Earthquake In Haiti

Haiti is one of LEDCs and the 145th poorest country where more than 70% of people are living with less than $2 per day. About 86% of people in Port au Prince lived in slums that were poorly built and very dense. Haiti is located on the boundary of the Caribbean and North American plates. Haiti is part of a large Caribbean island called Hispaniola. It is located next to Dominican Republic, which covers over half of the island.

Haiti lied on the boundary of the Caribbean and North American plates. They were conservative plates and the movement within plates was not smooth. As they slid, there was a friction between two plates and the pressure was built up until it was released as an earthquake. A 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit Haiti at 4:53

Over 220,000 died and 300,000 people were injured. This earthquake destroyed over 293,383 houses, which made 1.3 million people homeless. Some of hospitals were collapsed which made people hard to aid themselves and led to the shortage of doctors. As the buildings in Port au Prince were in very poor condition that were non-resistant for earthquake, many commercial buildings collapsed and therefore businesses in Haiti destroyed. Toussaint L’Ouverture International Airport, only airport in Haiti, was unusable due to damage in the control tower and runways, and ports like Port-au-Prince seaport were also unusable due to the fall of container cranes. 60% of government buildings such as Supreme Court, the National Assembly and National Palace were severely damaged. Around 4,000 people who were imprisoned in the Prison Civile de Port-au-Prince escaped during the earthquake. Secondary impacts were the lack of food, homelessness and landslides caused by liquidation in the soil. There was a cholera outburst due to the lack of access to clean water and this killed over 8.,231 people. Also many people lost most of their properties due to the increase of theft, drug dealing and other

The International Committee of the Red Cross sent medical teams to treat the injured people and build temporary field hospitals. GIS helped these organisations by providing satellite images and maps of Haiti. Many Emergency rescue teams from a number of countries like Iceland, South Korea and England arrived to help. These aids improved the water supply and provided free medical care to over 340,000 people. The United Nation sent troops and police to help distributing aids and keep the order. Also many individuals in the world supported them by donating money through their phones and internet while they were watching the news on tv and internet around the world, and famous politicians such as Bill and Hillary Clinton raised funds to help Haiti to