At least 3 dead, others injured in Haiti earthquake
Port-au-Prince, Jun 6 (EFE).- At least three people died and an unknown number of others were injured in the magnitude-4.9 earthquake that hit southwestern Haiti on Tuesday morning.
The hospitals in the city of Jeremie, in Grand’Anse department, are filled with the injured and a call for more ambulances to transport them has been issued, according to reporting by local media.
It is likely that the number of victims will rise given that, according to videos circulating on the social networks, operations to find people trapped in the ruins of homes and buildings are under way.
The head of Haiti’s Civil Protection department, Jerry Chandler, told local media that the epicenter of the quake was located in Grand’Anse and that disaster response personnel are evaluating the situation and the damage wrought by the temblor.
According to the US Geological Survey, the quake struck Haiti at 5:11 am and its epicenter was located 9 kilometers (about 6 miles) from Les Abricots, 320 km (198 mi.) from the capital of Port-au-Prince and near Jeremie.
The quake caused panic in a country that in recent days has been lashed by heavy rainstorms that have caused flooding and landslides that have killed 42 people, according to the latest tally by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
In August 2021, a magnitude-7 quake shook southern Haiti, including Grand’Anse, killing more than 2,300 people and leaving considerable damage in its wake.
On Jan. 12, 2010, a magnitude-7.2 temblor killed more than 200,000 people in Haiti and left more than 1.3 million homeless in the already poverty-stricken country, a situation that evolved into a crisis on all levels of government and society and that now has been further aggravated by ongoing clashes among armed gangs and other criminal groups.
EFE –/bp
