HAITI was rocked early on Saturday morning by a 7.2 earthquake. According to an Associated Press (AP) report, the US Geological Survey said the earthquake's epicentre was located 7.5 miles from Saint-Louis du Sud, a small coastal town in western Haiti that is about 100 miles from Haiti's capital city Port-au-Prince.
The report said no tsunami warnings were issued by the US tsunami warning system for the US' Atlantic or Gulf Coasts. The report said there were predictions of waves up to about ten for some coastlines in Haiti and people in Port-au-Prince rushed into the streets in fear after feeling the quake.
The country is still recovering from a devastating earthquake in 2010 that killed tens of thousands of people and left many more homeless.
Haiti's director of civil protection Jerry Chandler told AP, "I can confirm that there are deaths, but I don't yet have an exact toll, We're still collecting information." Haiti's emergency operations centre was activated and the report said Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry was en route to the the centre.
The quake was also felt in the neighbouring Dominican Republic. AP also reports that the US National Hurricane Center has forecast that Tropical Storm Grace, now moving toward the Leeward Islands, will reach Haiti late Monday night or early Tuesday morning.
Haiti is still recovering from the last earthquake it experienced in January 12, 2010, which killed over 200,000 people. The magnitude of that quake was 7.0.
This story will be updated as more information becomes available.
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