Yesterday, at about 5pm, an earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale struck 10 miles west of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. According to Arutz Sheva, a witness reported that thousands of bodies were seen strewn on the streets of the destroyed city. According to that report, every two-story building was flattened and the National Palace had collapsed, though reports filtered through that the president of the country was alive. Haitians throughout the world and the United States have been keeping an anxious watch on events in their home country, as this report from Boston.com attests:
With phone networks disrupted in Haiti, those who got through by cellphone were soon disconnected. And with power outages widespread, once cellphone batteries died, there was no way to charge them.As the local Haitian community awaited word, Raymond Joseph, the Haitian ambassador to the United States in Washington, urged all Haitians to be strong.
According to Arutz Sheva, emergency teams from the United Nations will be arriving on Wednesday to assess the situation. Israel will be joining in the effort to aid the stricken city.
Photos of the events in Haiti can be found at this Twitter site, and at Google, under "Earthquake - Haiti" Twitter reports are coming in regularly. These live images are among the first coming in Haiti, from Sky News via this site.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Ruvy
Thanks for getting this out so quick. The site is from Massacusetts is boston.com not from boston.com. This is a site of the Boston Globe, by the way.
2 - Tom Carter
I've never personally experienced a big earthquake, but I've seen the lingering effects much later in places like Nicaragua and Armenia. Considering the lack of infrastructure in Haiti in the first place, it must be hell on earth down there right now, and they need all the help they can get.
3 - Ruvy
Tom,
Israel, for all of its alleged advances and claims to being a developed nation, does not have any enforcement for an earthquake code to protect its buildings. In fact the head of the local geological association suffered a heart attack while advocating for such a code in Knesset hearings. Some say he suffered that heart attack because of the closed ears of the Knesset members. This, in spite of the fact that this is an earthquake zone (the Temple Mount in Jerusalem covers a series of fault lines running north from Talpiot to French Hill and the Mount of Olives).
A 7.0 earthquake like Port-au-Prince experienced yesterday afternoon, if it were to occur here, would destroy thousands of cheaply built stone buildings and cause the collapse of the Temple Mount altogether. So, I read this stuff and pay careful attention. I'm sure you can figure out that the collapse of the Temple Mount, even if caused by an earthquake, would be an international incident anyway. If it occurred on a Friday morning, with thousands of Muslims listening to yet another Wahabi hate-filled sermon calling on Allah to kill the Jews, it would really set off riots here....
4 - Arch Conservative
I'm surprised the story is being reported so quickly too Ruvy.
The earthquake must have shaken loose some oil.
5 - Ruvy
Heh!! Unless Obama does something stupid, this is going to be a major story in Miami, New York and other places where les haïtiens congregate. Thousands of Haitians have sought to escape the hell that is Haiti to at least have enough food to eat, and some extra money to feed their less fortunate relatives back home.
The fact that this earthquake struck the capital may have massive repercussions politically in the country, if enough of its ruling élite has been killed off.
But more than just Haitians have been affected. About 300 Indians live in Haiti, mostly attached to the UN there, and according to the Press Trust of India there has been no word about them. The UN HQ was destroyed in the quake.
6 - Jeannie Danna
Ruvy,
This is so sad..hopefully you will not get many ignorant responses like #4..
Thank you for the Twitter site..I re-activated my account.
I'll catch you later.
7 - Jeannie Danna
Ruvy,
Unfortunately, What I just saw on that link had nothing to do with Haiti..must have caught it at a bad time...I won't describe it since I know you are a religious man!
look at this link
8 - Ruvy
Thank you for your kind words, Jeannie. Bing, (Arch Conservative) forgets that basic phrase in the news biz: "If it bleeds, it leads". Haiti is bleeding big-time and it's right off America's coast. There is no way the relatively lazy American media will miss this story. In fact, from CBS News, we have this:
GENEVA, Jan. 13, 2010
Red Cross: 3M Haitians Affected by Quake
When I copied the link to this media, there was a breaking story as well: France's foreign minister says U.N. mission chief in Haiti appears to have died.
There you go! Two birds for the price of one stone. This is the perfect kind of story for Laurence Tisch's "infotainment department" to look good with.
Anyway, enough of the snarky remarks about America's lazy media. Israel's is not much better, feeding off official notices like the boys at Pravda and Trud used to. The only investigative reporters this country has all come from either America or Canada, and one of the best ones fled because the Shaba"k (secret police) was trying to kill him off.
Next time I comment, I'll try to stick to the Haitians and the results of the quake. Some serious news should be coming in by now. It's already 08:30 EST. The reporters should be done with their doughnuts and coffee by now....
9 - Jeannie Danna
BING ......how interesting :)
To get back to the subject at hand..it is at times like these that we should all put our petty differences behind us and help those in need.
The collective word 'We' shows that everyone here has something in common.
Humanity
10 - STM
Good reporting Ruve. I saw some pictures today at work that came in on the wires. Not pretty ...
11 - Christine
Ruvy, thanks for this new flash. As someone who has lived on the San Andreas Fault for most of my life, earthquakes scare the shit out of me.
As I watch the news, my heart goes out to the Haitians...what a devastating ordeal.
12 - Ruvy
It looks like the mass media are all over this story like a bad suit. There are way too many links for me to chase around following. Twitter and Facebook are flooded with images and stories about this event.
I sense that if I was fully fluent in French, I'd get a lot more in the line of information. The media out of India (I wrote an article on this for Desicritics, the BC sister site for Desis) all have no information on the Indians stationed or living in Haiti. According to Arutz Sheva, there are three Israelis being searched for in Haiti. There is no word on the 30 Jews believed to be living there.
So, until something significant comes out of this, it's a wrap. I feel terrible for the thousands who have died, and for the tens or hundreds of thousands who mourn them.
May G-d comfort the mourners and watch over the widows and orphans and give them strength to carry on; may G-d heal the wounded and give them a full recovery; may the inhabitants of this land hear no more bad news. They have suffered enough.
13 - Jeannie Danna
Amen Ruvy
May G-d comfort the mourners and watch over the widows and orphans and give them strength to carry on; may G-d heal the wounded and give them a full recovery; may the inhabitants of this land hear no more bad news. They have suffered enough....
14 - Cindy
Thanks for the news, Ruvy.
15 - Ruvy
Good reporting Ruve...
When newspaperman calls your work "good reporting", that is like a gold star! Thanks, Stan!
Jeannie, Cindy, Tom and Bing, thank you all for the kind words.
Now, it's back to my normal beat here in Israel.... sigh
16 - Jeannie Danna
I have a question and i haven't found the answer yet; wasn't there a abnormal amount of seismic activity in the vicinity of Haiti?
Why wasn't there any warning?
another concern of mine right now is...
what's next?
17 - Jeannie Danna
#16
I apologise to all my fellow commentators..that comment was written while my phone was ringing! I usually try to correct my poor grammar and sentence structure before posting..
18 - Ruvy
Jeannie,
What do you want - America?
If an allegedly first world developed country like Israel is unwilling to enforce earthquake protective housing codes knowing the kinds of risks involved, do you seriously think that a country that is little better than a failed state and producer of workers for export can do anything?
There was plenty of warning! A decade's worth! And it fell on the deaf ears of the partying good-time élites who run and ruin Haiti! But now is not the time for recrimination or pointing fingers. There will be plenty of time for that later, when the press trusts have gone away and the few reporters in Haiti are busying themselves with cheap drinks and cheap sex.
19 - Jeannie Danna
Ruvy,
#16 Was asking why? or Did any scientists know yesterday or in the time up to yesterday, that there was activity..or, was there not even a warning of that sort.
I always thought there were rumblings detected before an Earthquake hits.
20 - Dr Dreadful
Jeannie,
Haiti is right on the boundary between the North American and Caribbean Plates and to make matters worse, Port au Prince sits practically on top of the Enriquillo-Plantain Gardens Fault, which runs right across southern Hispaniola and where it is believed the earthquake occurred. The epicentre was only about 10 miles from the capital and was at a shallow depth, hence the scale of the devastation.
Seismologists knew that this particular fault was building up a lot of stress; they just didn't know if it was going to be released in a series of smaller quakes or all at once. I guess they have their answer now.
21 - Jeannie Danna
Doc,
Thank you for your answer. I didn't know anything about the geography of that region.
So, it is really even more upsetting to see that they had almost no infra-structure and lived as one of the most impoverished, over-populated countries in the world...that is what I learned about Haiti today from the news.
22 - Jeannie Danna
Now I've seeneverything...
No man can claim to know the mind of God!
23 - Christine
Ruvy, are you following the latest? CNN...
More than 100,000 feared dead in Haiti quake, officials say
The worst is knowing that there are men, women and children buried under the rubble, crying out for help. The coverage is chilling and it makes me weep.
24 - Ruvy
I read your CNN link.
Christine, I fear that the butcher's bill will be far more than 100,000 souls. When the immediate disaster is over, much of the country will be in total chaos, and there will be many refugees to the Spanish speaking side of Hispaniola, the Dominican Republic. A nation that has an economy in tatters, the United States, will be hard pressed to take in Haitian refugees. So will Brazil, Guyana, Australia and Canada.
I received an e-mail from a friend of mine in the States who has been warning of an apocalyptic future for some time. Here is the relevant portion of his e-mail.
"I haven't spoken with Bro[ther] Bob in about 4 weeks.
I called him at (12 Jan) 4 PM EST (Also this is Washington DC time for my global addressees.)
He told me he had many words from the Lord but wanted to wait until his cold cleared up.
This is what he said in the one minute I talked to him.
He has never been wrong in the 16 years I've known him.
QUOTE: Two Thousand ten
Will try the souls of men
2010 is the end of the beginning
And the beginning of the end. END QUOTE
The quake in Haiti struck about three hours after I talked to Bob."
End of e-mail. Take it as you will. One point. The poster was speaking with 'Brother Bob' either at the same time the quake struck Haiti or one hour before, depending on Haiti's time zone. He must have picked up the news about the quake two or three hours after it occurred.
Now I must turn in. I have to catch a 07:30 bus to Jerusalem tomorrow morning, less than six hours from now. It is after 01:30 here.
Good night from Samaria.
Ruvy
25 - Dr Dreadful
@ #22:
I'm just surprised he beat Fred Phelps to it.