Associated Press
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Hundreds of houses that survived Haiti’s killer quake still stand empty even as quake victims desperate for shelter crowd the streets. The reason is fear: Nobody is quite sure they can withstand another quake.
At least 54 aftershocks have shuddered through Haiti’s shattered capital since a Jan. 12 quake killed more than 200,000 people. They have toppled weakened buildings faster than demolition crews can get to them, sending up new clouds of choking dust. On Monday, three children were killed when a school collapsed in the northern city of Cap-Haitien. It wasn’t clear what caused the collapse, which occurred after a late-night tremor and heavy rains.
“I tried sleeping in the house for a night, but an aftershock came and I ran outside,” said Louise Lafonte, 36, who beds down with her family of five in a tent beside her seemingly intact concrete house. “I’m not going inside until the ground calms down.”
That may be a while. Seismologists say more damaging aftershocks are likely and there’s even a chance of another large quake following quickly after the initial catastrophe in the capital of 3 million people.
In 1751, a large quake hit the island that Haiti shares with the Dominican Republic. About a month later, another one destroyed Port-au-Prince.
A magnitude-7.4 quake that killed more than 18,000 people in northwestern Turkey in 1999 was followed three months later by another of magnitude-7.2 only 60 miles from the initial epicenter.
“There are many other examples like that of two significant earthquakes following each other,” said Eric Calais, a geophysicist at Purdue University who said he warned the Haitian government two years ago that the country was vulnerable to a major quake.
The prospect of another quake is on the minds of planners trying to rebuild the country and on those trying to prevent more deaths.
U.N. inspectors have advised people to stay away from dozens of structures.
At least 15 of the aftershocks near the original epicenter have registered at least magnitude-5.
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Power outage impedes release of Americans
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Haiti’s creaky, quake-damaged electrical system apparently delayed on Monday a judge’s decision on whether to release 10 Americans charged with child kidnapping.
Prosecutor Josephe Manes Louis told The Associated Press that he completed his recommendation to the judge, as the law requires, but that a power outage Monday kept him from printing it out and delivering it.
“I have made my decision,” he said. “What is blocking me now is the electricity.” Power has only been restored to about one-fifth of Port-au-Prince.
But even before the earthquake only one in four Haitians had power and, on average, any given capital neighborhood only had 10 hours of power a day.
Because Tuesday is a national holiday — Mardi Gras — Louis said he did not expect the judge to issue a decision until Wednesday morning.
Neither Louis nor Judge Bernard Saint-Vil would say whether a provisional release would allow the group to leave the country while an investigation continues.
Saint-Vil told the AP on Thursday he would recommend the Americans be granted provisional release.
The Americans were arrested on Jan. 29 trying to take 33 children out of Haiti. They say they were on humanitarian mission and only wanted to help children after the Jan. 12 earthquake.
— Associated Press
