At Least 11 Dead, More Than 100 Injured in Haiti Quake

An natural disaster hit northern Haiti late on Saturday, killing at least 14 people, injuring more than 100 and sparking a scramble by rescue agencies to help towns in the impoverished Caribbean country battered by the shockwave. The USGS registered the quake some 19 km off Ti Port-de-Paix at a depth of 11.7 km.

Officials reported that people had been injured, but had not confirmed local media reports of deaths.

At least 10 people were killed after a magnitude 5.9 quake struck near Haiti on Saturday night, according to Haiti's civil protection agency.

"Some casualties are possible and the impact should be relatively localized".

No immediate damage or injuries had been reported, according to the Associated Press.

This is a developing story. The quake was 7.3 miles (11.7 kilometers) below the surface.

Another 30 were injured in Gros-Morne.

According to a statement from the country's Civil Protection agency, several people were injured in Port-de-Paix, Gros-Morne, Chansolme and Tortuga island, where houses were destroyed or damaged.

Among the damaged buildings was a church in the northern town of Plaisance, the agency said.

Haiti's Nord-Ouest department is the poorest part of the impoverished country, with many isolated areas due to the dire state of the roads.

There was an unusual buzz of activity, however, at the site in Gros-Morne where a community center had collapsed.

The building's guard, who was sleeping at the time of the quake, was killed.

There has been a report of at least one death, Frantz Duval, a journalist with the Haitian newspaper Le Nouvelliste, said on Twitter.

Thousands of people along Haiti's north coast have dragged mattresses and chairs outside, fearing new aftershocks. It was among the strongest to hit the Caribbean nation since a major 7.1 tremor in 2010 killed more than 250,000 people.

Longer-term reconstruction has been hampered by lingering political chaos in the nation of almost 11 million people, and by a deadly cholera epidemic introduced by infected Nepalese UN peacekeepers sent in after the quake.