Port-au-Prince, Haiti 2010

• Haiti:

  • GDP $550
  • 72% living below $2/day
  • used brittle steel for building
  • 90% unemployment
  • 33% access to clean water
• Port au Prince is the capital city with 4 million people (population density 89,000 per km^2)
• Earthquake:

  • 12th January 2010 at 16:53
  • magnitude 7
  • lasted 45 seconds
  • constructive boundary where Caribbean plate and North American plate slide past each other
  • 13km bellow surface
• Primary impacts:

  • 222570 deaths- can’t be sure as no census
  • 2.3mill displaced
  • 112 under collapsed nursing hospital
  • liquefaction caused building damage
  • main port destroyed
  • 80-90% of buildings destroyed
• Secondary Impacts:

  • major cholera outbreak in October, nation-wide 6000 dead
  • destruction of fishing ports and infrastructure had impact on food production- agriculture accounted for 26% of economic output
  • $11.5bn on repairs
  • Tropical storm season
• Immediate responses:

  • US sent 5500 troops
  • World Food Programme appealed for 14mill food packs- difficult to distribute as planes couldn’t land
  • tents provided for 25% of homeless
  • Rescue mission suspended after 11 days
  • 450 improvised camps set up (8000 sent to Kairi, 1hr away from Port-au-Prince)
• Long-term responses:

  • World Bank suspended debt payments to France for 5yrs
  • World summit for the future of Haiti: $11bn in reconstruction; Venezuela fuel imports; development of stickler building codes
  • Land rights delayed process of re-homing people
  • In 1st year only 1179 permanent homes built
  • Out of $5.5bn pledged by NGO’s only 53% released to projects- ‘acting like tourist’
  • 7000 Haitians trained in practical construction skills after 2yrs