Haiti’s long and terrible history with earthquakes and disasters

The 7.2 magnitude earthquake that hit Haiti on Saturday morning just the latest in a long line of spectacularly tragic disasters – natural and man-made – that have devastated this Caribbean nation since its inception.

Poverty. Hurricanes Outbreaks. Coups d’etat. Corruption. Murders Gang violence. Political paralysis.

Even before Saturday’s earthquake, Haiti was already reeling from a series of crises following the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse last month. Today, many parts of the country grapple with gangs and hunger, while their hospitals are overwhelmed by the pandemic.

“This country never finds respite,” lamented Haitian businessman Marc Alain Boucicault on Twitter. “Each year of mismanagement has done no harm, but the cumulative effects have made us vulnerable to everything! It’s going to take years to fix things and we haven’t even started ”.

Haiti is still recovering from the magnitude 7 earthquake of 2010 that destroyed much of the capital, Port-au-Prince, possibly the country’s worst disaster to date. Estimates of the death toll in 2010 range from 100,000 to over 300,000. The 2010 event razed buildings and left hundreds of thousands homeless in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

In the aftermath of the 2010 disaster, some hoped that an injection of foreign aid and the opportunity to rebuild Haiti would give the country a new start. But after the earthquake, the crisis in Haiti only got worse and, in many ways, the country found itself worse than ever.

While the extent of death and destruction caused by Saturday’s earthquake is still unclear, the dire years following the 2010 disaster carry serious warnings about Haiti’s possible future after its last quake. earthen.

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Hopes were high after the 2010 earthquake. An estimated $ 13.3 billion was raised in donations and pledged humanitarian aid. Foreign governments and international aid groups have rushed to help. Many have talked about fixing the country’s old infrastructure problems.

But that was followed by more deaths, fueled by a cholera outbreak. The infection, which has killed at least 9,000 people, was probably caused by infected UN peacekeepers, the very people who were supposed to help stabilize the country. The United Nations took years to admit its role, and even then it refused to accept legal and financial responsibility, citing treaties and diplomatic immunity.

As for the colossal sums collected to help the country, some have been lost due to corruption and embezzlement. Several of Haiti’s top leaders are suspected of abusing the money. An international commission backed by the United States and headed in part by former President Bill Clinton was to lead much of the reconstruction, coordinating the efforts of foreign governments, aid groups and businesses. But his term expired after 18 months. And many Haitians complained that Clinton and the commission over-promised and broke their promises.

A 2012 report by the humanitarian group Oxfam concluded that reconstruction, two years later, was proceeding at a “snail’s step”, with half a million Haitians homeless and still living in tarpaulins and tents.

In an interview with the Miami Herald in 2020, Clinton lamented the challenges and failures of him and others to significantly help the nation.

“It was a big, cumbersome process, but it was completely transparent and we kept track of who was funding what, who was getting the money, and we did a post-audit of each of them,” Clinton said. .

Part of the problem, according to the Miami Herald report, was the inability to hold donors accountable for what they had promised. For example, the World Bank ultimately only raised $ 411.40 million from donors, a quarter of its original target of $ 1.5 to $ 2 billion.

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Visiting the country in 2012, Post correspondent William Booth found small signs of progress, but also unrest.

“The advances are everywhere, even if sometimes they are difficult to see: the district lit by yellow candles a year ago is now suspended by electric lights; the road that was previously blocked by earthquake debris is now clogged with morning traffic, ”he wrote.

“But 500,000 people are still under tarpaulins. About 20,000 still live in a squalid camp in downtown Port-au-Prince, their once immaculate USAID-stamped tents are now dirty and gray and sink into the heat outside the collapsed National Palace.

Haitian human rights activist Nixon Boumba wrote in a 2015 account for the Post. “Poverty has worsened throughout the capital,” said the activist, “More beggars on the streets, an increase in teenage pregnancies and more people engaged in sex work …. In fact, much of the ‘redevelopment’ has been aimed at helping the rich and powerful, not the poor and the displaced who need it the most.

More recently the country has struggled amid pandemic and political chaos. Although the official number of cases and deaths has not been as high as in other countries, some hospitals say they are overwhelmed. And it has been difficult to assess the true extent of the pandemic, experts say, as testing is scarce and other resources are lacking.

Haiti was one of the last countries in the world to be able to offer coronavirus vaccines – it received its first shipment last month, shortly after the president’s assassination plunged the country into crippling turmoil. The effectiveness of the vaccination campaign which is now starting remains to be seen, given the high level of mistrust that exists in some parts of the government.

Yesterday – as has often happened in the history of Haiti – the new earthquake crisis clashed head-on with previous problems. Efforts by aid groups to reach the affected region have been hampered by broken infrastructure and concerns about violence. The country’s leaders – newcomers after the assassination – rushed to respond

“The needs are enormous,” said Ariel Henry, the new prime minister, declaring a state of national emergency.

Meanwhile, another disaster looms: Tropical Storm Grace is expected to hit Haiti early next week.

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