Haiti Earthquake
About 2 years ago, in one of the deadliest natural disasters on record, a Haiti earthquake wrecked most of the country’s fragile infrastructure and left many people in desperate need of help. The country lacked basic building rules, let alone seismic fortification, so many buildings collapsed with ease.
The epicenter was near the town of Léogâne, Ouest department, approximately 25 kilometers west of Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital. Tragically, the time the earthquake hit was rush hour, just before 5 pm, as the light began to fade for the time of year.
This Haiti earthquake is estimated to have affected 3 million people, or roughly one-third of the country’s population. One million people were left homeless. To make matters worse, getting help into the nation and distributing it was challenging. In fact, much of the aid was mismanaged, and regular Haitians bore the brunt of the consequences.
Much of the carnage occurred in Port-au-Prince, which was still recuperating from tropical storms and hurricanes that had wreaked havoc on the country less than two years before.
Floods in Haiti
With 1,771 km (1100 miles) of coastline in the heart of the hurricane belt, Haiti is vulnerable to catastrophic storms throughout the typical hurricane season, from June 1 to November 30.
Haiti’s urban regions have become some of the country’s most susceptible locations due to a lack of solid infrastructure and urban planning and a lack of adequate building procedures. Similarly, highly populated communities along the shore at low-lying levels are already vulnerable to natural dangers from the sea and landslides and flash floods caused by mountain runoff.
Already fragile and less sophisticated than desired, Haitian hospitals will be further overwhelmed in emergencies.
Hurricanes, flooding, landslides, droughts, and earthquakes affect substantial sectors of the population every year. Wind damage, inland floods, and coastal surge are all major concerns due to hurricanes and tropical storms.
In 2004, excessive rains resulted in two devastating floods, killing over 2,700 people, affecting over 300,000 people, and destroying or severely damaging multiple hospitals and health centers.
Haiti Children Project.
Haiti’s susceptibility can be significantly decreased by upgrading urban infrastructure, enhancing healthcare education, and overcoming socio-economic challenges.
Haiti Children Project devotes its resources to educate the youth to help the country become self-sufficient over time while enhancing their ability to prepare for inevitable natural disasters.
Investing in people and not projects paves the way for a brighter future, led by those who have benefited from the project during their youth. It’s a sure-fire way of ensuring deadly disasters such as hurricanes, floods, or the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, never decimate the country as much as it did then, ever again.
