Haiti hit by largest earthquake in over 200 years
AP
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7.0 quake hits impoverished Haiti, hospital collapses Play Video AP –
7.0 quake hits impoverished Haiti, hospital collapses
* Strong earthquake hits Haiti Slideshow:Strong earthquake hits Haiti
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People carry an injured person after an earthquake in Port-au-Prince,
Haiti, AP – People carry an injured person after an earthquake in
Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2010. …
By JONATHAN M. KATZ, Associated Press Writer Jonathan M. Katz,
Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 1 min ago
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – The strongest earthquake in more than 200
years rocked Haiti on Tuesday, collapsing a hospital where people
screamed for help and heavily damaging the National Palace, U.N.
peacekeeper headquarters and other buildings. U.S. officials reported
bodies in the streets and an aid official described "total disaster
and chaos."
United Nations officials said a large number of U.N. personnel were
unaccounted for.
Communications were widely disrupted, making it impossible to get a
full picture of damage as powerful aftershocks shook a desperately
poor country where many buildings are flimsy. Electricity was out in
some places.
Karel Zelenka, a Catholic Relief Services representative in
Port-au-Prince, told U.S. colleagues before phone service failed that
"there must be thousands of people dead," according to a spokeswoman
for the aid group, Sara Fajardo.
"He reported that it was just total disaster and chaos, that there
were clouds of dust surrounding Port-au-Prince," Fajardo said from the
group's offices in Maryland.
State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said in Washington that
embassy personnel were "literally in the dark" after power failed.
"They reported structures down. They reported a lot of walls down.
They did see a number of bodies in the street and on the sidewalk that
had been hit by debris. So clearly, there's going to be serious loss
of life in this," he said.
Alain Le Roy, the U.N. peacekeeping chief in New York, said late
Tuesday that the headquarters of the 9,000-member Haiti peacekeeping
mission and other U.N. installations were seriously damaged.
"Contacts with the U.N. on the ground have been severely hampered," Le
Roy said in a statement, adding: "For the moment, a large number of
personnel remain unaccounted for."
Felix Augustin, Haiti's consul general in New York, said a portion of
the National Palace had disintegrated.
"Buildings collapsed all over the place," he said. "We have lives that
are destroyed. ... It will take at least two or three days for people
to know what's going on."
An Associated Press videographer saw the wrecked hospital in
Petionville, a hillside Port-au-Prince district that is home to many
diplomats and wealthy Haitians, as well as many poor people. Elsewhere
in the capital, a U.S. government official reported seeing houses that
had tumbled into a ravine.
Kenson Calixte of Boston spoke to an uncle and cousin in
Port-au-Prince shortly after the earthquake by phone. He could hear
screaming in the background as his relatives described the frantic
scene in the streets. His uncle told him that a small hotel near their
home had collapsed, with people inside.
"They told me it was total chaos, a lot of devastation," he said. More
than four hours later, he still was not able to get them back on the
phone for an update.
Haiti's ambassador to the U.S., Raymond Joseph, said from his
Washington office that he spoke to President Rene Preval's chief of
staff, Fritz Longchamp, just after the quake hit. He said Longchamp
told him that "buildings were crumbling right and left" near the
national palace. He too had not been able to get through by phone to
Haiti since.
With phones down, some of the only communication came from social
media such as Twitter. Richard Morse, a well-known musician who
manages the famed Olafson Hotel, kept up a stream of dispatches on the
aftershocks and damage reports. The news, based mostly on second-hand
reports and photos, was disturbing, with people screaming in fear and
roads blocked with debris. Belair, a slum even in the best of times,
was said to be "a broken mess."
The earthquake had a preliminary magnitude of 7.0 and was centered
about 10 miles (15 kilometers) west of Port-au-Prince at a depth of 5
miles (8 kilometers), the U.S. Geological Survey said. USGS
geophysicist Kristin Marano called it the strongest earthquake since
1770 in what is now Haiti. In 1946, a magnitude-8.1 quake struck the
Dominican Republic and also shook Haiti, producing a tsunami that
killed 1,790 people.
The temblor appeared to have occurred along a strike-slip fault, where
one side of a vertical fault slips horizontally past the other, said
earthquake expert Tom Jordan at the University of Southern California.
The earthquake's size and proximity to populated Port-au-Prince likely
caused widespread casualties and structural damage, he said.
"It's going to be a real killer," he said. "Whenever something like
this happens, you just hope for the best."
Most of Haiti's 9 million people are desperately poor, and after years
of political instability the country has no real construction
standards. In November 2008, following the collapse of a school in
Petionville, the mayor of Port-au-Prince estimated about 60 percent of
the buildings were shoddily built and unsafe in normal circumstances.
Tuesday's quake was felt in the Dominican Republic, which shares a
border with Haiti on the island of Hispaniola, and some panicked
residents in the capital of Santo Domingo fled from their shaking
homes. But no major damage was reported there.
In eastern Cuba, houses shook but there were also no reports of
significant damage.
"We felt it very strongly and I would say for a long time. We had time
to evacuate," said Monsignor Dionisio Garcia, archbishop of Santiago.
The few reports emerging from Haiti made clear the country had
suffered extensive damage.
"Everybody is just totally, totally freaked out and shaken," said
Henry Bahn, a U.S. Department of Agriculture official visiting
Port-au-Prince. "The sky is just gray with dust."
Bahn said he was walking to his hotel room when the ground began to shake.
"I just held on and bounced across the wall," he said. "I just hear a
tremendous amount of noise and shouting and screaming in the
distance."
Bahn said there were rocks strewn about and he saw a ravine where
several homes had stood: "It's just full of collapsed walls and rubble
and barbed wire."
In the community of Thomassin, just outside Port-au-Prince, Alain
Denis said neighbors told him the only road to the capital had been
cut but that phones were all dead so it was hard to determine the
extent of the damage.
"At this point, everything is a rumor," he said. "It's dark. It's nighttime."
Former President Bill Clinton, the U.N.'s special envoy for Haiti,
issued a statement saying his office would do whatever he could to
help the nation recover and rebuild.
"My thoughts and prayers are with the people of Haiti," he said.
President Barack Obama ordered U.S. officials to start preparing in
case humanitarian assistance was needed.
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro said his government planned
to send a military aircraft carrying canned foods, medicine and
drinking water and also would dispatch a team of 50 rescue workers
Haitian musician Wyclef Jean urged his fans to donate to earthquake
relief efforts, saying he had received text messages from his homeland
reporting that many people had died.
"We must think ahead for the aftershock, the people will need food,
medicine, shelter, etc.," Jean said on his Web site.
Brazil's government was trying to re-establish communications with its
embassy and military personnel in Haiti late Tuesday, according to the
G1 Web site of Globo TV. Brazil leads a 9,000-member U.N. peacekeeping
force there.
Felix Augustin, Haiti's consul general in New York, said he was
concerned about everyone in Haiti, including his relatives.
"Communication is absolutely impossible," he said. "I've been trying
to call my ministry and I cannot get through. ... It's mind-boggling."
___
Associated Press videographer Pierre Richard Luxama in Haiti and AP
writers David Koop in Mexico City, David McFadden and Danica Coto in
San Juan, Puerto Rico; Matthew Lee in Washington; Alicia Chang in Los
Angeles and Andrea Rodriguez in Havana contributed to this report.