Carrefour and Leogane, Haiti, Considered the Epicenter of the Quake

According to eyewitnesses based in Leogane and Carrefour and according to one of my sisters, Leogane and Carrefour were heavily impacted by earthquake. The schools, churches, and hospitals were either destroyed and received significant damage. Some roads are impassable. Those who still have a car to drive are having trouble finding gas. From Carrefour, Gressier, Leogane, L'Acul, Dufort, Fauche, Grand Goave and Petit Goave, most houses were either flattened or rendered uninhabitable.

Some orphanages were also damaged. Some casualties were recorded too.

More updates later.

List of Haitian Buildings Destroyed by the 2010 Earthquake

Le Palais National or (Haitian White House) suffers major damage

Commerce Ministry heavily impacted

Casernes Jean Jacques Dessalines reportedly crumbled

Hotel Montana, a major haitian Landmark is in ruin.

Haitian hospital and various schools

UN peace-keepers' buildings are affected

More to come

Haitians Living Overseas Are Watching Quake Development: Bolosse, Matissant, Carrefour and Fontamara Heavily Impacted

According to two bank workers, friends of mine, the areas that go from L'avenue de l'exposition, Bolosse, Matissant, Fontamara and Carrefour are heavily impacted. The streets are cracked. Some of the houses are leaning over the streets. Those which were built in the hills suffer significant damages. The worst thing that happened is that many people are buried alive in many of them. Haiti lacks equipment to deal with this large scale disaster. Many observers only have to go back to 2008 when a school collapse required the intervention of foreign help to rescue them.

Considering how many shantytowns exist in Port-Au-Prince, it will be hard to go from house to house to rescue trapped Haitians.

According to two reports coming from Fontamara and Carrefour, the buildings which were built recently or in the last few years withstood the forces of the quake better than others. Obviously, there were many collateral damages as the buildings were built close to each other. In Fontamara, some residential homes fared better than others.

2010 Haitian Earthquake Death Toll Estimate

According to various local sources, the Haitian quake death toll will be high. When everybody wakes up tomorrow morning, the reality of this powerful earthquake wll be felt all around Port-Au-Prince. From Carrefour to Petionville, a suburb in the mountains above the capital, the cries for help and rescue will be heard.

So far, President Preval and Ban KiMoun are talking about more than 70,000 people who lost their lives. Among the foreigners, there is a large group of Canadians. (More updates will follow here)


Right now, rescue troups and helpers have been going to most of the affected areas to try to rescue people trapped under tons of debris. From Hotel CHristopher, UN headquarters to Hotel Montana and countless other private residences and publich residences, the rescue mission -but not the recovery phase- continues to find surviors. The chances are minimal, but the rescuers do not seem to stop easily. As long as the rescue dogs and sophisticated instruments indicate there are signs of life, the search continues. Rescuers went to Leogane, located on the west side of Port au Prince for students and kids at two large schools.

There have been some 13 or more aftershocks. Each one of them causes as much fear as possible to the survivors. While neighbors are trying to rescue their neighbors by digging with their bare hands, they are running away from the near-collapsed buildings. But they do not want to give up. They want to rescue a mother and her children. They know they are still alive underneath the rubbles. They can hear their cry for help.