On Tuesday January 12, 2010, Haiti was hit with a 7.0M earthquake that caused devastation throughout the country. Normally an earthquake of that magnitude would not cause quite the devastation that was brought upon Haiti on the 12th, but due to the poor infrastructures that littered the grounds of Haiti, the death toll was about 316,000, injuries around 300,000 and then finally about 1.4 million were left homeless.
This was a life shattering moment in Haiti, but on the scale of Earthquakes, Haiti’s does not measure up. To put the magnitudes of earthquakes in perspective to other earthquakes that have occurred around the world here are some that topped the charts with their high magnitudes
- In 2004, off the West
Coast of Northern Sumatra there was an earthquake that measured 9.1M (death
toll of over 230,000 people) - In 2011, near the
East Coast of Honshu, Japan there was an earthquake that measured 9.0M (death
toll of about 18,000 people) - In 2010, Offshore
Maule, Chile there was an earthquake that measured 8.8M (death toll of over 700
people)
As you can see each earthquake had some of the highest magnitudes ever recorded, but yet death rates at each location did not reach the height of Haiti’s.
I know most of us are not experts in earthquakes and this whole business of magnitude scales can be a little gray for us all so here is a chart that clearly spells out what happens at each level.
Magnitude Earthquake Effects
2.5 or less Usually not felt
2.5 to 5.4 Usually felt, minor damages
5.5 to 6.0 Slight damage to buildings
6.1 to 6.9 May cause damage in populated areas.
7.0 to 7.9 Major earthquake. Serious damage.
8.0 or greater Great earthquake. Can totally destroy
communities near the epicenter
Now that we know all the facts, we can see that Haiti compared to the others was hit with a smaller scale earthquake, but managed to suffer the most. That is where CARE, Project Concern, UN OCHA, US AID OFDA, NGOs, Department of Homeland Security and Federal Communications Commission, to name a few, all stepped in and helped Haiti and its people. Mark Johnson, an engineer who spoke last Wednesday on the 19th, was down there helping with Project Concern for eight months. When he was down there he specialized in the setup for the rain water harvesting units.
These rain water harvesting units would be attached to the new housing structures that were being built for the families. In Haiti there is not a lot of access to water due to very little surface water. There is one main river which is dammed for irrigation and power generation. The water from the units was not to be consumed by the people though. The roofs were contaminated with many things, including fecal matter. The main problem with these tanks/units was that no one was certain how much they were going to be able to capture. Research was conducted and tables were collected on the daily, monthly and yearly amount of rainfall in Haiti… turns out that the annual rainfall is about 4.5’ with 2 rainy/drought seasons. In the end, they still weren’t sure if the Haitians were always going to have water to use. It was really up to the Haitians on how much water they were going to use or save.
Haiti still has a long way to come and already $750 million dollars has been spent on this disaster by US AID… most of the money has been spent buying or renting land (one of Haiti’s old laws). The Haitian people were slowing improving their own lives by getting work through The Early Recovery Program (CFWs) or building homes for the homeless. The Early Recovery Program was designated to excavate and remove the debris of the old infrastructures… this work took weeks upon weeks to complete. Haiti had extremely built up communities that had houses among houses quite literally right on top of each other. None of these houses were built with high stability… making the earthquake essentially a man-made disaster that was a decade in the making. Whereas the demolition progress was going at a snail’s pace, the water situation was making noticeable head way. Water bladders would be brought in daily allowing Haitians to retrieve two 5-gallon water jugs a day. The water would be 0 CFU/100mL and <2ppm Cl2 when first delivered which was something the Haitians never had access to before. Sadly though by the time the water came back to their makeshift housing only 15% of the water would be potable. It was found though that the Haitians could tolerate a high amount of CFUs… anything under 20 to 30 CFU/100mL would be fine for them.
It was predicted that Haiti was going to be transformed within 6 months and aid would be able to leave, but everybody soon realized that that goal was not possible. As of today Haiti is still trying to get back on its feet slowing making improvements.
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