Next for Haiti: a Hurricane (and Maybe a Huge Quake)

Haitian officials and aid workers are scrambling to prepare the devastated country for yet another natural disaster. Tropical Storm Tomas is expected to hit Haiti by the end of the week—and to be a hurricane again by the time it does, Reuters reports. “This storm is approaching at a time when aid agencies are already stretched to their limit,” thanks to the ongoing quake recovery and a cholera outbreak that has killed at least 330 people, one UN official said.

As if that weren’t bad enough, scientists believe the country could be in for yet another huge earthquake in the near future. New research published this month indicates that January’s quake “only unloaded a fraction of the seismic energy that has built up” in Haiti, which means more quakes are “inevitable.” The findings are “pretty bizarre,” one geologist tells the Guardian, and they imply that "another strong quake could happen at any time.” (More Haiti stories.)