Tips Hamil - A powerful earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale shook Haiti on Tuesday, causing several buildings to collapse in the Western hemisphere's poorest nation and leading to an unknown number of fatalities, officials and witnesses said.The earthquake was centered just 10 miles southwest of the crowded and impoverished capital of Port-au-Prince. Making matters worse, the earthquake was relatively shallow at a depth of five miles, the U.S. Geological Survey said. Shallow earthquakes can cause more damage.
"I think it's really a catastrophe of major proportions," Haiti's ambassador to the U.S., Raymond Alcide Joseph, told CNN.
Raphaelle Chenet, the administrator of Mercy and Sharing, a charity that takes care of 109 orphans, said she saw about ten dead bodies in the street after the quake struck.
"I saw dead bodies, people are screaming, they are on the street panicking, people are hurt," she told The Wall Street Journal. "There are a lot of wounded, broken heads, broken arms."
In Port-au-Prince, many houses built on steep ravines have collapsed, Ms. Chenet said. She said from her house she had heard a couple of explosions, which she believed to be gas explosions. The orphans in the two institutions run by Mercy and Sharing weren't hurt, although an orphanage worker suffered a broken leg, she said.
President Barack Obama said his thoughts and prayers were with the people of Haiti, and U.S. officials said they would consider immediate humanitarian aid.
An Associated Press videographer saw the collapsed wreckage of a hospital in Petionville, near Port-au-Prince. Reuters news agency cited a witness saying several buildings had crumbled in the capital and that there were dead and injured trapped in the rubble.
At least 1.8 million people live within the area where the earthquake had its highest intensity, John Bellini, a geophysicist at the USGS, told The Wall Street Journal. "With a strong and shallow earthquake like this in such a populated area, it could really cause substantial damage," he said.
The quake was the most powerful to hit Haiti since at least 1770, according to USGS records, Mr. Bellini added. "This isn't normally an earthquake-prone area," he said.
Within minutes of the original tremor, two aftershocks rolled through the area, measuring 5.9 and 5.5 on the Richter scale.
Eight in ten Haitians live in poverty, according to the CIA World Factbook. The Caribbean nation was hit hard by a series of hurricanes in the past few years, adding to the country's misery.
Rep. Eliot Engel (D., N.Y.), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Western Hemisphere subcommittee, said: "This is the worst possible time for a natural disaster in Haiti, a country which is still recovering from the devastating storms of just over a year ago."
"I think it's really a catastrophe of major proportions," Haiti's ambassador to the U.S., Raymond Alcide Joseph, told CNN.
Raphaelle Chenet, the administrator of Mercy and Sharing, a charity that takes care of 109 orphans, said she saw about ten dead bodies in the street after the quake struck.
"I saw dead bodies, people are screaming, they are on the street panicking, people are hurt," she told The Wall Street Journal. "There are a lot of wounded, broken heads, broken arms."
In Port-au-Prince, many houses built on steep ravines have collapsed, Ms. Chenet said. She said from her house she had heard a couple of explosions, which she believed to be gas explosions. The orphans in the two institutions run by Mercy and Sharing weren't hurt, although an orphanage worker suffered a broken leg, she said.
President Barack Obama said his thoughts and prayers were with the people of Haiti, and U.S. officials said they would consider immediate humanitarian aid.
An Associated Press videographer saw the collapsed wreckage of a hospital in Petionville, near Port-au-Prince. Reuters news agency cited a witness saying several buildings had crumbled in the capital and that there were dead and injured trapped in the rubble.
At least 1.8 million people live within the area where the earthquake had its highest intensity, John Bellini, a geophysicist at the USGS, told The Wall Street Journal. "With a strong and shallow earthquake like this in such a populated area, it could really cause substantial damage," he said.
The quake was the most powerful to hit Haiti since at least 1770, according to USGS records, Mr. Bellini added. "This isn't normally an earthquake-prone area," he said.
Within minutes of the original tremor, two aftershocks rolled through the area, measuring 5.9 and 5.5 on the Richter scale.
Eight in ten Haitians live in poverty, according to the CIA World Factbook. The Caribbean nation was hit hard by a series of hurricanes in the past few years, adding to the country's misery.
Rep. Eliot Engel (D., N.Y.), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Western Hemisphere subcommittee, said: "This is the worst possible time for a natural disaster in Haiti, a country which is still recovering from the devastating storms of just over a year ago."
Strong Earthquake Hits Haiti More
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Tuesday, January 12, 2010
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