Disastrous Quake & Haiti:

[Port-au-Prince (Haiti)]

A major earth quake rocked Haiti with a magnitude as powerful as 7.0, killing thousands of people as it toppled the presidential palace laying in ruins, the five-storey UN building in rubbles and hillside shanties alike and left the Caribbean nation appealing for international help. The capital, Port-au-Prince, showed scenes of chaos on the streets with people sobbing and appearing dazed amid the rubble. Witnesses reported people screaming “Jesus, Jesus” running into the streets as offices, houses, hotels and shops collapsed. Catastrophe has left affected regions with little infrastructure.

News of Miracle:

 Two girls are found alive under Haiti earthquake rubbles- a miracle. It was another miracle, the desperate five-hour struggle by a team of British firefighters to pull a two-year –old girl from the rubble. The hysterical toddler, called Mia, had been rescued before her last breathing as she was trapped under the ruins of the building for three days. The joy exceeded the boundary when the little girl was reunited with her mother. The magnitude of the tragedy is so sever that the estimated death in the earthquake might have exceeded 200,000 people, making it the worst disaster the UN has ever had to deal with. The pathetic site is seen when trucks piled with corpses headed for mass graves outside Port-au-Prince but thousands more bodies were believed to be still buried under the rubble.

[Crisis of Survival]

In a period of crisis of survival, it is not unlikely that human beings lost senses and turned to be inhuman. This is the reason the Gangs of armed men roamed the devastated city, a peaceful city turned into a field of looting and fighting among fellow brothers. This is found in the city of Haiti where men with stones, knives, ice picks and hammers battle each other.

[Tremor]       

An earthquake is nothing but a tremor due to the cause of sudden release of energy in the Earth’s crust that creates seismic waves. Seismometer is an instrument by dint of which the magnitude of the seismic wave is measured in Richter scale. The magnitude of 3 or below is reported to be normal but if it is nearing 7 it causes serious damage over a large areas depending upon its epicenter. The shaking of Earth’s surface causes the rupture of buildings and sometimes causes to displace the ground. If the epicenter is located offshore, the seabed sometimes suffers sufficient displacement to cause a tsunami. The shaking of Earth can also trigger lands and occasionally volcanic activity. Earthquakes are caused mostly by rupture of geological faults which requires intense study.

Causes of Earth’s Quake:

Tectonic earth quake can occur anywhere within the earth where there is sufficiently stored strain energy to drive fracture propagation along a fault plane. It is a question to study whether the intense construction in a small region of Haiti has blocked the release of elastic stored energy on the Earth’s surface. This energy might have released by cracking of the interior rock causing the seismic waves. It also brings the question in front that the heavy construction in a small region will cause any blockage in the release of interior energy of the Earth’s surface.

[US, Secretary]

In the period of scarcity and crisis, the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Clinton arrived in the capital Port-au-Prince on a US Coast Guard transport Plane carrying bottled water, package food, soap and other supplies to see personally on the spot the damage and the conditions of the people there and to take necessary steps – a courageous and bold step for the cause of humanity. Clinton listens to the concerns of Haiti President Rene Preval outside the police station that is being temporally set up as the home and office of the President in view of the collapse of the Presidential Palace. In absence of government buildings, ministers have set up their offices in the open air in a circle of plastic chairs. Mrs. Clinton had been communicated with the update on earthquake relief efforts. On the question of reporters, Mrs. Clinton said she wants to “listen to him, to be sure we are responsive as we need to be”.

Red Cross in the Service of Crisis:

The American Red Cross promised to send $500,000 in emergency funding, and dispatch local volunteers to assess the situation. The organization said “As with most earthquakes, we expect to see immediate needs for food, water, temporary shelter, medical services and emotional support”. President Barack Obama said the US is moving towards one of the largest relief efforts in its history. UN, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement “At this time of tragedy, I am very concerned for the people of Haiti and also for the many United Nations staff who serve there”.