An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 has struck the impoverished Caribbean nation of Haiti.
The U.S. Geological Survey says the earthquake struck Tuesday afternoon. There are unconfirmed reports that a hospital has collapsed. A tsunami watch has been issued for the neighboring Dominican Republic, along with Cuba and the Bahamas.
7.0 is huge! If accurate, the devastation will be massive.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/13/world/americas/13haiti.html
“The helpless commit themselves to you, for you are the helper of orphans.”
Psalm 10 appointed for Evening Prayer today
There is a active cadre of medical personnel here that go to Haiti. My daughter and I and others are trying to start a program for cervical cancer screening there. A group from here was set to leave in just two weeks with primary care and surgery teams.
We had a unrelated physicians meeting tonight and the earthquake came up. One of the other physicians who doesn’t participate told myself and another physician who do, “You should take the hint, and maybe God want you going to Haiti.” I immediately thought of J.R.R. Tolkien’s quote:
[blockquote] “I am a Christian, and indeed a Roman Catholic,” Tolkien once wrote to a friend, “so that I do not expect ‘history’ to be anything but a ‘long defeat’ — though it contains some samples or glimpses of final victory.” [/blockquote]
Haiti is perhaps a long defeat, but what a blessing it is to serve them. I hope that all are praying their hardest for these long suffering people. Jill Woodliff, we need you!
Every once in a while we get a glimpse of humanity in the strident responses on this blog. I have new respect for “robroy” and wish him well in his endeavors in Haiti. Those of us in the DUSC should heed well the request for donations for our mission in Haiti at Cange. You can donate through your parish and have it count toward the Millenium Goals if that helps.
Please, can any information about the state of the diocese — its bishop, Z. Duracin, its priests, their families, the cathedral, seminary, churches and schools etc. — be posted here? Obviously it is chaos in terms of information. The diocesan offices are located near the epicenter of the quake; the seminary and cathedral are near the Presidential palace which has collapsed; churches and schools are all around. God mercy! Yes, pray. This is a catastrophe of the worst kind, and we must surely put aside our arguments to turn to our brethren here.
[url=http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/01/13/world/AP-EU-Haiti-Earthquake-Archbishop.html]Archbishop of Port-Au-Prince Dies in Haiti Quake[/url]
From the Lead, 10:20 EST
I have just received an email from the Rev. Kesner Ajax, who is the coordinator of the Partnership Program and director of the Bishop Tharp Institute.
He says the following:
Bishop Duracin is alive. Madame Duracin, his wife, injured her foot but is otherwise OK. The sisters at the convent are alive.
However, the rest of the news is devasting:
The damage in Port au Prince and areas around it is terrible.
There is no Cathedral. The entire Holy Trinity complex is gone. The convent for the Sisters of St. Margaret [more at its website, including opportunity to donate] is gone. The Bishop’s house is gone. College St. Pierre is gone.
The apartment for College St. Pierre is still standing. Bishop no longer has a house in which to live.
In Trouin, four people were killed during a service. In Grand Colline, the church is gone. In St. Etienne, the church is gone. In Les Cayes, BTI is OK, but some people were injured trying to get out of the buildings during the quake. The rectory in Les Cayes is fine
According to radio reports, the commander of the United Nations force in Haiti also died in the quake.
Haiti has one of the largest populations of U.S. missionaries in the world. Also, many U.S. churches send short-term mission groups from their congregations are there at any given time of the year. We can brace ourselves for more close-to-home sad news. Most, if not all, the large Catholic and Protestant edifices in Port-au-Prince reportedly have been flattened, along with their related church schools. And, of course, death and destruction did not discriminate among believers and non-believers, among rich and poor, among the learned and unlearned, among the children and adults. May help arrive quickly for those trapped and injured. May the Lord sustain those who have experienced unspeakable losses.
w.w.
Fox News has a photo slide show chronicling the devastation [url=http://www.foxnews.com/slideshow/world/2010/01/12/earthquake-rocks-haiti?slide=1 ]here[/url]. (The slideshow carried a warning because there are pictures of bodies.)