Devastation in Haiti
On January 12, 2010, the small, Caribbean country, already filled with poverty, was devastated by a 7.0 earthquake on the Richter scale. The center of the earthquake was about 10 miles from Haiti’s capital, Port-Au-Prince. Almost 2 million people have been affected by this disaster, with 250,000 injured, 1.5 million homeless, and the death toll estimated at 200,000. There is a cloud of dust hovering over Port-Au-Prince. Hospitals are collapsed, homes and lives are destroyed, and thousands are lying dead in the streets or are struggling to stay alive under the rubble. A few miles north of Port-Au-Prince in the countryside, there are giant holes dug for serving as makeshift graves, as big as 20 feet deep, 20 feet wide, and 100 feet long. The bodies are piling up and this is only some of the evidence of the destruction that took place. “They bury you like a dog,” says Pegles Fleurigine, age 51, a citizen of Haiti. The sick and injured are being treated at a building still standing, the Matthew 25 Guest House, where medical supplies and big pots of soup are waiting for the people who really need it. It’s really fortunate that this building it still functioning, because most of the hospitals are now heaps of debris and people are going to die of hunger or dehydration. Says Mr. Bob Poff, who was in his truck when the earthquake hit, “The truck began to shake violently from side to side, so much so that I thought we were going to go off the side of the mountain and I didn’t know what was going on. Then when it stopped I looked out the window and I saw the buildings pancaking down, one on top of the other into powder and dust.”
On January 20, 2010, at 6:03 AM, only 8 days after the country and its people were devastated by the previous earthquake that shook Port-Au-Prince, there was a massive aftershock of 6.1 on the Richter scale. It took place about 35 miles away from Port-Au-Prince, thankfully not close enough to the Caribbean Sea to cause any tidal waves. The people of Haiti are in serious trouble. Their capital is nearly destroyed and resources are scarce. People are still being pulled out of the rubble, with few alive. Keep the people of Haiti in your prayers and thoughts, and just try to imagine what they’ve been through, and the problems they are still facing. I don’t think anyone at Aurora Central has had their entire life destroyed by an earthquake, left starving, dehydrated, and homeless, even buried by the debris of your own home. No hospitals left standing to treat you, no proper funeral for the loved ones you have lost. So be thankful for what you have before it’s gone, because as you can see, everything can be lost in an instant.
