Haitians flee in fear after yesterday's 5.9 magnitude aftershock and expert predictions of more

The real aftershock: Mass exodus from Haiti

Haitians flee in fear after yesterday's 5.9 magnitude aftershock and expert predictions of more

Escape route: Haitians board a ship to Jeremie, about 200 km from Port-au-Prince, at the La Saline harbour in the capital yesterday. A powerful new earthquake rumbled across the ruins of Haiti earlier in the day, making thousands of already traumatised survivors flee for their lives. Pic/AFP

The magnitude-5.9 jolt matched the strongest of the aftershocks that have followed the huge quake of January 12 that devastated Haiti's capital. The slow vibration intensified into side-to-side shaking that lasted about eight seconds.

The new temblor collapsed seven buildings, according to Mike Morton of the UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination agency, but there were no reports of people crushed or trapped, perhaps because the earlier quake frightened most people into sleeping outside.

Wails of terror erupted in Port-au-Prince, where the aftershock briefly interrupted rescue efforts amid the broken concrete of collapsed buildings, and prompted doctors and patients to flee the University Hospital.

Soon after the aftershock, thousands were seen sailing away from the capital in fear. What's worse is that experts say Haiti can expect more aftershocks in coming weeks, and while the usual pattern suggests they will become weaker and less frequent, another one as strong as yesterday's jolt is possible.

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of Haitians remain homeless, hungry and in mourning -- most still waiting for the benefits of a nearly $1 billion global aid campaign that has brought hundreds of doctors and thousands of troops to the impoverished Caribbean nation. "The latest quake, combined with a light rain on Tuesday, has complicated rescue efforts," said Dr Yi Ting Tsai, part of a Taiwanese rescue crew.

Final blow?

Yesterday's aftershock has also diminished remaining hope for the people still buried by rubble, said experts. Any survivors who had held out for eight days in air pockets now risked being crushed by masonry dislodged by the new quake, they said. "For some, it will be the final blow," was the grim assessment of Philippe Dabadie, a professor of disaster medicine.

What a woman!

Ena Zizi (69) sang as she was was being rescued by search and rescue workers, who had fed her water by a tube, after eight days under the wreckage of Haiti's Roman Catholic cathedral. Sarah Wilson, a British Christian Aid worker, said, "She was singing when she emerged. Everyone clapped and cheered. It was an amazing thing to witness. No-one could believe she was still alive."

Zizi, who was later airlifted to a US hospital with leg injuries, told her rescuers that her faith had helped her through the ordeal. "I'm all right, sort of," she said. "I talked only to my boss -- God -- and I didn't need any more humans."

In another miracle, in the town of Jacmel, search teams demolishing a house found Elisabeth Joassaint, aged 23 days, alive after seven days buried in the wreckage of her home.

Quake facts

>>The January 12 earthquake measured 7.0 on the Richter scale. It killed about 2 lakh people and made about 2 million homeless

>>Haiti has felt more than 40 significant aftershocks since then, with yesterday's temblor being the strongest

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