According to initial information from the authorities, several people were killed in a severe earthquake in Haiti.
Haiti – A more precise death toll is not yet available, said civil protection chief Jerry Chandler today the AFP news agency. The national crisis team is activated.
A tsunami warning was issued, but was canceled a little later. According to the USGS earthquake monitoring station, the tremor this morning (local time) had a magnitude of 7.2. It happened near the parish of Saint-Louis-du-Sud.
Houses destroyed
The quake was felt across the country. According to videos on the Internet, homes, churches and schools were damaged in various locations. According to reports, numerous houses were also said to have been destroyed by the quake. The exact extent of the damage was still unclear.
The tremor could also be felt in the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, and panicked the population, as the Dominican newspaper “Diario Libre” reported.
In January 2012, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake in Haiti killed more than 200,000 people and injured over 300,000 others. Around 1.5 million people became homeless.
Land remains unstable
The damage from the quake was estimated at eight billion US dollars (6.2 billion euros). Reconstruction got off to a slow start, also due to the political instability. Haiti’s President Jovenel Moise was assassinated in July. He was ambushed and shot dead by a heavily armed commando at his residence.
An earthquake of magnitude 7.2 on the Richter scale just shook Haiti this Saturday, August 14, 2021 around 8:30 am according to the American Center for Seismology. Damage was immediately recorded in the towns of Jérémie and Les Cayes. pic.twitter.com/7o0XlnApD4
— REAL OT7 TAEHYUNG DAY💚💜go see BTS someday💜 (@Ich18150749) August 14, 2021
