Density

The magnitude of what you are really seeing via Google Earth or Google Maps is difficult to comprehend.

This is an image from Google Earth of the area around the Presidential Palace in Haiti. According to the New York Times, there are now 16 000 people living in the camps within this frame. The image shows the view from 1 kilometer.

This is the Petionville golf course - now home to the 82nd Airborne Division. The view in this image is from 500 meters. There are, again according to the Times, 70 000 Haitians living in this camp, on the side of a mountain, utterly destitute, completely dependent on aid, waiting for the rains.