Haiti quake kills at least 11, injures others

A photo from social media purportedly of the scene in Haiti.

As of Sunday, October 7, 2018

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PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Emergency teams worked to provide relief in Haiti on Sunday after a magnitude 5.9 earthquake killed at least 11 people and left several injured.

The government reported seven deaths in the Nord-Ouest province and four other deaths in the community of Gros-Morne in the province of Artibonite, the newspaper Le Nouvelliste quoted Secretary of State for Communications Eddy Jackson Alexis as saying.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake hit at 8:11 p.m. Saturday night (001 GMT) and was centered 12 miles (19 kilometers) northwest of Port-de-Paix, which is about 136 miles (219 kilometers) from the capital of Port-au-Prince. It was 7.3 miles (11.7 kilometers) below the surface.

This warning was issued on Saturday night.

The Bahamas Department of Meteorology issued an earthquake warning for the southeast Bahamas on Saturday night at 8.45pm.

The country's civil protection agency issued a statement saying several people were injured and some houses were destroyed in Port-de-Paix, Gros Morne, Chansolme and Turtle Island. Among the structures damaged was the Saint-Michel church in Plaisance.

The civil protection agency officially confirmed the deaths of at least 10 people.

Rescue workers reported the collapse of part of a hospital in Gros-Morne and an auditorium as the quake hit on a rainy evening. They also reported damage at the police station in Port-de-Paix.

Parliamentarian Alcide Audne told The Associated Press that two of the deaths occurred in the auditorium.

Haiti President Jovenel Moise indicated in his Twitter account that he was coordinating with Prime Minister Jean-Henry Ceant to bring support to the victims.

The quake was felt lightly in the capital, as well as in the neighboring Dominican Republic and in eastern Cuba.

Moise called on the population to remain calm after dozens of people left their homes in the capital.

Impoverished Haiti, where many live in tenuous circumstances, is especially vulnerable to earthquakes. A vastly larger magnitude 7.1 quake damaged much of the capital in 2010 and killed an estimated 300,000 people.

SP 6 years, 1 month ago

Sorry, we can't help Haiti this time. Too many of our Bahamian brothers and sisters in dire need of our help.

Thank GOD Hubert Alexander Ingraham is NOT PM or he would have already been arranging to empty the treasury and urge Bahamians to send every dime they can find to help his Haitian brothers and sisters.

DillyTree 6 years, 1 month ago

SP, what a mean-spirited post for no reason. Show a little humanity instead of your mean character. Human beings are suffering and you want to make it political. Disgraceful.

rawbahamian 6 years, 1 month ago

DillyTree, SP has a twisted point because we are already sypporting about 100,000 Haitians between here and Haiti and our near broken economy cannot take another hit like that or we will become Haiti chapter 2.

DillyTree 6 years, 1 month ago

rawbahamian, I totally get it, but whose fault is that? We have allowed this to happen over the years. Bahamians didn't want to work in the fields, the gardens or other dirty jobs, so they were happy to have the Haitians do it for them. Now they complain!

No question, illegal (and I emphasise this) Haitians are a problem and a strain on the economy. However, those that are here legally, are entitled to just as much as Bahamians -- except maybe the vote.

But think what Haitians must be dealing with if they are willing to risk a dangerous passage on leaky wooden boats, and accept poor paying jobs (exploitation by Bahamians willing to hire illegals) and to live in squalid conditions in shanty towns. A problem, yes, but partly our own doing.

At the end of the day, they are human beings!

CatIslandBoy 6 years, 1 month ago

@Dilly Tree. Thanks for such a great response to a mean and unnecessary posting by SP. You are so right on point.

Sarahreyes 6 years, 1 month ago

That’s huge

DDK 6 years, 1 month ago

While on the subject of earthquakes:

"While disagreement abounds on this topic, scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) say that oil production can cause earthquakes, but not the kind reported in the news. According to the Rigorous Intuition, some earthquakes, such as the 2004 quake that triggered a deadly tsunami in Sumatra, occur at plate boundaries where hard, rocky slabs slide against each other to release tremendous amounts of energy. Oil generally is found in permeable sediments that are soft and squishy, not in hard rock. When this squishy land moves, it releases a small amount of energy, which can lead to a "mini-seismic event"-one that is barely detected on the Richter scale. Here's how it works: With high-tech equipment, oil companies pinpoint oil-rich areas and use large drills to puncture the surface below the sea, sometimes as deep as 10,000 feet. As this pricey fluid gets sucked from the sediment pores, the surrounding rocks shift positions to fill in the newly vacated spaces. At a large scale, for example the volume displaced when millions of barrels of oil are produced, the land movement can actually cause a mini-seismic earthquake, according to Robert Morton, a USGS coastal geologist."

SP 6 years, 1 month ago

Dilly Tree, you bleeding hearts refuse to face the reality that "Bahamian humans are suffering" right here! You people need to stop being "mean-spirited" and start "showing a little humanity" for your fellow countrymen for a change!

I don't see any Haitians losing everything they worked a lifetime to acquire or begging all over the place and suffering mental illnesses from neglect and unemployment.

YES, it is 100% inescapably political! Which other country ever had a policy of rewarding illegals the equivalent of a years income and no punishment for violating its immigration laws? Neither political party accepts responsibility for the asinine stupidity of giving away our hard earned tax dollars to illegal Haitian migrants that further encouraged Haitians to invade our country!

"We the people" had NOTHING to do with causing the Haitian invasion! We need to pull our heads out of our backsides and hold these useless, unscrupulous, self-serving politicians 100% accountable for their actions!