BREAKING NEWS – 7.0 quake hits Haiti

Uh, Oh… This is not good.

PORT-AU-PRINCE — A huge quake measuring 7.0 rocked the impoverished Caribbean nation of Haiti Tuesday toppling buildings and causing widespread damage and panic, officials and AFP witnesses said.

A tsunami alert was immediately issued for the Caribbean region after the earthquake struck at 2153 GMT.

An AFP correspondent said the ground shook for more than a minute. Just minutes later two aftershocks measuring both 5.9 and 5.5 on the moment magnitude scale hit, US officials said.

“I think it's really a catastrophe of major proportions,” the country's ambassador to the United States, Raymond Alcide Joseph, told CNN television.

The US Geological Survey said the powerful quake was initially measured at 7.3 on the scale and struck 16 kilometers (ten miles) from the capital Port-Au-Prince, and 27 kilometers (17 miles) from Petionville.

An AFP correspondent in Petionville said one three-story building, housing two offices, was toppled, and a tractor was already at the scene trying to dig out victims as people fled onto the streets in panic.

The up-scale area is home to many foreign diplomats and members of a major United Nations mission to the country.

via AFP: Fears of major catastrophe as 7.0 quake rocks Haiti.