Haiti (week of 1-25-09)

I highly doubt anyone has gone without noticing the loss and wreckage that has come over Haiti after the earthquake January 12th. I am going to look up articles focusing on families and individuals who have gone through this disaster, international assistance, and the science behind such an enormous earthquake.

After the quake killed over 170,000 people in Haiti, hundreds of thousands of survivors are still left homeless. The desperation and insecurity of their situation in Haiti has brought on even more violence as large crouds gather around for food and supplies. Over 7,000 prisoners escaped in the chaos. Rape of women and young girls has radically increased due to lack of electricity to see by. Theft and other crimes also plague the survivors. international aid has pledged 2 billion dollars for aiding Haiti; some fear this won't get Haiti back on their feet. To make matters worse, hurricane season begins in May, and there are a good 200,000 families with no roof. Hatians do find hope in finding new survivors; like a 16 year old girl who survived 15 days with no food or water.

Of the international aid being sent to Haiti, the USAID (U.S. aid) is in the lead. Using several different means, and contributions from so many Americans, USAID has aided in health and medical, minding airports, military security, evacuations, basic needs, adoptions, ans assistance. There are 5 disaster medical assistance teams, and 1 International Medical Surgical Team. Already over 7,000 patients have been treated here, which is very sad compared to the number of injured people in need of attention. U.S. military stays at the airport 24 hours a day managing delivery of disaster relief. Somewhere around 13,000 military personnel are involved in the relief effort in some way. They also have with them helicopters, cargo planes carrying food, water and supplies, and several ships. 10,500 were evacuated from Haiti, although 8,300 of those were American citizens. The State Department and departments of Homeland Security are working to be sure children are not separated from their family. They also help to protect the children from criminals in child trafficking,who would try to claim a child as their own.

Tectonic plates beneath the earths surface are constantly moving, it is just a very, very slow process. Once in a while plates moving against each other along a fault line will make a sudden movement . The energy released in this action causes the earthquake. The earthquake caused in Haiti was a result of a "strike-slip fault" (side to side motion of the plates, instead of up and down). Haiti's earthquake was an amazing magnitude of 7. This magnitude is caused by the plates moving about 7mm/year (sounds slow huh?), the last earthquake had been about 250 years ago, and probably snapped about 1.7 meters to cause the 7 magnitude earthquake. The center of the earthquake was only about 10 kilometers beneath the surface (the deeper the earthquake is the less severe the damage will be) and the center was only 15 kilometers from Port au Prince, the capitol of Haiti. After shocks of the earthquake will continue for weeks to months with each one being less disastrous than the last. Even the aftershocks of this earthquake have been measured over magnitude 5.

I think I might have to read up on where these fault lines are located and keep as far away as possible. I don't know of anything on earth scarier than the earth itself tearing everything apart as if there was nothing there to begin with; separating families from one another, and destroying food and water supplies. There are many ways we can all help the people of Haiti. There are links under my international aid link, if anyone is interested.