By the Caribbean Journal staff
Haiti was shaken by a 5.9-magnitude earthquake on Saturday evening, according to the United States Geological Survey.
The earthquake, one of the strongest to hit around Haiti since the devastating 2010 quake, was centered about 20 kilometers offshore of Port de Paix on the island’s northern coast.
There were preliminary reports of several deaths resulting from the quake.
Haiti’s Department of Civil Protection reported that there were also some injuries and damage resulting from the quake, although it was not yet clear the extent of the damage.
The quake, which struck at a depth of about 15 kilometers, caused reports of light shaking across Haiti mid the neighboring Dominican Republic.
It’s the latest of a recent wave of unusually strong quakes in the Caribbean, highlighted by a large shaking in Venezuela.
The Caribbean, it should be noted, is a seismically active region.