Originally Posted By skinnerbox I'm surprised no one has mentioned this yet. I've been watching CNN for the past ten minutes or so. This one is going to be very ugly, in terms of fatalities.
Originally Posted By imadisneygal According to the USGS the earthquake activity was of the "strike-slip" variety with no vertical displacement. The sorts of earthquakes that cause that displacement are along dip/slip faults so there will likely be no tsunamis associated with this huge quake, but still plenty of damage. Very sad. The USGS is still listing the original quake at 7.0 as of right now, but of course as the information is reviewed that could change.
Originally Posted By skinnerbox Haiti is so populous and most citizens are dirt poor, living in substandard housing. Thousands of Haitians are not going to survive this. Unbelievably tragic.
Originally Posted By DAR Haiti, a place where the citizens have been subjected to jag off regime's running the place.
Originally Posted By Labuda This is just horrible. I'll be keeping the people of Haiti in my prayers.
Originally Posted By Mr X Raw pictures are now coming in via a newly established Facebook account. Warning...EXTREMELY graphic and horrifying. <a href="http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=photos&gid=252988675717" target="_blank">http://www.facebook.com/group....88675717</a>
Originally Posted By dshyates I have a friend that is in Haiti on Mission. She contacted her family around 7pm letting everyone know she is OK. But she is saying the place is absolutely devastated.
Originally Posted By DAR I don't know what the current regime is like. I know in the past they've been corrupt, but I hope the money and supplies get to the people.
Originally Posted By Kala Very sad indeed. Now they will have to deal with the aftershocks that will cause more destruction to buildings that are already weakened by the reported 7.3. I hope we are able to get aid, food, and water to the people of Haiti soon. My thoughts and prayers are with them as they search for survivors and rebuild their homes. I lived on Adak,AK and we had earthquakes register daily at the seismo lab most were so low you couldn't feel them, but we'd have a few 4.0 and up. We had a few 7.0 - 7.2, those seem to go on forever! The aftershocks were amazing they were 6.0 - 6.2 and you could hear them coming. It sounded like a roar of a fast moving train, and then BOOM! it felt like a semi hit your house followed by a whole lot of shakin'. We would pile into the cars and drive up to the mountains because of the tsunami warnings then watch the waves in the bay pull out to sea then come crashing back. We were lucky that none ventured very far inland.
Originally Posted By wahooskipper The real tragedy in all of this is it took a 7.0 earthquake to refocus attention on a country that lives an epic human tragedy every day. People sell (yes, sell) mudpies on the streets to women who would otherwise have nothing to feed their children. There are no easy answers to what is going wrong there but 4 hurricanes in '08 and this earthquake yesterday are all something that country did not need.
Originally Posted By Mr X ***The real tragedy in all of this is it took a 7.0 earthquake to refocus attention on a country that lives an epic human tragedy every day.*** Absolutely. Hopefully the silver lining here will be that Haiti gets the attention and resources they so desperately need in order to somehow start over!
Originally Posted By Sport Goofy ^^ Isn't it amazing that we spend hundreds of billions of dollars "nation-building" in Afghanistan, but have essentially ignored a very close neighbor for decades in our own hemisphere?
Originally Posted By wahooskipper Well, to put it bluntly, they are black, poor, a non-threat and they have no natural resources that we need. For those of you that boohoo religion, Catholic Charities is one of the biggest aide supporters to Haiti.
Originally Posted By wahooskipper * I should have said for those people who boohooo...didn't want to imply I was speaking specifically about those of you involved in the thread right now.
Originally Posted By Mr X I took it in no way directed towards me...but just for the record I DO realize that religious charities of many denominations to a lot of good throughout the world. I certainly wouldn't belittle ANY efforts of people or groups of people trying to help make the world a tiny bit better, rather I applaud it wherever it may take place.
Originally Posted By DAR And the opposite island the Dominican Republic while still poor is a tourist haven.
