Three days after the 7.0-magnitude earthquake in Haiti, the Red Cross estimates the death toll to exceed 50,000 people, and the State Department has raised the number of confirmed deaths of Americans in Haiti to six, according to the Associated Press.
Schools, neighborhoods, cathedrals, hospitals and the president’s palace were among the wreckage.
According to International Services, three students from Haiti were enrolled in the University for fall 2009.
Myrtho Joseph, geography graduate student, made contact with his family in Haiti Thursday morning.
“It’s a big relief,” Joseph said. “I don’t have to worry anymore.”
Gaelle Sampeur, micro-economy graduate student, returned to her home in Haiti for the winter break. Maureen Hewitt, director of International Services, said she received an e-mail from Sampeur Thursday evening.
“She is in a city in crisis,” Hewitt said. “We’ll help her in any way we can.”
Amy Potter, graduate student in geography and anthropology, said she was devastated to see Haiti endure another large disaster.
“I’m just wondering why,” Potter said. “After all the hurricanes, all the coups and all the struggle, why this?”
Potter wrote her master’s thesis on Haiti and said she is passionate about the country.
“Because it’s Haiti, I can’t just sit back,” she said.
Potter will lead a project to organize a campus effort in aiding Haitians in their time of need.
Kent Mathewson, geography professor, said because Haiti is one of the poorest and least developed nations in the world, there will be a need for tremendous outside assistance.
Ricky Jean-Francois, former University football player and current San Francisco 49ers defensive lineman, told The Sacramento Bee he wanted to get the NFL, as well as the players, involved in disaster relief efforts.
Jean-Francois, who has family who live in Haiti, said he is still waiting to hear back from all of them.
“In Haiti, everything is made out of cement,” Jean-Francois told The Sacramento Bee. “There are barely any houses left standing.”
—-Contact Sarah Eddington at [email protected]