Haiti, August 14, 2021: A major earthquake (magnitude 7.2) struck southwestern Haiti, at 7:29 AM, August 14, 2021, authorities said. Aftershocks from 4.1 to 5.8 continued in the area for about 24 hours. The original epicenter was four miles from L’Asile, Haiti. The Cumberland Presbyterian Denomination has several churches in the general area of the heaviest damage but it has been confirmed none of the Cumberland Presbyterian churches were damaged nor were their pastors harmed. Still, the earthquake, which was more powerful than the 2010 earthquake, leveled thousands of homes and left roughly 1,300 people dead. Besides Haiti, the earthquake also affected to a lesser degree the Dominican Republic, the Bahamas, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Turks and Caicos Islands, United States Minor Outlying Islands, and Cuba.

“In terms of the energy released by [the Aug. 14] earthquake, it would have been about double the size of the 2010 earthquake, which is a fairly significant difference,” geophysicist William Barnhart said. “You likely would have felt stronger shaking from this earthquake if you were standing right on top of it than you would have in the 2010 earthquake.”