Strong aftershock rattles Haiti after deadly quake
A magnitude 5.2 aftershock struck Haiti on Sunday, even as survivors of the previous day’s temblor were sifting through the
rubble of their cinder-block homes. The death toll stood at 12, with fears it could rise.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the epicenter of the aftershock was located 9.8 miles north-northwest of Port-dePaix, the city hard hit by Saturday night’s 5.9 magnitude earthquake. Sunday’s aftershock had a depth of 6.2 miles.
“I don’t feel safe even inside my house,” said Gary Joseph as he put various mattresses for himself and his two sons to sleep on under a tree outside the house in Port-de-Paix.
He pointed to cracks left by the quake and aftershock in a wall and said: “I have to protect myself and my sons.”
The aftershock caused panic on streets where emer- gency teams were providing relief to victims of Saturday’s quake, which toppled cinder-block homes and rickety buildings in several cities.
Haiti’s civil protection agency said at least eight people died in the coastal city of Port-de-Paix, and three people died in the nearby community of Gros-Morne in Arti- bonite province. Another person died in Saint-Louis du Nord, Communication Minister Eddy Jackson Alexis tweeted.
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. Authorities said 188 people were injured.
Impoverished Haiti, where many live in tenuous circum- stances, is vulnerable to earthquakes and hurricanes. A vastly larger magnitude 7.1 quake damaged much of the capital in 2010 and killed an estimated 300,000 people. “I feel like my life is not safe here,” said nun Maryse Alsaint, director of the San Gabriel National School in Gros-Morne, where several classrooms were severely damaged.
She said that about 500 students would not be able to return to school Monday.
President Jovenel Moise urged people to donate blood and asked international aid agencies to coordinate with
local agencies to avoid duplicated efforts. By Sunday evening the government didn’t provide an estimate of the damages.
The USGS said Saturday’s quake was centered 12 miles northwest of Port-de-Paix, which is about 136 miles 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 strug- gled to shore up buildings despite the two major fault lines along Hispaniola, which is the island shared with the Dominican Republic.
The damage from the temblors was visible. In GrosMorne, one bed was covered in rubble, while the exterior walls of some homes were visibly cracked. Others tilted at precarious angles.
Pierre Jacques Baudre, a farmer and father of seven, said he was afraid to return to his home after one wall built with rocks and concrete crumbled.
“The house can fall at any time,” he said.
Meanwhile, dozens of people could be seen sift- ing through debris before hauling away rebar to recy- cle and sell.
The civil protection agency issued a statement saying that houses were destroyed in Port-de-Paix, Gros-Morne, Chansolme and Turtle Island.
Damage was also reported at the Saint-Michel church in Plaisance and the police station in Port-de-Paix. Parts of a hospital and an auditorium col- lapsed in Gros-Morne, where parliamentarian Alcide Audne told The Associated Press that two of the deaths occurred.