4 February 2012

This day in history:
A 7.5 earthquake struck Guatemala at 3:04 a.m. on 4th February 1976 while most people were still sleeping. Thousands of unstable buildings collapsed and buried the people still inside. 24,000 people were killed, 50,000 injured, and as many as one million left without homes. A second series of shocks hit on February 6, collapsing more of the surviving buildings. Thousands more were killed and relief efforts hampered. The United States gave more than $10 million in assistance, but the full property and industrial losses, estimated at $3 billion, could never be reclaimed. read more