Case study - Haiti

Question 1

What plate boundary does Haiti sit on?

Answer 1

Caribbean plate and Gonave microplate (part of the North American plate).

Question 2

What type of plate boundary is it?

Answer 2

Conservative/Sliding, approximately 2cm per year. Caribbean plate moving eastwards.

Question 3

How deep was the focus of the earthquake?

Answer 3

13 km beneath the surface. Shallow compared to most earth quakes causing violent ground shaking.

Question 4

What was the nearest city from the epicentre?

Answer 4

Port au Prince, capital city of Haiti.

Question 5

Where is Haiti?

Answer 5

Haiti is one half of the island called Hispaniola. The other half is the Dominican Republic.

Hispaniola is an island in the Caribbean Sea.

Question 6

What was the date and time of the earth quake?

Answer 6

12 January 2010, at 4.53pm.

Question 7

What is the magnitude of the earthquake?

Answer 7

The earthquake measured 7 on the Richter Scale.

This was quickly followed by aftershocks of 5.9 and 5.5

Question 8

How many after shocks of 4.5 or more were there by 24th January 2010?

Answer 8

By 24 January, at least 52 aftershocks measuring 4.5 or greater had been recorded.

Question 9

Where was the epicentre?

Answer 9

In the sea, 25 km west of Port au Prince, the capital of Haiti.

Question 10

How large is the population of Haiti and how many people lived in Port au Prince?

Answer 10

10.9m. Second largest country in the Caribbean – 10% lived in the capital Port au Prince

Question 11

What proportion of children receive education in Haiti?

Answer 11

Only 50% of children receive education

Question 12

What is the economy of Haiti like?

Answer 12

Haiti is a poor developing country with low quality infrastructure (road, railways, power lines, communications). Much of the infrastructure was destroyed making it harder to deal with an emergency

Question 13

How many people were killed, injured and affected.

Answer 13

230,000 people killed. 300,000 injured. 3 million people affected.

Question 14

How were injured people cared for.

Answer 14

Injured people could not be treated as any hospitals remaining standing were full. Patients were treated without proper doctors or equipment

Question 15

What happened to government buildings in the quake?

Answer 15

The government buildings were not earthquake proof and fell down in the quake.

This made it especially difficult to organise a rescue plan as leaders had nowhere to meet.

The Presidential Palace, the National Assembly building, the Port-au-Prince Cathedral, were all destroyed in the earthquake.

Question 16

What happened to school buildings in the earthquake?

Answer 16

4000 schools damaged or destroyed. Disruption to poor children’s education is a long term problem.

Question 17

What happened to hospitals in the earthquake?

Answer 17

Two hospitals destroyed. Others badly damaged.

Question 18

What happened to the dead bodies?

Answer 18

The dead were buried in mass graves outside the city holding up to 7000 bodies each.

Bodies that could not be buried were used as a roadblock to protest against the lack of aid.

Question 19

How did people cope with not having and food, water or medicine in the days after the earthquake?

Answer 19

Yes. With no food, water or medicine people were forced to loot any shops still standing.

Some people died of starvation.

Question 20

Give an example of death caused indirectly by the earthquake?

Answer 20

In October 2010 a cholera epidemic killed 3000 people who were living in makeshift camps.

Question 21

What happened to the transport network in Port au Prince as a result of the earthquake?

Answer 21

Infrastructure of Port au Prince was ruined.

Roads were impassable.

The tiny airport could not handle the airplanes and the port was full of rubbish so ships could not dock.

Question 22

What happened to houses in Port au Prince?

Answer 22

Almost every house fell down, due to unstable foundations.

Question 23

What was Port au Prince like 6 months after the earthquake?

Answer 23

6 months later. 98% of the rubble was still not cleared.

No new houses had been built and people were living in temporary camps.

Question 24

How much money was promised in aid by governments?

Answer 24

UN says £165 was pledged to help (£10m form the UK).

Question 25

What international help was sent?

Answer 25

USA sent 10,000 troops to help search for survivors.

Indonesia sent search sniffer dogs.

Mountain rescuers from Devon were sent.

Question 26

How did large charities try to help?

Answer 26

Oxfam and Red Cross agencies shipped masses of bottled water and water purification tablets.

Question 27

Did aid take long to arrive?

Answer 27

However most of the aid took a long time to come which caused friction between the survivors and the aid workers.

Question 28

What happened to Haitians who lost limbs?

Answer 28

Thousands of Haitians became amputees because of their injuries. They need mental health assistance as well as physical rehabilitation.

Question 29

Who tried to improve conditions in the make shift camps?

Answer 29

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) tried to improve conditions in the makeshift camps.

Question 30

Who many people were resettled outside Port au Prince after the earthquake?

Answer 30

235,000 people decided to move to cities on the north and south east of Haiti.

Question 31

How much money does Haiti still need to rebuild?

Answer 31

Haiti still needs billions of dollars to help it rebuild. US$ 13.0 billion is needed.