Earthquake in Haiti

News

Earthquake in Haiti

A fierce earthquake struck the country of Haiti late Tuesday afternoon, January 12, 2010, causing a crowded hospital to collapse, leveling countless shantytown dwellings and bringing even more suffering to a place that was already the hemisphere's poorest and most disaster-prone spot.

Local residents stay out in the open in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010. Huge swaths of Port-au-Prince lay in ruins, and thousands of people were feared dead in the rubble of government buildings, foreign aid headquarters and shantytowns that collapsed a day earlier in a powerful earthquake.

Local residents drive past a damaged church in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010. Huge swaths of Port-au-Prince lay in ruins, and thousands of people were feared dead in the rubble of government buildings, foreign aid headquarters and shantytowns that collapsed a day earlier in a powerful earthquake.

Injured patients outside the St. Esprit Hospital in central Port-au-Prince wait in vain for treatment on Thursday, Jan. 13, 2010. Survivors strained desperately on Wednesday against the chunks of concrete that buried this city along with thousands of its residents, rich and poor, from shantytowns to the presidential palace, in the devastating earthquake that struck late Tuesday afternoon.

A child is treated in a courtyard of the central hospital in Port-au-Prince, Thursday, Jan. 14, 2010. Since Tuesday's earthquake most medical facilities in the Haitian capital have been severely damaged, if not leveled. Supplies of food and fresh water were dwindling.

Cindy Terasme screams after seeing the feet of her dead 14-year-old brother Jean Gaelle Dersmorne in the rubble of the collapsed St. Gerard School in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Thursday, Jan. 14, 2010. A 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit Haiti Tuesday.

This two photo combination shows above, in a May 20, 2004 file photo provided by the Canadian Department of National Defence, the National Palace in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Below is the National Palace photographed Wednesday Jan. 13, 2010, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, one day after a powerful earthquake crushed thousands of structures, from schools and shacks to the National Palace and the U.N. peacekeeping headquarters. Untold numbers were still tra

An injured woman is carried to safety in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010. Huge swaths of Port-au-Prince lay in ruins, and thousands of people were feared dead in the rubble of government buildings, foreign aid headquarters and shantytowns that collapsed a day earlier in a powerful earthquake.

A woman walks past rubble in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010. Huge swaths of Port-au-Prince lay in ruins, and thousands of people were feared dead in the rubble of government buildings, foreign aid headquarters and shantytowns that collapsed a day earlier in a powerful earthquake.

A man looks over the rubble of his home in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010. Huge swaths of Port-au-Prince lay in ruins, and thousands of people were feared dead in the rubble of government buildings, foreign aid headquarters and shantytowns that collapsed a day earlier in a powerful earthquake.

Local residents stay out in the open in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010. Huge swaths of Port-au-Prince lay in ruins, and thousands of people were feared dead in the rubble of government buildings, foreign aid headquarters and shantytowns that collapsed a day earlier in a powerful earthquake.

A man pleaded with a bulldozer operator to help try to extract a body from the collapsed building behind him in Port-au-Prince, Thursday, Jan. 14, 2010. The operator was not able to help.

A woman carries her child through a surging crowd as U.S. Marines tried to control access to a food distribution point in Leogane, Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2010. On Tuesday about 125 marines landed in Leogane, a fishing town on the north shore of Haiti's southern peninsula, to distribute food and water.

Marines held back a surging crowd at a food distribution point in Leogane, Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2010. On Tuesday about 125 marines landed in Leogane, a fishing town on the north shore of Haiti's southern peninsula, to distribute food and water.

A man looks at the wreckage of a collapsed building in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010. Huge swaths of Port-au-Prince lay in ruins, and thousands of people were feared dead in the rubble of government buildings, foreign aid headquarters and shantytowns that collapsed a day earlier in a powerful earthquake.

An injured man lies on a sidewalk in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010. Huge swaths of Port-au-Prince lay in ruins, and thousands of people were feared dead in the rubble of government buildings, foreign aid headquarters and shantytowns that collapsed a day earlier in a powerful earthquake.

A man sits surrounded by rubble and debris in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010. Huge swaths of Port-au-Prince lay in ruins, and thousands of people were feared dead in the rubble of government buildings, foreign aid headquarters and shantytowns that collapsed a day earlier in a powerful earthquake.

A man sits surrounded by rubble and debris in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010. Huge swaths of Port-au-Prince lay in ruins, and thousands of people were feared dead in the rubble of government buildings, foreign aid headquarters and shantytowns that collapsed a day earlier in a powerful earthquake.

Bodies lie under sheets at a makeshift morgue in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010. Huge swaths of Port-au-Prince lay in ruins, and thousands of people were feared dead in the rubble of government buildings, foreign aid headquarters and shantytowns that collapsed a day earlier in a powerful earthquake.

A woman walks past bodies laid out on a sidewalk in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010. Huge swaths of Port-au-Prince lay in ruins, and thousands of people were feared dead in the rubble of government buildings, foreign aid headquarters and shantytowns that collapsed a day earlier in a powerful earthquake.

A young woman sits surrounded by rubble and debris in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010. Huge swaths of Port-au-Prince lay in ruins, and thousands of people were feared dead in the rubble of government buildings, foreign aid headquarters and shantytowns that collapsed a day earlier in a powerful earthquake.

Local residents crowd a devastated street in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010. Huge swaths of Port-au-Prince lay in ruins, and thousands of people were feared dead in the rubble of government buildings, foreign aid headquarters and shantytowns that collapsed a day earlier in a powerful earthquake.

Local residents look at the damaged National Palace in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010. Huge swaths of Port-au-Prince lay in ruins, and thousands of people were feared dead in the rubble of government buildings, foreign aid headquarters and shantytowns that collapsed a day earlier in a powerful earthquake.

An injured man is transported to safety in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010. Huge swaths of Port-au-Prince lay in ruins, and thousands of people were feared dead in the rubble of government buildings, foreign aid headquarters and shantytowns that collapsed a day earlier in a powerful earthquake.

A woman in Port-au-Prince weeps as she watches bodies being loaded onto a dumptruck for transportation to a mass grave outside the city on Thursday, Jan. 14, 2010. Signs of tension and urgency were growing in Haiti on Thursday, two days after an earthquake reduced much of the capital to rubble.

Displaced residents set up a narrow tent city on the median between lanes on the major road from Port-au-Prince to Carrefour, seen Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2010. A strong aftershock struck near the Haitian capital on Wednesday morning, shaking buildings and spreading terror through the thousands of survivors who have been living outdoors since last week's devastating earthquake.

1/25

Local residents stay out in the open in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010. Huge swaths of Port-au-Prince lay in ruins, and thousands of people were feared dead in the rubble of government buildings, foreign aid headquarters and shantytowns that collapsed a day earlier in a powerful earthquake.

Today's Gallery Headlines

girls, wrestling, Shaniyah McDaniel

PHOTOS: AJC Photos of the Month -- February 2026

Georgia Tech vs Virginia Tech Women Basketball

PHOTOS: Georgia Tech women fall to Virginia Tech in ACC Tournament

Georgia Tech vs California Basketball

PHOTOS: Georgia Tech loses final home game of season

Tucker head coach James Hartry

Tucker coach James Hartry's final game leading the Tigers basketball team

More Galleries

Ice storm warning

PHOTOS: Scenes from icy winter storm in Metro Atlanta

As storm inches closer to Georgia, metro Atlanta braces for ice threat

PHOTOS: Georgia readies for incoming ice storm

01202026 day of protests

PHOTOS: Metro Atlanta ICE protest join national effort

PHOTOS: Georgia's first snowfall of the year

PHOTOS: Georgia's first snowfall of the year