Goudou Goudou Has Become a Vocabulary to Mean "Quake" In Haiti

January 12, 2010 will be remembered forever by every Haitian in the world. This is the day that a great earthquake struck most places in Haiti. The victims of the earthquake say that they heard the Goudou Goudou and within no time everything had turned into a sort of hell. Goudou Goudou is an onomatopoeic name that Haitians have come to refer to the sound made by the quake. They say that the ground shake and the falling of buildings coupled with moans gave the sound similar onomatopoeic Goudou Goudou.

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Today, every Haitian relates the events happening around with the following terms "before Goudou Goudou" and "after Goudou Goudou". Every person despite of economic background, race, education, social class, and other spheres of life have universally been using this term, "Goudou Goudou". This happened at 4:53 PM EST, Haitian local time. The sound that followed is that of terror and destruction. It was a destructive and violent event causing great death of humankind.

Those who witnessed the disaster would simply say that it is kind of Armageddon since there was struggle to rescue each one's life from the apocalypse. The quake claimed over 230,000 lives and injuring more than 300,000 people. About 1.5 million people were left homeless. Today, you will find many people with permanent scars on their body while others have lost their limbs. You will also find many tents around which serve as shelter for the homeless.

The worst hit areas were the city of Port-au-Prince and the neighboring cities such as Leogane, Jacmel and Petit-Goave. The destructive quake measured at 7.3 magnitudes, left people in misery that cannot be forgotten at all. Within a period of 35 seconds, buildings were collapsing and people were being buried helplessly under the rubble.

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Read more: Earthquake, 2010 Haiti earthquake, Leogane, 2010, Goudou Goudou, Earthquake

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