Haitian Disaster

It's now common knowledge that the Haitians have suffered enormously, this week, at the hands of an earthquake weighing 7.0 on the richter scale. It's now up to us as people of a humane society to get involved and offer whatever support we can to help in alleviating the pain and suffering suddenly inflicted on our brothers and sisters. There are several volunteer services that are willing and able to help to setup centralized location where donations can be sent. Please be as generous as possible and try not to be a critic in this time of crisis.

I also think I should give a brief description of what the unit of measurement means in determining the size of the quake and do hope we will have a fair appreciation of the damage this can give.

magnitudes	Description	Earthquake effects	Frequency of occurrence
Less than 2.0	Micro	Microearthquakes, not felt.	About 8,000 per day
2.0-2.9	Minor	Generally not felt, but recorded.	About 1,000 per day
3.0-3.9		Often felt, but rarely causes damage.	49,000 per year (est.)
4.0-4.9	Light	Noticeable shaking of indoor items, rattling noises. Significant damage unlikely.	6,200 per year (est.)
5.0-5.9	Moderate	Can cause major damage to poorly constructed buildings over small regions. At most slight damage to well-designed buildings.	800 per year
6.0-6.9	Strong	Can be destructive in areas up to about 160 kilometres (100 mi) across in populated areas.	120 per year
7.0-7.9	Major	Can cause serious damage over larger areas.	18 per year
8.0-8.9	Great	Can cause serious damage in areas several hundred miles across.	1 per year
9.0-9.9		Devastating in areas several thousand miles across.	1 per 20 years
10.0+	Epic	Never recorded; see below for equivalent seismic energy yield.	Extremely rare (Unknown