2010 Haiti Earthquake - Personal Statement Example

Haiti Earthquake Haiti experienced one of the most devastating earthquakes. The epicenter of the quake was located at Leogane town, 25 kilometers West of Port-au-Prince. Port-au-Prince is the capital of Haiti, and it hosts many residents, official government buildings and business premises that perished in the quake (Morales 34). This quake was followed by more than fifty aftershocks, and the effects of the quake affected more than three million Haitians. The Government of Haiti gave an official report of the death toll estimated to be 316,000 people.

Further, government reports proved that more than three hundred thousand people had sustained serious injuries and more than one million people left homeless. The Haitian capital city (Port-au-Prince) was the worst hit by the quake together with the neighboring cities. The initial and early works of relief were confused and thrown in mayhem by congestion of air traffic and difficulties in deciding the person in charge of the entire operations of rescue and recovery. Another issue included coming into terms with the order of priority as far as flights were concerned (Morales 34).

The number of bodies recovered from the remains of buildings was overwhelming, and the morgues could not handle such prodigious numbers of bodies; thus, the bodies had to be disposed off through cremation and burial in mass graves (Farmer 77). The rescue efforts tailed behind, and the death tolls rose to unbelievable figures. The services given the highest priority included the supplies, sanitation and medical care. The Haitian government realized that she was exhausting her resources in the search for people who might have survived the quake (Zack 64).

Therefore, she announced that she would cease the rescue activities in order to shift focus on rebuilding and taking care of the injured and the homeless. Many nations retorted to pleas for humanitarian aid, and they dispatched rescue teams to Haiti. Other countries pledged to give the Haitian government funds for running the recovery activities and facilitate the search for people who survived the quake. Medical teams, support personnel and engineers, were among the professional sent to Haiti by their respective nations to give the required help.

The aid and rescue efforts were hampered by the quake destruction aftermath, which destroyed the systems of communication, sea, air and land transport facilities, electrical networks and hospitals (Zack 67). Haiti shares the Caribbean Plate to the north on a slip boundary plate, which is connected to the North American Plate. This plate of North America moved West against the Caribbean Plate, which moves in the opposite direction. These rough movements cause intense friction as the plates grind against each other.

There builds intense pressure from the grinding; the moment this pressure finds an escape route, it comes out as a quake. The Haiti earthquake Epicenter was a few kilometers from Porto-au-Prince. A slip occurred in a fault that already existed in this region, and the name of this fault is Enriquillo-plaintain Garden Fault (Morales 37). This can be regarded as the chief cause of the devastating quake that threw Haiti out of balance. There was a Herculean drawback on the designs of building Haiti; the buildings could not withstand a natural disaster.

Further, Haiti is a nation whose economy is vulnerable in case of disasters. There exist no sufficient facilities that can help Haiti overcome the overwhelming situations, which follow disasters. As mentioned earlier in this text, the immediate concerns in Haiti included food, water, medical care and sanitary facilities. Further, the transport and communication system were necessary to facilitate the movement of rescuers and suppliers to the affected area and extraction of wounded people from the rubble to safety.

People who survived the quake needed housing and clothing, among other life supporting supplies (Zack 67). The area struck by the quake, including the Haitian capital, has undergone key transformation. The Haitian government had to level damaged building so as to give room for new constructions. Currently, people follow building standards; the buildings that being constructed can withstand future quakes. The socio-economic demographics of Haiti were seriously affected by the quake as businesses, and residential buildings were destroyed, as well as the property in these buildings.

Thousands of people, businessmen, parents and traders perished in the quake and this became a massive blow to the feeble economy of Haiti. There was substantive media coverage of the events that followed the Haiti quake (Farmer 75). Local media houses not affected by the destructive force of the quake broadcasted the entire rescue operations and relief distribution in the entire rescue period. The international media like the CNN gave full coverage of the Haiti quake aftermath, especially the rescue efforts from the international agencies (Farmer 77).

The international media exaggerated the violence that emerged from survivors due to delayed supplies. Further, the media did not cover the rescue efforts of Haiti people who rescued their fellow countrymen. Works Cited Farmer, Paul. Haiti after the Earthquake. New York: PublicAffairs, 2011. Print. Morales, Maureen. Haiti Earthquake: Crisis and Response. London: DIANE Publishing, 2011. Print. Zack, Naomi. Ethics for Disaster. New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2010. Print.