Haiti earthquake news today – Death toll raised to 1,297 as rescuers race to find thousands feared buried beneath rubble
AT least 1,297 people are confirmed dead after a huge 7.2 magnitude earthquake hit western Haiti on Saturday.
The quake struck 8 km from the town of Petit Trou de Nippes, about 150 km west of the capital Port-au-Prince, at a depth of 10 km, the US Geological Survey said.
More than 5,700 are injured and many more are still missing.
Prime Minister Ariel Henry said he was rushing aid to areas where towns were destroyed and hospitals overwhelmed with incoming patients.
USGS has estimated “thousands of fatalities” are likely and “tens of thousands of injuries in poor mountainous communities" and has issued a "red alert"
Formerly a tropical depression, Grace strengthened to tropical storm status about 400 miles east of the Leeward Islands in the Atlantic Ocean, according to the National Hurricane Center and could bring rain and flooding to Haiti as soon as today.
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- Julia Fields
‘BED WAS SHAKING’
Naomi Verneus, a 34-year-old resident of Port-au-Prince, told the AP she was jolted awake by the earthquake and that her bed was shaking.
“I woke up and didn’t have time to put my shoes on. We lived the 2010 earthquake and all I could do was run,” she said.
“I later remembered my two kids and my mother were still inside. My neighbor went in and told them to get out. We ran to the street.”
- Julia Fields
WHEN DID THE EARTHQUAKE HIT?
The quake struck 8 km from the town of Petit Trou de Nippes, about 150 km west of the capital Port-au-Prince, at a depth of 10 km, the US Geological Survey said.
As of the afternoon of August 14, at least 29 fatalities have been confirmed.
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QUEEN SENDS MESSAGE OF CONDOLENCES
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TROPICAL STORM GRACE HEADED TOWARDS HAITI
According to the U.S. National Hurricane Center, Fred, which was once a tropical storm, is now headed into the eastern Gulf of Mexico and could regain such strength on Sunday.
Grace, meanwhile, is forecasted to reach Haiti on Monday night, which forecasters predict it will drop four to seven inches of rainfall.
- Julia Fields
PHOTOS OF WRECKAGE
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JOE BIDEN’S RESPONSE
President Joe Biden has authorized an immediate US response to the earthquake on Saturday afternoon and named US AID Administrator Samantha Power as coordinator of the effort.
It came shortly before Haitian Prime Minister Dr. Ariel Henry declared an official state of emergency.
He confirmed the motion in a tweet, writing: “We will make the necessary arrangements to assist people affected by the earthquake in the Southern Peninsula.
“We must show a lot of solidarity with regard to the emergency. The government will declare a state of emergency. We will act quickly.”
- Julia Fields
CHURCH COLLAPSE
A church reportedly collapsed under the strain of the quake in the southwestern town of Les Anglais while a ceremony was apparently underway.
One clip uploaded to Twitter on Saturday afternoon showed a young girl and boy being hauled from the wreck of a collapsed building by a group of good Samaritans welding tools.
The children looked traumatized and fatigued, with the girl unable to stand on her own.
- Julia Fields
SIGNIFIGANT DAMAGE
Images posted to social media showed significant damage to buildings including collapsed homes and rubble splayed across the road.
French-language newspaper Le Nouvelliste reported on Saturday that “The majority of hotels and churches on the south coast of Haiti, which are often the most important buildings in cities, have collapsed or suffered significant damage.”
Economic losses could range in the tens of millions, USGS reports.
- Julia Fields
‘RED ALERT’
Prime Minister Ariel Henry said he was rushing aid to areas where towns were destroyed and hospitals overwhelmed with incoming patients.
USGS has estimated “thousands of fatalities” are likely and “tens of thousands of injuries in poor mountainous communities” and has issued a “red alert”
“High casualties are probable and the disaster is likely widespread,” a statement from the agency released around an hour after the quake said.
“Past events with this alert level have required a national or international level response.”
Jerry Chandler, Haiti’s director of civil protection, confirmed deaths had occurred but said he doesn’t “yet have an exact toll”, adding that officials are “still collecting information.”
- Julia Fields
NAOMI OSAKA VOWS TOURNAMENT MONEY TO HAITI RELIEF
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RESCUERS SEARCH FOR SURVIVORS
- Julia Fields
MAGNITUDE OF EARTHQUAKE
An earthquake with a 5.8 magnitude shook Haiti on Saturday night – less than 24 hours after the country was hit by a massive 7.2 quake that has so far claimed at least 724 lives.
The 5.8 magnitude quake was measured at a depth 40 kilometers, and the tremor was felt some 38 km northwest of Les Cayes, according to the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC).
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HAITI ALREADY HIT BY COVID
The reports of overwhelmed hospitals come as Haiti struggles with the pandemic and a lack of resources to deal with it.
The country of 11 million people received its first batch of U.S.-donated coronavirus vaccines only last month via a United Nations program for low-income countries.
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THINGS COULD GET WORSE
Haiti’s Civil Protection Agency has warned things could get worse with the arrival of Tropical Depression Grace which is expected to hit the island tonight.
The agency predicted Haitians must expect strong winds, heavy rain, rough seas, landslides and flooding.
The quake on Saturday has already killed at least 1,297 people with another 5,700 injured and thousands have lost their homes.
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SHORTAGE OF DOCTORS
There is a shortage of doctors adding to the problem of hospitals being overwhelmed.
Officials in Les Cayes believe there are only about 30 doctors for about 1 million people, the New York Times reports.
Many hospitals and clinics were heavily damaged and struggling to cope with the number of casualties.
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MEDICAL NEED IS ‘BIGGEST URGENCY’ AS HOSPITALS OVERWHELMED
Haitian Prime Minister and acting President Ariel Henry has said that “medical needs” is his country’s “biggest urgency”.
“When it comes to medical needs, this is our biggest urgency. We have started to send medications and medical personnel to the facilities that are affected,” he said. “For the people who need urgent special care, we have evacuated a certain number of them, and we will evacuate some more today and tomorrow.”
The devastating earthquake has left hospitals unable to cope as they try to deal with the number of casualites.
An administrator at Hopital Saint Antoine told CNN: “There are a lot of people coming in… We don’t have enough supplies:”
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HORRIFIC DAMAGE
Heavy damage was reported in the center of the city of Jeremie, home to around 200,000 people and composed primarily of single-story buildings.
The damage in the city of Les Cayes also appeared to be significant, including the collapse of a multi-story hotel.
Amid ongoing fear of aftershocks, virtually the entire population of that city spent Saturday night outdoors, sleeping in front of their homes — or what was left of them.
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USAID SENDING SEARCH AND RESCUE CREWS
The United States Agency for International Development is sending a search and rescue team to help search for survivors after the devastating earthquake.
“This 65-person deployment brings 52,000 pounds of specialized tools, equipment & medical supplies to assist in search operations,” a USAID administrator tweeted.
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SOUTHWESTERN HAITI WORST AFFECTED
Southwestern parts of Haiti appear to have borne the brunt of the earthquake, especially around the city of Les Cayes.
The latest shocking figures say at least 724 people died with an unknown number of people missing and at least 2,800 people have been injured, officials say.
Rescuers are picking through rubble in a desperate search for any survivors.
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HAITIAN AUTHORITIES FEAR EXTREME DAMAGE
Haitian politicians and authorities fear the “awful” aftermath of the devastating earthquake that hit the island today.
Renald Lubérice, the general secretary of Haiti’s ministerial council, tweeted in French: “The first images that have reached me are awful.
“The earthquake has caused a great deal of damage in the south. Hopefully there isn’t major loss of life.”
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WHAT PARTS OF HAITI WERE AFFECTED?
While the full extent of the destruction the earthquake inflicted it appears that two cities, Les Cayes and Jeremie, located in Haiti’s southern peninsula, were the worst hit.
Both areas reported major devastation.
Phone lines were down in Petit Trou de Nippes, the epicenter of the quake. No news emerged immediately from that city, leaving Haitian officials to fear for the worst.
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ROADS SPLIT IN HAITI
One video showed a Haitian road split with cracks after the earthquake.
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TENNIS STAR OFFERS TO DONATE PRIZE MONEY TO HAITI
Tennis star Naomi Osaka, whose father’s family are from Haiti, expressed her sorrow about the quake, saying she would give all the prize money she won at a tournament next week to the relief efforts.
“I know our ancestors blood is strong,” she said on Twitter, “we’ll keep rising.”
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THOUSANDS OF FATALITIES EXPECTED
At least 1,297 people have died and 5,700 others are injured as buildings tumbled into rubble after the magnitude 7.2 earthquake.
Prime Minister Ariel Henry said he was rushing aid to areas where towns were destroyed and hospitals overwhelmed with incoming patients.
US Geological Survey has estimated “thousands of fatalities” are likely and “tens of thousands of injuries in poor mountainous communities” and has issued a “red alert”
“High casualties are probable and the disaster is likely widespread,” a statement from the agency released around an hour after the quake said.
“Past events with this alert level have required a national or international level response.”
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SATURDAY’S EARTHQUAKE LINKED TO ONE IN 2010
The earthquake that struck Haiti on Saturday morning occurred on the same system of faults as the one that devastated the capital, Port-au-Prince, in January 2010.
Both quakes struck on an east-west fault line at the convergence of two tectonic plates, The New York Times reports.
Susan E. Hough, a seismologist with the United States Geological Survey who studied the 2010 earthquake, said there was no doubt that it and the one Saturday were linked.
“It’s well established that you do have this domino concept,” she said, where the energy released by one earthquake alters the stress patterns elsewhere along the fault line. “But we don’t have a crystal ball that tells us which domino is going to fall next.”
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