverty and unrest spawn chaotic jigsaws of neighbourhoods and building codes are widely ignored.
President Rene Preval, who has made several visits to the disaster site, blamed continual government turnover and poor oversight by building inspectors for the deadly collapse at the College La Promesse.
Stephen Benoit, Petionville’s representative in Parliament, called the tragedy a golden occasion to address anarchic construction.Benoit estimated that as many as two million Haitians live in ramshackle slums across the Caribbean nation of nine million.
Haiti’s mountainsides are blanketed with squalid homes, shabby churches and poorly constructed schools like the one that tumbled down Friday. Rescuers, including a U.S. crew from Fairfax County, Va., and French firefighters from Martinique continued searching for survivors and the dead for a third day Sunday.
They are using pole-mounted digital cameras and are cutting through concrete with saws. Anger boiled over as thousands of Haitians looked on in the blazing sun, with the stench of rotting bodies beginning to rise from the rubble. About 100 men rushed the unstable pile at one point, hammering at the debris and trying to pull down a massive concrete slab that firefighters worry could trigger a second collapse.
Thousands cheered them on, chanting: "We don’t need money to do the work!" Rumours have circulated that the international rescuers were working slowly to inflate their wages. Baton-swinging Haitian police and UN peacekeepers in riot gear drove the men away, only for them to return and throw rocks.
Tensions eased after authorities let several dozen locals help clear rubble under UN supervision. "Everybody is frustrated. We smell the bodies," said 25-year-old Emmane Petitehomme. "If they don’t do something quickly, we may have to leave here for a few days."
Some have reported hearing voices from the pile or receiving cell phone calls from trapped survivors. Rescuers say they investigated those claims but couldn’t confirm them. The school’s owner and builder, Protestant preacher Fortin Augustin, was arrested late Saturday on charges of involuntary manslaughter, police spokesman Garry Desrosier said.
Neighbours said they have long complained that the three-storey school building was unsafe, and people living nearby have been trying to sell their homes ever since a section of it collapsed eight years ago.
"You can see that some sections just have one iron (reinforcing) bar. That’s not enough to hold it," said 55-year-old Notez Pierre-Louis, whose children used to attend the school.
"I said all the time, one day this is going to fall on my house." Kaje Pierre, a 27-year-old food vendor who lives up the street, said he fears for the rest of the neighbourhood, where many homes are worth about $9,000 — several years’ salary for most Haitian workers.
"I’m worried these other houses might fall because they’re too close to the ravine," he said. "But we have no choice. This is what you can get for the money we have." The tragedy has elicited shock and sadness around the world. Pope Benedict sent a message expressing his condolences, Vatican Radio said Sunday. In addition to the 88 students and adults found dead, at least 150 people have been treated for injuries in the collapse.