According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), a 7.2 magnitude earthquake rocked Haiti on Saturday.
The agency issued a “red alert” for fatalities, stating that “significant casualties are anticipated” and that the “disaster is likely widespread.”
It anticipated that considerable damage would be “probable” because much of Haiti’s population lives in houses made of mud and adobe that are susceptible to shaking.
Jerry Chandler, Haiti’s director of civil protection, told the AFP news agency, “I can confirm that there are casualties, but I don’t yet have an exact toll.” “We’re still gathering data,” says the narrator.
The quake struck at 8:29 a.m. local time (12:29 a.m. UTC) and was felt in the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and Cuba, which share a land border with Haiti on the island of Hispanola.
The quake’s epicentre occurred at sea, about 8 kilometers (5 miles) from Petit Trou de Nippes, at a depth of 10 kilometers, according to the USGS.
An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.6 was observed in the region by the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC).
Tsunami warnings were issued by the US Tsunami Warning System, but the system afterwards said that “there is no additional threat.”
