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"The area of Kafou is severely affected, is the epicenter of devastation...the population of Port au Prince has just been REDUCED, don't know by about how much. Everyone, rich and poor, built on the mountains, the mountains are down! This is going back to the ground zero. Back to the 1804 beginning." ---a call from Haiti, Jan. 12, 2010 at 6:10pm.***
Award-winning Haitian-American novelist, Edwidge Dandicat and Grammy award winner, Wyclef Jean, speak with CNN (audio) about the earthquake
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Video: Graphic earthquake video footage
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Earthquake photo from Daniel Morel
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Photo of the Cathedral of Port au Prince
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Live Haiti Radio link reporting/streaming on the earthquake************************The US State Department has issued a note with this number 888-407-4747 for information regarding the earthquake
Haiti National Palace collapses (Source: Haitifeed.com, see also HLLN website)
Around
4:53 p.m on January 12, 2010, a massive earthquake, registering 7.0 on
the Richter scale, rocked Haiti, striking just off the heavily
populated Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince. "U.S. Geological Survey
(USGS) geophysicist Kristin Marano called it the strongest earthquake
since 1770 in what is now Haiti." (See, AP report - Quake devastates Haiti, many casualties feared)
Here is Ezili's HLLN current information, as of Tuesday evening:
The General Hospital in Port-au-Prince is down
The National Palace collapsed - palè a kraze!
President Renee Preval and his wife escaped injury.
The headquarters of the U.N. peacekeeping mission collapsed
No one knows how many dead or injured
Report from an HLLN member who was on the phone to Haiti, told us that: "The road to Delmas 60 has collapsed down the mountain burying many homes. The people are screaming for help. Down the hill closer to Teleco there are a lot of UN troops on the street but that many of the roads are blocked with debris from collapsed homes..."
The earthquake was quickly followed by two strong aftershocks of an initial magnitude of 5.9 and 5.5. Reports indicate more than 30 aftershock earthquakes shattered Haiti and still more reverberating as, one person said, "things are just trembling, crumbling and falling down."
The aftershocks were major earthquakes in and of themselves.
Other areas of Haiti around the capital, especially the South, suffered heavy damage also. A Haitian in shock told HLLN, "in Au Cayes, the ocean has entered the city."
People, say, the sky is clouded with dust -pousyè - dust, everywhere.
Obama is offering to send in military/rescue troops and humanitarian aid.
