major earthquake struck impoverished Haiti on Tuesday
A major earthquake struck the capital of impoverished Haiti on Tuesday, toppling many buildings and burying hundreds, possibly thousands, of people under the rubble, witnesses said.
The magnitude 7.0 quake, whose epicenter was inland and only 10 miles from Port-au-Prince, sent panic-stricken people into the streets as clouds of dust and smoke from falling buildings rose into the sky.
As offices, hotels, houses and shops collapsed, people were screaming "Jesus, Jesus" and running in all directions. The gleaming white presidential palace lay in ruins, its domes fallen on top of flattened walls.
Bloodied and dazed survivors gathered in the open and corpses were pinned by debris. Numerous powerful aftershocks rattled Port-au-Prince into the night.
The United Nations said a large number of its personnel in Haiti were unaccounted for after a five-story building at the headquarters of the U.N. mission collapsed.
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/12/...
major earthquake struck impoverished Haiti on Tuesday
A major earthquake struck the capital of impoverished Haiti on Tuesday, toppling many buildings and burying hundreds, possibly thousands, of people under the rubble, witnesses said.
The magnitude 7.0 quake, whose epicenter was inland and only 10 miles from Port-au-Prince, sent panic-stricken people into the streets as clouds of dust and smoke from falling buildings rose into the sky.
As offices, hotels, houses and shops collapsed, people were screaming "Jesus, Jesus" and running in all directions. The gleaming white presidential palace lay in ruins, its domes fallen on top of flattened walls.
Bloodied and dazed survivors gathered in the open and corpses were pinned by debris. Numerous powerful aftershocks rattled Port-au-Prince into the night.
The United Nations said a large number of its personnel in Haiti were unaccounted for after a five-story building at the headquarters of the U.N. mission collapsed.
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/12/...