Big aftershock sets off new wails in Haiti
Source: Agencies |
January 21, 2010, Thursday
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THE most powerful aftershock yet struck Haiti yesterday, shaking more rubble from damaged buildings and sending screaming people running into the streets eight days after the country's capital was devastated by an apocalyptic quake.
The magnitude-6.1 temblor was the largest of more than 40 significant aftershocks that have followed the January 12 quake. The extent of additional damage or injuries was not immediately clear.
Wails of terror rose from frightened survivors as the earth shuddered at 6:03am. US soldiers and tent city refugees alike raced for open ground, and clouds of dust rose in the capital.
The US Geological Survey said yesterday's quake was centered about 60 kilometers west-southwest of Port-au-Prince and 9.9 kilometers below the surface - a little further from the capital than last week's epicenter was.
Last week's magnitude-7.0 quake killed an estimated 200,000 people in Haiti, left 250,000 injured and made 1.5 million homeless, according to the European Union Commission.
A massive international aid effort has been struggling with logistical problems, and many Haitians are still desperate for food and water.
Still, search-and-rescue teams have emerged from the ruins with some improbable success stories - including the rescue of a 69-year-old ardent Roman Catholic who said she prayed constantly during her week under the rubble.
Ena Zizi had been at a church meeting at the residence of Haiti's Roman Catholic archbishop when the earthquake struck last week, trapping her in debris. On Tuesday, she was rescued by a Mexican disaster team.
Doctors who examined Zizi on Tuesday said she was dehydrated and had a dislocated hip and a broken leg.
Elsewhere in the capital, two women were pulled from a destroyed university building. And near midnight on Tuesday, a smiling and singing 26-year-old Lozama Hotteline was carried to safety from a collapsed store by the French aid group Rescuers Without Borders.
Authorities said close to 100 people had been pulled from wrecked buildings by international search-and-rescue teams. Efforts continued, with dozens of teams hunting through Port-au-Prince's crumbled homes and buildings for signs of life.
But the good news was overshadowed by the frustrating fact that the world still can't get enough food and water to the hungry and thirsty.
"We need so much. Food, clothes, we need everything. I don't know whose responsibility it is, but they need to give us something soon," said Sophia Eltime, a 29-year-old mother of two who has been living under a bedsheet with seven members of her extended family.
The World Food Program said more than 250,000 ready-to-eat food rations had been distributed in Haiti by Tuesday, reaching only a fraction of the 3 million people thought to be in desperate need.
The WFP said it needs to deliver 100 million ready-to-eat rations in the next 30 days, but it had only 16 million meals in the pipeline.
Even as US troops landed in Seahawk helicopters on Tuesday on the manicured lawn of the ruined National Palace, the colossal efforts to help Haiti were proving inadequate because of the scale of the disaster.
Expectations exceeded what money, will and military might have been able to achieve.
So far, international relief efforts have been unorganized, disjointed and insufficient to satisfy the great need. Doctors Without Borders says a plane carrying urgently needed surgical equipment and drugs has been turned away five times, even though the agency received advance authorization to land.
A statement from Partners in Health, co-founded by the deputy UN envoy to Haiti, Dr Paul Farmer, said the group's medical director estimated 20,000 people are dying each day who could be saved by surgery.
The magnitude-6.1 temblor was the largest of more than 40 significant aftershocks that have followed the January 12 quake. The extent of additional damage or injuries was not immediately clear.
Wails of terror rose from frightened survivors as the earth shuddered at 6:03am. US soldiers and tent city refugees alike raced for open ground, and clouds of dust rose in the capital.
The US Geological Survey said yesterday's quake was centered about 60 kilometers west-southwest of Port-au-Prince and 9.9 kilometers below the surface - a little further from the capital than last week's epicenter was.
Last week's magnitude-7.0 quake killed an estimated 200,000 people in Haiti, left 250,000 injured and made 1.5 million homeless, according to the European Union Commission.
A massive international aid effort has been struggling with logistical problems, and many Haitians are still desperate for food and water.
Still, search-and-rescue teams have emerged from the ruins with some improbable success stories - including the rescue of a 69-year-old ardent Roman Catholic who said she prayed constantly during her week under the rubble.
Ena Zizi had been at a church meeting at the residence of Haiti's Roman Catholic archbishop when the earthquake struck last week, trapping her in debris. On Tuesday, she was rescued by a Mexican disaster team.
Doctors who examined Zizi on Tuesday said she was dehydrated and had a dislocated hip and a broken leg.
Elsewhere in the capital, two women were pulled from a destroyed university building. And near midnight on Tuesday, a smiling and singing 26-year-old Lozama Hotteline was carried to safety from a collapsed store by the French aid group Rescuers Without Borders.
Authorities said close to 100 people had been pulled from wrecked buildings by international search-and-rescue teams. Efforts continued, with dozens of teams hunting through Port-au-Prince's crumbled homes and buildings for signs of life.
But the good news was overshadowed by the frustrating fact that the world still can't get enough food and water to the hungry and thirsty.
"We need so much. Food, clothes, we need everything. I don't know whose responsibility it is, but they need to give us something soon," said Sophia Eltime, a 29-year-old mother of two who has been living under a bedsheet with seven members of her extended family.
The World Food Program said more than 250,000 ready-to-eat food rations had been distributed in Haiti by Tuesday, reaching only a fraction of the 3 million people thought to be in desperate need.
The WFP said it needs to deliver 100 million ready-to-eat rations in the next 30 days, but it had only 16 million meals in the pipeline.
Even as US troops landed in Seahawk helicopters on Tuesday on the manicured lawn of the ruined National Palace, the colossal efforts to help Haiti were proving inadequate because of the scale of the disaster.
Expectations exceeded what money, will and military might have been able to achieve.
So far, international relief efforts have been unorganized, disjointed and insufficient to satisfy the great need. Doctors Without Borders says a plane carrying urgently needed surgical equipment and drugs has been turned away five times, even though the agency received advance authorization to land.
A statement from Partners in Health, co-founded by the deputy UN envoy to Haiti, Dr Paul Farmer, said the group's medical director estimated 20,000 people are dying each day who could be saved by surgery.
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