‘I felt myself start to shake’

Ex-pub landlord shocked at severity of earthquake

A FORMER Oldham pub landlord has spoken of the moment he felt the Haiti earthquake strike.

Grahame Morton, former landlord of the Royal Oak pub in Union Street, has lived in the Dominican Republic for the past two years.

The Dominican Republic and Haiti make up the Caribbean island of Hispaniola — the countries are divided by the Central Mountain Range.

It was while at home in the northern coastal resort of Cabarete that he felt the devastating earthquake which hit Haiti’s capital Port-Au-Prince and is feared to have killed thousands.

The grandfather said: “I thought I was having a heart attack at first.

“I’d finished watching the English football on the television at about 5pm local time when I felt myself start shaking.

“I turned to my wife Judy who was in the same room and she was swaying as well, but then all of a sudden it stopped.

“The quake must have lasted 30 seconds and was strong enough to have a mobile hanging from the ceiling swinging wildly from side to side.”

The massive 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck at 4.53pm about 15km (10 miles) south-west of Port-au-Prince.

It was quickly followed by two strong aftershocks of 5.9 and 5.5 magnitude.

Haiti’s worst quake in two centuries wrecked the presidential palace, UN HQ and other buildings, and many people spent the night outside amid fears of more aftershocks.

Mr Morton said the couple had experienced other earthquakes while living on the island but nothing of that size.

He said: “We are 150 miles away and diagonally across from Port-Au-Prince, and separated by 10,000ft high (3,000m) mountains.

“To think that we felt it so strongly here is shocking.

“Haiti is a poor country and lots of Haitians come to work in the sugar cane factories and construction industry in the Dominican Republic so we know a lot of people who have families affected.”

Mr Morton said unseasonable torrential rain affecting the island will hamper rescue missions and could see the death toll rise.

Despite his experience, he has no plans to return to Oldham.

He said: “The rain has been incessant, if it continues like this it will cause more problems.

“I hope to God not as many people have died as has been reported.”