As more and more stories, pictures and video emerges from yesterday’s 7.3 earthquake in Haiti, I’m sudden’y thrust back to those feelings in 2004 when that huge tsunami killed hundreds of thousands in several countries. It’s truly disturbing to think about the total carnage that a strong earthquake can cause. To get an idea, just look at a view from above the city in this video. The whole city is literally covered by dust, most likely from the hundreds of buildings that collapsed.
An interesting perspective from this website in 2008 where an article was published stating that conditions in Haiti were prime for a major seismic event.
A recent article in Haiti’s Le Matin newspaper has quoted 65 year old geologist and former professor at the Geological Institute of Havana, Patrick Charles, as stating that “conditions are ripe for major seismic activity in Port-au-Prince. The inhabitants of the Haitian capital need to prepare themselves for an event which will inevitably occur…” According to him, the danger is imminent. He ads “Thank God that science has provided instruments that help predict these types of events and show how we have arrived at these conclusions.”
According to Patrick Charles, Port-au-Prince is traversed by a large fault which is part of the Enriquillo Fault Zone. The fault starts in Petionville and follows the Southern Peninsula ending at Tiburon. In 1751 and 1771, this town was completely destroyed by an earthquake. As proof to his claims, he referred to recent tremors that have occurred in Petionville, Delmas, Croix des Bouquets, and La Plaine. Minor tremors such as these usually signal a larger earthquake to come.
And not that you can ever be totally prepared for something like this, it seemed that authorities were basically looking the other way.
Although city officials often discuss this, it is noted that no measures have been put into place to address the situation. Mr. Charles mentions the following devastating scenarios: A giant tsunami reaching all the way to Lake Azuéi (aka Étang Saumâtre) flooding La Plaine, and the complete destruction of Morne l’Hopital which is currently dotted with flimsy shantytowns. If we thought the recent back-to-back hurricanes were devastating, they surely will pale in comparison to a major earthquake in the densely populated Haitian capital.
Wow, can’t get much more prophetic than that…as we know now, the Morne l’Hopital was one of the first buildings to reportedly have collapsed in yesterday’s massive quake.
Here’s a before and after shot of the Presidential palace that collapsed.
Here’s a couple more videos worth checking out. Also the Anchoress has an excellent roundup
Frank Thorp, a journalist in Haiti, describes his ordeal helping to rescue his wife trapped by the house that fell on her.
Here’s another of the aftermath:
The UN headquarters also collapsed. None of the UN workers are accounted for:
PARIS, Jan 13 (Reuters) – French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on Wednesday he feared everyone inside the United Nations headquarters in Haiti were killed when the building was destroyed by a powerful earthquake.
“The U.N. building has collapsed and it seems that all those who were in the building, including my friend Heni Annabi who was the special envoy at the United Nations … are dead,” Kouchner told France’s RTL radio.
Also blogging:
Belmont Club
Fausta, also linking to relief efforts.
NY Times Blog
Maxed Out Mama
Baldilocks
Confederate Yankee
Fr. Steve’s Blog
Gay Patriot
Just One Minute
Noisy Room
NeoNeocon
Catholic Vote Action
Moderate Voice
Kathryn Jean Lopez
Rand Simberg
Insty links and has more. Thanks!
Sweetness and Light
Bookworm Room
New Advent
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I see the US, as usual, taking the lead in supplying disaster relief. I'm waiting to see all the oil rich Muslim countries lining up to pitch in, too, aren't you?
The world is coming to the aid of Haiti! Meanwhile, in the middle east, those peace lovin muslims are
planning new attacks on the U.S.! Gotta love it! Time for all you P.O.S. muslims to start posting all
your bullshit! Anytime now?
to holla 28, Your an idiot! I didn't say anything about aids! I said aid! Look it up in the english dictonary…
it will say that it means help! You will need to go back to school & learn some more english! Until then…
stay off the internet! Moron!
Yes SW. The Christian nations and the Democratic nations are rushing millions of dollars in aid to Haiti while the Islamists are in the back room planning another suicide murder of innocent civilians. Islam has no compassion only hatred and violence.
A large field hospital has been established in Haiti by the IDF Medical Corps and is treating patients. The hospital has an emergency room, pediatric, orthopedic, iternal medicine, obstetrics and sergery departments. So why do Muslims hate the Jews and want to wipe them off the face of the earth? Why did Hitler hate the Jews? Same demons, new generation.
So far as I can determine oil rich Saudi Arabia has done nothing to help the suffering people of Haiti
Aparently not all Americans are happy about giving aid to Haiti. I came across this interesting bit….
On his Christian Broadcasting Network's “700 Club” today, Popular TV evangalist Pat Robertson said the Haitians “swore a pact to the devil” in order to become free of French domination.
“They said, 'we will serve you if you will get us free from the French,'” Robertson asserted. “True story. And so, the devil said, 'okay it's a deal.' And they kicked the French out. You know, the Haitians revolted and got themselves free. But ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after the other.”
Now imagine people like Pat Robertson were in politics and running things……… that is the problem with much of the Muslim World, there are to many “Pat Robertson” equivilants.
” that is the problem with much of the Muslim World, there are to many “Pat Robertson” equivilants.
Did Pat Robertson issue a FATWA ?
Did Pat Robertson support TERRORISM ?
Did Pat Robertson support STONING women?
Again you've tried to compare your mucky sect to Christianism unsuccessfully,though.
“equivilants” my ass, you half-brained muslim.
You are an IDIOT.
Watch yourself at your mirror and that's exactly what you're gonna see… an IDIOT.
Pat Robertson is LIGHT-YEARS a better person than ALL 1,57 Billion muslims put
together.
Remember that, islamic microbe.
Pat Robertson is a fool and everyone in America knows that. When he made
that statement he was condemned from every political establishment, every
blog, every corner of the country. You're argument is boring, old news and
irrelevant. Christians all over America were condemning him after he made
that statement, but I guess you didn't notice. Unlike in Muslim countries
where it's like pulling teeth to get Muslims to condemn the radicals within
their ranks.
Pat Robertson,Oral Roberts et al are mountebank opportunists who pimp religion to make millions.
Most sensible Americans regard them as idiots.
Conversely their Islamic equivalents (and there are many)are taken seriously by their Muslim flock!
Baa-aah! Baah!
I will put three points down and am very curious to see the responses from both of you.
1) If Pat Robinson was in a developing country with minimal to non-existant education, corruption, depressed society that offers not much future to its population, Pat Robinson would probably have a strong and violent following because I think more than likely it is the laws of the US that keeps him from crossing that line.
2) Based still on the above, like Pat Robinson, the majority of Musilms consider their vocal and ranting Imams to also be the complete idiot and the local media rejects them completely, except for the outlet that is owned by that Imam and his faction. Remembering that the standards of life are different and thus the poor are radicalised, the majority do reject. Remembering also that yes, there is a problem with many in Muslim societies, the taboo of criticising a “man of the cloth” still stops many from really serious condemnation of fear of being accused of criticizing the basic tennants of Islam – even though they are targetting the abuse of it by that Imam.
3) this last point is, you may say there was condemnation and “most people” think that Robertson is an idiot but he has a large following, he is shown in the media and thus the rest of us outside the USA will consider that he is listened to and serious and thus reflects the ugly side of America. Rather a lot like the arguments you make about Muslims and Islam in general and regardless of the bullets and guns, we have the poverty, illiterate and conflicts to explain radicalism, what do you have??? A touch of double standards there, that was the entire point of making the comment knowing full well the answers you both gave.
If anything, let's call it a lesson and point to be made to bring back the reality check. You all know I condemn radicalism, terrorism and such ugliness, in all its forms, but I try and keep the context correct because then you can condemn all you like with a strong footing.
Cheers
That's the point Solkhar uneducated Muslims do not have the privilege of free speech;as Pat Robertson does.
A free society is free to mock the inanities of religious nonsense.
What annoys me is that Muslims seem to have aquired a free pass from humanities morons when it comes to a lampooning of their quaint primitive beliefs(I want “Life of Mohammed in the same style as Life of Brian).
See anything wrong in that type of satire Solkhar?
Pat Robertson sells his snake oil to American simpletons.
Islam is SOLD to simpletons in the same way except with added threat to life and limb.
Thaty's why I admire Ali Sina's efforts to dissabuse literate Muslims of the nonsense they believe.
Iconoclasm with respect to Islam should be the duty of all humourists;with no stone(excuse the pun) unturned
Hellosnackbar
Once again, you nailed it like a pro. Which is why I'm one of your many fans!
I wrote something to Christine_S in relation to the first question Solkhar mentioned, but in another blog posting. Because I needed to elucidate more my point.
___________________________________________
* : Yes, Pat Robertson is not the only one who said something stupid; Remember the Tsunami in Asia a few years ago? A few Evangelical Pastors claimed that the people there died because they refused to follow Jesus.
I went a bit off-topic in my reply to you, but alas, it actually answers one of the Solkhar's arguments in another post, in which he claims that poverty and fundamentalism brews terrorism. Again, Solkhar got it wrong, there a lot of people there who barely got anything to eat, and follow those Pastors… But no one ever heard of them being terrorists.
Pat Robertson is as evil as anyone alive. Pure, refined, triply-distilled, crystallised poison.
if any one can remeber anything about the conficits over france testing h-bombbs in haiti in the late 90's and early 2000's try and find anything about that now. the've removed all evidence (as far as i know a little peice may remain in some underground site no1 reads) from the internet that this has ever happined. coincidently i was lookking at that situation about 6 months ago and had no trouble finding anything. now that a 2 huge earthquakes happin coporate america is collecting trillions, and you can't finnd shit about france testing fucking planet busters hydrogen bombs) off the coast of haiti, geee i wonder if a bomb that was desigened to have the potential to desemate our planet in seconnds could cause 2 major earthquakes…. u don't think people who build test and fucking sell nuclear warheads aren't going to exploit the suffering in haiti for their own finincial gain? noo people who build weapons of mass destruction have way more morals then that ps. ther was n 'error' with my post this is my last attempt in leaking this
the muslims realize u american pigs r only exploitinng a situation caused by ur n frances h-bomb tests in hati
see the thing about the muslims, they know what it really means when america comes to 'help' quote un-fucking quote another country, the IMF is the devil in which nations sign their soul away too
Americans and France have carried out H-bomb tests in “Hati”, have they? Gosh, I missed that one. DO tell me more, oh learned one. (Tell me: does it actually HURT to have such a mind as yours?)
I don't think it hurts Beej ;but he does rely on others to feed and water him!
And wipe his arse of course.
Dear me Connor it loks like you're a Muslim basking in your victimhood.
And Allah the arsehole isn't helping you.
He's still constipated(i.e.like you, full of sh1t
There's no evidence anywhere that H-bomb testing has anything to do with causing earthquakes. Until you have some evidence of that, there's no reason to suspect French H-bomb testing caused this quake. Earthquakes happen all the time, almost everywhere on Earth, and are completely unpredictable. The corrupt and tyranical government of Haiti did nothing to prepare for natural disasters of any kind, so the people of Haiti paid the price. But then, they did tolerate the tryanny and corruption in the first place. They made the choice not to pay the price for freedom, and they paid a price anyway. Compare Haiti to Iran. Iranians have started to die in the streets to try to end the tryanny they live under. Will they continue and increase the price they pay and eventually win their freedom from tryanny? Or will they wilt under the cost? The choice is theirs, and our choice, through our POTUS, is whether or not we should help them. If we, and they, don't pay the price for freedom now, will we pay the greater cost of a nuclear war eventually?
I have found that one strange as well, considering that I did a major university assignement on French early testing programs and I think I have kept up-to-date on the matter.
France started its testing program in Algerian Sahara and are still paying compensation to Algeria over the clean-up (they actually had a major disaster when they “forgot” to correctly block of a mine shaft that they used). Since then they have done it in three French Polynesian areas until Chirac put the stop to all testing. We may all remember that the French were also willing to sabotage (bomb) a GreenPeace activist ship in New Zealand to stop disrupting that last test (and forgot that there was a man in the ship whom died).
What is ironic also is that if you understood what a “con” was in French then the name would be appropriate for the above poster.
The same tired old “blame America and the West” line. conn, just go away and take your propaganda and hate with you. h-bomb tests causing earth quakes, how stupid.