A 6.9 earthquake has hit the southern Qinghai Province in China yesterday. Nearly 600 are dead and another 10,000 are injured. The death toll is expected to rise. In addition, the weather is cold there and it’s expected to snow.
In 2008, A 7.8 earthquake hit the Sichuan province in southwest China, killing 87,000 people. It was on the same fault line.
Many Haitian children, orphaned by the January 12th earthquake, have been sent to the United States. To date, at least 497 orphans of this quake were evacuated. Before the earthquake, Haiti had at least 380,000 orphans. They’re also rushing to finalize cases of Americans who were trying to adopt Haitian orphans.
Last week, the State Department said it was working with the Department of Homeland Security and the Haitian government to process nearly 300 cases of Americans who were waiting to adopt Haitian children. Of those, 200 cases were being accelerated, the agency said.
[SOURCE]
In the mist of rubble, death, little resources and aftershocks, thousands of Haitians are migrating away from Port-au-Prince. The Trois Rivieres ferry is taking them to Port Jeremie. They were boarding overcrowded row boats in order to get to the ferry. The Trois Riveres is made to hold 600 people, but there were around 6,000 migrants on board.
Once there, they climbed up the side of the boat, and designed their own assembly line of people to help pass luggage, and children, from one person to the other, on board the ferryboat. CNN witnessed one infant passed up along a sea of hands from their dinghy all the way to the top of the ferryboat.
[SOURCE]
We are sending public service messages to save lives. It is part of the U.S. effort to help keep Haitians safe. We don’t want people to endanger their lives by taking risk to try to get to the U.S. at this time. -Gordon Duguid.
Attempts to enter the United States by sea are inherently dangerous. Migrants typically use crowded, poorly built boats and put themselves at the mercy of smugglers. – U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Christopher O’Neal
Haitians are warned to not take boat voyage to the United States. If they already have a valid visa, they’re allowed to travel to the U.S. only by commercial airplane. If anyone attempts to travel to the U.S. by boat, they will be forced to turn back around. Although Haitian migration to the U.S. dates back to 35 years, there hasn’t been any signs of Haitians attempting to travel to the U.S. by boat since the disaster. [SOURCE]
Five year old Monley was found under the ruble of his collapsed home today after being trapped for eight days. His mother was killed in the earthquake and his father is still missing. After his uncle heard him crying out, he along with four of his friends found him and pulled him out of the rubble. He was then taken to the hospital where he was treated for severe dehydration. [SOURCE]
