Earthquake - Two Year's Later



The Port-au-Prince Cathedral

Two years ago Haiti was jarred by a 7.0-magnitude earthquake.  It's zone of  destruction included the most heavily populated region of Haiti.  Much of Haiti's infrastructure was destroyed including half of its hospitals, almost all it's government buildings and some of it's oldest and most cherished structures from the Presidential Palace to the Cathedral.  The number of people killed will probably never be known, but in loss of life, it is being listed as one of history's ten worst natural disasters.

In general, developing countries suffer the most from natural disasters.  Building construction is often inadequate with little oversight from the government.  For instance, before 2011 a Haitian builder couldn't even find seismic data for designing properly.  There were no building codes or city planning for guidance.  Consequently, poor construction was common and not only did countless homes collapse in the earthquake, but so did schools, banks, hospitals, the UN headquarters and the prestigious Montana Hotel.  Tragically, some of Haiti's most dedicated and promising leaders were lost, including all but one student of Haiti's State University nursing class. 

Visitation Clinic is 43 miles west of the quake epicenter.  At that distance, the surface ground movement had lessened and we sustained little damage from the quake.   Some nearby houses did colapse, but no one nearby was killed.  We were very fortunate.

Disasters can have beneficial consequences if we learn from them.  We can dedicate ourselves to those who were lost and resolve that the disaster not be repeated.  Both Haitian government and international groups are taking steps in this direction.  Now, for the first time, the USGS has created seismic risk maps for Haiti.  The Haitian government has stepped up and authorized interim building codes that use the USGS data.  Engineering groups have completed an analysis of why certain building's failed in the earthquake.  And we at VHF are in the middle of a major project of planning how we should expand our services while insuring that our buildings will survive the next earthquake.  We now know that the ten-year likelihood of another major earthquake is 1 in 6, and that the fault-line is only 9 miles south of our clinic. We've recently engaged civil engineers to analyze our present buildings and recommend any retrofitting.   

The 2010 earthquake was a horrific event. The loss of life was tragic and unnecessarily high. If there is one positive outcome, it is the new realization of the need for seismic building practices. There will be more earthquakes in Haiti. There need not be the loss of so many lives.