Haiti earthquake, 2010

Discussing the causes and effects of the Haiti erthquake that occurred in 2010. In the summmary I also breifely compare this event to the China, 2008 earthquake and Japanese, 2011 earthquake.

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  • Created by: Amee204
  • Created on: 24-10-21 17:00

Haiti 2010

Causes

  • developing country: HDI-0.503, life expectancy-63.7, GDP-6.623 billion
  • experienced a 7.0 magnitude earthquake
  • shallow focus of 13km that occurred 24km from Port-au-Prince which had a population of about 2 million
  • money spent on more immediate problems such as disease
  • high levels of corruption, mean that there was a lack of commitment in improving facilities, building regulations were also not followed so buildings could not stand against earthquake
  • no plan in place in the event of an earthquake
  • much of population in poverty so could not prepare beforehand
  • only 1 airport, several ports, and a few main roads

Effects

  • slowed down emergency efforts due to  the lack of access methods
  • over 1/4 of government officials killed
  • cholera outbreak, caused about 9,480 deaths and 812,586 cases.        According to WHO first large scale modern outbreak of cholera
  • 222,576 deaths
  • by 2015, US$13 billion had been donated and 80,000 lived in temporary housing
  • due to initial lack of governmental officials, Haiti controlled less than 10% of operation. Siad to have stunted there ability to be self-sufficient

Overall summary

Due to there lack of preparedness and mitigation before the event, it mean that the population was not ready to for the earthquake that hit them. With much of there population in poverty, it took a lot more time for them to recover with most notably the cholera outbreak. As Haiti is a developing country, it needed more international aid compared to other countries such as China and Japan. With it happening near the capital, it meant a much more concentrated group of people were effect compared it if it happened in the countryside like in the 2008 earthquake that occurred in China.

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