Out west from the destroyed city of Port-au-Prince, the small village of Petis Paradis (which translates to "Little Paradise" in English) is reeling from a tsunami that struck following the magnitude 7.0 earthquake on January 12.
Most reports missed this, because the damage was concentrated in a small area, but footage from the beach community and satellite images (below, here, and here) confirm that the coastline was violently rearranged after the quake, probably because of a landslide and tsunami.
Even worse, several people -- perhaps as many as 20 -- were killed in the onslaught of water. A video from a CNN correspondent in Petis Paradis tells how locals are dealing with this very unique, and mostly overlooked aspect of the disaster in Haiti: with a mixture of desperation and fatalism.
The view from above is striking, too. In these before and after satellite images, you can clearly see how much of the coast simply fell away into the sea. Notice the difference in where the white rectangular building is with respect to the water, and how in the 'after image' the coastline is all jumbled and jagged, particularly to the right (east) of the building:
Video: CNN
Images: Google Earth via Brian McAdoo
Tags: Earthquakes, Geology, Natural Disasters, Tsunami
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