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Why Earthquakes In Haiti Are So Catastrophic

Jaclyn Diaz

Locals recover their belongings Sunday from their homes destroyed in the earthquake in Camp-Perrin in Les Cayes, Haiti. Joseph Odelyn/AP hide caption

Locals recover their belongings Sunday from their homes destroyed in the earthquake in Camp-Perrin in Les Cayes, Haiti.

It happened again.

Over the weekend, Haiti was hit by a magnitude 7.2 earthquake that crumbled homes and buildings and killed more than 1,200 people.

Rescuers are still working to find survivors amid the rubble. The death count is expected to rise.

More than a decade ago, a similar quake left an estimated 220,000 dead, more than 1 million people displaced and roughly 300,000 injured.

These two events are part of Haiti's history of major destructive earthquakes, records of which go back centuries.

Researchers say the country's unique geology make it seismically active — and prone to devastating earthquakes. A combination of factors, however, leaves the country especially susceptible to damage from these events.

Why is Haiti so susceptible to earthquakes?

Haiti sits on a fault line between huge tectonic plates, big pieces of the Earth's crust that slide past each other over time. These two plates are the North American plate and the Caribbean plate.

There are two major faults along Hispaniola, the island shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

A map of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti shows dotted orange lines indicating fault lines. The nation sits on a fault line between huge tectonic plates of the Earth's crust — the North American plate and the Caribbean plate. Alyson Hurt/NPR hide caption

The southern one is known as the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault system.

It's this fault that the U.S. Geological Survey says caused Saturday's quake and the same one that caused the January 2010 earthquake.

The USGS believes the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault zone can be blamed on other major earthquakes from 1751 to 1860. The agency said none of these quakes has been officially confirmed in the field as associated with this fault, however.

Haiti Quake: Ruin And Recovery

The anatomy of a caribbean earthquake, a history of catastrophic earthquakes in haiti.

One of the earliest major recorded earthquakes in Haiti occurred in the 1700s, according to the USGS. Others followed, with researchers cataloging events that left hundreds dead and destroyed homes and businesses.

• Nov. 21, 1751: A major earthquake destroys Port-au-Prince and causes major destruction in nearby towns. Witness accounts of the event from the National Centers for Environmental Information recount the devastation . "Houses and factories were thrown down at St.-Marc, Lkogbne, and Plaine du Cul-de-sac. Crevices formed and abundant springs of nauseous water broke forth," researchers who witnessed the event described it. "Great landslips occurred and the beds of the rivers changed direction."
• June 3, 1770: An earthquake hits Port-au-Prince again. Researchers described the event as "one of the strongest shocks recorded on the Island of Haiti." An estimated 200 people in the nation's capital died as a result of the earthquake.
• April 8, 1860: This earthquake occurred farther west of the 2010 earthquake, near Anse-à-Veau, and was accompanied by a tsunami. "At Anse-a-Veau, crevasses sliced across the streets and 124 houses were demolished; at Miragoane, the bridge sank; at Petit Goave, all the houses were abandoned ... ," researchers said of the event. "Ships in the harbor of Les Cayes felt the shock, as did ships at sea."

Before the 2010 earthquake, there hadn't been another major quake along the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault zone for about 200 years.

In January 2010, people work to free trapped victims from the rubble of a collapsed building after an earthquake in Haiti's capital of Port-au-Prince. Gerald Herbert/AP hide caption

In January 2010, people work to free trapped victims from the rubble of a collapsed building after an earthquake in Haiti's capital of Port-au-Prince.

Building to withstand hurricanes, not earthquakes

The USGS says it recorded 22 magnitude 7 or larger earthquakes in 2010, the same year as the devastating earthquake in Haiti. However, despite an active year, almost all the fatalities were produced by the major temblor that hit on Jan. 12 of that year, the USGS said.

It struck around the densely populated capital of Port-au-Prince, contributing to the high death toll.

But the way structures are built in Haiti is also believed to have contributed to the loss of life and property.

Due to the 1751 and 1770 earthquakes and minor quakes that occurred between them, local authorities started requiring building with wood and forbade building with masonry, according to the USGS.

A woman tries to recover her belongings Sunday amid the rubble of her home destroyed by the quake in Camp-Perrin in Les Cayes. Joseph Odelyn/AP hide caption

A woman tries to recover her belongings Sunday amid the rubble of her home destroyed by the quake in Camp-Perrin in Les Cayes.

In the years since, Haitians have focused on building their homes to withstand the bigger threat in the neighborhood — hurricanes.

Structures made of concrete and cinder block hold up well during storms but are more vulnerable during earthquakes, according to The Associated Press .

More earthquakes may be ahead

In 2012, researchers wrote that the 2010 earthquake "may mark the beginning of a new cycle of large earthquakes on the Enriquillo fault system after 240 years of seismic quiescence."

"The entire Enriquillo fault system appears to be seismically active; Haiti and the Dominican Republic should prepare for future devastating earthquakes," researchers said.

It's still too early to determine the long-term impact of Saturday's earthquake. What is certain is the unique pressures facing Haitians in the days ahead.

The country still has not fully recovered from the 2010 earthquake and Hurricane Matthew in 2016.

Latin America

Ariel henry will become haiti's prime minister, ending a power struggle.

Haiti was already suffering from political instability following last month's assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. Moïse's death has since left a power vacuum that's been filled by interim Prime Minister Ariel Henry, a 71-year-old neurosurgeon and public official.

The nation is also bracing for another threat as Tropical Depression Grace threatens to bring heavy rains on Monday.

• earthquakes

Rebuilding Haiti: The post-earthquake path to recovery

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Six months after a devastating earthquake in south-west Haiti which caused the deaths of 2,200 people and injured 12,700 more, the international community is coming together with the Government of Haiti to raise up to $2 billion for the long-term recovery and reconstruction of the country. UN News explains why support is needed.

What happened?

The 7.2 magnitude earthquake on 14 August 2021, struck the south-west of this Caribbean island nation causing widespread destruction in predominately rural areas. In addition to the deaths and injuries, thousands of homes were damaged or destroyed and key infrastructure including schools, hospitals, roads and bridges were wrecked, disrupting key services, transport, farming and commerce. The UN says around 800,000 people were impacted in some way or another; that includes 300,000 children whose schooling was disrupted.

What was the response to the Earthquake?

In the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, the Government with the support of the United Nations and others swung into action to provide emergency humanitarian aid to the affected people.  The UN humanitarian affairs office, OCHA , played a central role in coordinating the response. The International Organization for Migration provided temporary shelters for people who lost their homes, food and other items so people could get by. The provision of hot meals for school children by the World Food Programme was stepped up in order to encourage those children whose schools were not destroyed to carry on attending classes. Some 60 health facilities were also destroyed, so emergency wards were supported by the UN Population Fund UNFPA and UNICEF . Expectant mothers were cared for and often gave birth in tents.

Six months after the earthquake, Haiti has moved beyond the immediate emergency and is now looking at long-term recovery and reconstruction. In November, the Government published an assessment of the amount of money it needs to rebuild and recover; it amounts to close to $2 billion. Just over three-quarters of that, so around $1.5bn will go towards reinvigorating social services including housing, health, education and food security programmes. The rest will be spent on boosting agriculture, commerce and industry as well as repairing key infrastructure. Spending on environmental programmes has also been targeted.

What lessons have been learned from natural disasters?

Haiti is, of course, not unused to natural disasters and lessons have been learned from the devasting earthquake of 12 January 2010 in which an estimated 220,000 people died, largely in the capital, Port-au-Prince, and surrounding areas. The key takeaway from that catastrophic event and the response effort that followed was that national leadership is crucial.

In 2010, the government was directly impacted by the disaster and was ill equipped and unprepared to coordinate the emergency response on such a huge scale, and as a result, it was side-lined by the international community.

Haiti also has to do better in terms of introducing more robust disaster risk reduction measures.

What other crises is Haiti facing?

The 2021 earthquake struck as Haiti was facing multiple crises of an economic, political, security, humanitarian and developmental nature. The country has high levels of poverty and ranks 170 out of 189 countries worldwide on the UN Development Programme’s Human Development Report 2020 . The economy is in dire straits, not helped by a recent blockade of petrol deliveries by armed gangs which almost brought the country to a standstill. Insecurity, including kidnapping, is rife, with gangs controlling many neighbourhoods in the capital, Port-au-Prince. In July 2021, the President was assassinated whilst at home and an investigation into his death is continuing. 

On top of all this, Haiti is facing the ongoing threat of COVID-19 .

How can Haiti recover from this latest setback?

On 16 February, the Government is hosting an international conference in Port-au-Prince at which it hopes to raise at least $1.6bn of the $2bn it needs to put the country back on track after the earthquake.

Many donor countries globally are struggling with the extra financial burden the pandemic has put on their resources. Moreover, Haiti is, in reality, competing for funds with other crises around the world, such as Afghanistan and the Ethiopian region, Tigray. One of Haiti’s trump cards may be its huge diaspora, especially in the United States, which it’s hoped will contribute to the fundraising effort. US-based philanthropies are also being targeted.

The international community in Haiti is warning that if the country doesn’t get the support it needs then its recovery, development and ability to withstand other natural disasters will all be negatively affected.

• HISTORY & CULTURE

A week after Haiti’s deadly earthquake, hope is hard to find

Haitians are scrambling for food, shelter, and health care as the ongoing pandemic, natural disasters and a presidential assassination take their toll.

Jeremie, Haiti — Haiti, it seems, is a magnet for disasters.

The Caribbean nation, with a long history of political turmoil and instability, is now contending with successive natural disasters even as it struggles to recover from a string of other devastating events, including the 2010 earthquake that killed more than 300,000 people and nearly wiped out the capital city of Port-au-Prince.

The death toll and injuries from the latest, and even more powerful earthquake that rocked this already fragile Caribbean nation a week ago, continues to rise. It was followed by heavy rains from Tropical Storm Grace that compounded the misery.

Haitians are now bracing for more difficult times ahead.

In updated figures released Sunday, Haitian authorities said they have now registered more than 2,200 deaths and there are at least 344 people missing. More than 12,200 people were injured and over 129,900 homes were damaged or destroyed. Authorities have also said that some 684,000 people in the hardest-hit regions are in need of urgent humanitarian assistance.

The storm came just two days after the deadly earthquake. Though Grace spared the country a direct hit, the storm’s incessant rainfall spurred floods that created more burden for earthquake victims amidst a slow rollout of aid.

In a country with more willingness than capacity to provide healthcare and assistance, at least 44 health facilities, including collapsed hospitals, have been affected by the continuing tremors. Medical personnel are treating patients on floors, in open courtyards, and in makeshift operating rooms that had served as doctors’ dorms.

Before the disasters, many rural communities had their own local health care workers, clinics, and supplies. With their local resources gone, many of the sick or injured have sought care in facilities in Jeremie, the capital of Grand’Anse, one of Haiti's 10 departments.

“Those patients shouldn’t need to come down from their homes, risking possible landslides for an injury that could have easily been taken care of by a community healthcare worker,” says Nadesha Mijoba, country director for the Haitian Health Foundation.

Grand’Anse was just starting to recover from the 2016 Category 4 Hurricane Matthew, which left widespread damage. Saturday’s 7.2 magnitude earthquake left at least 8,000 homes here either in rough shape or in shambles, according to preliminary figures.

Widespread devastation

The devastation remains evident. In the cities of Jeremie and Les Cayes, located in Haiti's southern peninsula, piles of debris mark where buildings once stood. Cathedrals still standing are open to the sky, their roofs ripped off. Cracks line the walls of the battered structures. And the injured continue to hobble in, seeking help.

Along the countryside, the damage is even worse. Walls are blown out, roofs are flattened on the ground like pancakes, some roads are barely passable. What the trembling earth didn’t bring down with its tremors, Grace did with its torrent. Together, earthquake and storm deluged mountains and split roads wide open.

The successive natural disasters have left many in this crisis-plagued nation feeling defeated and deflated.

“Every time I hear of an earthquake or a storm, I feel like something in me is about to explode,” says Marie Roseline Macenat, 56, a mother of five. “It’s tears in your eyes; you are crying. You sense that you can no longer stand.”

The devastation is compounded by political turmoil exacerbated by last month’s shocking assassination of President Jovenel Moïse , who was shot multiple times inside his private home on the hills above Port-au-Prince.

And the ongoing crisis is further complicated by the lack of security across the country. Concerns about gang violence, and uncertain access to the main road connecting Port-au-Prince to the quake-ravaged regions, have created logistical challenges for both the government and international responders who could not begin aid distribution until five days after the disasters.

It was five days too late for victims like Mariette Altime, a mother of four who has suffered through Haiti's last three major disasters: the 2010 earthquake that struck Port-au-Prince; 2016’s Hurricane Matthew, and now this. Altime was forced onto the streets following the 7.0 quake that struck Port-au-Prince on Jan. 12, 2010, leaving 1.5 million without a home due mostly to poorly-constructed buildings that crumpled with the powerful tremor.

After the 2010 earthquake, Altime spent months sleeping on a dirty mattress, exposed to the elements, before deciding that she had had enough of Port-au-Prince. She returned home to Marceline, which was then a remote rural outpost on the outskirts of Les Cayes—and is now known as the port city hit hard by Saturday’s quake.

For a while after Altime’s return, life was ok, even as she struggled to make ends meet. Then Hurricane Matthew rolled through in 2016, snapping trees like toothpicks and wiping out much of the area’s farmland before leaving the population once more praying for relief and deeper in poverty.

Then came Saturday morning’s vicious tremor .

“I suffered a lot of misery with these events,” Altime says. She’s standing in a soccer field where she and four other families spent the night in torrential downpour from Grace after the wind blew away their makeshift tarp. “I feel like it’s God who is holding me up.”

Rebuilding seems elusive

Across South and Western Haiti, where the quake’s jolts were the strongest, houses were reduced to rubble, and government buildings are buried beneath debris. The fishing village of Corail, east of Jeremie, is in ruins. Residents have taken refuge in the main plaza creating makeshift shelters out of pieces of tarp and old tents. Across the plaza, the local Catholic Church is now a pile of rocks, while the school is barely recognizable save for the wooden desks dangling from its second floor. Meanwhile, residents in even more rural areas have resorted to drinking brackish water and recycling soiled six-year-old U.S. Agency for International Development tarps for shelter.

Those most affected can’t fathom rebuilding, even if they might want to.

Haiti was already facing a mountain of challenges, and multiple crises, before this disaster. Rebuilding efforts are still underway more than a decade after the 2010 earthquake and thousands continue to live in makeshift encampments.

Prior to his pre-dawn assassination on July 7, Haitian President Moïse was accused of trying to become Latin America and the Caribbean’s next strongman after he used his decree powers to issue dozens of controversial laws, and threatened a constitutional referendum that experts said was illegal.

Moïse—one of only 11 elected officials because Haiti failed to hold elections on time—faced massive challenges to his rule. The political turmoil deepened in 2019 as the country faced one of its worst and most widespread economic meltdowns, known as peyi lok —country lockdown. Schools and businesses closed, and jobs were paralyzed.  

But none of that is the reason behind the grinding poverty, or why the cash-strapped government has struggled to provide even the most basic of care for the new earthquake victims. Bandages, antibiotics, and IVs are all lacking; one volunteer responder at the Les Cayes airport was heard lamenting that patients designated to be airlifted out of the area were showing up having received no medical treatment at all. As he uttered his frustrations, he was preparing a splint for a man whom he laid on the ground after making a plank made of cut-up pieces of cardboard.

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According to three separate reports, nearly $2 billion in aid that should have gone toward improving Haitians’ lives—aid given to Haiti by Venezuela,   most of it since the 2010 earthquake—was wasted or embezzled by former government officials and those with close ties to the government.  

While the aid was not necessarily earmarked for the communities rocked by this latest quake, if the money had been properly used and the infrastructure built, the thinking is that the country would be a step closer to responding to the latest disaster. The chaos and political uncertainty that has ensnared Haiti has no doubt led to a worsening humanitarian and child malnutrition crises, which only got worse after armed gang clashes erupted at the southern entrance of Port-au-Prince and forced the internal displacement of over 16,000 people.

Huge humanitarian crisis

COVID-19 vaccinations in Haiti began just last month. The epidemic, along with warring political factions, kidnappings, and gang violence, makes Haiti more volatile than ever.

Places like Marceline in the southwest were supposed to be a safe haven. But with gangs controlling the road out of Port-au-Prince, aid is slow to trickle in and Haitians once more are having to choose between potentially dangerous outcomes of aftershocks inside damaged homes and sleeping outdoors. There is little doubt that Haitians will plunge deeper into poverty.

Prime Minister Ariel Henry, a public health specialist and neurosurgeon, has told the population of 11.5 million to brace for hard times.

Haiti has a huge humanitarian crisis on its hands, Henry said, adding that while the quake devastated a large part of the southern regions, it showed just how fragile the entire country is.

“Some of our citizens are still under the debris,” he said. “We have teams of foreigners and Haitians working on it.”

While crews have managed to dig some people out with their bare hands and shovels, hospitals are overwhelmed with the number of injured coming in for treatment.

“We have to put our heads together to rebuild Haiti,” Henry urged the population. “This country is physically and mentally destroyed.”

That assessment is all too familiar to Altime.

Like many Haitians, she has learned not to expect much from the government. Not because it lacks funds but rather because even when aid was available, she never received help. Through the various disasters she said she felt as if she didn’t exist.

Now, her requests are basic.

“If I can just find a place to sleep,” she says, “find a tarp, something to eat.”

Andrea Bruce is a documentary photographer and contributor to National Geographic. She has photographed stories ranging from politics to sanitation .

Jacqueline Charles is the Haiti correspondent for the Miami Herald. A Pulitzer Prize finalist for her coverage of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, she was awarded a 2018 Maria Moors Cabot Prize — the most prestigious award for coverage of the Americas. Follow her on Twitter @Jacquiecharles

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Executive Summary

• Tipping Points
• Root causes
• Human stories
• Explore overview
• Interconnected Disaster Risks
• Media resources

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By filling out the form below, you'll receive a one-time email on 25 October 2023.

Haiti earthquake

A disaster 300 years in the making

On 14 August 2021, Haiti was hit by a magnitude 7.2 earthquake with an epicentre in the Canal du Sud (120 km west of the capital, Port-au-Prince). The quake killed over 2,200 people and injured more than 12,000.

The 2021 disaster quickly drew comparisons to a similar earthquake in 2010, which occurred on the same fault lines, the long cracks in the surface of the earth where earthquakes often occur. Not much has changed in the years since 2010 – Haiti is still in a state of disrepair; the national palace, for example, still has not been rebuilt.

Key Numbers

magnitude at shallow depth of 10 km

Download Technical Report

Though the magnitude of the seismic event was significant, earthquakes of similar strength cause much less damage in other parts of the world, exposing how Haiti is particularly vulnerable to disasters. These vulnerabilities can be traced back through centuries and have only been compounding over time.

Colonialization and slavery in the 1700s, the war for independence, subsequent diplomatic isolation in the 1800s and an unjustified reparations debt perpetuated systems of land degradation, peasant labour and extractive industries, creating systemic social and environmental issues. The following decades of corruption, military coups, dictatorships and foreign occupations created conditions of extreme political instability. This, combined with the cumulative effect of yearly hurricanes, floods, landslides and droughts, has created a vicious cycle of vulnerability to disasters.

The current risks are deeply embedded in the social, economic and environmental history of the region, which have led to fragility and extreme vulnerability.

Haiti is not poor; it is rich in culture, resources and value. But these resources have been exploited, misappropriated and mismanaged. Haiti’s history is full of other countries and agencies putting the pursuit of profit over the needs of the Haitian people.

Any solution to help Haiti recover from this crisis and to build resilience for the future must recognize that the current risks are deeply embedded in the social, economic and environmental history of the region, which have led to fragility and extreme vulnerability. This is true in many contexts around the world, whereby addressing these vulnerabilities means giving agency to the people, supporting them in finding their own solutions and re-examining the power structures that created these problems in the first place.

Wider picture

This event illustrates the social and historical construction of disasters and how a disaster is not isolated in time but instead connected to pre-existing and constructed vulnerabilities, the impacts of preceding disasters, decisions and environments.

Root Causes

Inequality of development and livelihood opportunities.

Unequal distribution of economic opportunities and limited livelihood options

Colonialism

Expansion over an area for economic or strategic exploitation and control

Insufficient risk management

A lack of perception, awareness or preparation in governance relating to risk management and response

Undervaluing environmental costs

Pursuit of economic or developmental interests with a lack of consideration for impacts on the environment

Organized crime

Planned and controlled criminal activities that perpetuate a hazard or vulnerability.

Lack of regulation/enforcement

Absence or ineffective enforcement of regulations connected to other risk drivers

Deforestation

Intentional mass removal of trees, often for resource extraction or changing land use.

Vulnerable infrastructure

Infrastructure vulnerable to extreme events, often due to lack of investment, maintenance, inadequate planning or poor construction.

Food insecurity

Through their impacts on natural and agricultural systems, supply chains and economies, the impacts of tipping points and disasters can put access to the foods we depend on for survival at risk

Loss of life

Disasters cause fatalities both when they occur and in the aftermath with cascading effects on physical and mental health

Infrastructure damage

Public and private structures and systems can be affected by disasters and risk tipping points impacts, from homes and properties to physical assets critical for providing health services, transport, food, water, communications and more

Health impacts

Even those surviving disasters or tipping point impacts when they occur can be at risk of short- and long-term health impacts cascading from pollution, damage of critical infrastructure, livelihood disruption or other consequences of systems being affected

Livelihood loss

Reduction of people’s ability to support themselves or their family, both temporarily or permanently, is an impact that is interconnected with many others, including health and food security

Migration/displacement

Tipping point impacts and disasters can force people to move from their homes due to the loss of shelter, livelihoods or the risk of further incidents occurring. People may be temporarily displaced or urged to migrate to other areas

Let nature work

Agroforestry and soil stabilization: Agroforestry has the combined effect of soil degradation protection and landslide risk reduction while also providing income to farmers from agriculture, timber and non-timber products, as well as promoting biodiversity. Species used must be adapted to local ecosystems and climate conditions now and in the future, as well as to the needs of farmers.

Plan for risks

Earthquake-safe building: In order to prevent collapse/injury, buildings must be designed with risks in mind. Traditional wattle and daub or wooden structures are not only more resistant to earthquakes and hurricanes than concrete but also made with lighter materials that are less deadly in the event of collapse.

Strengthen governance

Grass-roots governance: Localization and devolution of government structures towards regional authorities can give power and agency to local people, potentially limiting the influence of corruption and neocolonialism. Haitian problems require Haitian solutions, and Haitian people should lead the way. Grassroots initiatives must be formed, recognized and supported.

Secure livelihoods

Land rights: Insecurity over ownership of land can influence decision-making on management and investments into the future of a property. Formalizing the ownership of the land people live on would give them greater agency and determination of their own goals and aspirations, as well as likely paving the way to greater investment in long-term benefits.

Explore more from the 2023 report

Haiti Earthquake 2021: Findings from the Repair and Damage Assessment of 179,800 Buildings

19 Pages Posted: 17 Apr 2023

Kit H. Miyamoto

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Giulia Jole Sechi

Guilaine victor, beverly st come, mark broughton, amir s. j. gilani.

In the aftermath of the 2021 M7.2 Haiti earthquake, MTPTC (Ministère des Travaux Publics, Transports et Communications), UNOPS (United Nations Office for Project Services) and Miyamoto International implemented a damage and repair assessment program. Between October 2021 and February 2022, 380 trained engineers evaluated 179,800 buildings in the Sud, Grand’Anse and Nippes departments, reaching over 1.2 million beneficiaries. The assessments were executed in compliance with ATC-20 and the Haitian standards, through an innovative digitalized approach. More than 11,000 buildings were collapsed or not repairable; over 89,000 buildings were damaged and repairable. Approximately 88,000 buildings were in confined masonry and over 26,000 of them could be repaired as per MTPTC guidelines; around 80,000 buildings were in the timber and stones vernacular technique. The examined dataset is one of the largest studied in recent humanitarian history and it is critical to learn from past seismic events. We herein analyze the observed structural weaknesses and make a comparison with the 2010 earthquake.

Keywords: Haiti, Earthquake, Seismic, Disaster response

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

affiliation not provided to SSRN ( email )

No Address Available

Giulia Jole Sechi (Contact Author)

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on ssrn, paper statistics.

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• Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/how-to-help-haitians-after-7-2-magnitude-earthquake

How to help Haitians after 7.2 magnitude earthquake

A deadly earthquake in Haiti over the weekend has dealt another devastating blow to the nation mired in political crisis.

At least 1,419 people have died and some 6,000 are injured following the earthquake. Tens of thousands more are displaced — officials say over 7,000 homes were destroyed and 5,000 are damaged. In some places, rescue efforts have been affected by landslides cutting off roads. Tropical Storm Grace hit the southwestern part of the country — where the earthquake struck the hardest — with heavy rainfall Monday, forcing the Haitian government to temporarily pause its response.

Saturday’s earthquake was centered in Nippes, 78 miles west of Port-au-Prince but could be felt as far away as Jamaica. The U.S. Geological Survey said aftershocks could continue for weeks.

Chronic poverty, widespread gang violence and political instability will complicate the nation’s ability to recover from the latest disaster. The government is particularly fragile after Haitian President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated in July. The country is immersed in political turmoil as none of the suspects detained for the assassination have been taken to court, over a month after the president was killed–raising questions about how the country can come together in times of political and natural crises.

Like the rest of the world, Haiti is also still in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic. Vaccinations for COVID-19 had begun less than two weeks before when the earthquake struck. Officially, Haiti has seen more than 20,500 COVID-19 cases and 570 deaths according to Johns Hopkins University , but a lack of robust testing suggests that the true number is far higher.

Saturday’s earthquake was more powerful than the 2010 earthquake, which killed an estimated 230,000 people and injured 300,000. Recovery efforts for the 2010 earthquake took years, and investigations have raised whether victims ever received much of the money raised.

As the crises across Haiti compound, here are some ideas for how to help:

• UNICEF is working with the government and humanitarian aid groups to help vulnerable children and families. Medical kits to support 30,000 people have already been delivered to the Les Cayes port and medical, health and sanitation supplies are on the way. Donate here to help support that effort.
• Donate to Project HOPE , a nonprofit that is sending out an emergency response team to help the country.
• Humanity and Inclusion has worked in Haiti since 2008 responding to natural disasters and are launching efforts specifically in rehabilitation, mental health and psychological needs in response to the earthquake. Donate to them here .
• Hope for Haiti has a stockpile of emergency kits ready to distribute to individuals and families. The organization consists of Haitian doctors, nurses and program managers. Donations can be made through Hope for Haiti’s website . The nonprofit is also accepting cryptocurrency donations .
• Save the Children is accepting donations to continue their work with children and families in Haiti and help distribute aid.
• World Vision has pre-prepared supplies to provide immediate humanitarian aid to 6,000 people. Donate here .
• The Greater Miami Jewish Federation established a relief fund to help victims of the earthquake. Donate on their website , or for more information on donating, call 305-576-4000.
• The United Way and the Miami Herald/El Nuevo Herald have activated Operation Helping Hands to help victims of the Haiti earthquake. Donate through their website or call 800-226-3320.
• Catholic Relief Services is working with local partners to coordinate the delivery of life-saving supplies, including tarps, blankets, medical supplies, food, and clean water. You can donate to relief efforts for Haiti here .
• American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee is providing medical supplies to hospitals and residents. Donate here .
• Church World Service is providing housing reconstruction, trauma recovery support and water infrastructure repairs in the municipality of Pestel. Donate on their website .

How to avoid charity scams

• Avoid unfamiliar agencies and websites. According to Charity Navigator , several domain names were taken that led people to “donation” pages just hours after the 2010 earthquake, that in reality, were a scam.
• Beware of phone calls and emails soliciting donations.
• Do your research to determine if organizations are legitimate. Charity Navigator lists reputable organizations. Great Nonprofits and Give Well has reviews of nonprofit groups and can help you see how much of your money goes directly to relief.

Chloe Jones is the Roy W. Howard fellow for the PBS NewsHour. Connect with her at [email protected] or on Twitter @chloeleejones.

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Haiti: Death toll crosses 700 after earthquake

World Aug 15

Earthquake Impacts: A Case Study of the 2010 Haiti Earthquake Essay

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Short-term effects of the earthquake

Long term effects of earthquakes.

An earthquake is defined as a rapture that occurs on the earth’s crust, and it’s brought about by building up of stress in the crust through plate movements on fault lines (Yeats Sieh & Allen, 1997). The fracture comes about when the strain goes beyond the strength which the brittle lithospheric rock can hold. Earthquakes have numerous effects on society at large. The effects vary from social, political, physical, and psychological problems. Earthquakes occur briefly, but the aftershock continues for months while the damages caused last for years (Kellenberg & Mobarak 2008)

The worst earthquake in over 200 years struck Port-au-Prince near the Caribbean city of Haiti on the afternoon of 12th January 2010. The earthquake damaged structures, displaced millions, and killed thousands of people. Official estimates stated that 222,500 people died, 300,000 were severely injured, more than 1.2 million people were displaced, and 97,000 houses were totally destroyed while 188,000 were damaged.

The short-term effects of the earthquake include food shortage, lack of clean water; breakdown of communication, lack of sufficient medical care, closure of ports and main roads, increased mortally, injuries, fires, the spread of communicable diseases, destruction of buildings, and shortage of petroleum goods (Skidmore & Toya, 2007).

Displacements

After the disaster, due to the destruction of homes, victims are forced to live in rescue camps. Overcrowding in these camps brings about the spread of communicable diseases, especially water-borne diseases which are communicable.

Poor medical care

Destruction of health facilities, including hospitals, dispensaries, and clinics, increases health problems due to the lack of laboratories for diagnosis and drugs. It’s very costly to rebuild hospitals and thus very poor medical care.

Destruction of schools closed down all schooling activities. Putting up new schools and equipping them is a long-term activity.

Social effects of earthquakes

There are many social problems brought about by people losing their relatives hence more widows, widowers, and orphans. The people affected by the disaster due to posttraumatic stress behave in strange ways; hence this affects the way they socialize. They become emotional, easily angered, and become antisocial.

Psychological effects of earthquakes

Earthquakes, unlike other natural disasters like floods and hurricanes, cause serious psychological stress since they occur with no warning ((Slemmons and dePolo 1986). This sudden occurrence gives no time for the victims to make psychological adjustments to enable them to cope up with the loss.

Disasters have a very bad effect on the increasing prevalence of psychological sicknesses (Bolt, 1992).

Depending on one’s age, the children are at the risk of experiencing extreme psychiatric reactions. The symptoms differ from the ages of the victims and may include:

• Preschoolers: The children express some signs of psychological distress through; sucking of thumbs, clinging to their parents, wetting their beds, loss of their appetite, fear of being in dark places, regressive behavior, and withdrawals from friends (Bolt 1992).
• Elementary school: They tend to be irritable, show a lot of aggressiveness, constant nightmares, absence from school, lack of concentration, clinginess, and withdrawal from their duties and friends.
• Adolescents: Adolescents might show signs of agitation, lack of concentration, physical complaints, sleepless nights, poor eating habits, and being antisocial (Slemmons and dePolo 1986).

Political effects of earthquakes

The president and government officials were operating from police stations and tents. This disaster has affected the plans for the elections, which were to be conducted later this year.

The process of aid provision to areas affected by earthquakes is linked with politics. The government official needs to engage themselves in post-disaster activities in order to facilitate healing of their community members by coming up with motions to be discussed on parliament on disaster management and rural development.

The government officials should be in a position to site and make major amendments in town planning legislation and on the regulations on land zoning and the bye-laws for safe construction of masonry buildings to come up with better structures that can resist earthquakes hence increase structural safety.

The government should be in a position to come up with a state-level sensitization program on earthquake risk management.

They should also come up with a way of introducing inter-state sharing of resources for disaster management.

They should develop a school curriculum that must be learned by all elementary school levels on disaster preparedness and management as a school awareness and safety program.

They should also come up with guidelines for availing assistance to state-level training institutes to come up with faculties that train disaster management as a profession.

They should also come up with a national emergency plan to communicate through the media on disaster preparedness and response. And also communicate on designated state rescue centers.

Economic effects of earthquakes

Debt from other countries: This comes from borrowing money for rebuilding the damaged structures and improving technologies to come up with more earthquake-proof buildings (Slemmons & DePolo 1986).

Haiti’s economy before the disaster had been positively growing since the year 2005 through partnering, allowing free duty exports to the united states. Haiti having access to the United States market has created a good opportunity for stable growth in the economy. The earthquake dealt a devastating blow to an economy that was growing; the majority of the country’s population and structures were concentrated in the major towns, a factor that amplified the effects of the earthquake. According to Kellenberg & Mobarak (2008), natural disasters are strongly felt by the developing nations due to the concentration of people and economic places in a central place and due to poor response mechanisms.

The earthquake, on the other hand, is a serious setback to Haiti’s stable economic growth. It affected the tourism sector due to the destruction of tourist attraction sites and the destruction of major hotels.

Haiti being the 17 th largest supplier of United States apparel goods as stated by the footwear association, this disaster caused an immediate impact on the countries economy.

Haiti is the largest trade partner with the USA exporting more than 75% of apparel and textiles, as was stated by Richard Hastings, working as a consumer strategist in Hunter securities an investment bank.

Effects of the Earthquake on the society

Experiencing an earthquake is a stressful experience with typical effects like fear, sadness, grief, helplessness, anger, and anxiety. The levels of the feelings vary from the degree of connection to the victims affected. Governments should put into consideration policies to ensure disaster mitigation measures are put in place to avoid the degree of impact in case of earthquakes.

Bolt, B. A. (1992). Earthquakes . New York, NY: W.H. Freeman & Company.

Kellenberg, D. K., & Mobarak, A. M. (2008). Does Rising Income Increase or Decrease Damage Risk from Natural Disasters? Journal of Urban Economics 63(3): 788–802.

Skidmore, M. & Toya, H. (2007). Economic Development and the Impacts of Natural Disasters. Economic Letters , 94; 20-25.

Slemmons, D.B. & DePolo, C.M. (1986). Evaluation of active faulting and associated hazards, in Studies in geophysics-active tectonics: Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

Yeats, R. S., Sieh, K. E., & Allen, C. A. (1997). Geology of earthquakes. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

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IvyPanda. (2021, December 14). Earthquake Impacts: A Case Study of the 2010 Haiti Earthquake. https://ivypanda.com/essays/earthquake-in-haiti-and-its-ramifications/

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Earthquake in Haiti Updates Haiti News: Search for Survivors After Quake Kills Nearly 1,300

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Nearly 1,300 dead after Haiti earthquake, and the country is bracing for a tropical depression.

Hundreds dead after magnitude 7.2 earthquake hits haiti, the powerful quake leveled buildings, killed nearly 1,300 people and overwhelmed hospitals in at least two haitian cities..

So they are trying now, if they can save the people, because there’s so much people down there.

LES CAYES, Haiti — Haitians struggled with a lack of basic supplies, including food and medical care, in the aftermath of a magnitude 7.2 earthquake on Saturday that snapped water lines, blocked roads, flattened grocery stores and damaged hospitals on the country’s southwestern peninsula.

The powerful earthquake was a devastating blow to a country that is still reeling from a presidential assassination last month and that never recovered from a disastrous quake more than 11 years ago. Aid groups and government rescue workers established a single operation center in Port-au-Prince to coordinate the quake response, but many in the hard hit town of Les Cayes were loading injured into cars and on to private planes to try to evacuate them to the capital, Port-au-Prince, for care.

Herve Foucand, a former senator, was using his small propeller plane to ferry people to Haiti’s capital.

“I have 30 people in serious condition waiting for me,” he said. “But I only have seven seats.”

Small towns surrounding Les Cayes were cut off by landslides and are believed to be even harder hit.

To complicate the chaotic efforts even more, Tropical Depression Grace was expected to pass over Haiti on Monday or Tuesday, bringing heavy rain and possible mudslides.

The confirmed death toll rose to 1,297 on Sunday Haiti’s Civil Protection Agency, said on Twitter.

Mr. Chandler said that heavy damage had been reported in the cities of Jérémie and Les Cayes, an area that is less densely populated but also more remote. Thousands of homes and a multistory hotel collapsed, and some roads and bridges were impassable, complicating rescue and aid efforts. Still, Mr. Chandler promised a “more appropriate response than the one we gave in 2010,” when millions in aid seemed to vanish amid a cloud of corruption and confusion.

Prime Minister Ariel Henry said: “These are difficult times. Let’s forget our quarrels. Let’s forget about anything else — let’s help the poorest and most needy people.”

The recovery was being conducted in the throes of a political crisis that followed President Jovenel Moïse’s assassination on July 7. The unsolved assassination, a leadership vacuum, severe poverty and systemic gang violence in parts of Haiti, a Caribbean nation of 11 million people, have left the government dysfunctional and ill prepared for a natural calamity.

Humanitarian aid was immediately promised by the United States and other countries, the United Nations and private organizations. By Saturday night, the gangs that control the highway linking the southern peninsula to the rest of Haiti declared a truce for humanitarian reasons, allowing aid to flow to devastated areas and alleviating concerns that trucks delivering the supplies would be held up and looted.

Due to an editing error, an earlier version of this story attributed a quote to the wrong person. Ariel Henry, the prime minister of Haiti, and not the head of the country's Civil Protection Agency, promised a "more appropriate response than the one we gave in 2010."

How we handle corrections

— Maria Abi-Habib

U.S. sends search-and-rescue team to Haiti to help search for survivors.

The United States has sent a specialized search-and-rescue team to Haiti to help extricate any survivors from the quake rubble, an indication that Haiti is poorly equipped for such an operation and that many trapped victims may still be alive.

The United States Agency for International Development, the main provider of American foreign aid, said Sunday that the team was dispatched in response to a request from the Haitian government.

The team, from the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department in Fairfax, Va., is composed of 65 emergency responders and four dogs. It was carrying 52,000 pounds of specialized tools and equipment, including hydraulic machines that can break through concrete slabs, as well as drills and torches and emergency medical gear.

Sarah Charles, an assistant to the administrator of USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, said the Fairfax team was composed of “special experts that can deploy on short notice” and that it was planning to be on the ground in the quake-stricken zone “as quickly as possible.”

She said it was premature to say how long the team would remain in Haiti. “It’s still very early to assess the scale of damage,” Ms. Charles said. “We’ve seen hundreds of deaths and that toll could climb higher.”

The agency has already deployed a disaster assessment team to help the Haitian government and other humanitarian groups coordinate a response.

In a statement, the agency said it was also closely monitoring Tropical Depression Grace , which was fast approaching Haiti and “potentially exposing people to further devastation in a matter of days.”

The Pan American Health Organization’s office in Port au Prince is also sending a team of experts to areas affected by the earthquake to evaluate damage and help coordinate the health response.

— Rick Gladstone

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Here is what to know about the Haiti earthquake.

What happened.

An earthquake of 7.2 magnitude struck Haiti on Saturday morning. It was stronger than the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that devastated the Caribbean country in 2010. The United States Geological Survey said the quake struck five miles from the town of Petit Trou de Nippes in the western part of the country, about 80 miles west of Port-au-Prince, the capital. Seismologists said it had a depth of seven miles. It was felt as far away as Jamaica, 200 miles away.

The U.S. Tsunami Warning Center reported a tsunami threat because of Saturday’s earthquake, but later rescinded it.

Aftershocks have rippled through the region, the U.S.G.S. said .

What is the death toll?

Haiti’s Civil Protection Agency said Sunday that at least 1,297 people had been confirmed dead.

Among the dead was the former mayor of Les Cayes, Gabriel Fortuné, who was killed when the hotel he owned collapsed during the quake, according to a local journalist who knew him, Jude Bonhomme.

What parts of Haiti were affected?

Two cities, Les Cayes and Jeremie, located in Haiti’s southern peninsula, have reported major devastation with people caught under rubble and buildings collapsed. Phone lines were down in Petit Trou de Nippes, the epicenter of the quake. No news emerged immediately from that city, leaving Haitian officials to fear for the worst.

Area affected by earthquake

and storm in Haiti

Damage reported

Petit-Trou-de

Anse-a-Veau

Aug. 14 Epicenter

of earthquake

Ile a Vache

Aug. 16, 8 pm

Storm batters Haiti

Aug. 17, 2 am

Path of Tropical

Storm Grace

Aug. 16, 2 pm

Area affected by earthquake v

Very strong shaking

Strong shaking

Moderate shaking

Light shaking

Path of Grace,

now a tropical storm

The full extent of the damage and casualties is not yet known. But doctors said hospitals were overwhelmed.

A building housing medical students, hospital interns and two doctors had collapsed, trapping those who were most needed to provide aid, said Dr. James Pierre, a surgeon at the general hospital of Les Cayes, also known as the Hospital Immaculée Conception.

The State Department’s internal assessment of the earthquake was bleak. Up to 650,000 people experienced “very strong” tremors with an additional 850,000 affected by “strong shaking,” leaving thousands of buildings at risk of damage and possible collapse, according to the assessment, shared by a State Department official.

What does this mean for the country?

This earthquake could not have come at a worst time for Haiti, which never recovered from the 2010 earthquake that killed some 300,000 people and leveled much of Port-au-Prince. The southern peninsula, where the earthquake hit, is also still recovering from Hurricane Matthew, which hit the country in 2016.

The country of 11 million is also recovering from political turmoil. Haiti has been in the throes of a political crisis since President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated on July 7, and the government is not financially equipped to take care of repairs.

— Isabella Grullón Paz

In Haiti, surgeons operate with minimal supplies as patients recover in the parking lot.

As families cared for their loved ones, two surgeons with dwindling supplies operated on eight people at the General Hospital of Les Cayes, which was unable to admit any new patients and forced to turn most away.

A shipping container substituted for the hospital’s operating room, which was severely damaged by Saturday’s massive earthquake. After surgery, patients were wheeled out to the parking lot, serving now as an outpatient center because the entire complex is too damaged to use. The lucky ones found shade under the trees, protecting them from the baking August Caribbean sun.

Dr. James Pierre, one of the hospital’s surgeons, had just finished operating on a 5-year-old girl who had abdominal trauma and internal bleeding; she had been crushed by the wall of her home as she played in the yard on Saturday.

“We can only do simple surgeries here, we have nothing to work with,” said Dr. Pierre, as he watched the little girl’s chest labor with every breath underneath a blanket in the open air.

Chickens and their chicks ran between the people lying on hospital beds on the hot asphalt as flies swarmed.

Patients’ medical files, stacked two feet high atop a metal table, lay adjacent to an open tap where patients and their families and friends washed clothes, dishes and their bodies, the water flowing throughout the parking lot and among the hospital beds, leading to sanitation concerns. Haiti has suffered from significant cholera outbreaks before.

The girl’s mother, Gerdina Museu, 27, said she was not at home when the earthquake struck, but was selling food on the side of the road, one of her family’s main sources of income. Once the tremors subsided, she rushed home to find her daughter buried under rubble.

Fitholene Simon, 41, had been staying with her husband at the Petit Pas hotel when the shaking started. As they scrambled outside to seek safety, the staircase they were running down overturned, and her left foot was crushed underneath the rubble before her husband extracted her. At least one person in the hotel died.

Ms. Simon’s husband tried to wave down passing cars to help her; eventually one stopped and shuttled her to the hospital.

Her left foot amputated, Ms. Simon winced in pain as she sat up in her hospital bed under the shade of a tree, a bar of soap balancing on a branch.

The government’s presence is thin at the hospital; the two surgeons and overworked nurses are the only help provided. Patients like Ms. Simon must buy their own food, soap and medicine, and many cannot afford any of it.

Magela Lubin, who stopped to take Ms. Simon to the hospital, has been paying for her medicine but, even then, supplies across Les Cayes are limited. Of the four medicines prescribed to Ms. Simon, she was only able to secure two and now must suffer through the pain of her amputation without painkillers. She is also missing a vital antibiotic.

“We’ve lost everything,” said Ms. Simon. “Where is the government? It’s not here.”

“She has bought everything for us, food, medicine and clothes. She’s our only help,” Ms. Simon said, gesturing to Ms. Lubin.

Ms. Lubin started crying, recalling how as a girl her family grew up in poverty in the outskirts of Les Cayes, but had no support to rely on and had to fend for themselves.

“Since I was a girl I realized, we can only rely on ourselves in Haiti,” she said. “That’s all we have.”

A church collapses, and a priest worries it can’t provide for families relying on it.

MAZENOD — Townspeople watched as volunteers tried to extract two women from the rubble of a collapsed church guesthouse, the metallic crush of a bulldozer heaping the debris aside as men used their bare hands to move concrete slabs.

Nearly the entire complex of the Chapel of St. Eugene of Mazenod had been destroyed, including its seminary and secondary schools. The seminary school resembled a sloppily assembled layered cake, while much of the secondary school’s second floor had caved into the ground.

“I came here to look for my sister, but then I got this scene,” said Melchirode Walter, 31, whose younger sister, Solange, 26, was trapped under the rubble. “Now I don’t think there’s any hope. We have been calling her name since yesterday and knocking on the concrete, but there is nothing.”

Father Corneille Fortuna, who helps run the complex, said he narrowly survived when his residence caved in, with bricks blocking the entrance and trapping him inside. A half-hour later he heard his name being called and screamed out for help. Eventually friends were able to pull him from the destruction.

He ran over to the church guesthouse, where a visiting priest had been staying along with two female volunteers, including Ms. Walter. Father Fortuna could hear the visiting priest calling for help, but he and his friends struggled to move aside the destruction.

Eventually the bulldozer arrived; the priest was found and rescued, but not the two women.

“Haiti is a country where every disaster is possible,” Father Fortuna said, standing by his chapel. “And there is never any help.”

He worried that the church would be unable to provide for the families that have come to rely on it. The church provides hot lunches — the most complete meal most children in the area receive — every day to its 875 students, about one-third who attend tuition free. The school was set to open in early September; its work is crucial in the battle against rampant child malnutrition and undereducation across Haiti.

“If we cannot open, what will happen to the children? They will stay home and we will lose them,” Father Fortuna said. “There is no government, and we must do what we can to provide for the population.”

In photos: destruction and despair in Haiti after earthquake.

Scenes of destruction in the earthquake-devastated town of Les Cayes on Sunday as officials raised the death toll to more than 700. Hotels and houses crumbled, and people were forced to sleep on the streets and in soccer fields. Small towns surrounding Les Cayes were cut off by landslides and are believed to be even harder hit.

— The New York Times

A mountain village looks for survivors, waits for help after Haiti’s earthquake.

MACELINE — The nephew of Ilda Pierre had just discovered her body among the pews of St. Agnes church when an aftershock ripped through the mountainous town, rattling the collapsed corrugated tin roofs strewn across the dirt.

Honore Faiyther closed his eyes and waited for the trembling to pass as he sat on what had once been the wall of the church — now just a slab of cement. Steps away from him, the body of Ms. Pierre lay on a metal grate, a white sheet covering her body.

Ms. Pierre had been cleaning the church with a friend when an earthquake of magnitude 7.2 struck Saturday. As they tried to run outside, a pillar collapsed just as Ms. Pierre’s friend reached the door, smacking her in the head and crushing her skull. She was killed instantly.

It’s not clear if Ms. Pierre was also killed immediately. Mr. Faiyther and three friends had been searching for her since midmorning Saturday and only discovered her bruised and bloodied body Sunday afternoon when people in the neighborhood had joined together to wrench open the roof that had collapsed on the church, sealing the wreckage underneath.

“My aunt has four children, and she’s very active in our community and volunteered in this church for five years,” said Mr. Faiyther. “Her husband is in denial — he cannot face that she is dead.”

Father Jean Edy Desravines described the moments after the earthquake, as cries pierced the mountain range and people searched for their loved ones.

“I was preparing a sermon for today, to inspire parents to send their children back to school next month, to have them rejoin our community after such a tough year,” said Father Desravines, referring to the coronavirus pandemic.

“Now there is no school to even send them to,” the priest said, adding that the primary school his church runs had also been flattened by the quake.

More than 24 hours after the quake, no government help had arrived.

Later that night, he said, he would be sleeping in his pickup truck. With no running water, he feared the situation would further deteriorate and disease could become a problem.

The road from Les Cayes, on the coast, to Maceline, in the mountains that overlook the city, was cracked down the center, with boulders and tree branches blocking it.

Families from Les Cayes to Maceline, about 25 kilometers away, are sleeping out in the open, their homes severely damaged or completely destroyed. Many said they were too nervous about the aftershocks to comfortably take shelter under a roof.

The mayor of Maceline, Fenicile Marssius, whose home was destroyed, walked up to the church to check in on Father Desravines.

“This is a catastrophe. We have had no assistance from the government. Maybe they have so much to do in the cities that they cannot reach us in these remote areas,” said Ms. Marssius. “We believe a lot of people still are underneath the rubble, and many houses and churches have collapsed.”

Naomi Osaka pledges to donate tournament prize money to relief efforts in Haiti.

Tennis star Naomi Osaka announced she will be donating any prize money she wins from this week’s Western and Southern Open tennis tournament to relief efforts in Haiti after the country was hit by a devastating earthquake.

Osaka, currently the No. 2 ranked player in the world, is half Haitian. Her father is from Haiti, and her mother is from Japan.

“Really hurts to see all the devastation that’s going on in Haiti, and I feel like we really can’t catch a break. I’m about to play a tournament this week and I’ll give all the prize money to relief efforts for Haiti. I know our ancestors blood is strong we’ll keep rising,” Osaka said on Twitter on Saturday , adding a prayer-hands emoji, heart and the Haitian flag at the end of the tweet.

The prize money is $255,220, and the runner-up will receive $188,945, according to Perfect-Tennis.com . The tournament, also known as the Cincinnati Masters, starts Monday in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Nearly 1,300 people have died so far from the earthquake , which struck Haiti on Saturday morning. The United States Geological Survey said the quake of 7.2 magnitude struck five miles from the town of Petit Trou de Nippes, about 80 miles west of Port-au-Prince, the capital.

The earthquake comes as Haiti is still reeling from the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse last month, throwing the country into political crisis. Compounded to that is the looming threat from a tropical depression, which is expected to pass over Haiti on Monday.

This is not the first time the tennis star has used her platform to raise awareness around various causes, including social justice and mental health. In 2020, after the killing of George Floyd, Osaka entered each of her seven matches at the United States Open wearing a mask that bore the names of Black men and women who were victims of racist violence.

In May, Osaka announced on her Instagram that she would not grant any press interviews at the French Open, citing the toll such interviews can have on athletes’ mental health.

— Alexandra E. Petri

One surgeon is treating the wounded in a makeshift operating room at the airport.

LES CAYES, Haiti — A day after a magnitude 7.2 earthquake ripped through western Haiti — killing 724 people — the main airport of the city of Les Cayes was overwhelmed with Haitians trying to evacuate their loved ones to the capital, Port-au-Prince. The needs of the wounded were too huge for local hospitals and doctors to handle.

Herve Foucand, a former senator from the southern region of the country, was using his small propeller plane to transport the injured.

“I have 30 people in serious condition waiting for me,” Mr. Foucand said. “But I only have seven seats.”

“The hospitals are broken inside,” Mr. Foucand added, saying he had used his tiny plane to personally evacuate 50 people to the capital since Saturday.

The earthquake was just the latest disaster to strike Haiti, which is still coping with the devastation from a 2010 quake that killed 300,000 people. Saturday’s quake came barely a month after the country’s president, Jovenel Moïse, was assassinated in his bedroom, plunging the country into a political crisis even as it was struggling with years of severe poverty and systemic gang violence.

Officials in Les Cayes believe there are no more than 30 doctors in the entire southern region, home to roughly one million people. All the main hospitals are damaged. Doctors in Les Cayes worked overnight to build a temporary operating room — made of corrugated tin — near the airport.

An orthopedic surgeon, Edward Destine, was tending to the injured there. “I’m the only surgeon,” he said.

“I would like to operate on 10 people today, but I just don’t have the supplies,” he added, saying he needed intravenous drips and antibiotics.

Many of the wounds were fractures, Dr. Destine said, including dangerous head and femur fractures.

Because the wounds were open and many people were living in damaged homes or out on the streets, he expected thousands to suffer from potentially fatal infections.

“We can’t even do lab tests,” he added.

Dr. Destine’s own father, also a surgeon, had suffered major head trauma during the quake when part of a roof fell on him. He was hoping to get him evacuated to Port-au-Prince.

Palmera Claudius, 30, lay in the bed of a pickup truck her relatives had hired to take her to the airport. The left side of her face was swollen, and her left arm was in a makeshift sling made from a torn blue shirt.

She was in her family home in Camp Perrine, on the outskirts of Les Cayes, when she felt her whole house jolt on Saturday. As she tried to run outside for safety, a wall collapsed on her.

She cannot feel her legs, she said. The local clinic in her town does not have the capacity to X-ray her. She was hoping to catch a flight to the capital as soon as one was available and willing to take her for free. Her family has no money to pay the cost.

Haiti scrambles to coordinate aid response after devastating earthquake.

The authorities in Haiti were scrambling to coordinate their response to the 7.2 magnitude earthquake, mindful of the confusion that followed a devastating quake in 2010, when delays in distributing aid to hundreds of thousands of people worsened the death toll.

Prime Minister Ariel Henry promised at a news conference on Sunday “to give a more appropriate response than the one we gave in 2010.” That includes a single operation center in Port-au-Prince that will coordinate all aid efforts.

Paul Farmer, a physician and co-founder of the relief agency Partners in Health, said the hospitals that his organization oversees had largely improved their emergency medical services and training programs, although most of those improvements were in the center of the country, far from where the earthquake struck.

“They can do more, and faster, than back then, and will be counting on all of us for the pragmatic solidarity they deserve,” Mr. Farmer wrote.

In the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake, Haiti’s government failed to coordinate all the humanitarian aid it was receiving, leaving many Haitians excluded from rescue efforts.

More than 700 people have been confirmed killed in the country’s southwest, according to the latest figures provided by Haiti’s Civil Protection Agency, while an untold number were missing, raising fears that they have been trapped under piles of concrete slabs from buildings flattened by the earthquake.

The agency added that hundreds of homes had been destroyed and damaged, as well as many health centers, schools, offices, grocery stores and churches.

“The most important thing is to recover as many survivors as possible under the rubble,” Mr. Henry, who declared a one-month state of emergency, said on Saturday, according to The Associated Press.

“The needs are enormous. We must take care of the injured and fractured, but also provide food, aid, temporary shelter and psychological support,” he added.

Several hospitals in unaffected areas quickly provided assistance, responding to calls for solidarity that proliferated on social networks.

The State University of Haiti Hospital, based in the capital of Port-au-Prince, sent doctors to the southwest while the relief agency Zanmi Lasante, which runs several hospitals and works with Partners in Health, said on Twitter that it was working with its partners, preparing for an influx of patients.

On Saturday, the country’s ministry of public health said in a message posted on Facebook that it was “in urgent need of blood for the victims” and called on people to donate blood, to prevent a shortage because so many people are expected to need treatment.

In 2010, the earthquake destroyed the National Blood Transfusion Center in Port-au-Prince, leaving the country in dire need of blood bags, which delayed surgeries and caused more deaths and amputations.

Since then, according to a 2016 study , Haiti has scaled up its blood drives, exceeding pre-earthquake levels as soon as 2012 and increasing regional collections in order to reduce dependence on Port-au-Prince.

Sending the much needed aid to the hardest hit sites, about 125 miles away, in the southwest of the country, will be a challenge in itself. Gang activity around Port-au-Prince has made traveling on the roads dangerous, and the quake caused landslides and damage that made some roads impassable.

On Saturday, gangs that control the highway linking the southern peninsula to the rest of Haiti declared a truce for humanitarian reasons, allowing aid to flow to devastated areas.

Mr. Henry said that police forces and other means were “mobilized so that this aid that we want to send to our brothers and sisters in difficulty can arrive.”

Milo Milfort contributed to this story from Port-au-Prince.

— Constant Méheut

Tropical Depression Grace heads toward quake-ravaged Haiti.

As people in Haiti desperately search for survivors from a devastating earthquake, the threat of yet another natural disaster looms over the island.

Downgraded from a tropical storm, Tropical Depression Grace is projected to pass over Haiti late Monday or early Tuesday, the National Hurricane Center said.

The storm could dump four to eight inches of rain, with isolated totals up to 15 inches, the center said, adding that heavy rainfall could lead to flooding and potential mudslides.

The storm was on a path to go directly over the Dominican Republic, Haiti and then Cuba before heading north toward the Gulf Coast of the United States.Forecasters initially said it might spare the peninsula hardest hit by the earthquake but the storm changed direction and now threatens the entire country of Haiti. Many are still trapped in the rubble of collapsed buildings, and survivors of the earthquake lack shelter and even food and water.

The storm formed in the eastern Caribbean on Saturday morning, as the earthquake rocked Haiti’s western peninsula. It is the seventh named storm of the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season and follows several days of floods and power outages unleashed this week by Tropical Storm Fred , which weakened to a tropical depression.

— Alyssa Lukpat and Alexandra E. Petri

The latest Haiti earthquake was more powerful than the devastating quake in 2010.

The earthquake that struck Haiti on Saturday morning occurred on the same system of faults as the one that devastated the capital, Port-au-Prince, in January 2010. And the previous quake almost certainly made this one more likely to occur.

Both quakes struck on an east-west fault line at the convergence of two tectonic plates, large segments of the Earth’s crust that slowly move in relationship to each other. At this fault line, called the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault zone, the Caribbean plate and the North American plate move laterally, or side by side, at a rate of about a quarter of an inch a year.

The 2010 quake was centered about 30 miles west of Port-au-Prince. The quake on Saturday was about 50 miles further west.

Susan E. Hough, a seismologist with the United States Geological Survey who studied the 2010 earthquake, said there was no doubt that it and the one Saturday were linked.

“It’s well established that you do have this domino concept,” she said, where the energy released by one earthquake alters the stress patterns elsewhere along the fault line. “But we don’t have a crystal ball that tells us which domino is going to fall next.”

Dr. Hough said seismologists had been concerned about a region of the fault zone to the east, closer to the 2010 rupture site. “Now we’ve seen the segment to the west rupture,” she said.

She said that the fault ruptured both vertically and laterally. Preliminary analyses suggested that the fault ruptured to the west, which would mean that most of the energy was directed away from Port-au-Prince and toward the more sparsely populated region along the Tiburon peninsula. If that’s the case, then most of the aftershocks that inevitably follow a large earthquake would most likely occur to the west as well.

“To the extent that anything could be good news for Haiti, those are good signs,” Dr. Hough said.

At a magnitude of 7.2, Saturday’s quake released about twice as much energy as the one in 2010, which was a magnitude-7.0 quake. That quake killed some 300,000 people. Jerry Chandler, head of Haiti’s Civil Protection Agency, said Sunday during a news conference that the latest earthquake had killed at least 724 people.

Damage and casualties from quakes depend on many factors besides magnitude. The depth and location of the rupture, the time it occurred and the quality of construction all can play major roles. In the 2010 earthquake, shoddy construction — especially poorly built masonry buildings — was blamed for many of the deaths and injuries.

The fault zone extends west to Jamaica, which is also at risk of major earthquakes. In addition to the 2010 quake, the fault zone was most likely the source of four major earthquakes in the 18th and 19th centuries, including ones that leveled Port-au-Prince in 1751 and again in 1770.

— Henry Fountain

Here’s how to donate to Haiti relief efforts.

After a devastating earthquake hit Haiti on Saturday, killing hundreds and injuring thousands more, nonprofit organizations are accepting donations to help provide urgently needed supplies, like food, water, medical aid and housing, as they also assess what will be needed for the country’s long-term recovery.

Many of these groups have decades of experience in Haiti. Sites like Guidestar and Charity Navigator grade nonprofits on their effectiveness and financial health.

Here are a few ways to help.

American Jewish World Service, a nonprofit based in New York, has started an online fund-raiser. Donations will be used to distribute aid to its local, on-the-ground partners that are providing emergency food, shelter and medical attention. You can donate to A.J.W.S. here .

Catholic Relief Services is a nonprofit based in Baltimore with offices in Haiti. The organization is sending teams into the field to provide water and other emergency supplies to those in need. You can donate to C.R.S. by going to its website .

Adventist Development and Relief Agency , another Maryland-based organization, is working with emergency response teams on the ground to assist with frontline relief efforts like providing food, water, shelter and blankets. You can donate here .

Project HOPE, also in Maryland, is a nonprofit that provides medical training, health education and humanitarian assistance around the world. The group is sending an emergency response team to Haiti and is working with colleagues on the ground to provide urgently needed medical aid and other critical supplies. Donations can be made using this link .

CARE , a humanitarian organization out of Atlanta, has a team in Haiti that has begun to distribute tents, water and other relief items. You can donate by going to its website .

Hope for Haiti, a Florida-based organization that works to reduce poverty in Haiti , is accepting donations that will go toward urgent critical supplies, like medical aid and water, that are distributed by its colleagues on the ground. You can donate through its website .

• DOI: 10.1016/j.jastp.2024.106323
• Corpus ID: 271695204

The 2023 Mw 6.8 Morocco earthquake induced atmospheric and ionospheric anomalies

• Syed Faizan Haider , Munawar Shah , +1 author Mostafa R. Abukhadra
• Published in Journal of Atmospheric and… 1 August 2024
• Environmental Science, Physics, Geology

62 References

The 8 september 2023, mw 6.8, morocco earthquake: a deep transpressive faulting along the active high atlas mountain belt, synchronized and co-located ionospheric and atmospheric anomalies associated with the 2023 mw 7.8 turkey earthquake, a comprehensive study on the synchronized outgoing longwave radiation and relative humidity anomalies related to global mw ≥ 6.5 earthquakes, atmospheric precursors from multiple satellites associated with the 2020 mw 6.5 idaho (usa) earthquake, estimation of the cavity volume in the gasification zone for underground coal gasification under different oxygen flow conditions, three-dimensional reconstruction and geometric morphology analysis of lunar small craters within the patrol range of the yutu-2 rover, machine-learning-based lithosphere-atmosphere-ionosphere coupling associated with mw > 6 earthquakes in america, ionospheric-thermospheric responses to geomagnetic storms from multi-instrument space weather data, deep machine learning based possible atmospheric and ionospheric precursors of the 2021 mw 7.1 japan earthquake, integrated analysis of lithosphere-atmosphere-ionospheric coupling associated with the 2021 mw 7.2 haiti earthquake, related papers.

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