Bill Clinton: Haiti Quake Tragedy for Millions, United Nations

The former president, now a U.N. special envoy, urged Americans to give cash.

ByABC News
January 13, 2010, 5:38 PM

Jan. 13, 2010— -- The disaster in Haiti, affecting more than 3 million people, may be one of the most devastating tragedies ever to hit the United Nations, former President Bill Clinton told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos in an interview for "World News."

Clinton, who was appointed the United Nations' special envoy to Haiti in May 2008, said the U.N. itself has been hit hard.

"Our U.N. hotel, as you know, [was] five stories [and] completely collapsed. Today, only 10 people [were] recovered alive," Clinton told Stephanopoulos.

At least 16 U.N. employees, including chief of the U.N. mission in Haiti, Hedi Annabi, have died, with at least 56 more injured, a U.N. spokesman told ABC News.

"It's highly likely to be the highest mortality count we've ever had," Clinton said.

One day after the 7.0-magnitude quake struck the Latin American island, Clinton said officials there can still only speculate on the death toll in what is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

Haitian President Rene Preval estimated today that between 30,000 and 50,000 people may have died.

"We are still having people work through the rubble, and the places you'd normally look to can't provide" enough immediate help, Clinton said. "But we do know what to do. ... We'll have this thing organized and in a day or so. The trick is going to be to find as many people while they're still alive and be kept alive."

The international effort to assist the people of Haiti following its worst earthquake in 240 years is still in an early stage and faces monumental challenges.

Clinton praised the U.S. government's response to the Haiti earthquake but said more helicopters are needed, as well as earth-moving equipment and floating power generators.

"The number-one thing we have to do for the next few days is to concentrate on the basics," he said. "We've got to get into those buildings, dig them out, find the living and then go back to work."