A Destructive Earthquake Hits West Haiti

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A destructive 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck west Haiti this morning at 8:30 am local time. Starting from Petit Trou de Nippes, which is 150 km west of the capital, Port-au-Prince, the earthquake reaped as deep as 10 km into the earth. 

Gran Ri Vil Jeremie pic.twitter.com/RBPStzMOxE

— JCOM Haïti (@JCOMHaiti) August 14, 2021

The earthquake was felt across the Caribbean - including in Jamaica and Cuba - and it has lead people to flee their homes in fear that they'd collapse. Luckily, the US Tsunami Warning System stated that there are no signs of a tsunami threat following the earthquake. 

The little island has experienced an earthquake of similar magnitude in 2010, which killed an estimated 200,000 people, injured over 300,000, and displaced one and a half million. Haiti, going through difficult times with the recent assassination of president Jovenel Moise, is still recovering from the traumatic 2010 disaster.

Reducing hotels, homes, and churches to dirt and rubble, the preliminary death toll according to Haiti's Civil Protection service stood at 227, and the current acting president, Ariel Henry, declared a month-long state of emergency. 

"I saw bodies being pulled out of the rubble, injured and perhaps dead people," said Jean Marie Simon, 38, who was in a shop when the disaster struck and ran home to check on his family. "I heard cries of pain everywhere I passed through."

"I was inside my house when it started shaking, I was near the window and I saw everything falling," said Cristella San Helier, 21. "A piece of the wall fell on my back, but I was not seriously injured," she said, noting that "several houses were completely destroyed."

Since the 2010 disaster, along with political crises, Haiti has not been able to undergo proper recovery and reconstruction.