Haiti is plagued by earthquakes again and again. Now the earth has trembled massively again. The extent of the damage is still unclear. But authorities are already making comparisons to the horror quake of 2010.
Saint-Louis-du-Sud – A severe earthquake measuring 7.2 shook the Caribbean state of Haiti on Saturday morning. Numerous fatalities and great destruction were feared, but the exact extent was initially unclear.
Local media reported several dead and destroyed buildings, especially in the south of the country. The quake occurred on Saturday around 8:30 a.m. a few kilometers from the southern municipality of Saint-Louis-du-Sud and about 125 kilometers west of the capital Port-au-Prince at a depth of around ten kilometers. It brings back bad memories of the devastating earthquake in 2010 that claimed more than 200,000 lives.
Tsunami warning lifted
The US National Weather Service (NOAA) initially issued a tsunami warning after the current quake – but canceled it a short time later. But he advised people to remain cautious. The US agency USGS declared a red alert with a view to possible deaths: This means that a high number of victims is possible. It also drew parallels to the 2010 earthquake. This occurred only around 75 kilometers to the east on the same peninsula.
The destruction caused by the current quake was initially largely open. The Gazette Haiti reported five deaths, including two children in the southern city of Aquin, and many injured. Many houses were destroyed, as can be seen on photos and videos on social networks. Whole parts of houses and walls collapsed.
An eyewitness from Les Cayes in the southwest, one of the largest cities in the country, told the Haiti Press Network that houses and hotels had collapsed and that people had been buried under the rubble. The Dominican Republic’s Diario Libre published a video of the alleged moment when the earth shook in Haiti on Saturday morning.
Haiti’s densely populated capital, Port-au-Prince, was at the center of the earthquake of similar strength in 2010. Around 222,000 people died and more than 300,000 were injured as a result of the quake. More than a million people lost their homes. The damage from the quake was estimated at $ 8 billion. Reconstruction got off to a slow start, also due to the political instability.
The desperately poor Caribbean state of Haiti is repeatedly hit by severe earthquakes. Most recently, a political crisis plunged the country further into chaos. Haiti’s President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated in July. He was ambushed and shot dead by a heavily armed commando at his residence. dpa
