Earthquake in Haiti.

[ACF]

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Haiti was rocked by the strongest earthquake in more than 200 years Tuesday, crippling the island nation, severing communications with the outside world and severely damaging countless buildings.

The dead and injured lay in the streets even as strong aftershocks from the magnitude-7.0 earthquake rippled through the impoverished Caribbean country.

As night fell on the capital of Port-au-Prince, a city of 2 million, reports emerged of extensive destruction, homes and buildings in shambles, trapped, badly injured victims, and survivors sleeping in streets. Tsunami alerts were issued for Cuba, the Bahamas and much of the Caribbean, and numerous aftershocks were reported.

Many gravely injured people still sat in the streets early today, pleading for doctors. With almost no emergency services to speak of, survivors had few other options.

"The hospitals cannot handle all these victims," Louis-Gerard Gilles, a doctor and former senator, said as he helped survivors. "Haiti needs to pray. We all need to pray together."

The scope of the disaster remained unclear, and even a rough estimate of the number of casualties was impossible. But it was clear from a tour of the capital that tens of thousands of people had lost their homes and that many, perhaps thousands, had perished. Many buildings in Haiti are flimsy and dangerous even under normal conditions.

"We are hearing of sheer devastation," said Caryl Stern, president of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, which has 100 workers in Haiti. UNICEF employees in Port-au-Prince reported seeing a school collapse with children inside.

"It's horrible," Stern said. "The worst earthquake in such a poor region. You are starting from behind the eight-ball."

Haiti's ambassador to the U.S., Raymond Joseph, said in Washington, D.C., that he spoke to officials in Port-au-Prince and that President Rene Preval was safe but that his regal headquarters was badly damaged. Joseph quoted a senior Haitian official saying that "buildings were crumbling right and left" near the palace.

"I think it is really a catastrophe of major proportions," he said.

The Catholic Diocese of Norwich, Conn., said at least two Americans working at its Haitian aid mission were believed trapped in rubble.

Teams of rescue and aid workers were rushing to Haiti to assess the damage.

The quake struck at 4:53 p.m. Tuesday, leaving large numbers of people unaccounted for, including many of the U.N. personnel who have been keeping the peace in the country since a 2004 rebellion ousted the president.

Alain Le Roy, the U.N. peacekeeping chief, said the mission's headquarters had collapsed and a large number of personnel are missing.

He said U.N. troops, mostly from Brazil, were surrounding the wreckage of the five-story building trying to rescue people late Tuesday, but "as we speak no one has been rescued from this main headquarters." Between 200 and 250 people normally work there.

Karel Zelenka, a Catholic Relief Services (CRS) representative in Port-au-Prince, told U.S. colleagues before phone service failed that "there must be thousands of people dead," according to Sara Fajardo, a spokeswoman for the aid group.

Zelenka reported poorly constructed shantytowns and other buildings elsewhere had crumbled in huge clouds of dust. Near the CRS headquarters, a supermarket was "completely razed," he said, and a gasoline station and a church were reduced to rubble. Among the worst-hit areas was the impoverished Carrefour section of Port-au-Prince near the sea.

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said U.S. 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.

President Obama issued a statement saying his "thoughts and prayers go out to those who have been affected by this earthquake."

The State Department said the United States will provide military and civilian disaster assistance to Haiti. On Tuesday evening, the U.S. Agency for International Development and the military's U.S. Southern Command had begun working to coordinate an assessment of the situation on the island.

Haiti is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, and one of the poorest in the world. Already battered in recent years by storms, military coups and gang violence, much of Haiti is a hodgepodge of slums, shoddy construction and people living on the edge.

"I can hear very distressed people ... a lot of distress, people wailing, trying to find loved ones trapped under the rubble," Ian Rodgers, with Save the Children in Port-au-Prince, told CNN by telephone Tuesday evening.

Eyewitness accounts of the destruction were hard to come by; some came via Twitter, Facebook and Skype. Richard Morse, owner of the Oloffson Hotel in Port-au-Prince, sent tweets to the outside world.

"Just about all the lights are out in Port-au-Prince," he said. "People still screaming but the noise is dying as darkness sets. Lots of rumors about which buildings were toppled. The Castel Haiti behind the Oloffson is a pile of rubble. It was eight stories high. Our guests are sitting out in the driveway."

Part of the road to Canape Vert, a suburb of Port-au-Prince, collapsed, along with houses perched in the mountains of Petionville, where the quake was centered.

The earthquake could be felt across the border in the Dominican Republic, on the eastern part of the island of Hispaniola. High-rise buildings in the capital, Santo Domingo, shook and sent people streaming into the streets, fearing the tremor could intensify.

The Caribbean is not usually considered a seismic danger zone, but earthquakes have struck here in the past. Haiti sits on a large fault that has caused catastrophic quakes, but this one was described as the most powerful ever in the region.

The quake was centered about 10 miles west of Port-au-Prince at a depth of 5 miles, the U.S. Geological Survey said. USGS geophysicist Kristin Marano called it the strongest quake 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.

"There's a history of large, devastating earthquakes," said Paul Mann, a senior research scientist at the Institute for Geophysics at the University of Texas, "but they're separated by hundreds of years."

Most of Haiti lies on a sliver of Earth's crust known as the Gonave microplate, sandwiched between the much larger North American plate to the north and the Caribbean plate to the south. The earthquake on Tuesday occurred when what appears to be part of the southern fault zone broke and slid.

With many poor residents living in tin-roof shacks that sit precariously on steep ravines and with much of the construction in Port-au-Prince and throughout the country of questionable quality, the expectation was that the quake caused major damage to buildings and significant loss of life, said earthquake expert Tom Jordan at the University of Southern California.

"It's going to be a real killer," he said.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nati...81_quake13.html

[Jordan]

This is devastating. The President Preval of Haiti said today that he fears the death toll will be counted in the tens of thousands.

EDIT: From the BBC website, "Haiti: How to help"

[MPH]

This is devastating. The President Preval of Haiti said today that he fears the death toll will be counted in the tens of thousands.

If you saw some of the huts that they were living in... i doubt many of them at all are still standing...

[ACF]

I've just heard could be in the HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS.

The strongest building in Port-au-Prince, the presedential building, has basically been cracked into small bits, so you can imagine whats happened with the other buildings.

[Jimothy]

Heard on the news this morning that a group of Christian missionaries have just got the first plane possible out of Haiti. Surely this is a time when they ate most needed not a time when they should be running away.

[AoWW]

Truly devastating and tragic.

What's stunned me is the length of time it seems to be taking to get additional support and supplies to Haiti. I appreciate the infrastructure will have been hugely affected - and I've not looked into this in detail, so maybe I'm unrealistic in my expectations - but surely with today's technology and transport options help could have reached these people sooner?

[lou]

saw some footage earlier and cried like a baby. Kids sleeping amongst rotting corpses on the street (possibly their parents?). Totally heartbreaking.

[Jordan]

Front cover from one of the NY tabloids on Thursday. The headline says it all... It's not a very pleasant photo to look at and it really shook me up.

[lou]

Front cover from one of the NY tabloids on Thursday. The headline says it all... It's not a very pleasant photo to look at and it really shook me up.

Probably not the best choice of words under the circumstances

Why isnt the aid getting through? What a bloody joke ffs!

[Trav Le Bleu]

Probably not the best choice of words under the circumstances

Why isnt the aid getting through? What a bloody joke ffs!

Because they are one of the poorest nations on Earth? Britain have pledged a paltry £6m, an amount that usually gets raised within the first couple of hours of a charity telethon.

You could argue that their (the Haitians') already poor infrastructure and communications network have been all but destroyed, but if the "free world" found out that Osama Bin Laden was living there, I'm pretty sure they'd manage to get hundreds of billions of pounds worth of military hardware there tomorrow, if not today.

It's a question of priorities.

Not saying I agree, just telling how it is.

[Dr The Singh]

Because they are one of the poorest nations on Earth? Britain have pledged a paltry £6m, an amount that usually gets raised within the first couple of hours of a charity telethon.

You could argue that their (the Haitians') already poor infrastructure and communications network have been all but destroyed, but if the "free world" found out that Osama Bin Laden was living there, I'm pretty sure they'd manage to get hundreds of billions of pounds worth of military hardware there tomorrow, if not today.

It's a question of priorities.

Not saying I agree, just telling how it is.

Such a sad state of affairs, those that survived the initial quake and were trapped under the rubble are now almost certainly deceased. People say you can't put a price on life. but if aid and support had reached alot earlier, god knows how many lives could have been saved.

As a race of human beings we should really be ashamed of ourselves, we have let our leaders watch so many innocent people die!!!

[lou]

Like Trav said though... nothing there of any worth to anyone so they aint bothered

[hairy]

Going to sort out my clothes this weekend, bag what I dont want and send them off

[Houdini Logic]

Going to sort out my clothes this weekend, bag what I dont want and send them off

I'll follow that lead.

This thread has 12 replies and the Islam4UK thread has 116.

Something is seriously wrong in the world

[Guest nathan.]

My heart goes out to all who have lost loved ones and the family's who are still searching.

[BoneDog]

This thread has 12 replies and the Islam4UK thread has 116.

Something is seriously wrong in the world

It's the same down the pub. Alot of people are more concerned with who they hate rather than spreading the love!

This is bloody tragic and it reminds me of the New Orleans flood thing with how long it has taken to get a reaction. Didn't the US government take 3 or 4 days to send any real help to New Orleans (which is a city in their own blummin country)?

[Guest nathan.]

It's the same down the pub. Alot of people are more concerned with who they hate rather than spreading the love!

This is bloody tragic and it reminds me of the New Orleans flood thing with how long it has taken to get a reaction. Didn't the US government take 3 or 4 days to send any real help to New Orleans (which is a city in their own blummin country)?

Tbf tho mate its a big reaction from the US, I think there sending over 5,000 to help out.

[BoneDog]

Tbf tho mate its a big reaction from the US, I think there sending over 5,000 to help out.

Aye I suppose it would take a bit of time to get organised and all that. Good on 'em to anyone who is going over to try and help.

[Jimothy]

I heard something about the fact that due to there being no electricity in Haiti, planes were having to land in the Dominican Republic, or only land during the day in Haiti. So this might explain why the aid is slow in getting there.

[Jordan]

Probably not the best choice of words under the circumstances

Why isnt the aid getting through? What a bloody joke ffs!

OMG horrible faux pas, that one completely slipped my mind My bad...

[ACF]

An 18-month old baby was rescued from the rubble yesterday, after 4 days without food or water.

Maybe there is still some hope?

[Head Honcho]

I'll follow that lead.

This thread has 12 replies and the Islam4UK thread has 116.

Something is seriously wrong in the world

What's your point?

The Islam4UK thread is full of posts with differing views and as such is bound to have more replies.

This thread is news tragic news I'll grant but it's not gonna have a massive post count without the same news being repeated over and over again now is it?

[Houdini Logic]

What's your point?

The Islam4UK thread is full of posts with differing views and as such is bound to have more replies.

This thread is news tragic news I'll grant but it's not gonna have a massive post count without the same news being repeated over and over again now is it?

People would rather contribute to a load of bollox media whirlwind than donate money/clothes to tens of thousands of people dying in a tragic distaster.

That is exactly my point

[Head Honcho]

People would rather contribute to a load of bollox media whirlwind than donate money/clothes to tens of thousands of people dying in a tragic distaster.

That is exactly my point

Haiti doesn't need your money or clothes in six months time which believe me, will be when it arrives, at least that's when the money will arrive anyway!

It needs the money now and the only organisations able and willing to do this are the UN, USA, Canada and many European countires.

As far as I'm aware this is in progress. What more can be done?

By the time your money gets to Haiti the corrupt politicains that have run the country into the ground for years will be back in power but they'll be too busy chiseling away at the money, using it to fund their own projects that will enable them to stay in power for even longer.

If you think sending your old socks and knickers to Oxfam is going to make a difference then that's up to you but please spare us the lecture.

It kind of ironic though that the countries vilified everyday on this forum are the same countries that are able to assist in not only this but most major disasters around the globe

........but I doubt they'll be getting any thanks-especially from the guys on here who regularly try and tell us how evil the yanks are!

[Guest Mee-9]

We've given 6million pounds to Haiti, Yet how many road's will that build you? Not many.