A catastrophic earthquake rocked Haiti this afternoon. The quake measuring
7.3 on the Richter scale struck ten miles southeast of the capital of Port Au
Prince. Destruction is reported as being widespread with reports of the presidential
palace and even a hospital collapsing. There have been no estimates of fatalities
or account of damages but up to 3 million people may have been affected.
And a much weaker quake jolted Guatemala last night. The 4.9 magnitude
quake struck 15 miles southwest of Puerto Barrios in Guatemala, 45 miles west
of San Pedro Sula Honduras, and close enough to rattle Punta Gorda Town. We
also felt it here in Belize City just after 5:00. Francesca Wellington of the
Met Office told us more about it.
Francesa Wellington,
“Near Barrios, about 20 kilometres southwest of Puerto Barrios at
5:30 yesterday evening an earthquake was experienced and the depth that it went
to was 10 kilometres below the surface and the magnitude was 4.9. From calls
that we made in Punta Gorda, people felt it but compared to the last earthquake
it wasn’t as storng.”
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