Earthquake

You may have heard about the strong earthquake that just hit Haiti. The quake registered 7 on the Richter scale. That quake lasted up to 90 seconds depending on location. The quake measured 6.1 tops in the DR near the border with Haiti.

Here in Santiago, we felt a tremor for about 20 seconds. After spending the day visiting Puerto Plata, we arrived home about 4 PM. About 5:30 (we are 1 hour ahead of the US Eastern Time zone), we felt our fourth-floor apartment swaying. We have felt tremors before--but since this one didn't stop, both Judy and I went and stood under the main support beam of our apt. Then we called Judy's mom, who was still in her bedroom, to come out and stand with us (uh, we didn't give her an earthquake drill when she came!) I then began to move the dining room table under the beam. We remembered that in a major quake, it's best to get under a solid object like a table. But before I had finished moving the table, the tremor stopped.

Our Crossworld personnel are fine here in the DR; we have temporarily lost cell phone coverage, but we still have landlines.

However, we have no word on CW personnel in Haiti. We understand that the airport is closed and that all communication is cut off around Port-au-Prince. Only satellite internet and ham radio operators who have generators are getting out. Public power is down--except for the occasional generator, the city has been plunged into darkness right now. With a low front from Miami, it is cloudy, rainy, and in the tropics, when we have those conditions, it gets very very very dark. We also hear that in some areas, every other building has collapsed or been severely damaged. With the combination of darkness and rain on people who don't have shelter, we are concerned for those living in Port-au-Prince which is close to the epicenter of the quake.

Please pray for Haiti, for CrossWorld missionaries there, and for a young man named Vilardeau that we had the opportunity to disciple while he was studying here in Santiago. He now works in Port-au-Prince.

By the way, even though she is now 80 years old, this is the first time Momma has ever experienced an earthquake. We are grateful that for us, it wasn't worse.