On this date five years ago a 7.0 magnitude earthquake shook Haiti and on Monday, hundreds gathered to reflect and remember the lives lost that day.
The Associated Press reported that hundreds of people turned out for a mass at a newly built church in Port-au-Prince where the aftermath of the deadly quake is still visible today.
In a northern neighborhood of the capital city, Haitian President Michel Martelly and his wife placed white flowers at a site that is being constructed into a memorial for the victims.
"The life of the people changed in 35 seconds that day," Martelly said before a small audience of government officials, ambassadors and journalists. "But in the days that followed, solidarity came from everywhere."
Back in the U.S., CBS Miami noted that students at Lynn University in Boca Raton remembered those who died with its annual Knights Unite Day of Caring. Twelve students and two faculty members from the school were in Port-au-Prince for a Journey of Hope mission when the quake hit five years ago. Four of the students and the two faculty members were killed.
Elsewhere in Florida, the University of Miami's Haitian student organization has planned a remembrance ceremony for the victims and will be holding a moment of silence at 4:53 p.m., the time the earthquake struck.
On January 12, 2010, the catastrophic quake hit, leaving Port-au-Prince and much of the country in ruins and killing an estimated 300,000 people. By January 24, more than 50 aftershocks occurred in its wake.