Major 7.0 Earthquake Damage In Haiti, Donations Needed For Disaster Relief

[ricki]

Quake hits Haiti; reports of a ``catastrophe of major proportions'' emerging

Major quake hits Haiti; many casualties expected
BY JACQUELINE CHARLES, CAROL ROSENBERG AND TRENTON DANIEL
JCHARLES@MIAMIHERALD.COM

A powerful 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck near the capital of Haiti Tuesday afternoon, crippling the impoverished island nation and knocking out most of its communication with the outside world.

http://media.miamiherald.com/smedia/2010/01/12/18/haiti1.embedded.prod_affiliate.56.jpg

Continued at:
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/breaking-news/story/1421579.html


USGS Report
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2010rja6.php


http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/dyfi/events/us/2010rja6/us/us2010rja6_ciim.jpg

[ricki]

It sounds like a devastating earthquake with substantial damage around the Capital, Port-Au-Prince. Tsunami warnings were issued for that area of the Caribbean at 22:03 UTC but were canceled around 23:35 UTC. Information is still being developed.

The Tsunami Watch was for Haiti, DR, Bahamas and Cuba and been canceled, hopefully for good. It was a side slip quake as opposed to a "normal" or vertical displacement quake that is usually associated with tsunamis.

Understand there hasn't been much earthquake activity there in about 25 years from recent reports. We were in Cap Haitian in the mid '70's diving and drilling for evidence of the Santa Maria underwater. There was a problem figuring out just where sea level was five hundred years ago. There had been so much tectonic activity that they sea level may have changed on the order of ten feet in that time. Also, Cap Haitian, a good sized city, had been completely and partially buried by rock slides at different times related to separate severe earthquakes in that time.

If you are in the area I would monitor the situation and future warnings, if any. Hopefully there won't be any and efforts can be focused on aid and recovery in Haiti. Prayers go out to those dealing with this tragedy.

[ricki]

Tsunamis are more of a reality in some places than in others. I have close friends in Maui, they tell me their house has been hit by waves three times since the 1960's, once badly. I imagine there are lots of stories more serious than that in various parts of the Pacific and Indian Ocean.

This part of the world is older, less tectonically active. Still, there are plate movements even here in the upper Caribbean.* I understand Puerto Rico has or had some form of Tsunami monitoring network and response plan.** They had a bad one in the USVI well before that with runups on the order of 12 m. Finally, there were two in 1946 that hit the Dominican Republic killing over 2000. I understand from the recent paper ***, that a 2 m tsunami is bad enough to cause widespread destruction and loss of life in coastal areas. It is likely hurricanes and earthquakes in the region have caused greater losses but sometimes we forget about tsunamis in this area and their wider zone of impact so it bears noting.

So, they have Tsunamis in this area, they are just rare. Understand this quake was the worse that part of Haiti had seen in 200 years. I would stay plugged into news and watches, although the odds seem pretty remote. Still, over time they will happen.


* Something about the geology and this earthquake
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami-dade/story/1421908.html

** Tsunami Monitoring and Response in Puerto Rico
http://poseidon.uprm.edu/

Runup in a long past serious Tsunami in PR

http://www.usc.edu/dept/tsunamis/caribbean/visual/prmap_web.gif
http://www.usc.edu/dept/tsunamis/caribbean/webpages/1918prindex.html

*** This is an interesting recent paper from authorities on the risk posed by the "forgotten danger" as they put it. http://www.ioc-tsunami.org/files/CARTWS_meeting_Venezuela/presentations/3_6_%20US%20Ppt%20tsunami%20today%20Caribbean%20Ri sk110506.pdf

[ricki]

Communication is weak at best at this point with Port-Au-Prince. Apparently some are trying to get through via CNN on Facebook. Apparently relief organizations are using this information for planning.

http://www.facebook.com/cnn?ref=search&sid=633803198.3835995677..1&v=wall#/cnn?v=feed&story_fbid=165431769959


Early damage summary

Haiti Earthquake Damage
Updated: Wednesday, 13 Jan 2010, 7:14 PM EST
Published : Wednesday, 13 Jan 2010, 2:19 PM EST

JONATHAN M. KATZ Associated Press Writer

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Haitians piled bodies along the devastated streets of their capital Wednesday after a powerful earthquake flattened the president's palace, the cathedral, hospitals, schools, the main prison and whole neighborhoods. Officials feared hundreds of thousands may have perished but there was no firm count.

Death was everywhere in Port-au-Prince. Bodies of tiny children were piled next to schools. Corpses of women lay on the street with stunned expressions frozen on their faces as flies began to gather. Bodies of men were covered with plastic tarps or cotton sheets.

President Rene Preval said he believes thousands were killed in Tuesday afternoon's magnitude-7.0 quake, and the scope of the destruction prompted other officials to give even higher estimates. Leading Sen. Youri Latortue told The Associated Press that 500,000 could be dead, although he acknowledged that nobody really knows.

"Parliament has collapsed. The tax office has collapsed. Schools have collapsed. Hospitals have collapsed," Preval told the Miami Herald. "There are a lot of schools that have a lot of dead people in them."

Continued at: http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/international/100113-haiti-earthquake-damage-apx

[ricki]

Donations are needed for the relief efforts in Haiti.

You can contribute to the Red Cross at:
https://american.redcross.org/site/Donation2?4306.donation=form1&idb=81855255&df_id=4306&JServSessionIdr004=rlbv1ytbe1.app234b

or, you can SMS text “HAITI” to 90999 to donate $10 to Red Cross relief efforts

or, you can donate to UNICEP or CARE through:
http://www.google.com/relief/haitiearthquake/#utm_campaign=en&utm_source=en-ha-na-us-sk&utm_medium=ha&utm_term=haiti%20donation

8CyqBmVS064

Red Cross Photo Essay

[ricki]

I hear you Jim, that is part of the reason why I gave links for three operations. If I had my choice, I would rather give the cash directly to an ethical, responsible, effective person in Haiti. Who and how do you prove it in time? The logistical and security issues opposing those who are trying to provide relief are immense in Haiti now, likely growing in the future. There is a lot more needed over there than just medical assistance right now, there's no water or likely much food either or temporary shelter with after shocks and vast destruction of dwellings. Then there are all the search and recovery people doing critical work right now. Just dealing with all the reported dead in a rapid effective, fashion will be a challenging task.

This is a massive problem, more than most organizations will be able to deal with. This is a community of 3 Million people in a very bad way. DWB is an excellent group and deserves support. At the same time, I wonder how many tons of water, food and shelter materials they are planning to distribute in Haiti or how many search and recovery teams they are staffed to send out? They fix people up once they are found, correct?

Easy answer, go with the large organization with long experience, infrastructure and staffing to deal with such a large scale disaster. It isn't perfect but right now there is no real time, the next 24 to 48 hours will make a big difference in who lives and who dies. Distribution of food, clean water, shelter and basic care from here on out for weeks, months (?) will have a huge impact on spread of disease and additional loss of life. Hopefully, the Red Cross will do the best they can with the funds we provide them with. Time for action, our cash donations are needed.

Here is a more recent update on things from today, it talks about some of the response, problems, even DWB are mentioned.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/haiti/sns-ap-cb-haiti-earthquake,0,7084067.story


Rick: I think everyone should make a contribution to these sad people, but I would suggest you not give money to those very large 'charities' like the Red Cross. The first $600,000 in donations provide the annual income of the CEO (and many millions more for staff and overheads) ..before anything filters down to the poor. It seems many of these large charities spend a lot of their time keeping their logos in front of news cameras..

I would suggest the most useful group over the last few decades has been Doctors without Borders. They are already there. http://www.msf.org/

Jim