Aid groups are struggling to reach desperate Haitians as time is running out to reach survivors trapped beneath the rubble of devastated Port-au-Prince. On Thursday, Haitian President René Préval said some 7,000 people have already been buried in a mass grave. Corpses are piled up on the streets, with hundreds of bodies just outside the city’s morgue. The Red Cross says preliminary figures indicate a death toll of between 45,000 to 50,000. This is Haitian Emergency Services Coordinator Evans Lescouflair.

Evans Lescouflair: “Yesterday evening we recovered between 3,000 and 5,000 bodies, but because of what happened, there are more bodies to be found in the rubble. There are some who are seriously injured who are also dying. And tomorrow we are going to conduct an effective evaluation — names of the dead, numbers of disappeared. It is very difficult. Many buildings have fallen — the National Palace, ministries, colleges, universities and hotels.”

UN Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes said the toll could remain unknown for a long while.

UN Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes: “It will be some time, days, maybe even weeks, before we have really reliable figures on the number of dead and injured. I know that’s very frustrating for you. It’s not easy for us. The important point for us is that there are very large numbers of casualties of both dead and injured, more than we can easily deal with at the moment. So the exact number doesn’t make any difference to our response, frankly.”