14.4 Haiti Earthquake- LIDC Case Study Flashcards
(10 cards)
1
Q
What are the general facts of the earthquake?
A
Country: Haiti
Development classification: LIDC
Date of earthquake: 12th January 2010
2
Q
What are the geophysical facts of the earthquake?
A
Magnitude: 7 on richter scale, 9 on mercalli scale
Focus: Léogâne
Epicentre: 25km south west of Port-au-Prince
Type: Shallow focus earthquake
Aftershocks: 52 of 4.5 or greater on richter scale
3
Q
What is the general place or earthquake information?
A
- One of the poorest places in the western hemisphere (GNI of $660 per person)- corruption, violence, social problems (high levels of infant mortality and aids)- resilience and capacity to cope is minimal- low starting point on Park model.
- Poor infrastructure- slum areas.
- Little international connections.
- Country is heavily reliant on remittances sent from family members abroad- in 2008 formed 32% of countrys GDP.
- In 2008- 4 hurricanes killing 800 and 60% of harvests were destroyed- shows that not much has been done to implemet mitigation strategies for potential future hazards.
- Sits on two conservative strike-slip faults on the island- these caused the modt impact.
- The Plantain Garden Fault system caused the 2010 earthquake, but the fault had been locked for 250 years and so its energy was released along 65km of the fualt, causing the land to move 1.8 metres.
- Risk= (vulnerability x hazard)/ capacity to cope
- Dominican Republic was the first to give aid (made own hospitals available and allowed people to cross the border), Iceland had an emergency response team within the country within 24 hours.
4
Q
What were the social impacts?
A
- Major cholera outbreak after hazard event- before this it had never been present. An aid worker from Nepal brought cholera from this place and allowed it to spread across Haiti- this created major secondary impacts (6,900 people died). Negative consequence of a more globalised and interconnected world.
- Earthquake destroyed 60% of the countrys capital, Port-au-Prince
- 230,000 deaths due to immediate aftermath- 100 of these were UN personell and a quarter civil service staff- took longer to get help.
- 1.5 million homeless
- 60% of infrastructure destroyed
- 70% of buildings collapsed
- Recently there had been high influexes of rural-urban migration- many people lived in poorly constructed squatter settlements- capital was impacted most.
- It was difficult for relief planes to land as only part of the airport was usable and aid ships had to be turned away from the docks which were unable to function.
- After the event there was only one delivery of drinking water a week and so people were forced to drink untreated water- cholera. Was assessed as an endemic.
- Many bodies were buried in mass graves before they were identified to stop a disease outbreak
- July 2010- 1.6 million people were still living in temporary camps
- High rates of rape and sexual attacks were common in camps- many women had lost their husbands and felt unprotected in unsafe tents.
5
Q
What were the economic impacts?
A
- $8 billion cost for damage and losses
- Operational costs for aid workers were higher than the amount of help that eventually got to the population.
- 20% of all jobs had disappeared due to the impact of the earthquake.
Huge problem of a brain drain in the country- many doctors who helped with the NGO’s in the country have opted to continue working for them in places where quality of life is higher.
6
Q
What were the environmental impacts?
A
- Land moved 1.8 metres as a result of the earthquake
- By july 2010 98% of the rubble remain uncleared
7
Q
What were the political impacts?
A
- Little coordination of an emergency plan meant that it was very difficult for NGO’s to know what supplies were needed. To add to this very few spoke french and so there was a concrete language barrier.
- July 2010-The world bank had cancelled half of Haitis debt and given the country 5 years before it had to begin repayments for the remaining half.
8
Q
What were the attempts to mitigate against the event?
A
31 March, 2010- Haitain Government presented to the UN it’s plan of action for recovery and devlopment- more coordination of an emergency plan (camps organised with security, foreign aid responsible to a haitain coordinator).
9
Q
What were the attempts to mitigate against the vulnerability?
A
- Colour coding of buildings to asses their safety:
- Red (21%)- building would have to be demolished
- Yellow (26%)- needed repairs
- Green (54%)- Safe to occupy
- Community driven development projects were started by the World Bank which helped to rebuild homes and communities- these had to comply with building codes and had to be constructed in a hazard resilient way. The world bank also funded supplemetary food for 200,000 children aged 6-23 months as well as funding schools for 140,000 children within camps.
- Prior to this the country had not invested in a monitoring system- LIDC and more focused on the more frequent hurricanes.
- USGS and USAID have contributed to this monitoring- 15 seismic stations are now operating in Haiti- yet not enough money to staff a 24 hour team
- Hazard mapping- liquefaction
- No national disaster risk management plan or education programmes for children
10
Q
What were the factors affecting vulnerability and capacity to cope?
A
- Poor buildings and infrastructure- houses had no earthquake resistance.
- 70% live on less than $2 a day
- Poor planning
- Lack of coherent emergency plan for a disaster
- 86% of people in Port-au-Prince live in slum conditions
- Lack of public awareness
- Underfunded healthcare system and shortage of trained workers
- Poor governance- local and national
- Suffered large losses in 2008 and had not fully recovered
- 45% of US households donated to haitain households
YET- there is criticism towards the NGO’s:
- USAID planned to build 15,000 houses with $59 million. Only built 900
- 750 houses rebuilt not to earthquake standards
- American red cross raised $486,000,000 to build new houses and only built 6
