2023-06-06 23:36:16
Several dead in a new earthquake in Haiti
An earthquake killed at least four people and injured 36 on Tuesday in western Haiti, Civil Protection announced, as the country was already facing deadly floods.
Damaged homes in Jeremie, after the earthquake that hit western Haiti on June 6, 2023.
AFP
The earthquake, of magnitude 4.9 according to the American Institute of Geophysics (USGS), occurred shortly after 5:00 a.m. (11:00 a.m. in Switzerland) about 9 km from the coast in the southwestern peninsula of this Caribbean country regularly hit by destructive earthquakes.
In search of survivors
Searches were held during the day to rescue any wounded trapped under the rubble. “Efforts continue to find survivors,” said the Haitian Red Cross. The majority of the victims live in the Sainte Hélène district, a poor district of Jérémie.
“At dawn, I heard a deafening noise. My wife, with a start, asked me to fetch the children from their room. With the help of neighbors, I was able to save the two children, but unfortunately my wife died. The house was completely destroyed. I lost everything,” said a 40-year-old man in his hospital bed, in a video shared by the online media JCOM Haiti.
“We are saddened by the loss of human life, the destruction, as well as by the suffering of the Haitian population caused by the earthquake,” commented in New York Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
Deadly weather
The southwestern peninsula of Haiti had already been devastated in August 2021 by a powerful earthquake of magnitude 7.2 which killed more than 2,200 people and caused the destruction of more than 130,000 homes. In 2010, a magnitude 7 earthquake killed more than 200,000 people in the country. The earthquake had transformed the capital Port-au-Prince into a field of ruins and put 1.5 million people on the streets.
Severe weather also hit the country over the past weekend, leaving at least 51 dead, 18 missing and 140 injured, according to a new report from the Haitian authorities quoted by the UN on Tuesday.
Stéphane Dujarric clarified that the World Food Program was preparing to distribute some 350,000 meals and other food aid “to those who need it most”. But “insecurity and road damage are hampering aid operations,” he said, as the country is plagued by gang violence.
You found an error?Please let us know.
1686095415
#Caribbean #dead #earthquake #Haiti