Haiti earthquake 2010 Flashcards
where is Haiti?
carribean country, poorest in western hemisphere
plate boundary beneath Haiti?
transform (conservative) plate boundary, junction of north american and carribean plate, between 2 fault lines septentrional zone to the north and Enriquillo-plantain system, which runs just beneath capital city port-au-prince
port-au-prince population?
population 3 million
primary impacts?
- death toll between 100,000-316,000, and at least 300,000 people injured
- 2.3 million people made homeless
- 250,000 residences and 30,000 commerical buildings destroyed
- supreme court of justice and royal palace destroyed
- 1300 schools destroyed, univeristy badly damaged
- damage to communications infrastructure such as power lines
secondary impacts?
- 4,000 inmates escaped form main prison, increase in crime/looting
- 8,000 people died from cholera outbreak
- education system collapsed
- by 2014, 170,000 people still in temporary camps, 23% of kids not im prmary school and 70% of children lacked access to electricity
- 600,000 children said to be still food insecure
natural factors affecting Haiti?
- very shallow focus earthquake, 13km deep
- epicentre 25km away from capital city
- at least 50 after shock, 4.0 or higher
-7.0 on MMS scale
how powerful was the earthquake?
7.0 on moment magnitude scale (MMS)
human factors affecting Haiti?
no building regulations
lack of heavy lifting equipment
short term responses?
- major relief programme
- relief agencies faced major difficulties, such as a lack of heavy lifting equipment to find survivors in rubble
- usa: 3,500 soldiers
- uk deployed seearhc and rescue team with dogs
- really hard to complete enromous task of disposing with all the bodies, had to buried in large communal graves
- 50% of debris removed
long term responses?
new building codes established
homes built back better
part of countries debt written off, final cost of event is $8 billion
port rebuilt to encourage economic trade and development
