Haiti on alert
following
announcements of more tremors
Raymundo Gómez Navia,
Special Correspondent
PORT-AU-PRINCE, February 3.— Announcements of
further telluric movements in Haiti and of a greater
magnitude on the Richter scale have interrupted the
population’s attempt to return to normality here and
have provoked panic among inhabitants of this
capital.
Citizens who had begun to return to their
stonework houses some 20 days after the earthquake
moved en masse to parks, football fields and other
sites this Tuesday and slept outside.
According to the U.S. Seismology Institute, on
January 12 in Haiti the epicenter of the earthquake
was situated at a depth of 10 kilometers and just
three kilometers from the Herniquillo fault line.
Port-au-Prince was just 15 kilometers from the
epicenter of the earthquake, thus provoking such
terrible destruction and consequences.
The subsequent aftershocks – frequently
registered in Port-au-Prince and its surroundings,
with an intensity of between 4.4 and 5.9 on the
Richter scale and even reaching 6.1 at one point on
Wednesday, January 20, have kept the capital’s
population who are living in plazas, parks and on
the street on alert, while a growing number are
traveling to other departments of the country. (AIN)
