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ANOTHER
SCHOOL BUILDING FALLS DOWN IN HAITI, SECOND IN ONE WEEK, BY CAROLINE PATTON:
12/11/2008
(MaximsNews Network)
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UNITED
NATIONS - / MaximsNews Network / 12
November 2008 -- Five
days after 30 children were killed when the second floor of their school gave
way, a second collapse in Haiti
hurt an additional eight people.
Today’s
disaster took place in Port-au-Prince
at the religious Grace Divine school and left
seven students and one teacher mildly wounded.
The two story school crumpled around
mid-morning today, luckily while the students
were out of class.
Sophie
Boutaud-de-la-Combe of the UN Mission in Haiti
(MINUSTAH) said that, “As far as we know
there are no people trapped in the
building.” There are around 135 children who
attend the school.
The
UN dispatched its peacekeepers in Haiti
to help the victims, including an expert crowd
control team to keep back the families while
the searches through the debris proceeded.
The
building was of a comparable design to the
school that fell down late last week. The
previous school was also in the capital but in
the Pétionvile section of the city.
Friday’s collapse was far more serious then
the one today, causing the death of 89 people
and sending 150 to the hospital with serious
wounds when the second story caved in
flattened the rooms below.
The
UN has offered “heartfelt condolences” to
the families of those hurt and killed.
MINUSTAH staff were involved in the efforts to
go through the wreckage looking for survivors.
Approximately 260 people were in the school,
La Promesse, collège Evangélique, when the
top floor crashed down.
The
UN mission told the international community,
“MINUSTAH wishes to express its profound
shock and sadness at the tragic suffering and
loss of life that have resulted from the
collapse of a school in Pétion-Ville.”
The
dispatch of the MINUSTAH team to hold back the
crowds today was precipitated by the
experience of the previous collapse. On
Friday, rescue work was impeded by onlookers
worried about the children in the school.
Under-Secretary-General
for Humanitarian Affairs, John Holmes,
explained that, “Emergency rescue teams
attempting to reach trapped people have been
seriously impeded by the crowds who are
sometime blocking the movement of heavy
lifting equipment and medical supplies and
preventing the evacuation of wounded people”
He
went on to say, “I entirely understand
people’s grief and desperation. But this
only slows down rescue operations.”
Personnel from
France
,
Haiti
, and the
US
worked through the weekend going through the
remains of the building trying to find people
still alive and held off on bringing in heavy
equipment until they were sure there were no
more. UN solders from
Brazil,
Chile,
Ecuador, and the
Philippines
also participated in the rescue operation in Haiti.
Mr.
Holmes concluded that, “This terrible
catastrophe means more suffering and tragedy
for some of the poorest and most vulnerable
people in the world, already struggling to
recover from years of war, poverty and
successive natural disasters.”
Both
the UN and the Haitian Government has called
for question of blame in the two incidents to
be laid aside for the moment, agreeing that,
“this is not the time to say who is
responsible – it’s the time to take
decisions and act.”
--- Caroline
Patton
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