Haiti Earthquake Pictures: Aerial Views of the Damage

Post-Earthquake Shantytown

Photograph courtesy Logan Abassi, United Nations  

Seen from above on January 13, 2010, a Port-au-Prince shantytown is largely flattened after the January 12 Haiti earthquake. Throughout the country, shoddy construction contributed to the earthquake's death toll.

Haitian earthquake engineer Pierre Fouch lamented the willy-nilly nature of much Haitian construction. "Many people are doing whatever they want; they can build whatever they want," Fouche told NPR. "One of the biggest problems too is that in the country we do not even have a national building code, which is very sad."

January 14, 2010

Tent City in Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Photograph courtesy Logan Abassi, United Nations

Impromptu encampments, such as the above, shown on January 13, 2010, have sprung up around Port-au-Prince in the wake of the January 12 Haiti earthquake.

But with power and telecommunications out, food and fresh water scarce, and most hospitals damaged, homelessness is only the beginning of the earthquake victims' troubles.

The capital's main morgue is full, the New York Times reported on January 14, and hundreds of bodies have been abandoned on the doorstep—among them the corpses of people who had died waiting for treatment at a nearby hospital.

January 14, 2010

Post-Earthquake Palace

Photograph courtesy Logan Abassi, United Nations

In desperately poor Port-au-Prince, Haiti's national palace is largely alone in its grandeur. But even the presidential residence crumbled during the magnitude 7 earthquake that struck late on January 12—along with other government buildings.

"Parliament has collapsed," Haitian President René Préval told the Miami Herald on January 13. "The tax office has collapsed. Schools have collapsed. Hospitals have collapsed. There are a lot of schools that have a lot of dead people in them.

"All of the hospitals are packed with people," he added. "It is a catastrophe."

January 14, 2010

Earthquake Devastated Downtown

Photograph courtesy Logan Abassi, United Nations

Port-au-Prince residents throng ruined city blocks on January 13, 2010, after the January 12 Haiti earthquake.

With an estimated three million people affected, including countless victims still trapped in and under collapsed buildings, aid is only trickling into the disaster zone.

Ships are having trouble delivering relief supplies to damaged ports, roads are clogged with people and rubble, and flights into the island country have been heavily curtailed, the New York Times reported Thursday.

Despite the obstacles, U.S. President Barack Obama pledged a hundred million U.S. dollars for the Haiti-earthquake relief effort on Thursday morning. "You will not be forsaken, you will not be forgotten," he said, addressing Haitians directly. "In this, your hour of greatest need, America stands with you."

January 14, 2010

Peacekeepers Trapped in Haiti

Photograph courtesy Logan Abassi, United Nations

As of Thursday, January 14, 2010, about 150 UN employees remain trapped beneath the rubble of the Port-au-Prince headquarters of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, shown on January 13, a day after the Haiti earthquake, according to the UN.

So far the international body has confirmed the deaths of 16 officials, though that number is expected to rise sharply. "This is a very difficult moment for all of us," Susana Malcorra, head of UN field operations, told the Washington Post.

January 14, 2010