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Quake survivor found in rubble
Updated: 2010-01-25 13:04
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A man buried for 11 days in the wreckage of Haiti's devastating earthquake was pulled from the rubble, as officials said they were shifting their focus from rescue to caring for the thousands of survivors living in squalid, makeshift camps.
Meanwhile, the confirmed death toll has topped 150,000 in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area alone, the communications minister said yesterday, with many more thousands presumed dead around the country or still buried under the rubble.
Rescuers reached Wismond Exantus by digging a tunnel into a destroyed fruit and vegetable shop, French officials said, on the same day the UN announced that the Haitian government had declared an end to searches for living people trapped under debris.
Exantus, who is in his 20s, was placed on a stretcher and given intravenous fluids as onlookers cheered. He later said he survived by diving under a desk during the quake and later consuming some cola, beer and cookies in the cramped space.
"I was hungry, but every night I thought about the revelation that I would survive," Exantus said from his hospital bed.
Meanwhile on Saturday hundreds gathered for the funeral of the archbishop of Haiti's stricken capital, a rare formal ceremony in a shattered nation where mass graves hold many of the dead.
While the two-hour ceremony was held for Monsignor Joseph Serge Miot and vicar Charles Benoit, who also perished in the Jan 12 earthquake, people in the crowd of about 2,000 wept for deeply personal losses.
"We feel like we have lost everything. Our child, our country, our friend," said Junior Sant Juste, a 30-year-old father whose 3-year-old daughter died when his home collapsed.
Only a small number of funerals have been held since the 7.0-magnitude quake struck, with most people buried anonymously and without ceremony in mass graves on the outskirts of the city.
An estimated 200,000 people died, according to Haitian government figures cited by the European Commission. US soldiers and Brazilian UN troops handed out food and water in one of Haiti's largest slums yesterday amid criticism that aid was not getting to earthquake victims fast enough.
Experts said it was unlikely that there were many more survivors and the chance of saving trapped people begins to diminish after 72 hours.
（中國日報網英語點津 Helen 編輯）
About the broadcaster:
Lee Hannon is Chief Editor at China Daily with 15-years experience in print and broadcast journalism. Born in England, Lee has traveled extensively around the world as a journalist including four years as a senior editor in Los Angeles. He now lives in Beijing and is happy to move to China and join the China Daily team.
