High casualties feared as 7.2-magnitude earthquake strikes near Haiti

By AnneClaire Stapleton, CNN

The US Geological Survey said it’s likely that casualties are “high” after a 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck near Haiti Saturday morning.

“High casualties are probable and the disaster is likely widespread,” according to the USGS.

Haiti’s Civil Protection told CNN there have been fatalities and damage.

A tsunami threat that had been issued for the region has passed, according to the US Tsunami Warning System.

The earthquake was about 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) northeast of Saint-Louis-du-Sud and 10 kilometers deep, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS).

A 7.0-magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti on January 12, 2010, left between 220,000 and 300,000 people dead and injured hundreds of thousands more. That was 13 kilometers deep.

A 5.2-magnitude aftershock hit later in the morning about 20 kilometers west-northwest of Cavaillon, Haiti, according to the USGS.

Haiti is in the cone of Tropical Storm Grace, and the storm could have an impact on the area from Monday into Tuesday, CNN Meteorologist Haley Brink said.

“We’re concerned that this earthquake is just one more cirsis on top of what the country is already facing — including the worsening political stalemate after the president’s assassination, COVID and food insecurity,” Jean-Wickens Merone, a spokesman with World Vision Haiti, said in a statement.

Haitian President Jovenel Moise was killed July 7.

Merone is in Port-au-Prince, about 100 miles from Saint-Louis-du-Sud, and said the shaking there lasted “more than five to ten seconds,” and both sides of his house were shaking.

Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry was on his way to the most devastated areas on Saturday morning, according to his official twitter account.

Henry said he has mobilized the government to assess and help.

“Following the earthquake that caused enormous damage in the South, Grand’Anse and Nippes, I have already mobilized the entire government team to adopt all necessary measures- as a matter of urgency,” the tweet read.

Correction: An earlier version of this story gave the incorrect depth of Saturday’s earthquake near Haiti. It was 10 kilometers deep, according to the USGS.

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CNN’s Theresa Waldrop contributed to this report.