Steady aftershocks rattle Haitians, force some crumpled structures down

Haiti on edge after steady aftershocks

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Haiti was rocked by a second series of aftershocks on Tuesday, toppling some structures damaged in the deadly earthquake last month and raising tensions among Haitians already on edge.

The magnitude-4.7 quake rattled the capital at 1:26 a.m. (0626 GMT), followed some seven minutes later by a smaller aftershock whose magnitude was still unknown, according to Eric Calais, a geophysicist from Purdue University who is studying seismic activity in Haiti.

Another aftershock measuring magnitude 4.7 struck on Monday, and it was followed by two other small tremors. They struck near the epicenter of the Jan. 12 earthquake that killed more than 200,000 people.

The U.S. Geological Survey usually detects Haitian quakes of magnitude 4 and above, but smaller tremors often are not detected due to a lack of seismometers in Haiti.

“It’s important that people stay cautious,” Calais said. “In the next three months, there’s a significant risk that there will be an aftershock larger than 4.7.”

Some walls that had toppled in last month’s quake spilled on to the street Tuesday and damaged telephone polls split in half. There were no reports of injuries.

“It feels like the Earth is shaking all the time since last month,” said Ermithe Josephe, 48, who is still sleeping outside in a tent next to her crumpled house. “We can’t sleep with all of these aftershocks and we’re too afraid to go to work sometimes.”

Last month’s earthquake occurred along the east-west Enriquillo Fault, where two pieces of earth’s crust slide by each other in opposite directions.

Scientists are still concerned over whether the January earthquake released enough energy along that fault to ease the threat of more major quakes there. They are also concerned about another fault line in the north — the one that caused a 1842 quake that flattened Cap-Haitien, Haiti’s second largest city.

That fault runs from northwestern Haiti to the Dominican Republic and onto land in the Dominican city of Santiago, the second-largest city in the Dominican Republic with some 800,000 people.

“It’s that fault that’s accumulated more strain,” said Paul Mann, a geologist from University of Texas who arrived in Haiti on Monday with a team to survey coastal uplifting caused by last month’s quake.

More than 56 aftershocks of magnitude 4 or greater have shuddered through Haiti’s shattered capital since last month.

On Jan. 26, four people were trapped when a building collapsed on them, and on Feb. 9, a magnitude-4 aftershock shook loose debris at a shattered supermarket, trapping several more.