Destruction in Haiti

It is near 5 PM in the capital city of Port-Au-Prince, Haiti.  The streets are crowed with people tired from a long day.  The last thing they need is a disaster and unfortunately, a disaster did occur: a powerful 7.0 magnitude earthquake.

            This earthquake hit 15 miles out of Haiti’s capital and unleashed disaster in its wake; it was the worst earthquake in over 200 years.  The tremors lasted throughout Tuesday night and into Wednesday.

Haiti’s president, René Préval, told The Miami Herald, “Parliament has collapsed. The tax office has collapsed. Schools have collapsed. Hospitals have collapsed.” 

As Mr. Préval stated, the earthquake plunged the country of Haiti into a state of misfortune.  The government’s infrastructure was fragile already and many important cultural symbols were destroyed, including the National Palace and the main cathedral.  This earthquake was definitely not the first blow to the island.

In 1942, when Christopher Columbus first discovered the island, it became a Spanish colony where disease and harsh working conditions devastating the native population.   When Haiti is handed off to France in 1697, the island’s forests are torn down as slaves clear them for sugar fields.  The nation of Haiti is born in 1807 after 13 years of revolution; former slave Jean-Jacques Dessalines takes the title of Emperor but is assassinated two years later by rebels and a civil war breaks out.

In 1915, President Woodrow Wilson orders the U.S. Marines to occupy Haiti, citing the Monroe Doctrine.  The United States did not help out well, standing with the biracial elite over the black Haitians, and they withdrew in 1934.

By 1957, voodoo doctor Francois Duvalier is elected President and turns the country into a police state.  Duvalier’s son declared himself President for life in 1971.  Jean-Bertrand Aristide wins the country’s first free elections in 1990, but is disposed of in less than eight months.  This causes tens of thousands of Haitians to flee for Florida via small boats. 

Bill Clinton sent in 20,000 U.S. troops in 1994 after the militaristic government agrees to give up power, followed by an outbreak of HIV and entrenched poverty.  In 2001, Aristide returns to power but is forced into exile in 2004. 

Many natural disasters hit Haiti one after another, especially hurricanes in 2005 and 2008.  This earthquake that occurred in January of 2010 certainly is not the first disaster to hit the island nation of Haiti.

The impact of earthquakes in the Caribbean has been quite extreme, due to the fact that most of the islands rest on the Caribbean and North American plates.  One earthquake in 1692 caused Port Royal, Jamaica, to disappear underneath the Caribbean Sea.  It is still there today.  Not only was this earthquake very powerful but it was also very shallow.  Combine that with the soft ground and the muddy hills around Haiti’s capital made the impact of the whole event even worse. 

The worst part of it all was that it “struck at a rare moment of optimism,” writes Time Magazine reporter, Michael Elliott.  “After decades of natural and political catastrophes, the U.N. peacekeeping force an international investment campaign headed by former President Bill Clinton, the U.N.’s special envoy to Haiti, had recently begun to calm and rebuild the nation.”

The Haitian Red Cross has estimated the death toll to be between 45,000 and 50,000.  As with all earthquakes, the toll is merely an estimate.  Many bodies are trapped inside school building and others that collapsed due to the tremors.  Nearly 3 million people have been affected. 

Fifty percent of Haiti’s population is children.  Dr. Irwin Redlener, a professor of pediatrics at Columbia University’s medical school, director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness, and the president of the Children’s Health Fund, states, “Kids are much more fragile—a 30 pound block of a wall that would only seriously injure an adult will kill a child.  They die much more rapidly of dehydration, of loss of blood, of shock.  An infection will cause explosive diarrhea, which can kill a trapped child.  Everything about this is devastatingly worse for kids than for adults.” 

Many countries throughout the world are pulling together to send any relief to this island nation.  The United States alone is donating $100 million for rescue efforts, with President Barack Obama stating that financial assistance will increase throughout the coming year.  He says this to this to the people of Haiti in an address on January 14: “You will not be forsaken, you will not be forgotten. In this, your hour of greatest need, America stands with you.” 

Germany is sending $2.2 million for emergency assistance and China is sending 60 rescuers and sniffer dogs along with $1 million in aid.  The European Union pledged $4.4 million and various groups such as Doctors Without Borders have set up clinics and open-air triage centers to treat the injured. 

Relief is making its way to Haiti.  Although large shipments can be sent, they cannot be received as of yet due to heavy damage to the sea port in Port-Au-Prince.  Much relief cannot make it into the interior due to no railroad network.  It can be transported via trucks but it is a long and difficult journey due to debris.  The biggest challenge of it all is getting the relief effort coordinated in an orderly fashion—getting things unloaded and giving it to the people who need it.  The United Nations World Food Program plans to distribute200 tons of food to 95,000 people at eight location on January 18.

Day by day, more relief makes its way to Haiti.  For those of us who are unable to make the trip to Haiti to help out can do so here at home.  There are many legitimate websites that are raising money as well as other efforts:

American Red Cross— redcross.org

AmeriCares Foundation— americares.org 

Catholic Relief Services— crs.org

CARE— care.org

Doctors Without Borders— doctorswithoutborders.org

UNICEF— unicefusa.org 

There are many other organizations out there as well who are donating money to Haiti.

            For those of you who have an account on Facebook, there is a group called “Operation Help Haiti – Division: PHS.”  There you can also access information on how to help out here at Park, as well as other updates.  During Snow Week in February, all proceed from the Valentine Match results will be sent to Haiti. 

            If you do not have any money to donate, please keep the people of Haiti in your prayers. 

 

ALL INFORMATION WAS COMPLIED FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES AND TIME MAGAZINE.  PHOTOS ARE COURTESY OF THE NEW YORK TIMES.