Haiti, on Saturday, was hit by an earthquake of 7.2 magnitude. Authorities confirmed 304 deaths. The quake, with an epicenter at 100 km west of the capital Port-au-Prince, caused severe destruction. Tremors were also felt in neighbouring countries including the Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Turks and Caicos Island.

Following the quake, the US Geological Survey issued a tsunami warning, which was soon lifted.

An earthquake of similar strength had hit the Caribbean country in 2010. It killed an estimated 300,000 people, CNN reported. Another one in 2018- 5.9 magnitude -killed more than a dozen people. 

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“I woke up and didn’t have time to put my shoes on. We lived the 2010 earthquake and all I could do was run. I later remembered my two kids and my mother were still inside. My neighbor went in and told them to get out. We ran to the street,” Naomi Verneus, a 34-year-old resident of Port-au-Prince, told AP. 

The epicenter of Saturday’s earthquake is approximately 60 miles west of the fatal 2010 Haiti earthquake, according to CNN supervising meteorologist Brandon Miller. The quake was farther away from the capital of Port-au-Prince and the most populated areas in Haiti.

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The 2010 earthquake was 7.0 in strength. It struck on January 12. The death toll from that quake is estimated at 220,000-300,000 people, with an additional 300,000 injured, CNN states. One and a half million people were initially displaced, and more than 32,000 remain displaced as of January 2020.

CNN weather added that about 2.5 million people living within 50 miles or so from the epicenter, whereas in 2010, the quake had roughly 6.5 million people living within 50 miles.