Powerful Earthquake Hits Haiti

Wow. This is just shocking and heartbreaking. A powerful earthquake with a 7.2 on the Richter Scale pretty much flattened the capital. Here's some more details that I acquired from CNN.com

Officials fear more than 100,000 people have died as a result of Tuesday's 7.0-magnitude earthquake in Haiti.

The capital, Port-au-Prince, "is flattened," said Haiti's consul general to the U.N., Felix Augustin, who said he believed more than 100,000 people were dead. Hospitals are gone, and medical supplies and heavy equipment are desperately needed, he said.

The country's prime minister said the death toll could be in the hundreds of thousands.

The 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck shortly before 5 p.m. Tuesday, centered about 10 miles (15 kilometers) southwest of Port-au-Prince, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. It could be felt strongly in eastern Cuba, more than 200 miles away.

The earthquake's power matched that of several nuclear bombs, said Roger Searle, a professor of geophysics in the Earth Sciences Department at Durham University in England. He said the combination of its magnitude and geographical shallowness made it particularly dangerous.

About 3 million people -- one-third of Haiti's population -- were affected by the quake, the Red Cross said. About 10 million people felt shaking from the earthquake, including 2 million who felt severe trembling, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated.

More info here: http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/01/13/haiti.earthquake/index.html

This is just terrible what had just happened, and just a surprise. This is the strongest earthquake in 200 years. Personally, my heart will go out to those in grief and I will pray for them.