Random News Briefs on 2010 Haiti Earthquake

Our PLANET EARTH is a restless, violent place. Since time immemorial we have been plagued by great natural disasters - earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods, megastorms - that strike without warning and leave havoc and destruction in their wake.

We know far more today about how our planet works than our ancestors did, and yet we are nearly as powerless as they are against the forces of nature. Although we have made great strides in recent decades in tracking world weather, monitoring seismic rumblings deep underground and otherwise keeping our fingers on the earth's pulse, predicting disasters is still an infant science. (Reader's Digest, GREAT DISASTERS, 1989 ed).

There's too much to note about the earthquake that recently devastated Haiti, to just ignore it so swiftly. The following news tidbits are "raw". I have collected here the hot news from the day the incident happened to the present. This way, I can accommodate and present a wider range of information. Tomorrow, every bit of this information will be in the archive to join the GREAT DISASTERS in history.

Haiti

• Language - French, Haitian Creole
• Official Currency - Gourde
• Religion - Catholic 80%
• "Ayiti" - means "land of high mountains"
• Population - 10,033,000 Haitians (2009 estimate)
• Location - approximately 750 miles Southeast of Florida, just to the east of Cuba, occupies the Western third of Hispaniola shared with the Dominican Republic
• Climate - tropical climate with average temperature ranging from 80 degrees in January to 86 degrees in July, has 2 seasons from August to June and between October and November.
• poorest country in the Americas, ranked 149th of 182 countries (Human Development index report)
• wrecked by hurricanes - Tropical Storm Fay and Hurricane Gustavo (2008), brought widespread damage and flooding ( From wikipedia.org )

2010 HAITI EARTHQUAKE

• a catastrophic magnitude 7.0 earthquake
• struck at 16.53 local time (21.53GMT) in January 12, 2010, Tuesday
• happened about 25 km ( 16 mi ) from Port-au-Prince. capital of Haiti
• 13 km deep (16 mi ) - shallow, struck on land
• 14 reported aftershocks between 5.0 - 5.9 magnitude ( United Nations Geographical survey )
• estimate of 3 million people affected, about 45,000 - 50,000 people killed (BBC news)

EARTHQUAKE DETAILS

• occurred on land, January 12, 2010
• approximately 25 km ( 16 mi ) WSM from Port-au-Prince, the capital
• on the Enriquillo Plantain Garden fault system ( locked solid for 250 years and gathering stress )
• strong shaking with intensity from VII - IX
• felt in several surrounding countries - Cuba, Jamaica, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic
• 6 aftershocks in 2 hours ranging from 4.5 - 5.9 magnitude
• 26 aftershocks within the first 9 hours
• based on the strength and location, 3 million people were affected

MATERIAL DAMAGES ( Buildings )

• Finance Building
• Ministry of Public Works
• Ministry of Communication and Culture
• Palaces of Justice
• Superior Normal School
• United School of administration
• Institut Aime Cesaire
• National Police
• Toussaint L'Overture International airport
• United Nations Stabilization Mission ( MINUSTAH )
• a hospital in Petionville
• main prison in Port-au-Prince

LIVING CONDITIONS in the AFTERMATH

• estimated number of dead - from 30,000 to 100,000
• vast majority of casualties were Haitians, a large number of foreigners were injured or killed
• DEAD - poor residents, government officials, civilians, Monsignor Joseph Serge Miot (Archbishop of Port-au-Prince), Hedi Amnabi (Head of UN Mission), Zilda Ams (a Brazilian pediatrician and humanitarian Nobel Prize Nominee), nearly 2 dozen MINUSTAH UN personnel, foreign civilians from Argentina, Brazil, Anada, Dominican Republic, France, Mexico, New Zealand, Taiwan
• the homeless line the streets, along with the dead, the injured and the dying, food and water supply felt wanting, basic provisions are unorganized, fear for outbreak of people discontent due to lack of coordination.
  

COUNTRIES that launched MASSIVE FUND-RAISING efforts

• Argentina
• Bangladesh
• Brazil
• Canada
• Columbia
• Cuba
• Ecuador
• Israel
• Norway
• Peru
• PHILIPPINES
• Qatar

RESCUE ACTION

• January 12- people dug through the rubble, rescued survivors, recovered dead bodies, laid them in the streets, some in piles - using flashlights
• January 13 - rescuers searched collapsed buildings, wounded victims taken to the military field hospital in ambulances, police pick up trucks, wheel barrows, stretchers fashioned from doors, rescuers from Cuba, Peru, arrived
• January 14 - medical aid was a military style operation joined in by at least 20 countries including, Belgium, Canada, Mexico, Ireland, the Netherlands, Israel, United States of America, United Kingdom, Japan, China, Portugal, Russia, Armenia, Spain, Peru, Chile, and Ecuador. Dominican republic President Leonel Fernandez visited and coordinated with Haiti president Rene Preval. Social networking on twitter and facebook spread messages and pleas for immediate assistance to the Haitians.More than 7,000 corpses were cleared off the streets, buried in mass graves, thousands more along the streets and morgues awaiting burial. Medical assistance to the injured, Food and water needs assessed and disposed. US president Barack Obama pledged $100 million in aid.International Red Cross appealed for donations.
• January 15 - deployment of US Airborn Division, US Navy deployed Comfort (a hospital ship) and Bataan ( an amphibious helicopter carrier).

May this simple presentation of what happened in Haiti serve its purpose - to awaken the people with good hearts to do something for the Haitians who are in much need of care, love, cash, materials, and all kinds of support. What is needed for this moment is support to encourage them to live despite their tragic experience. We are all brothers. Love crosses borders. Let us help and pray for our fallen brothers.

You may also want to read about other global scale disasters:

• The 1755 Lisbon Earthquake - On All Saint's Day, November 1, 1755 Portugal's metropolis was leveled by quakes, floods, and fire. The dead, the dying, and the injured choked the streets of Lisbon
• The New Madrid Quakes - New Madrid's disappearance was caused by what has been called the greatest sequence of earthquakes ever to have occurred in the recorded history of eastern North America.The final devastating blow was delivered on February 7, 1812.
• The San Francisco Earthquake -On the morning of April 18, 1906, the accumulated stresses and strains of the San Andreas Fault broke loose with a fury that surpassed the combined energy of all the explosives used in World War II.
• The Good Friday Earthquake - Late in the afternoon of Good Friday on March 27, 1964, a massive earthquake originating at the northern end of Prince William Sound, 80 miles east of Anchorage, roared through Alaska's south-central coast breaking almost every existing record for seismic fury.