Haiti’s civil protection agency says at least 227 people were killed and hundreds are injured and missing after a major earthquake struck the country on Saturday.
A major earthquake struck southwestern Haiti on Saturday morning, likely causing “high casualties” and widespread disaster, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said, and sending shock waves across the Caribbean, where people fled their homes for fear they might collapse.
The 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck eight kilometres from the town of Petit-Trou-de-Nippes, about 150 km west of the capital Port-au-Prince, at a depth of 10 km, the USGS said.
That made the earthquake bigger and more shallow than the magnitude-7 earthquake that struck Haiti 11 years ago, killing an estimated 250,000 people, flattening buildings and leaving many homeless in what was already the poorest nation in the Americas.
This one — which occurred at about 8:30 a.m. local time — hit farther away from the capital, however. In Port-au-Prince, it was strongly felt but did not appear to have caused major damage, according to Reuters witnesses, meaning there will likely be fewer fatalities than the devastating 2010 disaster.
The USGS issued a “red” alert for the earthquake, which it says means “high casualties are probable and the disaster is likely widespread.” According to the USGS, fatalities in red alert quakes are estimated to be in the thousands.
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