Strong 5.9 Aftershock Hits Haiti, Sends People into Streets

(NewsCore) - A strong aftershock measuring 5.9 on the Richter Scale hit Haiti Wednesday, eight days after a devastating earthquake shook the Caribbean country.

“Many people were running outside, saying, ‘Did you feel that earthquake?’" Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reporter Ianthe Dugan wrote in an email.

The quake was originally measured at 6.1 by the USGS Earthquake Center but later revised to 5.9 after researchers viewed more data.

The tremor at 6:03 a.m. local time (11:03 a.m. GMT) Wednesday struck 36 miles northwest of the capital Port-au-Prince, shaking buildings and sending people running into the streets.

WSJ reporter Charles Forelle said that after making a "mad dash for the door," guests at his hotel stayed in the area.

“People gathered in the open spaces of the hotel, around the pool and the garden, and everyone was nervous,” fellow WSJ reporter Jose de Cordoba said.

“There’ve been aftershocks here everyday. In an odd way, you get used to them.”

There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage from the aftershock, which struck at a depth of 6.2 miles but was located too far inland to generate tidal waves, though it caused panic in the ravaged capital. Port-au-Prince was razed Jan. 12 by a 7.0-magnitude quake, now thought to have killed upwards of 100,000 people.

Cell-phone service, already tenuous in the aftermath of the quake, appeared to go down again briefly from the latest aftershock. Callers were met with a recording saying “Due to the earthquake in the area, this number cannot be reached at this time.”

- AFP, Sky News and The Wall Street Journal contributed to this report.