M 7.2 Earthquake 12 km NE of Saint-Louis du Sud, Haiti | Hacker News Reader

M 7.2 Earthquake 12 km NE of Saint-Louis du Sud, Haiti

earthquake.usgs.gov

161 pointschmaynard79 comments

This video has a good introduction to the 4 tectonic plates affecting Hispaniola: https://www.iris.edu/hq/inclass/animation/hispaniola_earthqu...

Or on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltRpekYp3fU

Wow. Knowing this, I don't think I can live there. Scary.

The video paints ominous picture for DR being due for a 8+ one, right through their most heavily populated area.

This guy seems to be in Les Cayes, Haiti - many photos/videos: https://twitter.com/HBeaucejour

Content warning: recently killed children being pulled from rubble. Seriously heartbreaking stuff. :(

I think the little girl pulled from the rubble off the roof was alive.

Good catch (literally).

Haiti never seems to get a break

It never is going to get it. The only way to "get a break" in their situation is to have infrastructure resistant to it.

As it is, Haiti population is barely aiming at having a shelter. Shelter that can additionally survive powerful earthquake is a luxury right now.

that state of affairs is the product of haiti never getting a break.

This is simplistic thinking.

Japan is also subject to powerful earthquakes and tsunamis and was pretty poor after WW2 (for this discussion it is not important who caused it).

I think it is fair to say that the natural disasters add to the problems but are not sole cause if it.

The comment you're replying to agrees with you.

He may think so, but it is one thing to agree that the disasters are making it hard for Haiti to grow and another to blame disasters as the sole reason for the current situation.

For me at least there is an important distinction.

I will give you an example.

There are children who had really tough childhood. Being extremely poor, having abusive parents, having misfortune, so on. Not their fault.

Some of them grow to be criminals but a lot of them grow to be good people.

"It is one thing to to agree that the childhood abuse made it hard for this kid to grow up to be a good man, and another to think it is the sole reason for his current situation."

The comment you're replying to didn't imply that disasters are the sole reason for the current situation.

Haiti and the surrounding regions are tectonically f'cked, unfortunately.

At least the United States is relatively close by, so humanitarian assistance isn't super far away. I remember the US deploying its hospital ships, among other resources, to assist Haiti in the aftermath of the 2010 quake, under operation 'Unified Response.' [0]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Unified_Response

The problems go deeper than geology, unfortunately.

(Figuratively/literally.)

. o O ( How do they go literally deeper than geology? )

The wormhole to the gamma quadrant exits near Haiti.

I’ve got some self-sealing stem bolts that may help.

That's missing the specific point I was attempting to make.

That may have been my fault.

Haiti gets big earthquakes quite rarely: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_earthquakes_in_Haiti

Before the 2010 disaster, Port-au-Prince had not been hit since 1770.

Normally big earthquakes are extremely rare. In just the last 300 years Port-au-Prince got an 8.0, 7.5, and 7.0 that’s very rapid especially in geologic terms.

Let's hope that relief workers are quarantined this time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010s_Haiti_cholera_outbreak

Hard when large political forces want to keep you down. Evidence suggests the US State Department prevented pay raises to textile workers in Haiti.

https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2016/apr/21/lee-camp/d...

The solution is easy: make immigration easier.

That's the rub. We want to "help" just not like that. Lol.

Not in my backyard, right.

We had the exact same situation in my own country: our government suddenly decided to triple minimum wage, to triple taxes. A lot of small businesses were closed because of this sudden change. We had protests, but they are too late. Sadly, US embassy did not help us.

I never understood the logic behind the claim “X wants to keep Y” down. How does keeping any country “down” benefit anyone? It doesn’t. It hurts society even more.

earthquake..."get a break". Yeah, I see what you did there.

Paul Farmer's "The Uses of Haiti" is a great read about how the US (and other countries) actively prevent Haiti from getting a break: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10234.The_Uses_of_Haiti

Also 6.9 in Alaska

https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/ak021adyci...

Saint-Louis-du-Sud is a town with a population of 59,042.

Google maps has a nice graphic of the location:

https://www.google.com/maps/@18.4261432,-78.3643549,6z/data=...

This person walking down the street sees multiple buildings effected -

https://twitter.com/Haitianaute/status/1426536384127541248

The tweet says it's Les Cayes (Wiki pop: 71,236) where the earthquake hit.

Tsunami of some sort seems to be happening/happened.

https://twitter.com/igandean/status/1426559157868666886/vide...

Receding ocean -

https://twitter.com/Algeria_News_DZ/status/14265548742930636...

Warning seems lifted - https://www.tsunami.gov/?p=PHEB/2021/08/14/21226002/3/WECA41

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