The people of Haiti were shaken from their sleep today by another strong earthquake that sent hundreds fleeing in panic into the streets of Port-au-Prince.
With virtually the entire city still camped out in the open after last week’s apocalyptic quake — largely for fear of aftershocks — the latest tremor did not cause much fresh damage in the Haitian capital and the only reported casualty was a woman who died of a heart attack.
But a Times reporter said that it could have disturbed the collapsed buildings from which, eight days into Haiti’s nightmare, miraculous rescues are still happening.
The US Geological Survey said today’s 6.1 magnitude quake hit at 6.03 am (1103 GMT) about 35 miles (56km) northwest of the capital. Last week’s quake, which killed an estimated 200,000 people, measured 7.0 — approximately 15 times more powerful.
US Army Staff Sergeant Steven Payne was preparing to hand out food to refugees in a tent camp of 25,000 when the aftershock hit. “It kind of felt like standing on a board on top of a ball,” he said.
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The Times reporter, Giles Whittell, who was shaken awake on the roof of a hotel in central Port-au-Prince, said that the temblor was very loud and shook the city for up to ten seconds. “I had no idea at the time how big it was but it was certainly only a different scale to the other aftershocks that have been hitting periodically,” he said.
Only a few hours beforehand, Whittell was among a group of reporters who watched as a 26-year-old woman was rescued from the rubble of a department store on Rue Lalue. The woman, named as Hotteline Lozama, sang hymns as she was taken away in an ambulance.
It was part of what was dubbed a triple miracle. Also plucked to safety was a 15-day-old baby who had spent half her life in the rubble of her home and 69-year-old Ena Zizi, who spent a week trapped in the debris of the Port-au-Prince Catholic cathedral.
Ms Zizi said that after the quake she had managed to speak to a vicar who was also trapped, but he fell silent after a few days, after which time she could only resort to prayer. “I talked only to my boss, God,” she said. “I didn’t need any more humans.”
Whittell said that the woman rescued from the department store had been under a concrete slab which had come to rest an inch from her forehead and just a few inches from her chest. “What is awful to think about is that you realise that statistically there could be dozens more out there alive in the rubble, hanging on by a thread. Each has their own cavity, trapping them, yet protecting them,” he added.
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Today’s tremor was the largest of more than 40 significant aftershocks that have followed the January 12 quake.
Bruce Pressgrave, a USGS geophysicist, said that nobody knew is an even greater aftershock was on the cards.
“Aftershocks sometimes die out very quickly,” he said. “In other cases they can go on for weeks, or if we’re really unlucky it could go on for months; as the earth adjusts to the new stresses caused by the initial quake.”
A massive international aid effort has been struggling with logistical problems, and many Haitians are still desperate for food and water.
More aid arrived today, notably the US Navy’s floating hospital, USNS Comfort, which was already treating two severely injured quake victims when it dropped anchor in view of Port-au-Prince. The ship carries about 550 medical staff and about 60 civilian mariners.
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The authorities said that more than 100 people have been pulled from wrecked buildings by international search-and-rescue teams and dozens of teams are still hunting through Port-au-Prince’s crumbled homes and buildings for signs of life.
Sophia Eltime, a 29-year-old mother of two who has been living under a bedsheet with seven members of her extended family, said: “We need so much. Food, clothes, we need everything. I don’t know whose responsibility it is, but they need to give us something soon.”
The World Food Programme (WFP) said more than 250,000 ready-to-eat food rations had been distributed in Haiti by Tuesday, reaching only a fraction of the 3 million people thought to be in desperate need.
The WFP said it needs to deliver 100 million ready-to-eat rations in the next 30 days, but it only had 16 million meals in the pipeline.
Governments have pledged nearly $1 billion (£0.6bn) in aid, and thousands of tons of food and medical supplies have been shipped. But much remains trapped in warehouses, or diverted to the neighbouring Dominican Republic.
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Port-au-Prince’s sea port, damaged in the quake, is still unuseable and although the airport is now handling 180 flights a day, potentially life-saving aid is being turned away.
About 2,200 US Marines have established a beachhead west of Port-au-Prince, joining 9,000 Army soldiers already on the ground. Lieutenant-Commander Walter Matthews, a US military spokesman, said helicopters were ferrying aid from the airport into Port-au-Prince and the nearby town of Jacmel as fast as they could.
“The floodgates for aid are starting to open,” Lieutenant-Commander Matthews said at the airport. “In the first few days, you’re limited by manpower, but we’re starting to bring people in.”
The Defence Secretary, Robert Gates, said that the military would end a port-clearing ship with cranes aboard to Port-au-Prince to remove debris that is preventing many larger aid ships from docking.