Still not recovering from the first major earthquake, Haiti was hit by another catastrophe. Last Wednesday, Haitians were shook by an aftershock, whose magnitude, according to reports, ranged from 5.9 to 6.0 One thing that was sure was that it brought more disaster. Port-au-Prince was still in the midst of rubble, fallen debris, collapsed buildings, and destroyed houses when the earthquake hit. The 49 aftershocks that Haiti experienced after the 7.0- earthquake were not as alarming as this. Thankfully, though, no casualty was reported.

This aftershock only made matters worse for the Haitians. It further left them with nothing and nowhere to live in. More so, their cries for help and relief intensified and became much more needed now. According to the report of Chicago Tribune, one woman died from a heart attack when the aftershock hit. Those eight seconds of shaking only aggravated the situation and disrupted the relief operation that different countries and organizations were doing. The aids from the U.S. Navy and the USNS were arriving that day, too.

A lot of relief operations have been done in Haiti. Teams were organized to search for victims that were trapped under buildings and other infrastructures. In Chicago Tribune’s report, Dr. Jon Kim Andrus, the deputy director for the Pan American Health Organization, said that, so far, they have found 121 people.

The World Food Program was also reported to provide food and relief goods to the Haitians. Even though nearly $1 billion was allocated for different operations for Haiti, that still proved to be lacking. Despite the treatments that the medical teams have done, there are still some that are not found.

Bruce Pessgrave, the USGS geophysicist, feared that an aftershock might still happen in the future months. This possibility can be due to the fact that the “earth adjusts to the new stresses caused by the initial quake.” Let us all pray that this will not happen. Let us continue to support and help Haiti in any way possible.