A magnitude 5.9 earthquake hit northern Haiti on October 6, 2018 – initial reports from Esther Mompremier, daughter of the preacher at the St. Michel Church of Christ, were that “many houses had been destroyed, and many people killed.”
By noon the next day the Haitian government was reporting 12 dead and 188 injured, with damage to homes and buildings still being assessed. The epicenter of the quake was about 75 miles from St. Michel, and Northern Haiti experienced several significant aftershocks, ranging in magnitude up to 5.2 on the Richter scale.
The final numbers from Haiti’s Directorate of Civil Protection indicated a total of 15 people were killed, another 333 were injured, and 7000+ homes were destroyed or damaged as a result of the earthquake. The affected areas were the Northwest, the North, and Artibonite (the district that St. Michel is in).
The church we’re directly involved with that was most significantly affected by the earthquake was the Church of Christ at Lalomas, a tiny mountain village about 45 minutes outside of St. Michel – Jim Cain and I had visited there in June of 2018 with JT and Rolin, the minister at St. Michel.
We found out from JT that, in addition to the Lalomas church building, there were about 100 members of the St. Michel church and the Lalomas church whose homes were damaged to varying degrees by the earthquake. We had a small amount of money available from those of you who had contributed to the Disaster Relief fund, so the Haiti Fund Board of Directors (me, Jim Cain, Louis Meilinger) agreed unanimously to send $1000 to help with earthquake relief and reconstruction. As always, JT committed to send us photos and reports of how those funds were utilized, and then we followed up in person on trips in the following months.
