# 7.0 earthquake in Haiti **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 13, 2010, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/7-0-earthquake-in-haiti/524744 "2010-01-13T02:41:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2010, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/7-0-earthquake-in-haiti/524744/61 "2010-01-13T17:51:28Z")
Note that the number of Haitians in the US appears to be around 1 million, which would be 10% of the population of Haiti. Their remittances to Haiti are a meaningful part of the economy - something like 25%. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2010, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/7-0-earthquake-in-haiti/524744/62 "2010-01-13T17:58:55Z")
> [@Kyla](#): > > I don’t know the names of the fault lines, but there is a Caribbean Plate. [Here’s an article.](http://www.whoi.edu/oceanus/viewArticle.do?id=3964) One thing I do know is that the original capital of Jamaica was Port Royal, but when it was destroyed in an earthquake, the capital was shifted to Kingston, across the bay. That was just a cover story for Port Royal’s destruction by a crew of undead pirates. ---
**Author:** ![Palo\_Verde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/65b543/32.png) [@Palo\_Verde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palo_Verde)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2010, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/7-0-earthquake-in-haiti/524744/63 "2010-01-13T18:09:48Z")
I just donated as much as I could to Direct Relief International ([Haiti Earthquake 2010 | Direct Relief](http://www.directrelief.org/EmergencyResponse/2010/EarthquakeHaiti.aspx)) Yesterday, within hours of the quake, they had already sent two shipping containers of medical aid to 3 hospitals that they have partnered with in the past. Aid will be ongoing (and they get the highest ranking as a charity through Charity Navigator) Please donate what you can. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2010, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/7-0-earthquake-in-haiti/524744/64 "2010-01-13T18:18:32Z")
> [@Palo\_Verde](#): > > I just donated as much as I could to Direct Relief International ([Haiti Earthquake 2010 | Disaster Response | Direct Relief](http://www.directrelief.org/EmergencyResponse/2010/EarthquakeHaiti.aspx)) Good choice. One of my best friends interned with them at their headquarters last year. They’re a great organization. ---
**Author:** ![Palo\_Verde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/65b543/32.png) [@Palo\_Verde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palo_Verde)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2010, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/7-0-earthquake-in-haiti/524744/65 "2010-01-13T18:28:22Z")
**A Monkey With a Gun** has been pitted. [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=11989539#post11989539](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=11989539#post11989539) ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2010, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/7-0-earthquake-in-haiti/524744/66 "2010-01-13T18:37:51Z")
> [@DiosaBellissima](#): > > PS: I got a CNN breaking news text while with a client a few minutes ago that says hundreds of thousands are dead in Haiti. Awful. Here’s the quote it’s likely referencing, this from NBC: \*Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive told Reuters that thousands of buildings had collapsed in the capital, Port-au-Prince, and said he believed the casualties would be “in the range of thousands of dead.” He added he could give no clear official estimate. Soon after, however, Bellerive told CNN that “I believe we are well over 100,000” dead, while Haitian Sen. Youri Latortue said it could be 500,000. Both admit they have no way of knowing. Other officials said it was too early to give a precise accounting of the toll. \* ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2010, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/7-0-earthquake-in-haiti/524744/67 "2010-01-13T18:52:40Z")
> [@A Monkey With a Gun](#): > > Wait, how did the Dominican Republic fair? I hate to be crass, but they share the same island and I have a hell of a lot more sympathy for them. The [earthquake](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Haiti_earthquake) apparently affected only the Port-au-Prince area and did not affect the DR at all. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2010, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/7-0-earthquake-in-haiti/524744/68 "2010-01-13T18:56:38Z")
You know, there’s an important moral to be learned from all of this: Earthquakes suck. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2010, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/7-0-earthquake-in-haiti/524744/69 "2010-01-13T19:00:34Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > The [earthquake](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Haiti_earthquake) apparently affected only the Port-au-Prince area and did not affect the DR at all. I don’t know if Google Earth is accurate but there are dozens of plotted readings of the earthquake. there are 5.0 readings 30 miles away. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2010, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/7-0-earthquake-in-haiti/524744/70 "2010-01-13T19:01:51Z")
> [@lieu](#): > > Here’s the quote it’s likely referencing, this from NBC: > > \*Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive told Reuters that thousands of buildings had collapsed in the capital, Port-au-Prince, and said he believed the casualties would be “in the range of thousands of dead.” > > He added he could give no clear official estimate. Soon after, however, Bellerive told CNN that “I believe we are well over 100,000” dead, while Haitian Sen. Youri Latortue said it could be 500,000. Both admit they have no way of knowing. Other officials said it was too early to give a precise accounting of the toll. \* The Port-au-Prince metro area has about two million people, according to wikipedia. Most of the damage seems localized to that area, so 500,000 would mean that one out of four people in the effected area has been killed. That sounds implausibly high. Not that this isn’t a terrible disaster - it is. But the dead probably number “only” in the thousands, at most. Of course, more will die soon. Lack of sanitation/shelter/food/medical treatment, etc. Even with all the goodwill in the world, emergency aid just can’t fill in all the things that will be needed to keep people from dying. I hope that the grants/loans that come in for reconstruction mandate earthquake-resistant construction. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2010, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/7-0-earthquake-in-haiti/524744/71 "2010-01-13T19:09:02Z")
> [@lieu](#): > > Here’s the quote it’s likely referencing, this from NBC: > > \*Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive told Reuters that thousands of buildings had collapsed in the capital, Port-au-Prince, and said he believed the casualties would be “in the range of thousands of dead.” > > He added he could give no clear official estimate. Soon after, however, Bellerive told CNN that “I believe we are well over 100,000” dead, while Haitian Sen. Youri Latortue said it could be 500,000. Both admit they have no way of knowing. Other officials said it was too early to give a precise accounting of the toll. \* Right. Much too early. At least a week of cleanup will need to occur before a realistic figure can be determined. I’m not saying that a smaller number makes anything better, but it is quite common to overestimate the number of dead in initial estimates after a disaster of this kind. For example, IIRC initial estimates after the collapse of the World Trade Center towers were in the 10-15K range, about four times the eventual toll. No matter how one cuts it, however, there will be plenty of misery to go round for the survivors, for quite some time. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2010, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/7-0-earthquake-in-haiti/524744/72 "2010-01-13T19:09:05Z")
> [@Mr.Excellent](#): > > I hope that the grants/loans that come in for reconstruction mandate earthquake-resistant construction. In Haiti, that would be a counsel of perfection. If you were living in a shack of boards held together by spit before the earthquake, you’re probably not going to be living in a reinforced-concrete apartment block any time in the next decade. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2010, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/7-0-earthquake-in-haiti/524744/73 "2010-01-13T20:15:07Z")
[QUOTE=NBC] Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive told Reuters that thousands of buildings had collapsed in the capital, Port-au-Prince, and said he believed the casualties would be “in the range of thousands of dead.” [/QUOTE] [QUOTE=Mr. Excellent] … the dead probably number “only” in the thousands, at most. [/quote] I hope this is right. But you’d have to call it remarkable if the number of dead proves to be the same order of magnitude as the number of collapsed buildings. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2010, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/7-0-earthquake-in-haiti/524744/74 "2010-01-13T20:20:37Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > In Haiti, that would be a counsel of perfection. If you were living in a shack of boards held together by spit before the earthquake, you’re probably not going to be living in a reinforced-concrete apartment block any time in the next decade. Good point. And at the end of the day, maybe earthquakes of this intensity are rare enough that more lives will be saved by getting people back in ramshackle housing as quickly as possible. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2010, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/7-0-earthquake-in-haiti/524744/75 "2010-01-13T20:38:50Z")
> [@Mr.Excellent](#): > > Good point. And at the end of the day, maybe earthquakes of this intensity are rare enough that more lives will be saved by getting people back in ramshackle housing as quickly as possible. [The last major earthquake to hit Haiti was in 1860.](http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/01/100113-haiti-earthquake-red-cross/)[The last major earthquake in the Port-au-Prince area was in 1770.](http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/science/01/12/caribbean.earthquakes/index.html) ---
**Author:** ![Mindfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mindfield/32/19759_2.png) [@Mindfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mindfield)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2010, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/7-0-earthquake-in-haiti/524744/76 "2010-01-13T21:00:40Z")
Well, it looks like Pat Robertson has gone and stuck both feet in his mouth up to the waist by saying the [Haitians made a pact with Satan](http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2010/January/Powerful-Quake-Hits-Impoverished-Haiti/) (embedded video, ~6mins in) to get them out from under French rule and that’s why all this is happening to them. Fucking tool. ---
**Author:** ![Omniscient](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omniscient/32/3290_2.png) [@Omniscient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omniscient)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2010, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/7-0-earthquake-in-haiti/524744/77 "2010-01-13T22:08:05Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > 1. It isn’t simply “their fault,” or an artifact of their being “stupid Haitians.” The country suffered greatly under French colonial policies, and was as a result left without a strong tradition of competent infrastructure. The Spanish, who were not in the running for “Colonial Power of the Century,” still stood head and shoulders above the French, and much of the disparity between Haiti and the DR today can be fairly imputed to the utter incompetency and heartlessness of the French colonial approach. This makes absolutely no sense. Haiti has been independent of French rule almost as long as the US has, well over 200 years. The population had a major surge from 250,000 in the 50s to over 9,000,000 today. Virtually nothing about the colossal problems with Haiti have any similarity or any connection to French colonial rule. The entire assertion is nonsense. The Haitian fiasco of the last 50 years has been entirely managed and fostered by _Haitian_ leadership. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2010, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/7-0-earthquake-in-haiti/524744/78 "2010-01-13T22:16:54Z")
Never knew the US was under French rule, **Omniscient**. 😉 All this tragedy, and the thing I keep hearing about the most on the radio today? [The dog video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dblr0FYLTJs). ---
**Author:** ![Omniscient](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omniscient/32/3290_2.png) [@Omniscient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omniscient)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2010, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/7-0-earthquake-in-haiti/524744/79 "2010-01-13T22:36:41Z")
Fixing a typo, that should have been 2,500,000 in 1950, not 250,000. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2010, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/7-0-earthquake-in-haiti/524744/80 "2010-01-13T23:28:12Z")
> [@Mindfield](#): > > Well, it looks like Pat Robertson has gone and stuck both feet in his mouth up to the waist by saying the [Haitians made a pact with Satan](http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2010/January/Powerful-Quake-Hits-Impoverished-Haiti/) (embedded video, ~6mins in) to get them out from under French rule and that’s why all this is happening to them. > > Fucking tool. Robertson’s main sources for his 1991 book [_The New World Order_](http://www.amazon.com/New-World-Order-Pat-Robertson/dp/0849933943/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263418584&sr=8-1) were the anti-semitic conspiracy theorists [Nesta Webster](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nesta_Webster) and [Eustace Mullins](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eustace_Mullins). In fact, Robertson cribbed long passages from Webster directly, without attribution, substituting other words such as “Illuminati” for “Jews”; you can read the details in [_Up From Conservatism,_](http://www.amazon.com/Up-Conservatism-Michael-Lind/dp/0684831864) by Michael Lind. That’s the kind of mind he has. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/7-0-earthquake-in-haiti/524744.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/7-0-earthquake-in-haiti/524744.md?page=5)