On Tuesday, an earthquake struck areas of western Haiti, leaving at least three people dead and more than twenty others injured, according to civil protection officials.
According to the US Geological Survey, the 4.9-magnitude earthquake struck at a depth of only 10 kilometers in the remote Grand’Anse department, some 300 kilometers (185 miles) west of Port-au-Prince.
“As a partial toll, we have already recorded three deaths.
They are members of the same family and were killed when their house collapsed,” Christine Monquele, head of civil protection in Grand’Anse, said to AFP on Tuesday.
The search for “other possible casualties” was underway, she added, adding that Monquele’s office had recorded 28 injuries.
A few days prior to the earthquake, Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, was severely hit by powerful storms that left at least 42 people dead and 11 more missing, according to the Civil Protection Services.
It occurred near the shore of the southern peninsula of the Caribbean country, which is frequently shaken by catastrophic earthquakes, just after 5:00 a.m. (0900 GMT).
A devastating 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti in 2010 and left more than 200,000 people dead, 1.5 million homeless, and Port-au-Prince in ruins.
An even more powerful earthquake with a magnitude of 7.2 devastated the southwest peninsula in August 2021, killing more than 2,200 people and destroying 130,000 dwellings.
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