Earthquake in Haiti: "We are not spared a catastrophe"

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Thousands of people on the streets: Destroyed house in Les Cayes, Haiti

Photo: Joseph Odelyn / AP

At 8:29 am on Saturday morning, the dreaded rumble in the earth was back for a few seconds, followed by undulations of the ground that heralded the cracking of the concrete.

Shortly afterwards, buildings collapsed in southwest Haiti and hundreds of people buried under them.

A 7.2 quake had shaken the region without warning.

According to a preliminary assessment by the "National System for Disaster Protection," 304 people died in the accident and 1,800 were injured, the authorities announced.

The tremors destroyed 899 houses and damaged 729, including churches, hospitals, schools and hotels.

Memories of the quake of the century

The tremors triggered panic and memories of the quake of the century in 2010, in which around 200,000 people died, especially in the capital Port-au-Prince. This time the earthquake shook the southwestern parts of the poor island state, where two to three million people live. The departments of Nippes, Grande 'Anse and Sud, a good 250 kilometers from Port-au-Prince, were particularly hard hit. The epicenter was located around twelve kilometers from the village of Saint-Louis du Sud at a depth of ten kilometers. The cities of Jérémie, Les Cayes and Les Anglais are hardest hit. The quake could also be felt in the neighboring Dominican Republic and in Cuba.

Experts expected numerous more victims in the coming hours and days: "We fear that the number of deaths will rise significantly," said the country director of Welthungerhilfe in Haiti, Annalisa Lombardo, to SPIEGEL.

The US earthquake monitoring station USGS warned that the death toll could run into the thousands.

"High casualties and major damage are likely," the USGS explained, triggering a "red alert" accordingly.

Broad international aid is presumably necessary.

Tropical storm to hit earthquake region

US President Joe Biden expressed his condolences to the Haitian government and the people and promptly approved emergency aid to the affected region. Haiti's new Prime Minister, Ariel Henry, flew over the southwest on Saturday afternoon and described the situation as "dramatic." He declared a state of emergency in Haiti for a month. "We will do everything we can to help the people affected in the region," he then wrote on the short message service Twitter.

Haiti, which shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic, has been hit by natural disasters for many years.

Earthquakes like the one in 2010 and severe cyclones have repeatedly set the country back in its development, destroyed arable land and triggered floods.

A tropical storm is also forecast for the coming days in the south-west of Haiti, which was hit by the earthquake.

Hurricane Grace could collapse damaged houses and make rescue work impossible.

In addition, the island state, which is one of the poorest in the world, is repeatedly shaken by political violence.

Just over a month ago, the controversial President Jovenel Moïse was presumably shot by hired mercenaries at night in his residence.

The fact remains unresolved to this day.

"First the murder, now the tremor"

"We are really not spared a catastrophe," says Richard Widmaier, head of the Métropole news radio in Port-au-Prince. "First the murder, now the tremor." It is difficult to get reliable information about the extent of the damage in the destroyed region because there are few reporters on site. "In addition, the gangs that control large parts of the country are making the situation more difficult," Widmaier emphasized to SPIEGEL. "They block the road in Martissant at the Port-au-Prince exit and, according to our information, hardly let anyone through, not even aid deliveries." A truck has already been kidnapped. So it is hardly possible to bring the wounded from the southwest for medical treatment to Port-au-Prince.

Haiti is America's poor house.

Sixty percent of the eleven million people there live in misery, and a quarter live in extreme poverty.

According to aid organizations, 4.4 million Haitians run the risk of falling into so-called food insecurity.

A natural disaster like the earthquake on Saturday increases the need even more.

Capital spared from collapsing

Shortly after the accident, pictures and video snippets of the first impressions of the disaster were circulating on social networks.

Shaky films can be seen of completely dusty streets, of people screaming in panic, of men and women digging under rubble to rescue people who have been buried.

You can see partially or completely collapsed multi-storey buildings, half-destroyed churches.

Shortly after the accident, the few hospitals in the region were overwhelmed by the onslaught of the injured and wounded.

Fortunately, the capital was spared worse this time.

"The buildings shook, people ran into the streets in a panic, but as far as you can see at first, no buildings collapsed here," said Annalisa Lombardo from Welthungerhilfe.

Thousands of people on the streets

Haiti's chief seismologist Claude Prepetit was surprised at the severity of the quake. The southwest of the country is usually not as prone to earthquakes as other parts of Haiti. "There was absolutely nothing to indicate a quake beforehand, especially not of this strength," says Prepetit. If the magnitude of 7.2 is confirmed, the tremors this time were even more violent than those of January 12, 2010. At that time the quake was 7.0, but the epicenter was closer to the earth's surface.

However, the disaster struck Haiti at a time when thousands of people are usually out on the streets, on their way to work or to the market to do their shopping. "There are also terrible emotions," says Richard Widmaier. The terrible images from 2010 immediately came to people's minds again. "It's an extremely difficult situation," says the radio boss. He himself had survived the quake in Port-au-Prince eleven years ago.