Strong aftershock rattles Haiti a day after deadly quake

PORT-DE-PAIX, Haiti — Survivors sifting through the rubble of their earthquake-toppled cinderblock homes in Haiti on Sunday were rattled by a magnitude 5.2 aftershock that caused panic and threatened to raise the death toll even further from 12.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the epicenter of the aftershock was located 9.8 miles north-northwest of Port-de-Paix, the city hard hit by Saturday night’s 5.9 magnitude earthquake. Sunday’s aftershock had a depth of 10 kilometers.

“It was an aftershock. It was at the same location,” said Paul Caruso, a geophysicist with the USGS. “This is the first significant aftershock.”

The tremors caused panic on streets where emergency teams were providing relief to victims of Saturday’s quake, which toppled cinderblock homes and rickety buildings in several cities.

Haiti’s civil protection agency said at least seven people died in the coastal city of Port-de-Paix and three people died in the nearby community of Gros-Morne in Artibonite province. Among the dead from Saturday night’s quake were a 5-year-old boy crushed by his collapsing house and a man killed in a falling auditorium.

A total of at least 12 people were killed in the quake, Interior Minister Fednel Monchery said. Authorities said 188 people were injured.

The USGS said the quake was centered 12 miles northwest of Port-de-Paix, which is about 136 miles (219 kilometers) from the capital of Port-au-Prince.

It was felt lightly in the capital, as well as in the neighboring Dominican Republic and in eastern Cuba, where no damage was reported.

In Haiti, officials have struggled to shore up buildings despite the two major fault lines along Hispaniola, which is the island shared with the Dominican Republic. Deep poverty and government instability have also rendered weaker homes and structures particularly vulnerable in earthquakes.

Rescue workers in Haiti said they were not looking for any more victims.

In the town of Gros-Morne, one bed was covered in rubble, while the exterior walls of some homes were visibly cracked. Others tilted at precarious angles.