The most powerful aftershock yet struck Haiti on Wednesday, shaking more rubble from damaged buildings and sending screaming people running into the streets eight days after the country's capital was devastated by an apocalyptic quake. The magnitude-6.1 temblor did not appear to cause major new damage in a city already nearly flattened by the Jan. 12 quake, but aid workers said it complicated rescue efforts and Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive said the government was sending teams to check on the situation in Petit-Goave, near the epicenter.
"We know they are going to need some help," he said.
At least one woman died of a heart attack, according to Eddy Thomas, a private undertaker.
"She had a heart condition, and the new quake finished her," he said while pushing her body along the street on a mobile stretcher.
Wails of terror rose from frightened survivors as the earth shuddered at 6:03 a.m. U.S. soldiers and tent city refugees alike raced for open ground, and clouds of dust rose in the capital.
The quake began as a slow vibration and then intensified into side-to-side shaking that lasted about eight seconds in Haiti's capital. Some in Port-au-Prince said the far stronger Jan. 12 quake seemed to last for 30 seconds.
The U.S. Geological Survey said Wednesday's quake was centered about 35 miles (60 kilometers) west-southwest of Port-au-Prince and 6.2 miles (9.9 kilometers) below the surface — a little further from the capital than last week's epicenter was.
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See Footage following aftershock in AP video below:
