An earthquake hit Virginia and Washington D.C. at a magnitude of 5.9 earlier this afternoon around 2 p.m.. Residents in New York City said they felt several tremors earlier this afternoon.

There were no immediate reports of damage.

It is not clear how far the earthquake spread, but tremors were felt throughout New York City office buildings and as far north as Concord, N.H.

The movement lasted no more than 30 seconds in downtown Washington.

Read more at NYTimes

Look here for more details on the earthquake.

Earthquakes?! We usually only expect to hear about these on the West Coast. Its been quite sometime since the word “earthquake” was muttered on this side of the country but, today was a different story. An earthquake hit Maryland and here’s what Hot Indie News reported:

Maryland- A 3.6-magnitude earthquake struck near the Gaithersburg, Maryland, area just after 5 a.m. ET Friday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The center of the quake was about 20 miles northwest of Washington, the USGS said.

The earthquake was the largest in the area since 1974 — and the first registering above 3.0 on the Richter scale there in that time period, said Amy Vaughan, a geophysicist at the USGS National Earthquake Information Center.

“This is a significant event for the region,” she said.

About an hour after the quake, Vaughan said more than 5,500 people had reported feeling it across Maryland, in nearby Washington, and in states including West Virginia, Virginia, Delaware.

“It was really loud, like a plane flying really low. I had never felt anything like it,” said Anne Ngunjiri, 30, of Gaithersburg. “I was jolted out of bed. All my neighbors woke up. After it passed, I thought it could be an earthquake, and lay in bed hoping there were no aftershocks.”

Until Friday, the largest earthquake recorded within a 75-kilometer (about 47 miles) radius of Gaithersberg since 1974 was a 2.7-magnitude quake in 1993, Vaughan said.

But geologically speaking, she said it was “not completely unexpected” for a 3.6-magnitude quake to hit there.

“Occasionally these things do happen even east of the Rockies, even though it’s not really on a plate boundary where we expect earthquakes… Faults do exist from when the continent was forming. There are small faults that do exist within this area,” she said.

Vaughan said major structural damage was unlikely, but people may experience aftershocks for the next day, or even a week or two after the quake.

Washington’s Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency said no injuries or property damage had been reported.

The last earthquake in Maryland occurred on October 8, 2007, according to the USGS website. It was a 1.7-magnitude quake about 5 miles northwest of Baltimore. For more information click here!

VIA CNN:

A rapid series of strong earthquakes hit a mountainous and impoverished area of China’s Qinghai province early Wednesday, killing 589 people, state-run media said, quoting local quake relief headquarters.

At least 10,000 others were injured, the Xinhua news agency reported, and many victims, including school children, were buried under debris. Rescuers were struggling to clear debris with their hands and save those trapped below.

A 6.9-magnitude earthquake, as measured by the U.S. Geological Survey, struck at 7:49 a.m. local time (7:49 p.m. ET Tuesday), when many citizens were still at home and schools were beginning the day. The USGS also recorded several strong aftershocks — one of magnitude 5.8 — all within hours of the initial quake.

The epicenter was in remote and rugged terrain, about 150 miles (240 kilometers) northwest of Qamdo, Tibet. Qinghai borders the autonomous regions of Tibet and Xingjiang and the provinces of Gansu and Sichuan.

Karsum Nyima, deputy director of news at local Yushu TV, told Xinhua that most of the houses in the area were made of wood with earthen walls. He said some had come tumbling down, including a Buddhist pagoda in a park.

Read more here.

VIA CBSNEWS:

First Lady Michelle Obama has landed in Haiti for an unannounced visit to the country still struggling to recover following a 7.0 magnitude earthquake on January 12th.

Accompanied by Dr. Jill Biden, the wife of Vice President Joe Biden, the first lady touched down in Port-au-Prince Tuesday at 10:40 am local time. They took a helicopter tour of the city upon their arrival. More than a million people are currently homeless in the Haitian capital.

The two women will spend the day in Haiti before continuing on to Mexico City.

“First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden are visiting Haiti to underscore to the Haitian people and the Haitian government the enduring U.S. commitment to help Haiti recover and rebuild, especially as we enter the rainy and hurricane seasons, and to thank the women and men across the whole of the U.S. government for their extraordinary efforts in Haiti during the past three months,” the White House said in a statement released when the delegation arrived.

“They will also reach out to the UN and international relief communities in recognition of the truly global effort underway to help Haiti,” continued the statement.

Source

VIA THE WASHINGTON POST:

PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI — It was always hard to be old in Haiti, but after the earthquake, to be old and poor feels like a curse, say those who are both.

“We struggle to maintain a little dignity, but look at us,” said Lauranise Gedeon, who sat, embarrassed, in soiled sheets in the ruins of a municipal nursing home here in the capital.

Residents were bathed outdoors with a bucket, trying to cover their nakedness. They spent the long, hot afternoons in hospital beds lined up side by side, six to a tent, fanning themselves with pieces of cardboard. They begged for water to drink.

“No water today. We are waiting. We are waiting for medicines, for the doctors, for God to help us,” said nurse Yolette François. “I am serious. These old people have a lot of troubles.”

Her patients, about 80 men and women, were scooping rice and beans from dented metal bowls. Asked what they need most, one resident said, “Something for the flies.” Another complained that her spoon had been stolen and held up her fingers, sticky with food. “Look!”

The nurse whispered, “We have run out of diapers for them.”

In Haitian Creole, the old are called “gran moun,” and they are relatively few. Those 65 and older make up just 3.4 percent of Haiti’s population, compared with 13 percent in a developed country such as the United States, because to attain such seniority in a nation beset by high infant mortality, curable diseases, AIDS and poverty is an accomplishment.

But in the weeks after the catastrophic Jan. 12 earthquake, the elderly appear to be forgotten.

“They are invisible, and we need to do more to help,” said Ronald Blain, a Haitian government official working for the U.N. Human Settlements Program. “Because they are desperate.”

This week, a working group of U.N. experts has been created to look into the situation of Haitians with disabilities, especially the elderly, who have been disproportionately affected by the disaster.

In a statement, the chairman of the U.N. committee, Mohammed al-Tarawneh, said that, “while relief workers are struggling to provide aid to the people of Haiti and while the situation remains difficult for everyone, persons with disabilities are particularly affected by the crisis,” especially those whose caregivers were killed or injured.

The elderly hobble through the daily chaos of Port-au-Prince, forced into rubble piles by speeding convoys of aid workers in their big white SUVs. There are few sidewalks now, and no ramps, no rails. To use tap-taps, the ubiquitous public transport that is a pickup truck with a bench in the bed, the old are lifted like luggage.

With a cane and a sack, Pierre Louis Pierre crossed a busy road near the airport, helped by a random younger man who had watched as Pierre tried, repeatedly, to make his way. Pierre said he is not certain of his exact age, as most births and deaths in Haiti are not recorded. “I am old!” he said and opened his mouth wide to show missing teeth. Where does he sleep? He pointed at the ground. “On the earth,” he said. In a tent? “When they let me in,” he said.

Old women sometimes appear in the food lines, but since the wait for the heavy sacks of donated rations — what Haitians call “disaster rice” — can be five or six hours, the frail ones cannot compete with the younger, stronger and just as hungry.

Most elderly Haitians live with family or caretakers who are paid a few dollars a day by faraway relatives in Miami or New York or Montreal to care for a grandmother or elderly uncle in a back room. The earthquake killed as many as 200,000 people in all, according to the Haitian government estimates, which especially disrupted the tissue-thin safety net that protected the elderly.

“They don’t really have retirement homes. They are being taken care of by families, and those without families have neighbors or their church. Sometimes they go to the nuns and sometimes the government,” said Cynthia Powell of the London-based group HelpAge International, which has begun to bring food and medical care to a municipal nursing home here and pay workers’ salaries.

Before the earthquake, the city-run nursing home was not too bad; there were men’s and women’s wings, and an administration building and a wall that protected a garden. The women’s unit was destroyed, and four patients died on that day, and three more later. In the days right after the disaster, the residents slept on the ground, surrounded by rats. Now they sleep five or six to a tent, among clouds of mosquitoes. The ground floods when it rains. A few elderly women have moved back into the hallways of the men’s unit, which is still standing, but the edges of the darkened hallways are filthy, littered with excrement and used condoms.

After the earthquake, with no security to stop them, refugees swarmed into the garden compound, where they have now established a rough camp of several hundred people. The elderly have some protections, but not many. “The walls fell down, so people come and go as they like,” said Nickson Plantin, one of the security guards. “It is my personal opinion that if you want to give one of these old people something, you put it in their hand — and don’t give too much.” The neighborhood is surrounded by gangs.

Food in the early days came from the charity World Vision, but the soy-enriched bulgur wheat was hard for the elderly residents to digest. So the cooks now buy food at local markets.

Clervana Mondesir said proudly that she is 87 years old. “I’ve seen a lot,” she said. “In 13 years, I will be a hundred.” Mondesir said she came to the nursing home a few years ago, when she became confused and despondent after the death of her daughter, who was pregnant and beaten by her husband. “She fell down and died,” she said.

Mondesir said she has two sons, who visit. She said when the earthquake struck, she hid under her bed. “They were surprised when I came out alive,” she said. Her worldly possessions are now in a pillow case. Asked if she needed anything, Mondesir said some milk and malta, a rich carbonated nonalcoholic drink made of barely and hops.

“Look at us. We’re getting skinny and weak,” she said, pulling at her arm muscles, “and now you need to be strong to survive.”

Source

VIA CNN:

Rescuers searched for survivors Monday as crews sought to deliver food and water and prevent looting after the fifth strongest earthquake in 100 years ravaged central and southern Chile.

More than 1.5 million people were without power in and around the capital of Santiago, according to Chile’s National Emergency Office, but the hardest-hit areas were farther south, in the Maule and Bio Bio regions along the coast.

Authorities said 541 of the 708 reported deaths happened in Maule, where a sewer system collapsed, water towers were close to toppling and communities lacked basic services, the emergency office said.

Many people were without safe drinking water and electricity or gas service in Bio Bio, where 64 deaths occurred, according to the Chilean government’s latest figures.

Rescuers from Santiago, fresh from a stint in earthquake-ravaged Haiti, worked through the night to free people who could be trapped in a 15-story building in the hard-hit city of Concepcion in central coastal Chile, about 70 miles (115 kilometers) from the earthquake’s epicenter.

Firefighters said they believed they heard tapping from inside the building. Authorities said 40 or 50 people could be inside but do not know whether they are alive or dead.

The rescue and recovery work unfolded as Chile’s defense minister blamed its navy for not issuing a tsunami warning after the 8.8-magnitude earthquake rocked the South American country Saturday.

Such a forewarning could have allowed villagers on the coast to flee to higher ground.

“The truth even if it hurts [is that] a division of the Navy made a mistake,” Defense Minister Francisco Vidal said.

After the quake initially struck, President Michelle Bachelet said a tsunami was unlikely.

Yet a large wave crashed later into the Chilean islands of Juan Fernandez, killing at least eight people and leaving another eight missing, the Chilean emergency office said. Waves caused damage along the coast of the Chilean mainland as well.

Dozens of countries posted tsunami warnings, and Chilean authorities later realized the earthquake generated large waves that slammed coastal areas.

“What we saw between the sixth and the ninth region is a tsunami,” Vidal said.

The Navy has an emergency system under which captains in each port may issue warnings when sea levels begin to rise.

Those port captains were the ones who eventually sounded the alarm, warning residents to flee, and helped prevent additional loss of lives.

“There was a mistake,” Vidal said. “Fortunately, the system was activated.”

All 300 American and Chilean employees of the U.S. Embassy have been accounted for and are safe, Paul Simons, U.S. ambassador to Chile, told CNN’s “American Morning.”

As of Monday morning, there were no reports of any American fatalities or serious injuries, Simons said, but efforts to locate and contact thousands of Americans continue, and reports were sketchy from areas most affected by the quake.

Read more here.

An 8.8 earthquake, 100 times more powerful than Haiti, struck Chile early Saturday morning, causing a massive amount of destruction, fallen buildings and at least 140 deaths. A Tsunami warning has been issued for several countries and states, including the coasts of Hawaii and California.

Since the earthquake hit on Saturday morning, a large wave has already caused the deaths of 3 people and several others still missing on the island of Juan Fernandez, 400 miles off the coast of Chile.

Unlike Haiti, Chile has suffered earthquakes before, and has a disaster plan they began implementing just hours after the quake. An organized effort is underway to find and save survivors and recover the dead. However, aftershocks, at least 40 so far, continue to impair the efforts and may contribute to additional fatalities and devastation. In spite of relief and recovery, the country is still in need of water, food and medical assistance.

As reported by CNN, “The capital lost electricity and basic services, including water and telephones. Bachelet, Chile’s president, said regional hospitals had suffered damage; some were evacuated. A major bridge connecting northern and southern Chile was rendered inoperable, and the Santiago airport was shut down for at least the next 24 hours.”

President Obama issued a statement offering U.S. help in recovery and rescue if needed.

Eye Witness Video Account

Tsunami Warnings Were Issued But Lifted For Pacific Rim

According to CNN.com, “People in Hawaii were evacuating coastal areas, filling sandbags and stocking up on essential supplies in preparation for the Chile quake-triggered tsunami.”

Sirens sounded early Saturday morning across Hawaii, warning people of a possible tsunami and telling people to in coastal areas to evacuate, hours after a 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck Chile.

Grocery stores are being bombarded with shoppers preparing for hours or possible days away from home in emergency shelters or the houses of friends. After several hours, the Tsunami warning was lifted.

Read up to date information on the Chile recovery efforts at CNN.com.

Social Networks Keep People Connected

Again, social networking sites Twitter and Facebook continue to connect Chile residents to people from around the world. Click on the links below to follow updates on the Tsunami warnings on Twitter and The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center:

CLICK HERE Twitter – Chile Earthquake & Tsunami Warnings

CLICK HERE Pacific Tsunami Warning Center

The earthquake left several people searching for loved ones and family members.

CLICK HERE to get updated information on how to contact relatives and friends in Chile at NowPublic.com.

How You Can Help

•American Red Cross — The Red Cross has made an initial pledge of $50,000 from theirInternational Response Fund, which you can contribute to to further assist.

•Save The Children — Save The Children is sending an emergency assessment team to Chile, and they are asking for contributions to their Children’s Emergency Fund to aid these efforts.

•AmeriCares — Vice President of Emergency Response, Christoph Gorder, says AmeriCares issending medical supplies and humanitarian aid to Chile. Make a direct contribution to AmeriCares’ Chilean earthquake fund.

•World Vision — World Vision is sending emergency relief supplies and staff to Chile to help injured survivors. Donate to World Vision’s Disaster Response Fund to directly contribute to aid heading to Chile.

Visit NewsOne.com for additional updates on the relief efforts in Chile and Tsunami preparations.

]]> http://myspiritdc.com/national/winstonchaney/massive-earthquake-hits-chile/feed/ 0 http://myspiritdc.com/national/winstonchaney/haitian-man-rescued-from-rubble-4-weeks-after-earthquake/ http://myspiritdc.com/national/winstonchaney/haitian-man-rescued-from-rubble-4-weeks-after-earthquake/#comments Mon, 08 Feb 2010 22:45:01 +0000 Winston Chaney http://myspiritdc.com/national/winstonchaney/haitian-man-rescued-from-rubble-4-weeks-after-earthquake/ VIA CNN: Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- A man pulled alive from the rubble of a building in Haiti's capital may have been trapped since the January 12 quake that leveled much of the city, doctors reported Monday. The emaciated 28-year-old man was found in the wreckage of a market where he sold rice, his family told staff at a University of Miami field hospital. He suffered from extreme dehydration and malnutrition, bu... Read more..]]>

VIA CNN:

Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) — A man pulled alive from the rubble of a building in Haiti’s capital may have been trapped since the January 12 quake that leveled much of the city, doctors reported Monday.

The emaciated 28-year-old man was found in the wreckage of a market where he sold rice, his family told staff at a University of Miami field hospital. He suffered from extreme dehydration and malnutrition, but did not appear to have significant crushing injuries, CNN’s chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta reported.

The man told doctors that someone was bringing him water while trapped, but doctors also said he sounded confused and appeared to believe he still was trapped under the rubble.

Source

VIA THE WALL STREET JOURNAL:

Like at a lot of publications, Newsweek was forced to start its week over when the earthquake hit Haiti.

Give the magazine credit for an artful recovery. The Washington Post Co.-owned publication has tapped President Barack Obama to pen a cover story on Haiti for the Jan. 25 issue hitting newsstands on Monday.

Newsweek was readying a story about the Google-China row when the earthquake hit. Editor Jon Meacham scrapped his plans and hit the phones in search of the highest authority he could find to weigh in, according to a person familiar with the matter. He reached David Axelrod, senior adviser to Obama, who asked his boss if he was game.

Getting Obama to write an essay about the Haiti tragedy is a coup for the struggling magazine and aligns squarely with its new strategy. Newsweek lost $25 million in the first half of 2009, and the Post Co. last year reinvented the magazine, cutting its staff and shifting its focus from news reporting to commentary.

The list of contributors on many weeks reads like a who’s who of political operatives and academics weighing in on hot-button issues. The most recent cover story, “The Conservative Case for Gay Marriage,” was written by Theodore Olson, who also represented George W. Bush in the Supreme Court case Bush v. Gore and later became President Bush’s first solicitor general.

Newsweek’s Obama-Haiti issue will hit newsstands a few days before the one-year anniversary of the inauguration of Obama, who’s getting mixed reviews in the polls.

Source

If, by now, you haven’t heard about Pat Robertson’s remarks about the Haitian earthquake being God’s retaliation and judgment upon the country for their pact with Satan, made in order to free themselves from the control of the French government in the late 1700s, perhaps you’ve been living under a rock.

(You did know there was a 7.2 magnitude earthquake 10 miles off the coast of Port au Prince, Haiti around 5pm EST on Tuesday, January 11th of this year, 2010, right? Just checking.)

It wasn’t 24 hours later that Robertson made the following remarks on “The 700 Club.” (In case you don’t want to watch it all, below the video, you’ll find the text of his statement.)

And you know, Christy, something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it. They were under the heel of the French, you know, Napoleon III and whatever, and they got together and swore a pact to the devil. ‘They said, we will serve you, if you get us free from the French.’ True story. And so the devil said, ‘OK, it’s a deal.’ And they kicked the French out, the Haitians revolted and got themselves free, and ever since they have been cursed by one thing after the other, desperately poor. That Island of Hispaniola is one island cut down the middle. On the one side is Haiti, on the other side is the Dominican Republic. Dominican Republic is prosperous, healthy, full of resorts, etc. Haiti is in desperate poverty, same islands. They need to have, and we need to pray for them, a great turning to God. And out of this tragedy, I’m optimistic something good may come, but right now we’re helping the suffering people, and the suffering is unimaginable. (source)

Not long after this video aired, and was uploaded on YouTube, Pat Robertson became a top trending topic on Twitter (which is the best source for what’s going on at any given time in America — sorry Facebook) as well as was being widely discussed on Facebook and blogs all across the country.

Being a blogger, you sometimes feel an obligation to speak out about certain issues that happen, especially issues which seem to affect a particular group of which you may be a member. This is one of those times for me. I feel an obligation to speak up for the Christians who don’t agree with Robertson and his statement, for those who are standing with, and behind Haiti during this time.

However, had this very event happened four or five years ago, I may have stayed silent. I might have even agreed with Robertson. Why?

I was largely ignorant to Haiti’s rich and incredible history. I didn’t know about Haiti’s slave rebellion — the most successful in history — which, in many ways, paved the road for the rebellions that took place here, and lead Haiti to become “the second independent nation in the Western Hemisphere and [the] first black-governed republic.” I didn’t know about how “the repercussions… extended far beyond the small island nation… [into] the United States, where Haiti’s slave revolt figured directly in two of the most significant events in United States history: the Louisiana Purchase and the American Civil War.” (source) I, like most Americans (and probably Pat Robertson as well), was never taught these things; I was taught that Haiti was an ugly, impoverished third world country, inhabited by savages, and full of witchcraft, voodoo, and Satanism, out of which nothing good has or will ever come.

Haiti is undoubtedly a third world country. It is, in fact, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere with 80% of the population living below the poverty line (source) and it is 50% poorer than the next closest country, Nicaragua (source).

And yes, it’s also true that witchcraft, voodoo and Satanism (the latter two of which are not as closely related as most have been lead to believe) exist there. (The also exist in the states by the way — just in case you thought we were special.)While Roman Catholics make up 80% of the Haitian population, Protestants at 16%, roughly half of the population practices voodoo (source). How does approximately half the country practice voodoo and Catholicism at the same time? (Unless you’re an expert on Haitian culture, you’re probably asking just like I was.) Well, that’s another story for another time, but let’s suffice it to say that it’s one of the effects of Haiti’s liberation (source).

But to think that nothing good could come out of such a strong heritage, a beautiful people, a wonderful country, is not only delusional and ignorant, it’s absolute absurdity.

I share that with you because whenever you want to talk about a particular country — in this case, Haiti — you have to understand the context of the people, of the country, and how their history plays a role in the current situation. Understand how the country got into the poverty that it’s in. Understand the history of the people, where they came from, and why voodoo is more widespread there than in other places. Get the facts.

Robertson compared Haiti to the Dominican Republic, which inhabits the other side of the island of Hispaniola, noting that there seemed to be a stark difference between the two. And he’s right. But couldn’t we also compare Mexico with the United States? They’re parts of the same island, but have developed differently because, just like Haiti and the DR, they are different countries with different leaderships and different histories. The same could be said quite a few places. It’s not the island; it’s the history of slavery and colonialism and development (or lack thereof) that has lead the country into such extreme poverty.

Perhaps this is a simple case where Robertson simply didn’t know what the history behind the country he was talking about; that’s a likely option, right? Ignorance is to blame.

Even if Robertson said is correct, I have to wonder about his motivation. This is the biggest issue for me — perhaps even more than whether his statement was correct or not. What good could have come from sharing that information with the public? Did it encourage, uplift, or help anyone in any way? No. It actually did quite the opposite — it stirred up hate (not only directed towards Robertson, but hate towards Haiti coming from those who stood behind and agreed with him) and it served to perpetuate the erroneous notion that the country is a backwards, no good place that won’t ever get itself out of its current state.

Hear me: I’m not negating the fact that voodoo is practiced there, nor trying to downplay it’s importance in that culture. Voodoo and its powers are very real and very serious. Does this mean that, because half the population practices a certain religion, they deserve any less help from us in this time of incredible need? Certainly not. Now is the time when we must show them love and compassion more than any other time. If you witnessed a horrible accident, would you find out the person’s religion before assisting them?

Haitian-born author, Edwidge Danticat says,“Haiti is a place that suffers so much from neglect that people only want to hear about it when It’s at its extreme. And that’s what they end up knowing about it.”

She speaks sobering truth. Yet now that we know about Haiti, we have a responsibility to do what we can to make it a better place. This is an opportunity for the country to rebuild and become even stronger, and more passionate than it was before. Jo Nubian writes: “We have to realize that we are Haiti, as we are Zimbabwe, as we are Chicago. We have to act now with vigor and earnestness, certainly, but we have to act again and again, because as Edwidge Danticat noted, we can not only consider Haiti and other places like Haiti in these extreme times.” I couldn’t agree more.

For all those affected by this tragedy, especially those who may be reading this who are Haitian, and perhaps have family or friends who they haven’t heard from: Please know that you are in our hearts and in our prayers. Don’t lose hope — God is the God of the impossible!

We will stand behind you and beside you through this process. We are better because of you. We are with you, Haiti.

[Note: If you would like to donate, you can text “Yele” to 501501 to donate $5 to Wyclef Jean’s Yele Haiti program or text “Haiti” to 90999 to donate $10 to the Red Cross. Both donations will be charged to your cell phone bill. Please donate now.]

[Additional Note: Ambassador Raymond Joseph, the Haitian Ambassador to the United States, made an appearance on Rachel Maddow’s show the other night and had something to say about Robertson’s comment. Watch the video here.]

[Written by Stuart McDonald for Elev8.com. For more from Stuart, follow him on Twitter and check out his personal blog]

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