# What's happening in the Dominican Republic? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 20, 2010, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-happening-in-the-dominican-republic/525729 "2010-01-20T18:57:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![photopat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e95f7d/32.png) [@photopat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/photopat)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-happening-in-the-dominican-republic/525729/1 "2010-01-20T18:57:42Z")
What with all the devastation in Haiti, I haven’t heard anything about the DR. It’s the same island, so I assume they were affected by the quake too. I understand they probably have a better infrastructure, and maybe the location of the quake epicenter was in the ocean on the Haiti side, so it was a little farther removed from the Dominican side, but there must have been some damage there. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-happening-in-the-dominican-republic/525729/2 "2010-01-20T19:56:37Z")
From what I’ve heard, most of the damage was in or around Port-au-Prince. The rest of Haiti apparently wasn’t very badly damaged, so I’m guessing the Dominican Republic is in good shape as well. I asked the same question here a couple of years ago when Haiti was getting hit with torrential rains and mudslides and whatnot, and it was the same basic deal - the storms and damage were largely confined to the Haitian side of the island. What drove me nuts back then - I haven’t heard it so much recently with the earthquake - was that the media often seemed to be referring to the island itself as “Haiti”. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_Bowe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df788c/32.png) [@Doug\_Bowe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_Bowe)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-happening-in-the-dominican-republic/525729/3 "2010-01-20T21:02:12Z")
The AP reports the Dominican Republic remained relatively untouched by the quake. The report says the DR is urging tourists not to cancel vacation plans to their country. The lastest AP story mentioned that the DR offered to send soldiers as UN troops and were turned down (the relations between those two countries were characterized as “historically tense”). ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-happening-in-the-dominican-republic/525729/4 "2010-01-20T23:07:01Z")
Actually, the quake was barely felt in the DR, and indeed, in many parts of Haiti. The quake had the bad fortune to occur directly where a large proportion of Haiti’s population is concentrated. Quake intensity overlaid with Haiti’s population: [http://maker.geocommons.com/maps/10992](http://maker.geocommons.com/maps/10992) ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2010, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-happening-in-the-dominican-republic/525729/5 "2010-01-20T23:53:12Z")
The Dominican Republic was much less affected by the hurricanes because they are not as poor and the government cared more about ecology. As a result, in DR, the locals were not allowed to chop down every last tree for firewood or charcoal, and the rains were not as likely to cause mudslides or heavy flooding. Apparently you can go to Google Earth or Google Maps (satellite view) and see the border between the two countries very obviously, because the vegetation change is so obvious between them. It seems an hour or two’s drive away from Port au Prince the earthquake damage was not as severe, so on the othr side of the border quite a ways away, there has not been any significant damage. ---
**Author:** ![Sapo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2010, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-happening-in-the-dominican-republic/525729/6 "2010-01-21T01:59:47Z")
The local media here (Puerto Rico) did cover the earthquake as felt on the DR. Apparently it was felt in many locations and there were some evacuations here and there but no damage. I OPed a thread asking about what was going on in the rest of Haiti since the media was not covering it much. Consensus was that no damage, no TV coverage. My wife tells me that just tonight the BBC showed images from nearby towns and they did have damage and are suffering from the state of total disarray that reigns in Haiti right now. Alas, I did not watch the segment myself so I cannot say more. > [@md2000](#): > > Apparently you can go to Google Earth or Google Maps (satellite view) and see the border between the two countries very obviously, because the vegetation change is so obvious between them. > **[Border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=547656)** > > The earthquake got me to thinking… how heavily-patrolled or strongly-fortified, if at all, is the countries’ border? Given the chronic poverty and political upheaval of Haiti, I’d want to keep border controls pretty tight, if I were the DR leader. ... Posts #12 and #20. Although seismic waves don’t much care about tree cover. ETA: People grossly underestimate the size of the Caribbean islands. Sure we are small compared to the US, Russia or Brazil but Hispaniola is rather large. Even Puerto Rico, a much smaller island, takes 3-4 hours to cross on car without traffic.