Haitians post scenes of devastation, despair and hope on social media after 7.2 quake

Mark Price
·3 min read

Haitians took to social media in the hours after a devastating 7.2 earthquake on Saturday, showing both the initial shock waves and the panic that followed.

Live videos shared on Twitter show streets filled with running people, screaming as they felt the shaking, watched the debris fall around them and saw streets filled with water that some linked to waves generated by the quake.

Scenes of miraculous rescues were also posted, showing dazed people being pulled alive from pockets of air in the piles of rubble.

The search for survivors continued late in the evening, even as the U.S. Geological Survey reported 14 quakes on the island in the past 24 hours — all over 4 on the Richter scale.

As of sunset, the death toll officially surpassed 300 and a video showed victims — including small children — being lined up on the ground.