Dominican President urges international community to help Haiti
Dominican president Leonel Fernandez’s Press director said the head of State made an urgent appeal to the international community for humanitarian aid for Haiti, which was hit by the region’s ever-recorded strongest earthquake.
According to Press director Rafael Nunez, “the situation in Haiti is difficult so we request aid from Latin America and around the world to help our neighbor.”
The Dominican Republic shares the Hispaniola Island with Haiti, the poorest country in the western hemisphere. Nunez said the Dominican Republic was ready to help Haiti out.
In other developments, U.S. President Barack Obama has expressed that his country is ready to send humanitarian aid to Haiti.
Tuesday’s tremor, measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale, rocked Haiti at 5:53 p.m. Dominican time (2153 GMT). Though there have been no confirmed casualties so far, press reports from Port au Prince, Haiti’s capital city, confirmed collapses of office and residence buildings including the presidential palace, U.N. peacekeeper headquarters, ministerial offices, a hospital and a cathedral.
The earthquake was followed by two aftershocks measuring 5.9 and 5.5 respectively. The quake was centered about 15 km southwest to the Haitian capital, with a depth of 10 km, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Haiti was last hit by a strong earthquake measuring 6.7 on the Richter scale in 1984, but yesterday’s was the strongest earthquake in more than 200 years.
Source: DominicanToday.com