Haiti earthquake, let us pray.

The land that fell into ruins.

 

Cold hard facts:

Place: Haiti (full name, Republic of Haiti)
* 15 km from Port-au-Prince, capital of Haiti

Date: 12th January 2010, Tuesday

Time: 16.43 local time
Magnitude of earthquake: 7.0MW (9 being highest)
Depth of earthquake: 13km

 

A summary from all the news I’ve been reading (forgive me if I wrote anything inaccurate)

Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere, most Haitians live on less than USD $2 a day. Aside poverty, Haiti had 4 hurricanes and storms in 2008 that took away hundreds of lives. But it was far from over, the earthquake was another major catastrophe for Haiti and it’s people.

The Presidential Place, which was the most beautiful building of Port-au-Prince, crumbled under the worst earthquake to hit the country in 200 years. So did the main jail, the National Assembly Building and the Port-au-Prince Cathedral. The hospitals are crushed and abandoned. Airports are still on function, receiving help and aid from the world.

 

There were 14 after shocks, ranging from 5.0 to 5.9 MW. Prime Minister believes there are more than 100, 000 deaths. Red Cross fears more than 3 million are affected by the havoc. 200 UN staff, including peacekeepers are unaccounted for. Already 14 UN staff are dead and 56 injured. Bodies are piled in the streets. Haitians wandering at loss, lifting white sheets, searching for loved ones.  Troy Livesay a blogger says “Thousands of people are currently trapped, to guess at a number would be like guessing at raindrops in the ocean” “Objects were falling from the shelves, there was debris crashing all around. I cling on to the babies and shielded them as best I could” says Susan Westwood, a nurse from Port-au-Prince orphanage.

 

Briana says:
If you are interested to know more, I recommend BBC’s special reports.

If you believe in god, pray to him. If you don’t, then pray to the universe.

Our brothers and sisters from Haiti will need a lot of spirit if they are to overcome this latest blow to their nation.

If you have time, please read below:

“There is a body lying outside L'Hopital de la Paix in Port-au-Prince - but it is the sight that awaits you inside the hospital grounds that is most alarming.

 

It is as if a massacre has been perpetrated here.

 

Dirty white sheets cover some of the dead, others lie out in the open, some, their limbs entwined with another's.

 

Many are the bodies of adults, but here to the right, a baby on her back, her belly bloated and pronounced.

 

She is wearing a silvery blue top, just lying by the curb, abandoned.

 

A man stirs to the left. He unfurls a blanket that covers the ground and lies back down.

 

The living are sleeping among the dead.

 

Nearby, still outside, a woman lies on a hospital bed. Like many she is too scared of aftershocks to stay inside.

 

That is why they are here, out under the dark, star-filled sky.

 

Echoes of pain

A man with wide eyes stares at a passing stranger.

The site of the MSF aid agency has become a makeshift hospital

A relative moves to lift the sheet covering his two broken legs, as if there was any need to emphasize the suffering here.

 

A woman lies on an unfolded cardboard box. There is a pool of her blood slowly collecting below her waist.

 

She needs help - so does everyone. The screams and whimpers of those in pain echo down the corridors.

 

There are few doctors, little medicine.

 

One woman, a German it seems, says she has just stopped by to help. Her house, she says, was also damaged.

 

A doctor gives her a small vial and she works her way gingerly over the other injured people to a man she has been trying to help.

 

It is clear many brought to the hospital with injuries have since died here.

One man with tears in his eyes pointed to his young daughter lying on the dirty tiled floor.

 

She has two broken legs and a large gash in her head. Her sister is already dead.

 

Nothing left

"Ca va?" her father asks. "Oui," she replies softly - but she is not okay.

 

In pockets there is barely anything left of this city, and so far the people are largely having to cope on their own.

Hundreds of corpses are lying in the streets of Port-au-Prince

 

Overnight a rumour went round of an approaching tsunami.

 

Hundreds, it seemed, rushed from the coast and they came along dark, unlit streets carrying a few possessions.

 

There was no tsunami of course, but it showed how scared and alone the people feel.

 

Many are thought to remain trapped underneath the larger buildings that collapsed and Haiti has little in the way of heavy lifting equipment to reach them.

 

The leadership here says tens of thousands of people have been killed.

Some of the UN peacekeepers stationed here are among the dead.

This country, so often in the past forgotten by the world, now needs its help more than ever.

 

So, too, does another little girl lying on a table at the hospital. She stirs a little, almost looks asleep.

 

It is not, though, a peaceful sleep - and by dawn she could well be dead.”

Above was A report by Matthew Price.