I am referencing the fact that the poor in Hispaniola live in tin shacks. Tin or what we Dominicans call "zing", don't know the spelling actually, will not kill you like a slab of concrete, concrete blocks, or a concrete roof a with re-bar frame supporting it.
The homes of the poor are typically made of this corrugated metal (zing) which is usually old, porous and held up by rotting slabs of wood.
Those that are even poorer live in homes assembled from "hojalata" or metal cylindrical cracker containers which have been hammered down to produce thin plate-like sheets which are combined with other "hojalata" plates to form walls.
These two types of homes in Hispaniola constitutes the living quarters of the vast majority of the poor.
Some poor able to afford concrete block home usually don't have what we call, "empanete" or pure cement finishing giving it that smooth appearance upon which you can paint your house. The cost of one "funda de cemento" prohibits the poor from engaging in an "empanete" finish since it requires many "fundas" or sacks of cement to produce that smooth silky cement finish. It's like a smooth spread on a sandwich.
Most poor families do not have concrete roofs either which in a quake is a sure death. Thus, the reason for this thread. If you were extremely poor in Haiti with a tin shack, those elements falling on your head did not kill you.
OTOH, if you were well to do or modestly well off, those concrete roofs smashed your head into a goo of bone, brain and blood.
And if you were wealthy, your multi-story VILLA pancaked on top of you and your families in a way that you became an unrecognizable pile of tissue with cracked bone matter.
What I have witnessed in the CNN reports are homes with concrete roofs, "empanete, painted homes, re-bar structures, etc. Thus, my belief that the middle class and upper class are the ones who have been disproportionately decimated in this catastrophe.