Massive Earthquake Strikes Haiti

[Bostech]

They will still make "couple of million bucks" (give or take) not including giving 1 million (which inclued wages and 40 pallets of beans and rice).

Please provide a source of this information.  Otherwise, you're making up numbers for the sake of spewing more 'damn the company' allegations.  The fact that they're giving $1 million and pallets of beans and rice is huge.  What have you done?  How much should they give before you're satisfied and they're not 'evil'?

They are still MAKING MONEY of cruises.

Of course they are.  That's what they do.  If they didn't make any money doing what they do, then they wouldn't be doing it for very long, now would they?

When you're a business, the point is to make money.  What's the problem with that?  Why go into business if you're not planning on making any money?  Why do you hate businesses?

You people dont need proofs.You are nto interested in proof.
You could come up with that reading article but you are not.You want to DEFEND capitalist who make money off poor people no matter what.
You already decided on whos "side" you are.

You should not be making money while people are SUFFERING.
That's like having lemonade stand in front of Jesus crucifixion.

[Dog Walker]

Oh please hush about HAARP!  You will get Bos and Stephen going at one another again.  No more conspiracy theories!

[Doctor_K]

They will still make "couple of million bucks" (give or take) not including giving 1 million (which inclued wages and 40 pallets of beans and rice).

Please provide a source of this information.  Otherwise, you're making up numbers for the sake of spewing more 'damn the company' allegations.  The fact that they're giving $1 million and pallets of beans and rice is huge.  What have you done?  How much should they give before you're satisfied and they're not 'evil'?

They are still MAKING MONEY of cruises.

Of course they are.  That's what they do.  If they didn't make any money doing what they do, then they wouldn't be doing it for very long, now would they?

When you're a business, the point is to make money.  What's the problem with that?  Why go into business if you're not planning on making any money?  Why do you hate businesses?

You people dont need proofs.You are nto interested in proof.
You could come up with that reading article but you are not.You want to DEFEND capitalist who make money off poor people no matter what.
You already decided on whos "side" you are.

You should not be making money while people are SUFFERING.
That's like having lemonade stand in front of Jesus crucifixion.

Of course I'm interested in proof. 

I'm also interested in why you think that no one anywhere should ever make money so long as someone somewhere is suffering.  Then define suffering. 

Then turn around and never earn another cent, dollar, euro, pound, or krone ever again in your life, but not depend on a government subsidy or program, nor any other handout in order to survive.  Ever. 

Until you can, your argument against individuals or businesses making and having money is illogical.

I still have a job, earning a living in order to live in a home that I am in the process of paying down the mortgage, own my own car outright, and have earned every penny of every dollar to make that happen. 

I am making money, working my two jobs.  I donate my time to a non-profit that I help run on top of that.  And I'm somehow an uncaring, insensitive, evil capitalist?

You're awesome.

[Bostech]

"Define suffering"?

Are you serious?

[Bostech]

All TV stations have Haiti telethon...except Fox News.
Hannity is bashing Democrats on it.
No wonder they got him 100 million dollar contract.
He's making 40 million dollars each year,hes too busy for Haiti and those poor people.

[Bostech]

They got telethon on Weather Channel.
Hannity is still busy talking Obama.

[Cricket]

Here is the real truth about HAITI that few people want to talk about in FRANCE, AMERICA, ENGLAND:

BY SIR HILARY BECKLES

THE UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST INDIES is in the process of conceiving how best to deliver a major conference on the theme Rethinking And Rebuilding Haiti.

I am very keen to provide an input into this exercise because for too long there has been a popular perception that somehow the Haitian nation-building project, launched on January 1, 1804, has failed on account of mismanagement, ineptitude, corruption.

Buried beneath the rubble of imperial propaganda, out of both Western Europe and the United States, is the evidence which shows that Haiti's independence was defeated by an aggressive North-Atlantic alliance that could not imagine their world inhabited by a free regime of Africans as representatives of the newly emerging democracy.

The evidence is striking, especially in the context of France. The Haitians fought for their freedom and won, as did the Americans fifty years earlier. The Americans declared their independence and crafted an extraordinary constitution that set out a clear message about the value of humanity and the right to freedom, justice, and liberty.
In the midst of this brilliant discourse, they chose to retain slavery as the basis of the new nation state. The founding fathers therefore could not see beyond race, as the free state was built on a slavery foundation.

The water was poisoned in the well; the Americans went back to the battlefield a century later to resolve the fact that slavery and freedom could not comfortably co-exist in the same place.  The French, also, declared "freedom, fraternity and equality" as the new philosophies of their national transformation and gave the modern world a tremendous progressive boost by so doing.

They abolished slavery, but Napoleon Bonaparte could not imagine the republic without slavery and targeted the Haitians for a new, more intense regime of slavery. The British agreed, as did the Dutch, Spanish and Portuguese. All were linked in communion over the 500 000 Blacks in Haiti, the most populous and prosperous Caribbean colony.

As the jewel of the Caribbean, they all wanted to get their hands on it. With a massive slave base, the English, French and Dutch salivated over owning it - and the people. The people won a ten-year war, the bloodiest in modern history, and declared their independence. Every other country in the Americas was based on slavery.

Haiti was freedom, and proceeded to place in its 1805 Independence Constitution that any person of African descent who arrived on its shores would be declared free, and a citizen of the republic. For the first time since slavery had commenced, Blacks were the subjects of mass freedom and citizenship in a nation.

The French refused to recognize Haiti's independence and declared it an illegal pariah state. The Americans, whom the Haitians looked to in solidarity as their mentor in independence, refused to recognize them, and offered solidarity instead to the French. The British, who were negotiating with the French to obtain the ownership title to Haiti, also moved in solidarity, as did every other nation-state the Western world.

Haiti was isolated at birth - ostracized and denied access to world trade, finance, and institutional development. It was the most vicious example of national strangulation recorded in modern history. The Cubans, at least, have had Russia, China, and Vietnam. The Haitians were alone from inception. The crumbling began.

Then came 1825; the moment of full truth. The republic is celebrating its 21st anniversary. There is national euphoria in the streets of Port-au-Prince. The economy is bankrupt; the political leadership isolated. The cabinet took the decision that the state of affairs could not continue. The country had to find a way to be inserted back into the world economy. The French government was invited to a summit.

Officials arrived and told the Haitian government that they were willing to recognize the country as a sovereign nation but it would have to pay compensation and reparation in exchange. The Haitians, with backs to the wall, agreed to pay the French.

The French government sent a team of accountants and actuaries into Haiti in order to place a value on all lands, all physical assets, the 500 000 citizens were who formerly enslaved, animals, and all other commercial properties and services. The sums amounted to 150 million gold francs. Haiti was told to pay this reparation to France in return for national recognition. The Haitian government agreed; payments began immediately. Members of the Cabinet were also valued because they had been enslaved people before independence.

Thus began the systematic destruction of the Republic of Haiti. The French government bled the nation and rendered it a failed state. It was a merciless exploitation that was designed and guaranteed to collapse the Haitian economy and society.

Haiti was forced to pay this sum until 1922 when the last installment was made. During the long 19th century, the payment to France amounted to up to 70 per cent of the country's foreign exchange earnings.

Jamaica today pays up to 70 per cent in order to service its international and domestic debt. Haiti was crushed by this debt payment. It descended into financial and social chaos. The republic did not stand a chance. France was enriched and it took pleasure from the fact that having been defeated by Haitians on the battlefield, it had won on the field of finance. In the years when the coffee crops failed, or the sugar yield was down, the Haitian government borrowed on the French money market at double the going interest rate in order to repay the French government.

When the Americans invaded the country in the early 20th century, one of the reasons offered was to assist the French in collecting its reparations. The collapse of the Haitian nation resides at the feet of France and America, especially. These two nations betrayed, failed, and destroyed the dream that was Haiti; crushed to dust in an effort to destroy the flower of freedom and the seed of justice.

Haiti did not fail. It was destroyed by two of the most powerful nations on earth, both of which continue to have a primary interest in its current condition.

The sudden quake has come in the aftermath of summers of hate. In many ways the quake has been less destructive than the hate. Human life was snuffed out by the quake, while the hate has been a long and inhumane suffocation - a crime against humanity.

During the 2001 UN Conference on Race in Durban, South Africa, strong representation was made to the French government to repay the 150 million francs. The value of this amount was estimated by financial actuaries as US$21 billion. This sum of capital could rebuild Haiti and place it in a position to re-engage the modern world. It was illegally extracted from the Haitian people and should be repaid.

It is stolen wealth. In so doing, France could discharge its moral obligation to the Haitian people.
For a nation that prides itself in the celebration of modern diplomacy, France, in order to exist with the moral authority of this diplomacy in this post-modern world, should do the just and legal thing.
Such an act at the outset of this century would open the door for a sophisticated interface of past and present, and set the Haitian nation free at last.

[Bostech]

If I wrote this I would be called anti-American or French.
This is nothing new,Haiti belongs to many countries exploited by western countries and left in ruins and debt.
Now western countries brag how great they are while those poor countries are left in ruins.
These kinda of exploitations are hapening as we speak in countries like Iraq,ex-Yu,Afghanistan.
Many countries are in debt and taken advantage and Haiti is just example of severe exploitations due to their history.

[Lunican]

CNN has 360° video of Port-au-Prince.

http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2010/01/world/haiti.360/index.html

[BridgeTroll]

Seems like they were in a hurry.  A slower pace would have been better.  Interesting perspective however...

[Ocklawaha]

This should be a MUST READ for every Floridian, who has seen the horror in Hati...

E A R T H Q U A K E     F L O R I D A
A History

While the seismic events reported from the Florida peninsula and panhandle have indeed been rare, earthquakes have occurred and been felt. Thirty-three are identified herein. Spanning over 250 yr. reports have come from Pensacola to Key West. Shocks varied from slight shudders to violent shakings that destroyed buildings.

Few records of seismic shock have corroborative seismic evidence in the form of seismogram data. Many of the shocks reported or recorded in Florida seem to be related to seismic events elsewhere in North America.

Earliest seismic reported were plotted on the 10-point Rossi-Forel Scale. This scale measured earthquake intensity and was based on a subjective set of criteria. The more recent Modified Mercalli Scale is a 12-point scale that is slightly more objective. Earthquake ratings on this scale are written as upper case Ms followed by the Roman numeral designating the intensity of the tremor. For example, MMIV would represent an intensity 4 shock on the Modified Mercalli Scale. Rossi-Forel estimates have been converted to Modified Mercalli intensity equivalents in this paper.

1727 October 12. "Severe" tremors were reported and mentioned by Campbell (1943) and Lane (1976). However, the original record of these quakes has been lost. A severe shock was reported in New England on this date at 10:40. Reports of another shock came from Martinique on the same day. The relationship of either of these to the St. Augustine tremor was not established.

1780 February 6. A mild tremor was reported from Pensacola on this date (Lane, 1976). No damage was reported.

1781 May 8. A severe earthquake was reported at a military installation near Pensacola. While no fatalities were reported, shocks tore ammunition racks from barracks walls and leveled a house in the area (Lane, 1976).

1842 May 7. This tremor was felt from Florida to Louisiana. It may have been associated with a severe earthquake that struck Santo Domingo at about the same time. Sources report the disappearance of some Florida lakes on the day of this earthquake (Niles National Register, 1842).

1843 February 8. An earthquake was reported from the rural areas of the State. This tremor might have been associated with a tremor on the West Indies which occurred at the same time (Lane, 1976).

1879 January 12. Two severe shocks of about 30 sec each occurred from an area from Ft. Myers to Daytona and from Tallahassee to Jacksonville, and from all areas in between. The epicenter was located at 29°30'N, 82°00'W (U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, 1938). The shock was reported by hundreds of residents over a 25,000 square mile area of the Florida peninsula, and ranged from MMVIII to MMIX.

At St. Augustine, articles were thrown from shelves. In other locations, windows rattled violently and walls cracked. Rockwood (1880) indicated that the tremor progressed from the NW toward the SE between Gulf Hammock and Okahumpa. In the Tampa Bay area, Campbell (1943) states that the shock seemed to move from the SW to NE and was preceded by a rumbling sound ". . . as of a distant railroad train." MMVI was reported near Gainesville (Lane, 1976).

1880 January 22-23. On this date, a violent series of earth tremors struck at Cristobal, Cuba. At about the same time, 5 shocks were felt in Key West. Additional, more gentle shocks were felt in Key West through 26 January (U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, 1938).

1886 January 8 (a). Reid (1886) reported a shock in Jacksonville with no damage or injuries.

1886 August 31 (b). There were a series of strong shocks in Charleston, South Carolina on this date. The tremors in Charleston began at 21:51. In Tampa, residents reported 2 shocks, the first at 21:51, the second at 22:00. The first appeared to move NE to SW, while the second seemed to travel SW to NE.

In St. Augustine, church bells tolled as the tremor passed, while near Tallahassee, the water in Lake Jackson disappeared. A well near Graceville began to flow (Campbell, 1943).

1886 September 1-9 (c). Many reports of shocks were from throughout the area, with most coming from Jacksonville. These tremors were probably associated with aftershocks from the Charleston, South Carolina earthquake (Reid, 1886).

1886 September 22 (d). A 3-sec shock was felt in Archer, Florida. No damage, no injuries (Reid, 1886).

1886 September 29 (e). Slight shock reported. No injuries, no damage (Reid, 1886).

1886 October 22 (f). A single tremor passed through Jacksonville causing windows and dishes to rattle. On this date, similar shocks were felt in Charleston, South Carolina, as well as in Atlanta and Augusta, Georgia (Campbell, 1943).

1893 June 20. A shock of at least 10 sec duration was felt in Jacksonville, MMIV (Reid, 1907).

1900 October 10 (Stover et al., 1979). Reid (1907) estimates the epicenter of this tremor to have been at 30°20'N, 81°40'W. It was felt at Jacksonville at 11:15 and afterward. Eight distinct shocks were reported without damage and injuries. The intensity of this tremor was MMV. A tremor was also felt in Lake City about this time.

1902 May 20-21. Residents reported hearing a noise like heavy cannon fire at a distance. The noises preceded the actual tremor by about 3 min. Tremors were slight and without damage (Reid, 1907).

1903 January 23. A shock wave of MMVI was felt in north Florida and in Savannah, Georgia. No damage (Lane, 1976).

1905 September 4. MMIII shock was accompanied by slight rumbling noises. Duration was 10 sec without damage (Reid, 1907).

1924 October 20. A tremor of intensity MMIV shook the area. Windows and doors rattled, but there was no damage (U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, 1924). An earthquake was felt throughout Virginia, Tennessee and South Carolina at about the same time (Bollinger, 1977).

1930 July 19. Widespread shocks were felt over a wide area of west-central Florida. The shocks were so evenly spaced that blasting, at first, was thought to be the source of the shocks. However, Campbell (1943) points out that the size of charge necessary for a shock to be felt over such a large area would be highly unusual. Furthermore, no blasting of any sort was scheduled or recorded on that day. He suspects a seismic origin for the shocks.

1935 November 13. Two short tremors were felt. The second tremor lasted 15 sec. In Palatka, shocks were abrupt and forceful enough to cause people to run from their homes and into the streets. No damage or injuries were reported (Seismological Society Bulletin, 1936).

1940 December 26. A slight shock was felt in the Tampa Bay area. Campbell (1943) reports that a seismic origin for this shock is in doubt, but gives no details. However, the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey (1940) does list a tremor on this date and time.

1942 January 19. Five to 7 evenly spaced tremors were felt from Miami throughout the Everglades. Each shock lasted about 1 min, and the shocks were spaced at 3 min intervals (Campbell, 1943). In Hollywood, whole houses shook. Moorehaven, on the south shore of Lake Okeechobee, reported 12 tremors. Still farther west, Alva reported 20 shocks, ranging from MMV to MMVII (U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, 1942).

1945 December 22. Press reports state that alarmed citizens felt a seismic shock in the area. A seismograph at Spring Hill College, near Mobile, Alabama recorded a slight earthquake on this date and time (U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, 1946).

1948 November 8. A sudden jar caused doors and windows to rattle. Residents report an accompanying sound like distant heavy explosion. Recorded as MMV (U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, 1948).

1952 November 18. This was a MMIV tremor felt in Lake City and in Quincy. A policeman in Quincy is said to have noted the exact time of the passing tremor on the back of a parking citation which he was issuing at the time (U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, 1952).

1953 March 29 (Stover et al., 1979). Slight tremor felt in Orlando.

1964 March 2. No surface expression of a tremor, but significant oscillations were noted in water well data collected by the United States Geological Survey. These oscillations were possibly associated with the Good Friday Alaska earthquake which happened in this date (Stencil, 1976).

1973 October 27 (a). Slight tremor reported in a broad area of central Florida (Stover et all., 1979).

1973 December 5 (b). Tremor reported at 11:30, Seminole and Orange counties.

1975 December 4. A MMIII to MMIV tremor was detected by most residents within a 10-mi radius of Daytona Beach (Stover et al., 1979).

1977 November 27. In October, 1977 the Earthquake Seismograph Station at the University of Florida became operational (Smith, 1978). No local events were recorded until November, 1977 when slight shock was recorded north over peninsular Florida. This tremor was not large enough to be felt, but was recorded as Richter magnitude .8.

At this writing (December, 1981) no additional tremors have been recorded. However, with the advent of continuous seismic recording for Florida, continuous updating of this record may now be accomplished. (Smith, Dec. 1981, pers. comm.)

You might note this is not up to the moment, but the relationship between Santa Domingo and Florida is downright scary. If this history proves anything, it proves we are IN HARMS WAY, and apparently oblivious to it. Santa Domingo? Yeah, the SAME ISLAND that Hati is on!


OCKLAWAHA

[stjr]

Two articles relating to chances of earthquakes in our neck of the woods:

(CNN) -- A magnitude-3.8 earthquake struck northern Illinois early Wednesday, shaking homes and buildings and rattling plenty of nerves.

Doug Dupont of Belvidere, Illinois, about 70 miles northwest of downtown Chicago, said it shook him out of bed and left a crack in his kitchen wall.

"It was really scary. It felt like a train was going by our house," Dupont said. "This is not California. This is northern Illinois. We are not supposed to get earthquakes."

The CNN Fact Check Desk wondered: Are earthquakes east of the Rocky Mountains unlikely, or was Tuesday's predawn quake in Illinois a wake-up call for Easterners?

• The U.S. Geological Survey says earthquakes pose "a significant risk to 75 million Americans in 39 states."

• Of the 26 U.S. urban areas deemed at risk for significant seismic activity, nearly one-third are east of the Rockies, including New York; Boston, Massachusetts; St. Louis, Missouri; Memphis, Chattanooga and Knoxville, Tennessee; and Charleston, South Carolina.

• One of the most active eastern quake zones is the New Madrid seismic zone, winding southward from Illinois and Missouri down through west Tennessee and Arkansas. It unleashed a series of magnitude-8.0 quakes in 1811-12.

Seismologists say we can expect one that big every 200 to 300 years. And quakes in the 6.0 range come every 80 years or so. The last one in the area was in 1895, 115 years ago.

• Others worth noting: A magnitude-7.3 quake in Charleston in 1886 and a magnitude-5.8 quake in northern New York state in 1944.

• Although earthquakes may be less frequent in the eastern U.S., the USGS says urban areas in the East could face bigger losses because the shaking would affect much larger areas than similar quakes in the West. In addition, most homes and buildings in the East are not designed to withstand earthquakes.

Bottom Line: Much of the eastern U.S. is at risk, not only for smaller quakes but major ones as well. History books tell us they've happened before, and seismologists assure us more will come. In fact, USGS statistics indicate that many areas in the East are overdue for a significant seismic event.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/02/10/earthquake.fact.check/index.html?hpt=T2

Florida unaffected by fault line in Haiti earthquake
State is virtually safe if and when quakes happen elsewhere.

    * By Carole Fader
    * Story updated at 11:15 PM on Friday, Jan. 15, 2010

Florida is not in harm's way from the fault line involved in Tuesday's earthquake in Haiti. In fact, there are no significant fault lines around or in the state, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey told The Times-Union.

Two fault lines run east and west along the north and south borders of Haiti and part of Hispaniola, the island that includes Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

"The Haitian quake occurred along the major fault line on the southern edge - it's called the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden Fault System. The northern fault line runs along the southern edge of Cuba to the Cayman Islands and on to Guatemala, Belize and Honduras. And neither of those faults impact Florida," USGS geophysicist John Bellini said Wednesday.

Haiti's capital of Port-au-Prince is about 710 miles from Miami, but it's unlikely the earthquake could have been felt in South Florida, Bellini said.

Here's what geologists think happened in the Haitian quake, as reported in The Miami Herald:

Earth is made up of continental and oceanic tectonic plates, massive irregularly shaped slabs of solid rock. The Enriquillo-Plantain Garden Fault is pushed by the Caribbean Plate, a unsettled land mass that moves about 20 millimeters east each year. The plates have been pushing against the fault since a major quake in 1760, said Paul Mann, a research scientist at the University of Texas in Austin. On Tuesday, the plates got the fault to move.

What the plate did to the fault is like when a person tries to move a grand piano, Grenville Draper, a professor at Florida International University, told the Herald. "The person will push and push with no effect - then, the piano will suddenly slip forward," said Draper, an expert in Caribbean geology.

Such plate movement is not usually felt in Florida, although several minor shocks have occurred there, the USGS reports. Tremblings were felt in St. Augustine in January 1879, and tremors from the famous Charleston, S.C., shock in August 1886 were felt in St. Augustine and Jacksonville, which also experienced aftershocks in September, October and November. In June 1983 and in October 1900, Jacksonville also experienced slight tremors.

"Earthquakes are rare events in Florida," Bellini said. "It's about the safest place to be if you don't want to be in one."

http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2010-01-14/story/florida_unaffected_by_fault_line_in_haiti_earthquake

[BridgeTroll]

Thanks... I feel better now...