The prime minister of Haiti, Jean-Max Bellerive, told CNN today that hundreds of thousands of people have died following the catastrophic earthquake that struck near the capitol of Port-au-Prince yesterday.
Although many communications are down, photos, videos and eyewitness accounts from the island nation have trickled in, showing devastation in Haiti.
President Obama this morning pledged humanitarian aid and search and rescue teams, which will begin arriving in Haiti this afternoon.
The Red Cross has estimated that about 3 million people, out of a total population of 9 million, have been affected by the earthquake. Port-au-Prince has a population of about 2 million.
Late update: It looks like Bellerive actually said “well over 100,000,” and not “hundreds of thousands.” He also said he might be wrong.
The transcript, via Greg Sargent:
JEAN-MAX BELLERIVE, HAITIAN PRIME MINISTER (via telephone): I want to explain it’s very difficult and not enough time to have a fair assessment of the number of victims. But, what I make a (INAUDIBLE) of how many construction, how many building were collapsed with supposedly with the inhabitants inside, I believe that we are well over 100,000.
HARRIS: Well over 100,000, did I hear you correctly?
BELLERIVE: I hope that is not true, because I hope the people had the time to get out. But we have so much people in the streets right now. We don’t know exactly where they were living. But when we — so many, so many buildings, so many neighborhoods totally destroyed. And some neighborhoods we don’t even see people. So I don’t know where those people are.
