2010 HAITI
EARTHQUAKE
Makalah
Oleh :
1. YAYAN H.
2. DESI ARISTA
3. SITI AISAH
4. HENDRI
MADRASAH ALIYAH MA. BINUANGEUN
2011
CONTENTS
- 1 Background
- 2 Geology
- 3 Damage to infrastructure
- 4 Conditions in the aftermath
- 5 Casualties
- 6 Early response
- 7 Rescue and relief efforts
- 8 Recovery
- 9 See also
- 10 References
- 11 Further reading
- 12 External links
2010 Haiti
earthquake
|
2010 Haiti earthquake
|
|
 |
|
|
Quake epicenter and major cities affected
|
|
|
Date
|
16:53:10,
12 January 2010 (−05:00)
|
|
Magnitude
|
|
|
Depth
|
13 km
(8.1 miles)
|
|
Epicenter location
|
|
|
Countries or regions affected
|
|
|
Max. intensity
|
|
|
Tsunami
|
|
|
Casualties
|
|
The 2010 Haiti earthquake was a catastrophic magnitude 7.0 Mw earthquake,
with an epicentre near the town of Léogâne, approximately 25 km (16 miles) west of Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital. The earthquake occurred at 16:53 local time (21:53
UTC) on Tuesday, 12 January 2010.[5][6]
By 24 January, at least 52 aftershocks measuring 4.5 or greater had been recorded.[7] An estimated three million people were affected by the
quake;[8]
the Haitian government reported that an estimated 316,000 people had died,
300,000 had been injured and 1,000,000 made homeless.[9][10] The death toll has also been suggested to be much lower at
somewhere between 92,000[3] and 220,000, with around 1.5 million[11] to 1.8 million homeless.[12] The government of Haiti also estimated that 250,000 residences
and 30,000 commercial buildings had collapsed or were severely damaged.[13]
The earthquake caused major damage in Port-au-Prince, Jacmel and other settlements in the region. Many notable landmark
buildings were significantly damaged or destroyed, including the Presidential Palace, the National Assembly
building, the Port-au-Prince Cathedral, and the main jail. Among those killed were Archbishop of Port-au-Prince Joseph Serge Miot,[14] and opposition leader Micha Gaillard.[15][16] The headquarters of the United Nations Stabilization Mission
in Haiti (MINUSTAH), located in the capital,
collapsed, killing many, including the Mission's Chief, Hédi Annabi.[17][18]
Many countries responded to appeals for humanitarian aid, pledging funds and dispatching rescue and medical teams,
engineers and support personnel. Communication systems, air, land, and sea
transport facilities, hospitals, and electrical networks had been damaged by
the earthquake, which hampered rescue and aid efforts; confusion over who was
in charge, air traffic congestion, and problems with prioritisation of flights
further complicated early relief work. Port-au-Prince's morgues were quickly
overwhelmed with many tens of thousands of bodies having to be buried in mass graves.[19] As rescues tailed off, supplies, medical care and
sanitation became priorities. Delays in aid distribution led to angry appeals
from aid workers and survivors, and looting and sporadic violence were
observed.
On 22 January the United Nations noted that the emergency phase of the relief operation was
drawing to a close, and on the following day the Haitian government officially
called off the search for survivors.
Background
The island of Hispaniola,
shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic, is seismically active and has a history of destructive earthquakes. During Haiti's time as a French colony, earthquakes were
recorded by French historian Moreau de Saint-Méry (1750–1819). He described damage done by an earthquake in
1751, writing that "only one masonry
building had not collapsed" in Port-au-Prince; he also wrote that the
"whole city collapsed" in the 1770 Port-au-Prince
earthquake. Cap-Haïtien, other towns in the north of Haiti and the Dominican
Republic, and the Sans-Souci Palace were destroyed during an earthquake on 7 May 1842.[20] A magnitude 8.0 earthquake struck the Dominican Republic and shook Haiti on 4 August
1946, producing a tsunami
that killed 1,790 people and injured many others.[21]
Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere,[22]
and is ranked 149th of 182 countries on the Human Development
Index.[23] The Australian government's travel advisory site had
previously expressed concerns that Haitian emergency services
would be unable to cope in the event of a major disaster,[24] and the country is considered "economically vulnerable"
by the Food and Agriculture
Organization.[25] It is no stranger to natural disasters; in addition to
earthquakes, it has been struck frequently by tropical cyclones, which have caused flooding and widespread damage. The most
recent cyclones to hit the island before the earthquake were Tropical Storm Fay
and Hurricanes Gustav, Hanna
and Ike,
all in the summer of 2008, causing nearly 800 deaths.[26]
Geology
USGS intensity map
Tiny dots of white against the
plant-covered landscape (red in this image) are possible landslides, a common
occurrence in mountainous terrain after large earthquakes. The
Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault zone runs along the two linear valleys at the
top of the image
The magnitude
7.0 Mw earthquake occurred inland, on 12 January 2010 at 16:53 UTC-5, approximately 25 kilometres (16 mi) WSW from
Port-au-Prince at a depth of 13 kilometres (8.1 mi)[5] on blind thrust faults associated with the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault system.[27] There is no evidence of surface rupture and based on
seismological, geological and ground deformation data it is thought that the
earthquake did not involve significant lateral slip on the main Enriquillo
fault.[28] Strong shaking associated with intensity IX on the Modified Mercalli scale (MM) was recorded in Port-au-Prince and its suburbs. It was
also felt in several surrounding countries and regions, including Cuba (MM III
in Guantánamo),
Jamaica (MM II in Kingston), Venezuela (MM II in Caracas),
Puerto Rico (MM II–III in San Juan),
and the bordering Dominican Republic (MM III in Santo Domingo).[1][29] According to estimates from the USGS, approximately
3.5 million people lived in the area that experienced shaking intensity of
MM VII to X,[1] a range that can cause moderate to very heavy damage even
to earthquake-resistant structures.
The damage from the quake was more severe than for other
quakes of similar magnitude due to the shallow depth of the quake.[30] [31]
The quake occurred in the vicinity of the northern boundary
where the Caribbean tectonic plate shifts eastwards by about 20 millimetres (0.79 in) per
year in relation to the North American plate. The strike-slip fault system in the region has two branches in Haiti, the Septentrional-Oriente fault in the north and the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault in
the south; both its location and focal mechanism suggested that the January 2010 quake was caused by a
rupture of the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault, which had been locked for
250 years, gathering stress.[32] However, a study published in May 2010 suggested that the
rupture process may have involved slip on multiple blind thrust faults with
only minor, deep, lateral slip along or near the main Enriquillo–Plantain
Garden fault zone, suggesting that the event only partially relieved centuries
of accumulated left-lateral strain on a small part of the plate-boundary
system.[28] The rupture was roughly 65 kilometres (40 mi) long
with mean slip of 1.8 metres (5.9 ft).[33] Preliminary analysis of the slip distribution found
amplitudes of up to about 4 metres (13 ft) using ground motion records
from all over the world.[34][35]
A 2007 earthquake hazard study by C. DeMets and M.
Wiggins-Grandison noted that the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault zone could be
at the end of its seismic cycle and concluded that a worst-case forecast would
involve a 7.2 Mw earthquake, similar in size to the 1692 Jamaica
earthquake.[36] Paul Mann and a group including the 2006 study team
presented a hazard assessment of the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault system to
the 18th Caribbean Geologic Conference in March 2008, noting the large strain;
the team recommended "high priority" historical geologic rupture
studies, as the fault was fully locked and had recorded few earthquakes in the
preceding 40 years.[37] An article published in Haiti's Le Matin
newspaper in September 2008 cited comments by geologist Patrick Charles to the
effect that there was a high risk of major seismic activity in Port-au-Prince.[38]
Aftershocks
History of the main shock and
aftershocks with magnitudes larger than 4.0, data from USGS[39]
The United States
Geological Survey (USGS) recorded eight aftershocks in the two hours after the main earthquake, with magnitudes
between 4.3 and 5.9.[39] Within the first nine hours 32 aftershocks of magnitude 4.2
or greater were recorded, 12 of which measured magnitude 5.0 or greater, and on
January 24 USGS reported that there had been 52 aftershocks measuring 4.5 or
greater since the January 12 quake.[39]
On 20 January at 06:03 local time (11:03 UTC) the strongest aftershock since the earthquake,[40]
measuring magnitude 5.9 Mw, struck Haiti.[41] USGS reported its epicentre was about 56 kilometres
(35 miles) WSW of Port-au-Prince,[39]
which would place it almost exactly under the coastal town of Petit-Goâve. A UN representative reported that the aftershock collapsed
seven buildings in the town.[42] According to staff of the International
Committee of the Red Cross, who had
reached Petit-Goâve for the first time the day before the aftershock, the town
was estimated to have lost 15% of its buildings, and was suffering the same
shortages of supplies and medical care as the capital.[43] Workers from the charity Save the Children reported hearing "already weakened structures
collapsing" in Port-au-Prince,[40]
but most sources reported no further significant damage to infrastructure in
the city. Further casualties are thought to have been minimal since people had
been sleeping in the open.[42] There are concerns that the 12 January earthquake could be
the beginning of a new long-term sequence: "the whole region is
fearful"; historical accounts, although not precise, suggest that there
has been a sequence of quakes progressing westwards along the fault, starting
with an earthquake in the Dominican Republic in 1751.[44]
Tsunami
The Pacific Tsunami
Warning Center issued a tsunami
warning immediately after the initial quake,[45]
but quickly cancelled it.[46] Nearly two weeks later it was reported that the beach of
the small fishing town of Petit Paradis was hit by a localised tsunami wave
shortly after the earthquake, probably as a result of an underwater slide, and
this was later confirmed by researchers.[2] At least three people were swept out to sea by the wave and
were reported dead. Witnesses told reporters that the sea first retreated and a
"very big wave" followed rapidly, crashing ashore and sweeping boats
and debris into the ocean.[47]
Damage to infrastructure
Damaged buildings in Port-au-Prince
Essential services
Amongst the widespread devastation and damage throughout
Port-au-Prince and elsewhere, vital infrastructure necessary to respond to the disaster was severely damaged
or destroyed. This included all hospitals in the capital; air, sea, and land
transport facilities; and communication systems.
The quake affected the three Médecins Sans
Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) medical
facilities around Port-au-Prince, causing one to collapse completely.[48][49] A hospital in Pétionville, a wealthy suburb of Port-au-Prince, also collapsed,[50] as did the St. Michel District Hospital in the southern
town of Jacmel,[51] which was the largest referral hospital in south-east
Haiti.[52]
Damaged buildings in Jacmel
The quake seriously damaged the control tower at Toussaint L'Ouverture International
Airport[53] and the Port-au-Prince seaport,[54] which rendered the harbor unusable for immediate rescue
operations. The Gonaïves seaport, in the northern part of Haiti, remained
operational.[54]
Roads were blocked with road debris
or the surfaces broken. The main road linking Port-au-Prince with Jacmel remained blocked ten days after the earthquake, hampering
delivery of aid to Jacmel. When asked why the road had not been opened, Hazem
el-Zein, head of the south-east division of the UN World Food Programme said that "We ask the same questions to the people in
charge...They promise rapid response. To be honest, I don't know why it hasn't
been done. I can only think that their priority must be somewhere else."[51]
There was considerable damage to communications
infrastructure. The public telephone system was not available,[45] and two of Haiti's largest cellular telephone
providers, Digicel[55] and Comcel Haiti,[56] both reported that their services had been affected by the
earthquake. Fibre-optic
connectivity was also disrupted.[57] According to Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF), Radio Lumière, which broadcasts out of
Port-au-Prince and reaches 90% of Haiti, was initially knocked off the air, but
it was able to resume broadcasting across most of its network within a week.
According to RSF, some 20 of about 50 stations that were active in the capital
region prior to the earthquake were back on air a week after the quake.[58]
General infrastructure
In February 2010 Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive estimated that 250,000 residences and 30,000 commercial buildings were severely damaged and needed to be demolished.[13] The deputy mayor of Léogâne reported that 90% of the town's
buildings had been destroyed.[59] Many government and public buildings were damaged or
destroyed including the Palace of Justice, the National Assembly,
the Supreme Court
and Port-au-Prince Cathedral.[60][61] The National Palace
was severely damaged,[62][63] though President
René Préval and his wife Elisabeth Delatour
Préval escaped injury.[64][65] The Prison Civile de Port-au-Prince was also destroyed,
allowing around 4,000 inmates to escape.[66]
Léogâne, close to the earthquake
epicentre
Most of Port-au-Prince's municipal buildings were destroyed
or heavily damaged, including the City Hall, which was described by the Washington Post as, "a skeletal hulk of concrete
and stucco, sagging grotesquely to the left."[67] Port-au-Prince had no municipal petrol reserves and few
city officials had working mobile phones before the earthquake, complicating
communications and transportation.[67]
Minister of Education Joel Jean-Pierre
stated that the education system had "totally collapsed". About half
the nation's schools and the three main universities in Port-au-Prince were affected.[68] More than 1,300 schools and 50 health care facilities were
destroyed.[69]
The earthquake also destroyed a nursing school in the
capital and severely damaged the country’s primary midwifery
school.[70] The Haitian art world suffered great losses; artworks were destroyed, and museums
and art galleries were extensively damaged, among them Port-au-Prince's main
art museum, Centre d'Art,
College Saint Pierre and Holy Trinity Cathedral.[71]
The headquarters of the United Nations Stabilization Mission
in Haiti (MINUSTAH) at Christopher Hotel[17] and offices of the World Bank
were destroyed.[72] The building housing the offices of Citibank in Port-au-Prince collapsed, killing five employees.[73] The clothing industry, which accounts for two-thirds of
Haiti's exports,[74]
reported structural damage at manufacturing facilities.[75]
The quake created a landslide dam on the Rivière de Grand
Goâve. As of February 2010 the water level was low, but
engineer Yves Gattereau believed the dam could collapse during the rainy
season, which would flood Grand-Goâve 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) downstream.[76]
Conditions in the aftermath
In the nights following the earthquake, many people in Haiti
slept in the streets, on pavements, in their cars, or in makeshift shanty towns
either because their houses had been destroyed, or they feared standing
structures would not withstand aftershocks.[77] Construction standards are low in Haiti; the country has no
building codes.
Engineers have stated that it is unlikely many buildings would have stood
through any kind of disaster. Structures are often raised wherever they can
fit; some buildings were built on slopes with insufficient foundations or steel
works.[78] A representative of Catholic Relief
Services has estimated that about two
million Haitians lived as squatters on land they did not own. The country also suffered from
shortages of fuel and potable water even before the disaster.[79]
President Préval and government ministers used police
headquarters near the Toussaint L'Ouverture International
Airport as their new base of operations,
although their effectiveness was extremely limited; several parliamentarians
were still trapped in the Presidential Palace, and offices and records had been
destroyed.[80] Some high-ranking government workers lost family members,
or had to tend to wounded relatives. Although the president and his remaining
cabinet met with UN planners each day, there remained confusion as to who was
in charge and no single group had organised relief efforts as of 16 January.[81] The government handed over control of the airport to the
United States to hasten and ease flight operations, which had been hampered by
the damage to the air traffic control tower.[82]
Almost immediately Port-au-Prince's morgue
facilities were overwhelmed. By 14 January, a thousand bodies had been placed
on the streets and pavements. Government crews manned trucks to collect
thousands more, burying them in mass graves.[83] In the heat and humidity, corpses buried in rubble began to
decompose and smell. Mati Goldstein, head of the Israeli ZAKA International Rescue Unit delegation to Haiti, described
the situation as "Shabbat
from hell. Everywhere, the acrid smell of bodies hangs in the air. It’s just
like the stories we are told of the Holocaust – thousands of bodies everywhere. You have to understand
that the situation is true madness, and the more time passes, there are more
and more bodies, in numbers that cannot be grasped. It is beyond
comprehension."[84][85]
Mayor Jean-Yves Jason said that officials argued for hours
about what to do with the volume of corpses. The government buried many in mass
graves, some above-ground tombs were forced open so bodies could be stacked
inside, and others were burned.[86] Mass graves were dug in a large field outside the
settlement of Titanyen,
north of the capital; tens of thousands of bodies were reported as having been
brought to the site by dump truck
and buried in trenches dug by earth movers.[87] Max Beauvoir,
a Vodou
priest, protested the lack of dignity in mass burials, stating, "... it is
not in our culture to bury people in such a fashion, it is desecration".[88][89]
The Haitian government began a
programme to move homeless people out of Port-au-Prince on a ferry to Port Jeremie
and in hired buses to temporary camps
Towns in the eastern Dominican Republic began preparing for
tens of thousands of refugees, and by 16 January hospitals close to the border
had been filled to capacity with Haitians. Some began reporting having expended
stocks of critical medical supplies such as antibiotics by 17 January.[90] The border was reinforced by Dominican soldiers, and the
government of the Dominican Republic asserted that all Haitians who crossed the
border for medical assistance would be allowed to stay only temporarily. A
local governor stated, "We have a great desire and we will do everything
humanly possible to help Haitian families. But we have our limitations with
respect to food and medicine. We need the helping hand of other countries in
the area."[91][92]
Slow distribution of resources in the days after the
earthquake resulted in sporadic violence, with looting
reported.[93] There were also accounts of looters wounded or killed by
vigilantes and neighbourhoods that had constructed their own roadblock
barricades.[94][95] Dr Evan Lyon of Partners in Health,
working at the General Hospital in Port-Au-Prince, claimed that misinformation
and overblown reports of violence had hampered the delivery of aid and medical
services.[96][97]
Former U.S. president Bill Clinton
acknowledged the problems and said Americans should "not be deterred from
supporting the relief effort" by upsetting scenes such as those of
looting.[66][98] Lt. Gen. P.K. Keen, deputy commander of U.S. Southern
Command, however, announced that despite the stories of looting and violence,
there was less violent crime in Port-au-Prince after the earthquake than
before.[99]
In many neighbourhoods, singing could be heard through the
night and groups of men coordinated to act as security as groups of women
attempted to take care of food and hygiene necessities.[100] During the days following the earthquake, hundreds were
seen marching through the streets in peaceful processions, singing and
clapping.[101]
The earthquake caused an urgent need for outside rescuers to
communicate with Haitians whose main or only language is Haitian Creole.
As a result, a machine translation program to translate between English and Haitian Creole
had to be written quickly.
Casualties
A Haitian boy receives treatment at
a MINUSTAH logistics base
The earthquake struck in the most populated area of the
country. The International
Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies estimated that as many as 3 million people had been
affected by the quake.[8] On 10 February 2010, the Haitian government reported the
death toll to have reached 230,000.[102] On the first anniversary of the earthquake, 12 January
2011, Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive said the death toll from the
quake was more than 316,000, raising the figures from previous estimates.[103]
Haitian authorities initially estimated that 300,000 had
been injured[13]
and as many as one million Haitians were left homeless.[104] However experts have questioned the validity of these
numbers; Anthony Penna,
professor emeritus in environmental
history at Northeastern
University, warned that casualty estimates
could only be a "guesstimate",[105] and Belgian disaster response expert Claude de Ville de
Goyet noted that "round numbers are a sure sign that nobody knows."[106] Edmond Mulet,
UN Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, said, "I do not think we will ever know what the
death toll is from this earthquake",[106] while the director of the Haitian Red Cross, Guiteau
Jean-Pierre, noted that his organisation had not had the time to count bodies,
as their focus had been on the treatment of survivors.[106]
While the vast majority of casualties were Haitian
civilians, among the dead were aid workers, embassy staff, foreign tourists and
a number of public figures which included Archbishop of Port-au-Prince Monsignor Joseph Serge Miot,[14] aid worker Zilda Arns
and officials in the Haitian government, including opposition leader Michel "Micha" Gaillard.[15] Also killed were a number of well-known Haitian musicians[107] and sports figures, including thirty members of the Fédération Haïtienne
de Football.[108] At least 85 United Nations personnel working with MINUSTAH
were killed,[109] among them the Mission Chief, Hédi Annabi, his deputy, Luiz Carlos da Costa.,[18] and police commissioner Douglas Coates.
Around 200 guests were killed in the collapse of the Hôtel Montana in Port-au-Prince.[110]
Early response
Main articles: Humanitarian
response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake,
Humanitarian
response by national governments to the 2010 Haiti earthquake, Humanitarian
response by non-governmental organizations to the 2010 Haiti earthquake, and Humanitarian
response by for-profit organizations to the 2010 Haiti earthquake
Heavy-lift helicopters ferry water
from the offshore flotilla, 15 January
Appeals for humanitarian aid were issued by many aid organizations, the United Nations[111]
and president René Préval. Raymond Joseph, Haiti's ambassador
to the United States,[112] and his nephew, singer Wyclef Jean,[113] who was called upon by Préval to become a "roving
ambassador" for Haiti,[114] also pleaded for aid and donations.
Many countries responded to the appeals and launched
fund-raising efforts, as well as sending search and rescue teams. The
neighbouring Dominican Republic was the first country to give aid to Haiti,[112]
sending water, food and heavy-lifting machinery.[115] The hospitals in Dominican Republic were made available, a
combined effort of the Airports Department (DA), together with the Dominican
Naval Auxiliaries, the UN and other parties formed the Dominican-Haitian Aerial
Support Bridge, making the main Dominican airports available for support
operations to Haiti. The Dominican website FlyDominicanRepublic.com [116] made available to the internet, daily updates on airport
information and news from the operations center on the dominican side. [115] The Dominican emergency team assisted more than 2,000
injured people, while the Dominican Institute of Telecommunications (Indotel)
helped with the restoration of some telephone services.[115] The Dominican Red Cross coordinated early medical relief in
conjunction with the International Red Cross.[115] The government sent eight mobile medical units along with
36 doctors including orthopaedic specialists, traumatologists, anaesthetists,
and surgeons. In addition, 39 trucks carrying canned food were dispatched,
along with 10 mobile kitchens and 110 cooks capable of producing 100,000 meals
per day.[117]
Having lost their homes, many
Haitians now live in precarious camps
Other nations from farther afield also sent personnel,
medicines, materiel,
and other aid to Haiti. The first team to arrive in Port-au-Prince was ICE-SAR from Iceland,
landing within 24 hours of the earthquake.[118] A 50-member Chinese
team arrived early Thursday morning.[119] From the Middle East, the government of Qatar sent a strategic transport aircraft (C-17), loaded with 50
tonnes of urgent relief materials and 26 members from the Qatari armed forces,
the internal security force (Lekhwiya), police force and the Hamad Medical
Corporation, to set up a field hospital and provide assistance in
Port-au-Prince and other affected areas in Haiti.[120] A rescue team sent by the Israel Defense
Forces' Home Front Command established a field hospital which included specialised
facilities to treat children, the elderly, and women in labour near the United
Nations building in Port-au-Prince. It was set up in eight hours and began
operations on the evening of 16 January.[121] A Korean International Disaster Relief Team[122] with 40 rescuers, medical doctors, nurses and 2 k-9s
was deployed to epicenters in order to assist mitigation efforts of Haitian
Government. The team was required to stay 2 weeks at the sites.
The American Red Cross announced on 13 January that it had run out of supplies in
Haiti and appealed for public donations.[123] Giving Children Hope worked to get much-needed medicines and supplies on the
ground.[124] Partners in Health
(PIH), the largest health care provider in rural Haiti was able to provide some
emergency care from its ten hospitals and clinics all of which were outside the
capital and undamaged.[125] MINUSTAH had over 9,000 uniformed peacekeepers deployed to
the area.[126] Most of these workers were initially involved in the search
for survivors at the organisation's collapsed headquarters.[127]
Haitian survivors were transferred
to rescue ships for medical aid
The International
Charter on Space and Major Disasters
was activated, allowing satellite imagery of affected regions to be shared with
rescue and aid organisations.[128] Members of social networking sites such as Twitter
and Facebook spread messages and pleas to send help.[129] Facebook was overwhelmed by—and blocked—some users who were
sending messages about updates.[130] The American Red Cross set a record for mobile donations,
raising US$7 million in 24 hours when they allowed people to send
US$10 donations by text messages.[131] The OpenStreetMap community responded to the disaster by greatly improving
the level of mapping available for the area using post-earthquake satellite
photography provided by GeoEye,[132] and tracking website Ushahidi
coordinated messages from multiple sites to assist Haitians still trapped and
to keep families of survivors informed.[133] Some online poker
sites hosted poker tournaments with tournament fees, prizes or both going to
disaster relief charities.[134] Google Earth
updated its coverage of Port-au-Prince on 17 January, showing the
earthquake-ravaged city.
Easing refugee immigration into Canada was discussed by
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper,[135] and in the U.S. Haitians were granted Temporary Protected
Status, a measure that permits about
100,000 illegal alien Haitians in the United States to stay legally for
18 months, and halts the deportations of 30,000 more, though it does not
apply to Haitians outside the U.S.[136][137] Local and state agencies in South Florida, together with the U.S. government, began implementing a
plan ("Operation Vigilant Sentry") for a mass migration from the
Caribbean that had been laid out in 2003.[138]
Several orphanages were destroyed in the earthquake. After
the process for the adoption of 400 children by families in the U.S. and the
Netherlands was expedited,[139] Unicef and SOS Children urged an immediate halt to adoptions from Haiti.[140][141] Jasmine Whitbread, chief executive of Save the Children said: "The vast majority of the children currently on
their own still have family members alive who will be desperate to be reunited
with them and will be able to care for them with the right support. Taking
children out of the country would permanently separate thousands of children
from their families—a separation that would compound the acute trauma they are
already suffering and inflict long-term damage on their chances of
recovery."[140] However, several organisations were planning an airlift of
thousands of orphaned children to South Florida on humanitarian visas, modelled
on a similar effort with Cuban refugees in the 1960s named "Pedro Pan".[142] The Canadian government worked to expedite around 100
adoption cases that were already underway when the earthquake struck, issuing
temporary permits and waving regular processing fees; the federal government
also announced that it would cover adopted children's healthcare costs upon their
arrival in Canada until they could be covered under provincially-administered
public healthcare plans.[143]
Rescue and relief efforts
Helicopters transfer injured
earthquake victims to hospital ship USNS Comfort off the coast of Haiti
Rescue efforts began in the immediate aftermath of the
earthquake, with able-bodied survivors extricating the living and the dead from
the rubble of the many buildings which had collapsed.[144] Treatment of the injured was hampered by the lack of
hospital and morgue facilities: the Argentine military field hospital, which had been serving MINUSTAH, was the only one
available until 13 January.[145] Rescue work intensified only slightly with the arrival of
doctors, police officers, military personnel and firefighters from various
countries two days after the earthquake.[146]
MINUSTAH troops meet a relief flight
on 16 January
From 12 January, the International
Committee of the Red Cross, which
has been working in Haiti since 1994, has been focusing on bringing emergency
assistance to victims of the catastrophe, in close cooperation with its
partners within the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement,
particularly the Haitian Red Cross and the International Federation of Red
Cross and Red Crescent Societies.[147][148]
Médecins Sans
Frontières (Doctors Without Borders; MSF)
reported that the hospitals that had not been destroyed were overwhelmed by
large numbers of seriously injured people, and that they had to carry out many
amputations.[149][150] Running short of medical supplies, some teams had to work
with any available resources, constructing splints out of cardboard and reusing
latex gloves. Other rescue units had to withdraw as night fell amid security
fears.[151] Over 3,000 people had been treated by Médecins Sans
Frontières as of 18 January.[152] Ophelia Dahl, director of Partners in Health,
reported, "there are hundreds of thousands of injured people. I have heard
the estimate that as many as 20,000 people will die each day that would have
been saved by surgery."[153]
UN forces took to patrolling the
streets of Port-au-Prince
An MSF aircraft carrying a field hospital was repeatedly
turned away[154][155] by U.S. air traffic controllers who had assumed control at
Toussaint L'Ouverture International Airport.[156] Four other MSF aircraft were also turned away.[156] In a 19 January press release MSF said, "It is
like working in a war situation. We don’t have any more morphine to manage pain
for our patients. We cannot accept that planes carrying lifesaving medical
supplies and equipment continue to be turned away while our patients die.
Priority must be given to medical supplies entering the country."[157] First responders voiced frustration with the number of
relief trucks sitting unused at the airport.[158] Aid workers blamed U.S.-controlled airport operations for
prioritising the transportation of security troops over rescuers and supplies;[98]
evacuation policies favouring citizens of certain nations were also criticised.[159]
The U.S. military acknowledged the non-governmental
organisations' complaints concerning flight-operations bias and promised
improvement while noting that up to 17 January 600 emergency flights had
landed and 50 were diverted; by the first weekend of disaster operations
diversions had been reduced to three on Saturday and two on Sunday.[160] The airport was able to support 100 landings a day, up from
the 35 a day that the airport gets during normal operation. A spokesman for the
joint task force running the airport confirmed that though more flights were
requesting landing slots, none were being turned away.[161]
Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim
and French Minister of State for Cooperation Alain Joyandet criticised the perceived preferential treatment for U.S.
aid arriving at the airport, though a spokesman for the French Ministry of
Foreign Affairs said that there had been no official protest from the French
government with regard to the management of the airport.[162][163] U.S. officials acknowledged that coordination of the relief
effort is central to Haitian recovery,[164] and President Préval asked for calm coordination between
assisting nations without mutual accusations.[165][166]
.jpg)
While international efforts received
significant media coverage, much of the rescue effort was conducted by Haitians
themselves
While the Port-au-Prince airport ramp has spaces for over a
dozen airliners, in the days following the quake it sometimes served nearly 40
at once, creating serious delays.[167][168] The supply backup at the airport was expected to ease as
the apron management improved, and when the perceived need for heavy security
diminished.[98] Airport congestion was reduced further on 18 January
when the United Nations and U.S. forces formally agreed to prioritise
humanitarian flights over security reinforcement.[169]
By 14 January, over 20 countries had sent military personnel
to the country, with Canada, the United States and the Dominican Republic
providing the largest contingents. The supercarrier
USS Carl Vinson arrived at maximum possible
speed on 15 January with 600,000
emergency food rations, 100,000 ten-litre water containers, and an enhanced
wing of 19 helicopters; 130,000 litres of drinking water were transferred to shore on the first day.[170]
The helicopter carrier USS Bataan sailed with three large dock landing ships and two survey/salvage vessels, to create a "sea
base" for the rescue effort.[171][172][173] They were joined by the French Navy
vessel Francis Garnier on 16 January,[174] the same day the hospital ship USNS Comfort and guided-missile cruiser USS Bunker Hill left for Haiti.[175][176] Another large French vessel was later ordered to Haiti, the
amphibious transport
dock Siroco.[177]
A woman is rescued alive from rubble
several days after the initial quake
International rescue efforts were restricted by traffic
congestion and blocked roads.[178] Although U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates had
previously ruled out dropping food and water by air as too dangerous, by
16 January, U.S. helicopters were distributing aid to areas impossible to
reach by land.[179]
In Jacmel, a city of 50,000, the mayor claimed that 70% of
the homes had been damaged and that the quake had killed 300 to 500 people and
left some 4,000 injured.[180] The small airstrip suffered damage which rendered it
unusable for supply flights until 20 January.[181] The Canadian navy vessel HMCS Halifax was deployed to the area on 18 January; the Canadians
joined Colombian rescue workers, Chilean doctors, a French mobile clinic, and
Sri Lankan relief workers who had already responded to calls for aid.[182]
About 64,000 people living in the three adjacent
agricultural communities of Durissy, Morne a Chandelle,
and Les Palmes were relatively unharmed because most of the people were
working in the fields; but all churches, chapels and at least 8,000 homes were
destroyed.[183]
British search and rescue teams were the first to arrive in
Léogane, the town at the epicentre of the quake, on 17 January.[184] The Canadian ship HMCS Athabaskan reached the area on 19 January,[185]
and by 20 January there were 250-300 Canadian personnel assisting relief
efforts in the town.[186] By 19 January, staff of the International Red Cross
had also managed to reach the town which they described as "severely
damaged ... the people there urgently need assistance",[187] and by 20 January they had reached Petit-Goâve as well, where they set up two first-aid posts and
distributed first-aid kits.[188]
A Haitian child is treated aboard a
hospital ship
Over the first weekend 130,000 food packets and 70,000 water
containers were distributed to Haitians, as safe landing areas and distribution
centres such as golf courses were secured.[189] There were nearly 2,000 rescuers present from 43
different groups, with 161 search dogs;
the airport had handled 250 tons of relief supplies by the end of the
weekend.[190] Reports from Sunday showed a record-breaking number of
successful rescues, with at least 12 survivors pulled from Port-au-Prince's
rubble, bringing the total number of rescues to 110.[191][192]
The buoy tender USCG Oak
and USNS Grasp (T-ARS-51) were on scene by 18 January to assess damage to the
port and work to reopen it,[193][194] and by 21 January one pier at the Port-au-Prince
seaport was functional, offloading humanitarian aid, and a road had been
repaired to make transport into the city easier.[195] In an interview on 21 January, Leo Merores,
Haiti’s ambassador to the UN, said that he expected the port to be fully
functional again within two weeks.[196]
The U.S. Navy listed its resources in the area as "17 ships, 48 helicopters and 12
fixed-wing aircraft" in addition to 10,000 sailors and Marines.[197] The Navy had conducted 336 air deliveries, delivered
32,400 US gallons (123,000 l; 27,000 imp gal) of water, 532,440
bottles of water, 111,082 meals and 9,000 lb (4,100 kg) of medical
supplies by 20 January. Hospital ship Comfort began operations on
20 January, completing the arrival of the first group of sea-base vessels;
this came as a new flotilla of USN ships were assigned to Haiti, including
survey vessels, ferries, elements of the maritime prepositioning and underway
replenishment fleets, and a further three
amphibious operations ships, including another helicopter carrier, USS Nassau (LHA-4).[198]
Landing ships move supplies onshore from
the rescue fleet
On 22 January the UN and United States formalised the
coordination of relief efforts by signing an agreement giving the U.S.
responsibility for the ports, airports and roads, and making the UN and Haitian
authorities responsible for law and order. The UN stated that it had resisted
formalising the organisation of the relief effort to allow as much leeway as
possible for those wishing to assist in the relief effort, but with the new
agreement "we’re leaving that emergency phase behind". The UN also
urged organisations to coordinate aid efforts through its mission in Haiti to
allow for better scheduling of the arrival of supplies.[196] On 23 January the Haitian government officially called
off the search for survivors, and most search and rescue teams began to prepare
to leave the country.[199] However, as late as 8 February 2010, survivors were
still being discovered, as in the case of Evan Muncie, 28, found in the rubble
of a grocery store.[200]
On 5 February, ten Baptist missionaries from Idaho
led by Laura Silsby were charged with criminal association and kidnapping
for trying to smuggle 33 children out of Haiti. The missionaries claimed they
were rescuing orphaned children but investigations revealed that more than 20
of the children had been taken from their parents after they were told the
children would have a better life in America. In an interview, the United States
Ambassador to Haiti Kenneth Merten, stated that the
U.S. justice system would not interfere and that "the Haitian justice
system will do what it has to do."[201] By 9 March 2010, all but Silsby were deported and she
remained incarcerated.[202]
Social networking is being (was) used to help the structure
for coordination on the ground.[203][204][205][206]
On 10 April, due to the potential threat of mudslides and
flooding from the upcoming rainy season, the Haitian government began operations to move thousands
of refugees to a more secure location north of the capital.[207]
Recovery
Haitians await the opening of a
supply depot, 16 January
U.S. President Barack Obama
announced that former presidents Bill Clinton,
who also acts as the UN special envoy to Haiti, and George W. Bush would coordinate efforts to raise funds for Haiti's
recovery. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Haiti on 16 January to survey the damage and stated
that US$48 million had been raised already in the U.S. to help Haiti
recover.[208] Following the meeting with Secretary Clinton, President
Préval stated that the highest priorities in Haiti's recovery were establishing
a working government, clearing roads, and ensuring the streets were cleared of
bodies to improve sanitary conditions.[209]
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden
stated on 16 January that President Obama "does not view this as a
humanitarian mission with a life cycle of a month. This will still be on our radar
screen long after it's off the crawler at CNN. This is going to be a long
slog."[210]
Planes loaded with aid supplies
crowd the tarmac at Port-au-Prince airport, waiting to be unloaded, 18 January
Trade and Industry Minister Josseline Colimon
Fethiere estimated that the earthquake's
toll on the Haitian economy would be massive, with one in five jobs lost.[211] In response to the earthquake, foreign governments offered
badly needed financial aid. The European Union promised €330 million
(US$474 million) for emergency and long-term aid. Brazil announced
R$375 million (US$210 million) for long-term recovery aid,
US$15 million of which in immediate funds.[212] The United Kingdom's Secretary of State for International
Development Douglas Alexander called the result of the earthquake an "almost
unprecedented level of devastation", and committed the UK to
₤20 million (US$32.7 million) in aid, while France promised
€10 million (US$14.4 million). Italy announced it would waive
repayment of the €40 million (US$55.7 million) it had loaned to
Haiti,[152]
and the World Bank waived the country's debt repayments for five years.[213] On 14 January, the U.S. government announced it would give
US$100 million to the aid effort and pledged that the people of Haiti
"will not be forgotten".[214]
The UN Development Programme employed hundreds of Haitians to clear roads and to make
fuel pellets in a cash-for-work scheme
In the aftermath of the earthquake, the government of Canada announced that it would match the donations of Canadians up
to a total of CAD$50 million.[215] After a United Nations call for help for the people
affected by the earthquake, Canada pledged an additional CAD$60 million
(US$58 million) in aid on 19 January 2010, bringing Canada's total
contribution to CAD$135 million (US$131.5 million).[216] By 8 February 2010, the federal International Co-operation
Department, through the Canadian
International Development Agency
(CIDA), had already provided about CAD$85 million in humanitarian aid through
UN agencies, the International Federation
of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
and to organizations such as CARE, Médecins du Monde, Save the Children, Oxfam Quebec, the Centre for International Studies and
Co-operation, and World Vision.[217] On 23 January 2010, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced that the federal government had lifted the limit
on the amount of money allocated for matching individual donations to relief
efforts,[218] and that the federal government would continue to match
individual donations until 12 February 2010; by the deadline, Canadians had
privately raised $220 million.[219] On top of matching donations, International Co-operation
Minister Bev Oda pledged an additional CAD$290 million in long-term relief
to be spent between 2010 and 2012, including CAD$8 million in debt relief to
Haiti, part of a broader cancellation of the country's overall World Bank debt.[219] The government's commitment to provide CAD$550 million in
aid and debt relief and Canadians' individual donations amount to a total of
CAD$770 million.[220]
In addition to Canada's federal government, the governments
of several of the provinces and
territories of Canada also
announced that they would provide immediate emergency aid to Haiti.[221][222][223][222] On 18 January 2010, the province of Quebec, whose largest city - Montreal
- houses the world's largest Haitian diaspora, pledged $3 million in emergency
aid.[224] Both the provincial government of Quebec and the Canadian
federal government reaffirmed their commitment to rebuilding Haiti at the 2010 Francophonie Summit; Prime Minister Harper used his opening speech to
"tell the head of the Haitian delegation to keep up their spirits"
and to urge other nations to continue to support recovery efforts.[225]
President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal
offered interested Haitians free land in Senegal; depending on how many respond
to the offer, this could include up to an entire region.[226]
Prime Minister Bellerive announced that from 20 January,
people would be helped to relocate outside the zone of devastation, to areas
where they may be able to rely on relatives or better fend for themselves;
people who have been made homeless would be relocated to the makeshift camps
created by residents within the city, where a more focused delivery of aid and
sanitation could be achieved.[152] Port-au-Prince, according to an international studies
professor at the University of Miami, was ill-equipped before the disaster to sustain the number
of people who had migrated there from the countryside over the past ten years
to find work.[227] After the earthquake, thousands of Port-au-Prince residents
began returning to the rural towns from which they had come.[228]
On 25 January a one-day conference was held in Montreal to assess the relief effort and discuss further plans.
Prime Minister Bellerive told delegates from 20 countries that Haiti would need
"massive support" for its recovery from the international community.
A donors' conference was expected to be held at the UN headquarters in New York in March,[213]
however, took more than three months to hold the UN conference. The 26-member
international Interim Haiti Reconstruction Commission, headed by Bill Clinton
and Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive, convened in June 2010.[229] That committee is overseeing the $5.3 billion pledged
internationally for the first two years of Haiti's reconstruction.[230]
The Netherlands sponsored a project, called Radio555. The
Dutch radio channels 3FM,
Radio 538 and Radio Veronica all broadcast under the name of Radio555, funded by a
contribution of €80 million (US$104.4 million).[231] [232]
Immediately following the earthquake, Real Medicine
Foundation began providing medical staffing,
in-kind medical supplies and strategic coordination to help meet the surging needs
of the health crisis on the ground. Working in close partnership with other
relief organizations, Real Medicine: Organized deployments of volunteer medical
specialists to meet the needs of partner hospitals and clinics at the
Haiti/Dominican Republic border and in Port-au-Prince, Provided direct funding,
medical supplies and pharmaceuticals to local health facilities and partner
hospitals, Provided advisory services and coordination to local health
facilities, including physical therapy support, Coordinated mobile health
outreaches, field clinics and food supplies to outlying villages overlooked in
the relief effort.[233]
On 15 January 2011, the Catholic Relief
Services announced a US$200 million,
five-year relief and reconstruction program that covers shelter, health,
livelihoods, and child protection among its program areas.[234]
Post a Comment