Deadly earthquake strikes Haiti

A 7.2-magnitude quake demolished towns in southwestern Haiti on Saturday, killing at least 1,297 and wounding at least 5,700. The injured flooded into hospitals in and around the city of Les Cayes as the fragile Haitian government rushed to assess the damage and send aid. People in the capital city of Port-au-Prince, about 125 miles east, felt the shaking and rushed outside in fear, but the city did not appear to sustain significant damage.

How does this earthquake compare to the big one in 2010? A 7.0 magnitude quake hit just outside Port-au-Prince on Jan. 10, 2010, causing what many call the worst-ever natural disaster in the Western Hemisphere. An estimated 300,000 people died as the city’s crudely built structures collapsed on an overcrowded population. Damage reports from Saturday’s earthquake, which are reaching Port-au-Prince slowly due to the impoverished country’s poor infrastructure, indicate casualties and building collapses, but the full extent of the human toll remains unknown.

Dig deeper: Read Onize Ohikere’s report about the political chaos in Haiti following the recent assassination of the president.

Editor’s note: WORLD has updated this report since its initial posting.