The Florida Gulf Coast University Haitian Students Club held an event last night commemorating the fifth anniversary of the magnitude 7.0 earthquake that struck Haiti in 2010. More than 200,000 people died.
The earthquake struck Haiti on January 12th and by about two weeks later, at least 52 after-shocks had been recorded. Three million people were affected.
Pastor Israel Jean-Leon, a native of Port-Au-Prince, who now serves two Seventh Day Adventist Churches in Naples and Immokalee spoke. “Haiti is not out of the woods yet,” said Jean-Leon. “Five years later Haiti still needs our support and prayers. Although most of the rubble has been cleared from the streets many in Haiti remain displaced. Five years after this event most of the temp camps in Haiti are gone and streets are loaded with overcrowded busses, filled with individuals going in circuitous routes because these people have nowhere that they could call home.”
Jean-Leon said the severely damaged presidential palace has finally been repaired. But people still live in the temporary plywood and plastic structures erected after the earthquake.