Haiti earthquake 2010 Flashcards
(10 cards)
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
gdp per capital of $1800
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
