image courtery of Yahoo News

If an earthquake in Haiti is felt as far away as Cuba, you know that it’s one strong quake.  That’s what hit the island at 2153 GMT today.  Buildings went down in a hurry and panic spread in a moment.  Among the buildings destroyed during the earthquake are the presidential palace and the UN building at the capital of Haiti, Port-au-Prince.

It is now stated that that was a 7.0 magnitude earthquake that hit the island.  With that strength, the quake easily tore down buildings trapping hundreds of victims.  Scientists stated that the quake happened when the Caribbean plate moved eastward away from the North America plate.  It was the strongest quake in 200 years to hit the Caribbean island.

After the disaster struck, there was pandemonium as victims were not readily responded to.  This is because communications went down minutes after the quake.  Volunteers though are working through the night to help free people from under the wreckage of buildings.  Since the earthquake struck at 5 pm local time, it is hard to pinpoint how many people were still on buildings that are confirmed to have collapsed.

Latest reports from the country had large numbers of UN staff missing.  This is just the early reports coming in and it is expected that as many as thousands are homeless and hundreds have already died.  Calling it a catastrophe of major proportions is apt and that’s exactly what Haiti’s Ambassador to the United States Raymond Alcide Joseph said.

In the face of this disaster, people were seen gathering in public squares late into the night.  Some were seen singing hymns and weeping.  Another reason why people are coming out in droves is that aftershocks can still be felt and the fear of being buried by buildings that might collapse due to the aftershocks.