According to my country's National Seismological Network, a strong Ms7.3 earthquake occurred in the waters surrounding the Caribbean island nation of Haiti at 16:00 that day.
The Argentine Air Force Field Mobile Hospital has been deployed in Port-au-Prince and is the only medical facility deployed in Port-au-Prince that is still open. On the same day, helicopters belonging to the United Nations forces from Argentina helped evacuate severely wounded people to Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic.
The Haitian presidential palace and some government department buildings were damaged in the earthquake on the 12th, but President René Préval and his wife were safe and sound.
The earthquake caused local buildings to collapse and residents were buried under the rubble. After the buildings collapsed, city roads were blocked. Dozens of dead and injured people could be seen in the rubble. Everything began to shake. People screamed "God" and ran away. Houses began to collapse and the city was in chaos. Some people were buried under the rubble, and some were dead.
Shortly after the 7.0-magnitude earthquake, Haiti was hit by earthquakes with magnitudes of 5.9 and 5.5.
The headquarters building of the United Nations peacekeeping force in Haiti was destroyed in the earthquake.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon issued a statement on the 12th, expressing concern about the strong earthquake that occurred in Haiti that day. Ban Ki-moon said that the earthquake was a "tragedy" and that he was very worried about the safety of the Haitian people and the United Nations staff working there. He is listening to preliminary reports on the disaster and will closely follow the development of the local situation.
The Citibank office building in Port-au-Prince collapsed during the earthquake. A bank spokesman said that the three-story office building is currently missing 12 employees.
Not only was the building of Taiwan’s office in Haiti completely destroyed, but one of the staff stationed abroad has not yet been contacted. Office official Xu Miansheng suffered injuries and fractures and has been sent to the hospital for treatment. All other staff are safe. Obama said the United States is ready to provide assistance to Haiti after the earthquake. Obama said he was concerned about the disaster-stricken people in Haiti and would continue to pay attention to the progress of the incident and was "ready to provide help to the Haitian people."
Doctors Without Borders' report said that at least two hospitals are still In good condition, their doctors will begin preparations to serve approximately 500 people in need of emergency surgical treatment.
The China International Rescue Team is ready to go to the earthquake zone in Hainan. Food, search and rescue equipment and medical supplies, including three search and rescue dogs, have arrived at Beijing Capital Airport.
The U.S. military has dispatched aircraft to check the general situation of the disaster in Haiti, and the first batch of rescue troops arrived in Haiti on the afternoon of the 13th. The strong earthquake caused damage to the airport in the capital, Port-au-Prince, and closed it. All commercial and express flights from the United States to the capital, Port-au-Prince, were cancelled. Only rescue aircraft went there.
Rescue teams from the Dominican Republic, the United Kingdom, the United States, Iceland, and Puerto Rico have arrived in Haiti and are gradually engaged in rescue work. The Chinese International Rescue Team arrived in Haiti to carry out rescue operations. 3,500 personnel from the US 82nd Airborne Division rushed to aid Haiti. According to reports, Haitian government personnel have cleared approximately 9,000 corpses from the rubble. The government began to dig mass graves and bury the corpses in mass graves. Search and rescue teams from eight countries are trying to find survivors still trapped in the rubble. Traffic in the areas affected by the earthquake has not yet been restored. Due to the earthquake, local port facilities were severely damaged. Freighters carrying relief supplies were unable to find a suitable place to dock or unload after arriving in Haiti. In addition, there were insufficient parking spaces at the Port-au-Prince Airport in the capital of Haiti. Few planes were forced to circle over the airport waiting to land, and several planes were diverted to other locations, including the airport in neighboring Santo Domingo, and then transferred on the ground through rugged mountain roads. The Haitian ambassador to the United States said the airport tower in Port-au-Prince collapsed and the airport was overcrowded. Flight crews have been informed that any aircraft trying to land at Port-au-Prince Airport will need to wait in circles for at least an hour, and the airport is no longer able to provide aircraft fuel. For this reason, Cuba has lifted airspace restrictions, allowing American aircraft to fly directly between the United States and Haiti to save time and transport seriously injured Haitians to the United States.
A report by Doctors Without Borders states that the demand for medical services provided by the organization's two hospitals in Haiti is "overwhelming."
Although severely damaged by the earthquake, the Villa Creole hotel in Port-au-Prince has been converted into a temporary hospital and media center.
Due to the extremely unstable mobile communication services in Haiti caused by the earthquake, Haitian President Préval and Haitian government officials have begun to use satellite phones to organize and coordinate rescue efforts.
Haitians who were hit hard by the earthquake are looking forward to foreign aid, and the anger of the people who are impatient is rising. However, gangs armed with machetes are rampant on the streets. Rescue workers planning to deliver food, drinking water and other supplies to the disaster area of ??Port-au-Prince warned on the 15th that rescue efforts must be accompanied by more security guards. According to a CBS report, security in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, is completely gone. Although United Nations peacekeepers are stationed there, reporters there witnessed gangs armed with machetes on the streets, obeying the law of the jungle and dominating every street. According to reports, United Nations peacekeepers patrolling the capital said that public anger continued to rise because relief supplies could not be distributed quickly. The Brazilian army warned that rescue convoys should increase security measures to improve defense and prevent robbery. Haitian officials have estimated that between 9,000 and 10,000 people were killed in the earthquake.
As the golden 72 hours for post-disaster relief are about to pass, Haitians seem desperate. They built a large tomb outside Port-au-Prince as a final resting place for the victims. More than 100 bodies were buried in a quarry outside Port-au-Prince, and several other quarries were almost filled to capacity. Survivors improvised coffins out of wooden boards, fabrics and even refrigerators, filled them with bodies and loaded them onto dump trucks.
The U.S. military took over the Haitian airport to distribute supplies, allowing large U.S. military carrier helicopters to gradually transport supplies into Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas, which provided valuable time for the treatment of the wounded. The customs function of the Haitian airport has been completely lost, communications are gradually being restored, and normal calls can be made on mobile phones.
Brazil has dispatched 140 rescue workers to the disaster-stricken areas in Haiti. The Brazilian Ministry of Defense issued a communiqué on the 16th stating that since the earthquake in Haiti, Brazil has dispatched 140 rescue workers to the disaster-stricken areas in Haiti and delivered more than 80 tons of relief supplies. China's 30 million yuan in aid supplies will arrive in Haiti tomorrow morning. Rescue workers from many countries are conducting rescue operations in the disaster-stricken areas of Haiti.
There are now more than 3 million victims in Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, and its surrounding areas, which have been hit by a major earthquake. Most of them have no access to food, drinking water and shelter. Although the distribution of humanitarian aid has begun, the effectiveness of the operation has been affected by problems such as interruptions in local transportation, communications, water and electricity supply, and lack of fuel. On the afternoon of the 16th, the Chinese international rescue team found the body of Hédi Annabi, the top UN official in Haiti, in the earthquake ruins of Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti.
International rescue teams have completed 60 search and rescue operations in Haiti’s earthquake-stricken areas, and a total of 70 people have been safely rescued from the rubble. An earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale occurred in Haiti on the afternoon of the 12th local time. According to preliminary estimates, the number of victims in the Haiti earthquake may reach 45,000. Currently, rescue teams from nearly 30 countries and regions are conducting search and rescue operations in Port-au-Prince.
Although the 72-hour golden rescue time after the Haiti earthquake has passed, rescue teams from various countries continue to find survivors and witness the miracle of life. A strong aftershock occurred in Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, on the 17th local time. The international community continued to help Haiti and provided additional humanitarian assistance. Riots broke out frequently after the earthquake in Haiti, with rioters looting stores, attacking material delivery personnel, and endangering rescue workers. The police began arresting troublemakers on the 16th to prevent the riot from expanding. Due to the lack of relief supplies or fear of violent attacks, many residents began to "escape" from the capital, Port-au-Prince
The Haitian government has collectively buried approximately 70,000 bodies of earthquake victims and announced that by the end of January, they will Implement a state of emergency.
Haiti cabinet officials held a meeting on the open space outside a police station in the capital, Port-au-Prince, on the 17th to discuss post-earthquake reconstruction and restoration of social order. Haitian Information Minister Laszegue told the media that the government is going all out for disaster relief, and the first priority right now is to coordinate the distribution of international relief supplies that have arrived in Haiti.
Digicel, Haiti's main mobile phone operator, said on the 18th that it had restored signal coverage in 70% of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and was working hard to achieve full coverage by the end of this week.
In just four days after the earthquake, Americans donated more than $150 million to relief operations in Haiti, setting a record for post-disaster fundraising. Previously, US$108 million was raised in the four days after Hurricane Katrina in the United States, and US$30 million was raised in the days after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.
Haitian gangs took advantage of the fire and robbed police officers and called on civilians to kill the criminals
More than a week after the earthquake in Haiti, the situation of looting and looting on the streets of the capital, Port-au-Prince, continued to worsen. Although the military and police fired frequently to stop them, But it seems to have no deterrent effect. In order to stabilize the situation in Haiti, helicopters from the 82nd Airborne Division of the US Army carried hundreds of US troops in batches and landed on the lawn of the Haitian Presidential Palace. The US military also sent 2,200 additional Marines to the streets to maintain law and order. However, the Port-au-Prince airport, which was taken over by the US military, once again refused to land a plane carrying medical supplies from Doctors Without Borders, and the US' handling methods came under fire again. The United Nations stated on the 23rd that the Haitian government has announced the end of the search and rescue phase. There are also reports that the Haitian authorities have shifted their focus from search and rescue to helping survivors, and have begun moving the 500,000 victims of the Port-au-Prince disaster to temporary housing in the suburbs. Life in Haiti began to gradually return to normal. Some shops are also open for business. The Central Bank of Port-au-Prince is scheduled to start operations on the 23rd, but banks outside the capital are already open on the 22nd.
Preventing a major epidemic after a major disaster is the top priority of the current work. The President of Haiti said that the important purpose of large-scale relocation of victims is to prevent the spread of infectious diseases. Red Cross personnel in Haiti said that on the 10th day after the earthquake, some international organizations had discovered diarrhea, tetanus and other infectious diseases in the disaster area. Some areas in Port-au-Prince have begun epidemic prevention work.
The Ministry of Interior of Haiti stated that the number of victims of the earthquake in Haiti exceeded 110,000. On the afternoon of the 24th, the Chinese Medical Epidemic Prevention and Rescue Team took a civil aviation charter flight from Beijing Capital International Airport to Haiti to perform a humanitarian rescue mission. It is expected to arrive on the 25th local time. Arriving in Port-au-Prince, Haiti at 15:00, medicines, medical equipment and other materials provided free of charge by the Chinese government to the disaster area will also arrive on the same plane.