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New 6.1-quake hits Haiti, people flee into streets

(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-01-20 20:52
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PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti: A 6.1-magnitude earthquake struck Haiti on Wednesday morning, shaking buildings and sending screaming people running into the streets only eight days after the country's capital was devastated by an apocalyptic quake.

New 6.1-quake hits Haiti, people flee into streets
Earthquake survivor Hotteline Lozama, 26, shakes hands with a rescuer as she was pulled out from the rubble by French aid group Secouristes Sans Frontieres in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2010.[Xinhua]New 6.1-quake hits Haiti, people flee into streets

The US Geological Survey said the new quake hit at 6:03 am (1103 GMT) about 35 miles (56 kilometers) northwest of the capital of Port-au-Prince. It struck at a depth of 13.7 miles (22 kilometers) but was too far inland to generate any tidal waves in the Caribbean.

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Wails of terror rose Wednesday as frightened survivors of last week's quake poured out of unstable buildings. It was not immediately possible to ascertain what additional damage the new quake may have caused.

Last week's magnitude-7 quake killed an estimated 200,000 people in Haiti, left 250,000 injured and made 1.5 million homeless. A massive international aid effort has been launched, but it is struggling with logistical problems, and many Haitians are still desperate for food and water.

Still, search-and-rescue teams have emerged from the ruins with some improbable success stories - including the rescue of 69-year-old ardent Roman Catholic who said she prayed constantly during her week under the rubble.

Ena Zizi had been at a church meeting at the residence of Haiti's Roman Catholic archbishop when the January 12 quake struck, trapping her in debris. On Tuesday, she was rescued by a Mexican disaster team.

New 6.1-quake hits Haiti, people flee into streets

In this image provided by ACT Alliance, showing earthquake victim Anna Zizi as she takes a drink of water after being carried alive from the rubble of Haiti's devastating earthquake, Tuesday Jan. 19, 2010, one week after the city was reduced to ruins. [Agencies] Rescuers tears as Haiti's miracle survivor is freed

Zizi said after the quake, she spoke back and forth with a vicar who also was trapped. But he fell silent after a few days, and she spent the rest of the time praying and waiting.

"I talked only to my boss, God," she said. "I didn't need any more humans."

Doctors who examined Zizi on Tuesday said she was dehydrated and had a dislocated hip and a broken leg.

Elsewhere in the capital, two women were pulled from a destroyed university building. And near midnight Tuesday, a smiling and singing 26-year-old Lozama Hotteline was carried to safety from a collapsed store in the Petionville neighborhood by the French aid group Rescuers Without Borders.

Crews at the cathedral managed to recover the body of the archbishop, Monsignor Joseph Serge Miot, who was killed in the January 12 quake.

Authorities said close to 100 people had been pulled from wrecked buildings by international search-and-rescue teams. Efforts continued, with dozens of teams sifting through Port-au-Prince's crumbled homes and buildings for signs of life.

But the good news was overshadowed by the frustrating fact that the world still can't get enough food and water to the hungry and thirsty.

"We need so much. Food, clothes, we need everything. I don't know whose responsibility it is, but they need to give us something soon," said Sophia Eltime, a 29-year-old mother of two who has been living under a bedsheet with seven members of her extended family.

The World Food Program said more than 250,000 ready-to-eat food rations had been distributed in Haiti by Tuesday, reaching only a fraction of the 3 million people thought to be in desperate need.

The WFP said it needs to deliver 100 million ready-to-eat rations in the next 30 days, but it only had 16 million meals in the pipeline.

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