significant damage in several cities and at least 29 dead

A strong 7.2 magnitude earthquake rocked Haiti this Saturday morning, causing great destruction and at least 29 deaths, while the Caribbean country has yet to recover from the devastating 2010 earthquake.

The new earthquake also occurs in the midst of a political and social crisis, after the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in early July, and in the midst of the covid-19 pandemic.

The earthquake, which shook homes and forced the population to seek protection, occurred around 8:30 a.m. local time, and its epicenter was 12 km from the city of Saint-Louis-du-Sud, about 160 km from the Haitian capital, Port -au-Prince, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

The quake was 10 kilometers deep, according to the USGS report.

In the hours that followed, they felt several aftershocks, many above 4 degrees. Initially, there was a tsunami warning, but it was suspended a few hours later.

“There are deaths, I can confirm that, but I still don’t have the exact number”The country’s director of civil protection Jerry Chandler first told reporters, noting Prime Minister Ariel Henry was on his way to the national emergency operations center in Port-au-Prince.

Chandler later reported that at least 29 people had been confirmed dead, but the balance was still tentative and the final number is estimated the victims can be much higher.

The earthquake, which occurred at 8:30 a.m. local time (9:30 a.m. in Argentina), was recorded northeast of the city of Saint-Louis du Sud, in southern Haiti and about 160 km from the capital Port-au-Prince.

ISGS has also issued a red alert to the possibility that the earthquake killed a large number of people, said the news agency Europe Press.

Following the earthquake, material damage was observed in several towns. Jeremiah and the Keys, on the southwestern peninsula of the island of Hispaniola, which it shares with the Dominican Republic, are among the most affected.

“Olas de tsunami que pueden llegar a 1 or 3 metros sobre el level de la marea its posibles en algunas costas de Haití”, había reportado la Administración Nacional de Océanos y Atmósfera de EE.UU. (NOAA), sin precisar zonas concretas del Pays.

An hour after the phenomenon, the US Tsunami Warning System reassured itself by reporting that the threat of the tsunami had ceased. He asked to remain vigilant in case there were “minor fluctuations, up to 30 centimeters, above and below normal tide” in coastal areas near the epicenter of the earthquake in the “next few hours. “.

Fear upon awakening

The initial long shake was felt across much of the Caribbean, including Santiago de Cuba (about 300 km from Saint-Louis-du-Sud), where many locals left their homes.

Meanwhile, a few minutes after the earthquake, a 5.2 magnitude aftershock 17 kilometers from the town of Chantal, still with a hypocenter 10 kilometers deep. According to the local Gazette Haiti portal, the earthquake was felt for several seconds in the Caribbean country’s capital, Port-au-Prince, which is about 130 kilometers from the epicenter.

The initial long shock was felt across much of the Caribbean, including Santiago de Cuba (about 300 km from Saint-Louis-du-Sud), where many residents left their homes, according to Radio Rebelde.

On January 12, 2010, a magnitude 7 earthquake devastated the Haitian capital and several provincial towns. Over 200,000 people died and over 300,000 were injured in the disaster, which left 1.5 million people homeless.

Reconstruction of the country’s main hospital remains incomplete, and non-governmental organizations have sought to address the state’s many shortcomings.

This Saturday’s earthquake comes just over a month after the assassination of President Jovenel Moise at his home by an armed commando, shocking a country that is already fighting poverty, growing violence by criminal gangs and the coronavirus pandemic .

With information from the Agencies.

LGP