Haiti (EDC) 2010 Earthquake

Haiti's (2010) HDI

0.404 (145th of 169 countries) - the poorest country in the western hemisphere.

Plate boundary type

Transform fault as the Caribbean plate slips eastwards relative to the North American plate.

Moment Magnitude Scale (MMS) earthquake magnitude.

7.0 MW

Earthquake cause

1.8m slip along 65km of the Enriquillo fault.

Date and time of the Haiti (2010) earthquake

12th January 2010 at 4:53pm.

Epicentre and Focus

Epicentre 25km southwest of the capital, Port-au-Prince with a focus depth of 12km.

Ground Shaking

Lasted for 12-14 seconds, with a total of 51 aftershocks >4.5MW in the year following the earthquake.

Official number of deaths

316,000

Number of homes destroyed and number made homeless

300,000 homes destroyed with 1.5 million homeless.

Number of government buildings destroyed

21/22 government buildings destroyed in Port-au-Prince

Number living in 'temporary' camps in 2020 (ten years on).

30,000

Secondary impact: cholera.

800,000 detected cases, with 10,000 fatalities.

Secondary impact: landslides

Rapid urbanisation in Port-au-Prince had led to the development of 'bidonvilles' (slums) on steep land at the edge of the capital, prone to landslides. This was especially the case in the rainy season, which began two months after the earthquake. Tropical Cyclones also impact Haiti.

Estimated total aid spent in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake.

US$11 billion

Economic impact

The already struggling economy has not grown since the earthquake, despite investment. The largest sources of income are remittances (25% of GDP) and foreign aid (20% of GDP).

Communications infrastructure impact

The public telephone system was knocked out, with no signal for mobile phones or internet.

Impact on aid arriving at the international airport.

The international airport was unusable due to damage to the control-tower, as was Port-au-Prince harbour. The government handed control of the airport to US authorities to try to speed up the aid effort, but some aircraft with potentially life-saving supplies still had to be turned away.