Earthquake+in+Haiti

Earthquake in Haiti

The January 12, 2010 earthquake devastated a country which was already the poorest in Latin America. More than 200,000 died and more than 300,000 were injured. The city of Port-au-Prince, with buildings made mostly of cement blocks, was severely damaged, and more than a million people are still living in tent cities in vacant lots and parks throughout the city.The people have shown remarkable patience, but there are few jobs and few social services, and there is health and security danger. For example, cholera in Haiti is spreading. 5,000 people have died from cholera and 250,000 cases have been reported. After the earthquake in Haiti there was a global outpouring of support, but most of it went into emergency disaster relief. Reconstruction has barely begun. It will take a long time to rebuild the country of Haiti.





A view of a damaged neighborhood in the Canape-Vert area on January 13, 2010, after the earthquake in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.



It is one of the poorest countries in the Western hemisphere, around 80 percent of the population lives under the poverty line and 54 percent lives in abject poverty, according to the CIA World Factbook. This earthquake made the Haitians standard of living even harder because now many more people don't have a home and are missing their family members. More than two-thirds of the labor force are believed to not have formal jobs, and just 62.1 percent of adults over age 15 are literate, according to the United Nations Human Development Report. Haiti also has among the world’s lowest levels of gross domestic product per capita.



Many people were affected by this terrible earthquake. Over 200,000 lost their lives. People were missing for days after the quake. They were found under houses, cement, buildings, debris ect. The United States has done a lot to help the people of Haiti such as; doing fundraisers, mission work, and donating a lot of time and money.

Sources:

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/01/earthquake_in_haiti.html

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/haiti/index.html

http://articles.cnn.com/2010-01-12/world/haiti.earthquake_1_earthquake-haiti-2010-peacekeeping-mission-president-rene-preval-haiti?_s=PM:WORLD

http://www.state.gov/p/wha/ci/ha/earthquake/index.htm media type="youtube" key="6XnUWsu1ZO8" height="315" width="420"