FOG BLOG WORLD NEWS LOG: POWERFUL 7.2 EARTHQUAKE HITS HAITI, PEOPLE DIE , BUILDINGS TOPPLE:

Live Updates: Strong Earthquake Rocks Haiti, Parts of the Caribbean.....The magnitude-7.2 quake severely damaged at least two cities, killing dozens and burying people in the rubble of collapsed buildings. It was on the same fault line as the 2010 quake, which killed more than 220,000 people.......PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — A magnitude 7.2 earthquake violently shook Haiti on Saturday morning, a devastating blow to an impoverished country reeling from a presidential assassination last month and still recovering from a disastrous quake more than 11 years ago.

The quake overwhelmed hospitals, flattened buildings and trapped people under rubble in at least two cities in the western part of the country’s southern peninsula. A top civil protection coordinating organization said the death toll was at least 225 people.

“The streets are filled with screaming,” said Archdeacon Abiade Lozama, head of an Episcopal church in Les Cayes, one of the afflicted cities. “People are searching, for loved ones or resources, medical help, water. ”

The disaster could hardly have come at a worse time for the nation of 11 million, which has been in the throes of a political crisis since President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated on July 7. The unsolved assassination, a leadership vacuum, severe poverty and systematic gang violence in parts of Haiti have left the government dysfunctional and ill prepared for a natural calamity — especially when it is barely able to exert control in the country.

Much of the initial information about the quake came via social media postings and phone because of the security dangers in traveling to the affected area, which is at least four hours away by road from the Port-au-Prince, the capital.

The United States Geological Survey said the quake struck five miles from the town of Petit Trou de Nippes in the western part of the country, about 80 miles west of Port-au-Prince. Seismologists said it had a depth of seven miles and was felt as far away as 200 miles in Jamaica.