Haitian Migration

I read today in the Turks & Caicos Weekly News that a boat with 126 Haitian emigrants was intercepted off of West Caicos last week. Read the article here: http://www.tcweeklynews.com/link.asp?smenu=1&sdetail=1857&wpage=1. You can see from the article's grainy, thumbnail-size photo how small and cramped the boat they were using was. It's no wonder so many die trying to make these journeys. One sank in the West Caicos area last year when it struck a reef. And that happened in "good times." The article indicates that TCI officials are expecting a surge of these emigrants since the recent earthquake.

Photo of Haitian boat from TC Weekly News.

Apparently there is a level of empathy for Haitians these days because, unlike the survivors of last year's wreck, these refugees will not be repatriated immediately. Instead, they are being held at a detention center and a sports complex, "until the situation in Haiti improves." I can't imagine being held in detention is really preferable, but then again I don't really know what it's like in Haiti right now.

Haitian Earthquake

Several of you have already been asking about the earthquake in Haiti last night. We didn't feel it here on South Caicos. We didn't even know it happened until almost two hours later. As soon as we heard, though, we went to check on tsunami warnings. There was one issued all the way through the Bahamas, but probability was low that anything significant would come. We learned this morning that a 12cm (yes, centimeter) wave was generated, and that tides and currents are expected to be a little unpredictable for a short period.

Rubble in Port-au-Prince

Canape-Vert

Our Dominican night watchman was quite worried about his family in Puerto Plata. They were far from the epicenter, so they should be okay, but he wasn't able to contact them. The pictures and videos coming from Haiti look quite bad. The presidential palace even collapsed.

Presidential Palace