Yesterday around 5 pm I started to get calls from many people asking if I felt the earthquake and I didnt (fortunately or unfortunately). However there was a buzz of excitement all around Kingston and alot of Jamaica about the excitement brought on by the earthquake which was felt yesterday. However it was amidst the excitement that people found the real shocking news and that was that all we in Jamaica had felt was merely the leftovers of the real 7.0 earthquake which the people in Haiti had experienced that day (in addition to the 4.8-5.8 aftershocks).

The earthquake was then followed by a tsunami warning for the countries lieing west and east of Haiti and it was then that people in Jamaica started to get scared and worried for our neighbours as well as ourselves. Of course everybody's minds turned to the 1907 earthquake which destroyed most of Kingston and Port Royal.

However in Haiti the damage has been quite substantial with many buildings collapsing after the earthquake and Haitian officials have said that they expect the death toll to be in the thousands. The earthquake spelt disaster for Haiti not only because of the magnitude and size of it but because Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world and there is almost no disaster relief fund for them to turn to, or is there sufficient emergency services available to rescue the people, this is doubled by the fact that a major hospital was also destroyed and many patients and staff are still trapped within.

According to reports form the Gleaner:

The presidential palace, the finance ministry, the ministry of public works, the ministry of communication and culture, were all affected by the quake, the reporter said, adding that the parliament building and a cathedral in the capital were crumbling.

This is truly a scary time for Haiti and the thoughts and prayers of Jamaicans go out to all Haitian citizens, there are also numerous Jamaican people collecting food and supplies to send to haiti to aid in their recovery. This shows that we are truly a very large family of Caribbean people and we hope for the best for Haiti.

Here is a video showing the damage which Haiti as experienced: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IySBl2aq-A

**Picture taken from msnbc