Haiti Earthquake, 2010 (LIC)

Question 1

How strong was the earthquake?

Answer 1

Magnitude of 7.Wh

Question 2

Where was the epicentre?

Answer 2

25km away from the capital city - Port-au-Prince.

Question 3

What plate boundary did it occur at?

Answer 3

A conservative plate boundary.

Question 4

Why was there so much infrastructure damage?

Answer 4

Haiti had no building codes so buildings collapsed easily, killing and trapping people underneath.

Question 5

At the time of the earthquake, where was Haiti on the Human Development Index?

Answer 5

145th out of 169.

Question 6

Why was recovery slow?

Answer 6

Country was already in a state of recovery after the tropical storms that hit them in 2008.

Question 7

How many people died?

Answer 7

230,000

Question 8

How many homes were destroyed?

Answer 8

105,000 destroyed, 188,000 badly damaged.

Question 9

What were the effects of the earthquake?

Answer 9

• 1.5 million people left homeless.
• 4,000 schools damaged or closed.
• Liquefaction caused many buildings to sink/collapse.
• Cholera outbreak hit October 2010 (9 months after the earthquake) due to the poor conditions as a result of the earthquake.
• By July 2011, 216,000 people had been infected with cholera, and 5,899 had died from it.

Question 10

What were the responses to the earthquake?

Answer 10

• 1,100 camps set up to shelter the homeless.
• American Red Cross raised $7 million in 24 hours.
• More than 20 countries had sent military personnel to keep the peace.
• US army took control of the airport and the port to speed up distribution of aid.
• 16,000 UN troops and police kept law and order.
• UK provided water purification tablets to over 250,000 people.
• Disasters Emergency Committee raised £107 million to help with rebuilding Haiti.
• ‘Hope for Haiti’ telethon on 22nd January 2010 raised $58 million in one day to support the victims.