Haiti razed- 100 000 dead, perhaps more!

A pure disaster with an importance rarely seen has affected the USA’s poorest country. An earthquake of magnitude 7 has hit the island, making more than a hundred thousand victims. Numerous public buildings have collapsed, including the presidential palace. The quake was followed by two aftershocks measuring 5.9 and 5.3. Haiti had not experienced such a devastating earthquake since at least a century, said the American Institute of Geophysics. The quake lasted more than a minute.

A capital disaster

The epicenter was located 10 km underground and a few kilometers from the capital, Port-au-Prince. Two of the nine million people in Haiti live this region. The U.S. ambassador referred to a "major disaster". Many countries, including France, have already offered their assistance to Haiti. Local authorities "have not yet been able to estimate the number of victims dead or wounded, but they believe that the damage caused by the earthquake are huge," said the Daily Santo Domingo. The European Commission revealed having released three million euros for emergency aid to Haiti.

Several buildings, ministries, parliament, hospitals or churches are completely destroyed. The headquarters of the Mission of the UN Stabilization in Haiti (MINUSTAH) has been seriously affected. "Right now, many employees remain missing," said Alain Leroy, head of the UN peacekeeping. "The situation is extremely serious," said Elisabeth Byrs, spokesperson of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Wednesday morning, the Secretary of State for Cooperation, Alain Joyandet announced the dispatch of two aircraft to help the Caribbean island. The latter related that they had no concrete information on French nationals living in Haiti. "Obviously we are worried because there are 1 400 French in total including 1 200 in Port-au-Prince," he said. On board of the aircrafts are found some sixty people, half of them policemen and the other half rescuers and hospital staff. "The planes contain food and the prefectures of Martinique and Guadeloupe are on alert,"  relates the latter.

Solidarity organized on Internet

As news of this disaster broke, several groups have been created on Facebook to help the victims. The community group, Earthquake Haiti, was almost at 10 000 members on Wednesday morning at 9:00. The group "Let's support for Haiti" is for "moral support and information for the Haitians." Hundreds of people were registered a few hours after the first quake. The star of hip-hop, Wyclef Jean, Haitian American, has launched an appeal for donations on Twitter. The fund collected will go to his organization “Yele Haiti”, created to support educational, artistic or sport projects on the island.
 

Tags: Haiti, earthquake, magnitude, solidarity, UN, Richtre scale, emergency aid