[Nuclear1]

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/01/12/haiti.earthquake/index.html

(CNN) -- A major earthquake struck southern Haiti on Tuesday, knocking down buildings and power lines and inflicting what its ambassador to the United States called a catastrophe for the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation.

Witnesses reported heavy damage throughout the capital, Port-au-Prince, including to the president's residence and century-old homes nearby, and The Associated Press reported that a hospital collapsed. President Rene Preval is safe, Joseph said, but there was no estimate of the dead and wounded Tuesday evening.

The magnitude 7.0 quake struck about 10 miles (15 kilometers) southwest of Port-au-Prince shortly before 5 p.m. Joseph said one official of his government told him houses had crumbled "on the right side of the street and the left side of the street."

A little perspective:  Haiti is quite possibly the single poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and didn't need this on top of being repeatedly battered by hurricanes.  Worse yet, Port-au-Prince is one of the worst combinations of a high population (~2 million) and incredibly flimsy buildings.  This is going to be rough.

Ways You Can Help:

Text YELE to 501501 to make a $5 donation.  

American Red Cross is accepting $10 donations by texting "Haiti" to 90999.  

Lutheran World Relief: 800-LWR-LWR-2, or lwr.org

UNICEF USA: https://secure.unicefusa.org/site/Donation2?df_id=6680&6680.donation=form1&gclid=CPv92Ka3op8CFQ7yDAodBS85ww

Doctors Without Borders: https://donate.doctorswithoutborders.org/SSLPage.aspx?pid=197&hbc=1&source=ADR1001E1D01

Action Against Hunger, 877-777-1420
American Red Cross, 800-733-2767
American Jewish World Service, 212-792-2900
AmeriCares, 800-486-4357
Beyond Borders, 866-424-8403
CARE, 800-521-2273
CarmaFoundation
Catholic Relief Services, 800-736-3467
Childcare Worldwide, 800-553-2328
Direct Relief International, 805-964-4767
Doctors Without Borders, 888-392-0392
Feed My Starving Children, 763-504-2919
Food for the Poor, 800-427-9104
Friends of WFP, 866-929-1694
Haiti Children, 877-424-8454
Haiti Marycare, 203-675-4770
Haitian Health Foundation, 860-886-4357
Hope for Haiti, 239-434-7183
International Medical Corps, 800-481-4462
International Rescue Committee, 877-733-8433
International Relief Teams, 619-284-7979
Medical Teams International, 800-959-4325 
Meds and Food for Kids, 314-420-1634
Mennonite Central Committee, 888-563-4676
Mercy Corps, 888-256-1900
Operation Blessing, 800-730-2537
Operation USA, 800-678-7255
Oxfam, 800-776-9326
Partners in Health, 617-432-5298
Project HOPE
Rural Haiti Project, 347-405-5552
The Salvation Army, 800-725-2769
Samaritan's Purse, 828-262-1980
Save the Children, 800-728-3843
UNICEF, 800-367-5437
World Concern, 800-755-5022
World Relief, 800-535-5433
World Vision, 888-511-6548
Yele Haiti, 212-352-0552

[General Battuta]

Are we rolling in the aid?

[iamzack]

Since when does the Gulf of Mexico get earthquakes? O.o

[Nuclear1]

Are we rolling in the aid?

According to MSNBC, US Southern Command is just waiting for someone to say the word, and the Navy's on the way.  

[General Battuta]

SCORE.

[watsisname]

Since when does the Gulf of Mexico get earthquakes? O.o

Not as frequently as some, but they still do.

[iamzack]

weekeepeedeea said their last earthquake was over 100 years ago. they lied to mee. :<

[FUBAR-BDHR]

How many others have already started to get scam emails for aid?  Took about 2 hours after the disaster before the first one rolled it.  Sad world it is. 

[Renegade]

The news says this is the strongest earthquake since 200 Years in Haiti.
Very very bad.

[FUBAR-BDHR]

Interesting on that map you will notice almost none in the central US but quakes have happened and will happen there as well.  Most are minor but there are thousands of them a year in the great lakes alone.  If I recall there was a noticeable increase in the last few years.  The plains states are way overdue. 

Just because there hasn't been one somewhere in a long time doesn't mean they don't happen.  In my opinion it means one of 2 things.  They are small and regular but rarely felt.  They aren't regular meaning pressure builds up for longer resulting in bigger quakes.  I would put this under the latter category.  Long time since any big quake and boom it hit and hit hard.

[jdjtcagle]

How many others have already started to get scam emails for aid?  Took about 2 hours after the disaster before the first one rolled it.  Sad world it is.  

If any of you do care about sending legitimate aid.  CNN was broadcasting the number last night, you could text yele to 501501 and they will charge your cellphone bill $5. No time to find a link but feel free to check out the number.

[Nuclear1]

Sad world it is.

Speaking of sad...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maArcr6b6l8

Pat Robertson's personal opinion on why the earthquake happened.  


Also, if you can, please, please, please offer whatever you can. 

The 501501 number is legit.  Text YELE to that number for a $5 donation.

American Red Cross is accepting $10 donations by texting "Haiti" to 90999. 

Lutheran World Relief: 800-LWR-LWR-2, or lwr.org

UNICEF USA: https://secure.unicefusa.org/site/Donation2?df_id=6680&6680.donation=form1&gclid=CPv92Ka3op8CFQ7yDAodBS85ww

Doctors Without Borders: https://donate.doctorswithoutborders.org/SSLPage.aspx?pid=197&hbc=1&source=ADR1001E1D01

Those are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head.  I'll update my first post with some of these links.

[jdjtcagle]

 

I'm too tired to care what Mr. Robertson thinks. This was a horrible disaster and it wasn't the devils or Gods fault, things just happen and they need our help.

[Mongoose]

Ugh...Haiti was already a daily human tragedy, but now it's been rendered nothing short of hell on Earth. Like Nuclear1 said, if you have any spare cash at all, please try to give something.  The stories coming out of there are only going to get worse as the week goes on.

And unlike the ranting of that scumbag Robertson, if anything good can possibly come out of such horror, let it be the realization that we cannot allow conditions like those in Haiti to persist in our own backyards.  As often as I may doubt it, we're better as a species than that.

[Black Wolf]

Interesting on that map you will notice almost none in the central US but quakes have happened and will happen there as well.  Most are minor but there are thousands of them a year in the great lakes alone.  If I recall there was a noticeable increase in the last few years.  The plains states are way overdue.   

Tectonics don't really work that way. North America is in the on its own big, coherent plate - the plain states are particularly central on that plate - one of the major reasons why they're plains in fact - the small earthquakes you get there are the result of small scale shifting - I don't know the local geology well enough to be certain, but they could be intra-plate tectonics (small scale folding and faulting to relieve internal pressure) or related to sedimentary processes - but there's an upper limit on how bad they're likely to get - short of hotspot vulanism or extraterrestrial impact or some such similar catastrophic event, you'll never have earthquakes on this scale in the central US.

Haiti, by contrast, sits right on the boundary between the North American and Caribbean plates, on a strike slip boundary - the same basic type of plate interaction that the San Andreas fault represents, though less active. Earthquakes here are going to be much more intense as a result.

[Scotty]

New Madrid begs to differ circa 1812.

Four earthquakes above 8 on the Richter Scale in two months.

[Bobboau]

yeah the new madrid quakes rang bells on the east coast, the new madrid fault periodically kicks some seismic ass.

[watsisname]

Ah, I had heard about those quakes a while back but could never remember where they were or when they happened.  Thanks for linking that. :3

FUBAR:  I think the reason those quakes aren't on that map is because this only goes back to year 2000.  Although there seems to be one dot there in roughly the same place as the New Madrid rift thing, so apparently it pulled off something greater than magnitude 5 in the last 10 years.

[Bobboau]

it had a 6.something about a year ago, hit in the middle of the night woke me up, and I was a state away from where it hit. we had a few aftershocks in the days following