Haiti hit by largest earthquake in over 200 years

AP on Yahoo ^ | 1/12/10 | Jonathan M. Katz - ap

[NormsRevenge]

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.

[NormsRevenge]

Houses built on a hillside in the Haitian shantytown of "Canape Vert" in Port-au-Prince, seen in 2004. A huge quake measuring 7.0 rocked the impoverished Caribbean nation of Haiti Tuesday toppling buildings and causing widespread damage and panic, officials and AFP witnesses said. (AFP/File/Thony Belizaire)

[NormsRevenge]

View of quake readings on a drum seismograph. A quake measuring 7.0 on the moment magnitude scale rocked the impoverished Caribbean nation of Haiti Tuesday causing panic as it struck, officials and AFP witnesses said. (AFP/File/Nicolas Asfouri)

[hinckley buzzard]

We need to respond as we did after the Christmas tsunami in Indonesia. We showed the world how to do it then, and we ought to again, unless Obama wants to let the lame UN take the lead.

[rod1]

Gee...must be Obama’s fault.

[gleeaikin]

Poor Haitians, first this catastrophe, and then with any luck they will have torrential rains to make it worse.

[jimbo123]

Live Haiti earthquake photostream here:

http://picfog.com/search/Haiti

Things look really bad.

[NormsRevenge]

Thanks

A car damaged after an earthquake struck is seen in Port-au-Prince in this January 12, 2010 video grab. A major earthquake hit impoverished Haiti on Tuesday, toppling buildings in the capital Port-au-Prince, burying residents in rubble and causing many deaths and injuries, witnesses in the city said. REUTERS/Reuters TV (HAITI - Tags: DISASTER ENVIRONMENT)

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A view of Haiti's Presidential Palace, damaged after an earthquake struck, in Port-au-Prince in this January 12, 2010 video grab. A major earthquake hit impoverished Haiti on Tuesday, toppling buildings in the capital Port-au-Prince, burying residents in rubble and causing many deaths and injuries, witnesses in the city said. REUTERS/Reuters TV (HAITI - Tags: DISASTER ENVIRONMENT IMAGES OF THE DAY)

[NormsRevenge]

This image obtained from Twitter purportedly shows Haitians standing amid rubble on January
12 in Port-au-Prince. A huge quake measuring 7.0 rocked the impoverished Caribbean nation of Haiti
Tuesday toppling buildings and causing widespread damage and panic, officials and AFP witnesses said.
(AFP/Twitter)

[M. Espinola]

Haiti will require an enormous amount of assistance to recover. Where will the next major earthquake transpire?

[vetvetdoug]

I was happy to see Venezuela, Cuba, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, and Brazil step up to the plate and offer assistance to the Haitians immediately after the disaster. The Communists and despots are the first to come to the aid of those that have suffered a natural disaster. The US was obliged to step back because of the ample help offered by the South American countries.

[Ditto]

As if that place is not suffering enough.

God bless them, and yes, we should provide whatever help we can.

I also want to see Uncle Hugo and Fidel step up to the plate.

[Political Junkie Too]

Why no news from the Dominican Republic? Were they magically spared the damage from the earthquake?

-PJ

[Petronski]

They’re on the other plate, relatively far from the epicentre.

[Petronski]

That rumshop on the right is definitely opening in the morning, if it isn't sold out already.

[Joya]

Ping .......... ...........

[Political Junkie Too]

They’re on the other plate, relatively far from the epicentre.

Ohh..

I have to think about that.

Which plate is splitting Hispanola?

How is it that an earthquake in Ferndale, CA (near the Oregon border) can be felt in San Francisco, but an earthquake in Haiti can't be felt in the Dominican Republic, on the same island?

-PJ

[Petronski]

PJ, please disregard that previous post. The Dominican Republic IS far from the epicenter, but all of Hispaniola is on the same plate and I should not have posted any suggestion to the contrary.

I’m not quite sure why I posted “on the other plate,” but I should not have done so. Wires in the old brainpack got crossed for a second.

[Political Junkie Too]

No problem.

I suspect the answer is simple. Politics.

Haiti is poor and Dominica is less poor.

Bill Clinton made Haiti a priority for the USA.

It's similar to the reporting post-Katrina between New Orleans and towns in Mississippi.

-PJ

[Quix]

thx.