Haiti Earthquake By: Moad Elhouderi

Issue Haiti’s location is in the Caribbean on the island of Hispaniola between North Atlantic ocean and the Caribbean sea. Its to the west of the Dominican Republic. Natural hazards : Haiti lies in the center of the hurricane belt and subject to severe storms in the summer. There is occasional flooding, earthquakes, and droughts. The issue is a gigantic earthquake with a magnitude 7.0 on the Richter scale followed by an aftershock with a magnitude of 6.1 which caused more damage. The land mass of Haiti is structured upon Caribbean plates struck together plate. This plate collided with the North American plate which caused an east/westward strike among the plates. The Earthquake occurred on 21:53 UTC on Tuesday, 12 January 2010 with an epicenter near the town of Leogane 25 km westward of Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital

Social The Haitian government has confirmed that 250,000 resident homes have collapsed with 30,000 commercial buildings either damaged or destroyed. The earthquake has caused more serious injuries than deaths and an amount of 1.2 million people who are left homeless. The population of Haiti is approximately 9 million. The Earthquake was confirmed to take the lives of according to government estimate. Leogane, which was the epicenter of the quake, reported that 90% of all buildings in that city had been destroyed and the town needs to be totally rebuilt.

Economy / Aid Before the earthquake strike with a magnitude of 7.0, Haiti’s economy has been growing since Observers say that this Earthquake would not cause a lethal blow to Haiti’s economy but it’s a matter of time in rebuilding when it would start to rise again. Haiti’s GDP prior to quake is Billion USD. The sources say the earthquake cost them about 15% of the GDP. The early rescue missions were done by Haitians and teams from the Dominican Republic which was the first country to respond. A medical team from Iceland also landed. China sent about 50 medical teams to help the situation. Qatar and Israel also sent teams to create hospitals. The red Cross donated 7million dollars under 24 hours to help the situation. Counties like the UK also helped out un the mission by offering financial aid.

Environmental Impact Ground shaking which was a hazard to many impacted structures located near the epicenter. Landslides occurred because of the shaking in areas that have a poor slope stability and rocky hills. Tsunamis caused by the seismic activity under ocean floor flooded coastal areas and affected areas near the epicenter. The impact of the quake also destroyed or washed away many natural resources such as ruined farms, mines, and factories. Also many oil and chemicals leaked out from damages storages and industrial spills contaminating the few water resources and spreading disease.

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