Haitians flee in fear as big aftershock hits
Thursday, January 21st, 2010
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – A frightening new aftershock Wednesday forced more earthquake survivors onto the capital’s streets to live and sent others fleeing to the countryside, where aid was only beginning to reach wrecked towns.
A flotilla of rescue vessels, meanwhile, led by the U.S. hospital ship Comfort, converged on Port-au-Prince harbor to help fill gaps in still-lagging global efforts to deliver water, food and medical help. Hundreds of thousands of survivors of Haiti’s cataclysmic earthquake were living in makeshift tents or on blankets and plastic sheets under the tropical sun.
The strongest tremor since the Jan. 12 quake struck at 6:03 a.m., just before sunrise while many still slept. From the teeming plaza near the collapsed presidential palace to a hillside tent city, the 5.9-magnitude aftershock lasted only seconds but panicked thousands of Haitians.
“Jesus!” they cried as rubble tumbled and dust rose anew from government buildings around the plaza. Parents gathered up children and ran. (more…)
