The quake in Haiti came suddenly—but the results were predictable. At the moment it struck, scientists from the Earth Institute and other parts of Columbia University were in Port-au-Prince with a UN-sponsored project assessing how to reduce the nation’s obvious vulnerability to natural disasters. It is clear that the extreme toll came as much from poverty as physics.
The magnitude 7 event occurred along a dangerous fault system long known to geologists. Scientists cannot predict when earthquakes will come—but can predict where. This was the most powerful event to hit the region in over 200 years—but no bigger than the 1989 quake in the San Francisco Bay area that killed only 63 people. In Haiti, probably tens of thousands are dead, and many more homeless. It was nature that shook the ground; but it was poor housing, lack of basic commodities and absence of public services that brought such death and destruction. “The hard lesson is that construction, urbanization, land reform—all the things we do in terms of development—need to take resiliency into account,” seismologist Art Lerner-Lam of Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory told Newsweek.
“There are hot spots around the world where poverty and natural-hazard risk are going to continue to produce these high-level disasters with high casualties, but we know where those hot spots are. So there’s a lot more we can do before the fact to mitigate the human suffering.”
As Earth Institute scientists in New York work to explain and deal with the tragedy, those who lived through the quake itself are returning to tell their story. Alexander Fischer, a political scientist and groundwater expert with the Center for International Earth Science Information Network, survived the collapse of much of the UN’s compound, and helped treat survivors. “There were countless numbers of houses fallen down. At first there was no panic—just people just walking the streets not knowing what to do,” he said. “That’s the really sad part. There was no help. It shows what happens when a country doesn’t have the capacity for response.” In coming days, Fischer and others will continue the work of assessing how to blunt future catastrophes. “I hope no other country is ever in that situation,” said Fischer.
EARTH INSTITUTE EXPERTS ANALYZE THE DISASTER AND ITS IMPLICATIONS:
Climate Outlook Raises Concern for Haiti
Climate Central, May 18, 2010
Scientists Plumb Depths Off Haiti
White House Office of Science and Technology, March 22, 2010
Chile, Haiti: The Difference
OECD Insights, March 17, 2010
Why Haiti’s Quake Toll Was Higher Than Chile’s
CNN.com, Feb. 28, 2010
Move Port-au-Prince? Maybe. San Francisco? Never.
Earth magazine, Feb. 24, 2010
Scientists Cruise Off Haiti to Assess More Possible Quakes
Discovery Channel, Feb. 24, 2010
Again, the Phantom City Burns
OECD Insights, Feb. 22, 2010
Ecological Recovery Seen as Key to Rebuilding Haiti
Free Speech Radio Network, Feb. 17, 2010
Fears of Another Quake Haunt Haiti
Associated Press, Feb. 15, 2010
Haiti’s Tomorrow May Be Rooted in Trees, Fertilizer
True/Slant, Feb. 11, 2010
Haiti: How Greening Hillsides Can Help
Huffington Post, Feb. 5, 2010
Greening Haiti Can Bolster Recovery
Water and the World, Feb. 4, 2010
Next Tragedy in Haiti?
(in Portuguese)
Epoca, Jan. 27, 2010
Who Should Reconstruct Haiti?
Globo TV, Jan. 26, 2010
(in Portuguese)
Donors Face Quandary in Haiti
NPR Talk of the Nation, Jan. 26, 2010
Reconstructing Haiti
by Jeffrey D. Sachs
Project Syndicate, Jan. 26, 2010
Haiti: Addressing the Looming Threat
Newsweek, Jan. 26, 2010
Haiti: Could It Happen Again?
Telemundo, Jan. 26, 2010 (in Spanish)
Jeffrey Sachs on Haiti
The Economist, Jan. 25, 2010
Aid Must Target Haiti’s Underlying Issues
NPR All Things Considered, Jan. 22, 2010
Rebuilding Haiti From the Roots Up
Living on Earth, Jan. 22, 2010
Witnessing the Desperation of Haiti’s Poor
Rockland Journal News, Jan. 22, 2010
Donors Eye Billions to Rebuild Haiti
NPR, Jan. 21, 2010
What Does Rebuilding Haiti Mean?
by John Mutter
OECD Insights, Jan. 21, 2010
Haiti: Like Katrina, Only Worse
by John Mutter
CNN, Jan. 19, 2010
Recalling a Terrifying Day in Haiti
Times-Argus, Jan. 19, 2010
How to Rebuild Haiti From Scratch
by Jeffrey D. Sachs
Washington Post, Jan. 18, 2010
Reason to Be Proud of the American Response in Haiti
by Steve Cohen
Huffington Post, Jan. 18, 2010
U.S. Fault Lines
ABC Good Morning America, Jan. 18, 2010
Haiti Quake Shattered Effort to Restore Resources
GreenWire, Jan. 18, 2010
For Doctors in Haiti, Worst Is Yet to Come
Reuters, Jan. 18, 2010
What Will It Take to Rebuild Haiti?
Time, Jan. 16, 2010
Earth’s Quake ‘Hot Zones’
CBS News, Jan. 17, 2010
Earthquake Threat Lurks for U.S., Too
MSNBC, Jan. 16, 2010
Haiti Earthquake Update
Columbia News, Jan. 15, 2010
Abject Poverty Made Forecasts Useless in Haiti
Metro US, Jan. 15, 2010
Haiti Shantytown: A City of the Dead
New York Post, Jan. 14, 2010
Deforestation Heightens Haiti Landslide Risk
National Geographic News, Jan. 14, 2010
What Caused the Haiti Quake? Leonard Lopate Show, WNYC, Jan. 13, 2010
Haiti Quake No Surprise to Geologists
NPR All Things Considered, Jan. 13, 2010
Haiti Quake: What Happened?
MSNBC, Jan. 13, 2010
Scientists Warned of Coming Quake
Newsweek, Jan. 13, 2010
Understanding Caribbean Earthquakes
ABC News , Jan. 13, 2009
Haiti: Critical Test for Obama
Huffington Post , Jan. 13, 2009
We can’t control when or where earthquakes hit. However, we can support the infrastructure of a country beforehand so that when these earthquakes happen, they are not so devastating.
[…] seismologist Art Lerner-Lam of Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory told Newsweek. (See our blog, State of the Planet, for more on the Haiti […]
@Marcia Earth Can we really control infrastructure of another country? Is that even morally right? I say, reduce trade restrictions and allow the Haitians to to control their own infrastructure.
I don’t think she said ‘control the infrastructure’ she said ‘support the infrastructure’.
Everything will not be getting better if people start to prepare themselves for the disaster. Disaster preparedness should be in place by the governor that appointed by global body to save lives from earthquake. How to do that?