2010 Haiti earthquake

The 2010 Haiti earthquake was a catastrophic magtitude 7.0, with an epicentre near the town of Léogâne, approximately 25 km (16 miles) west of Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital. The earthquake occurred at 16:53 local time (21:53 UTC) on Tuesday, 12 January 2010. By 24 January, at least 52 aftershocks measuring 4.5 or greater had been recorded. An estimated three million people were affected by the quake; the Haitian government reported that an estimated 230,000 people had died, 300,000 had been injured and 1,000,000 made homeless. They also estimated that 250,000 residences and 30,000 commercial buildings had collapsed or were severely damaged.
The earthquake caused major damage in Port-au-Prince, Jacmel and other settlements in the region. Many notable landmark buildings were significantly damaged or destroyed, including the Presidential Palace, the National Assembly building, the Port-au-Prince Cathedral, and the main jail. Among those killed were Archbishop of Port-au-Prince Joseph Serge Miot,and opposition leader Micha Gaillard.The headquarters of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), located in the capital, collapsed, killing many, including the Mission's Chief, Hédi Annabi.
Many countries responded to appeals for humanitarian aid, pledging funds and dispatching rescue and medical teams, engineers and support personnel. Communication systems, air, land, and sea transport facilities, hospitals, and electrical networks had been damaged by the earthquake, which hampered rescue and aid efforts; confusion over who was in charge, air traffic congestion, and problems with prioritisation of flights further complicated early relief work. Port-au-Prince's morgues were quickly overwhelmed with many tens of thousands of bodies having to be buried in mass graves. As rescues tailed off, supplies, medical care and sanitation became priorities. Delays in aid distribution led to angry appeals from aid workers and survivors, and looting and sporadic violence were observed.
On 22 January the United Nations noted that the emergency phase of the relief operation was drawing to a close, and on the following day the Haitian government officially called off the search for survivors.

Essential services

Amongst the widespread devastation and damage throughout Port-au-Prince and elsewhere, vital infrastructure necessary to respond to the disaster was severely damaged or destroyed. This included all hospitals in the capital; air, sea, and land transport facilities; and communication systems.
The quake affected the three Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) medical facilities around Port-au-Prince, causing one to collapse completely. A hospital in Pétionville, a wealthy suburb of Port-au-Prince, also collapsed, as did the St. Michel District Hospital in the southern town of Jacmel,^[which was the largest referral hospital in south-east Haiti.

Damaged buildings in Jacmel

The quake seriously damaged the control tower at Toussaint L'Ouverture International Airport and the Port-au-Prince seaport, which rendered the harbour unusable for immediate rescue operations. The Gonaïves seaport, in the northern part of Haiti, remained operational.
Roads were blocked with road debris or the surfaces broken. The main road linking Port-au-Prince with Jacmel remained blocked ten days after the earthquake, hampering delivery of aid to Jacmel. When asked why the road had not been opened, Hazem el-Zein, head of the south-east division of the UN World Food Programme said that "We ask the same questions to the people in charge...They promise rapid response. To be honest, I don't know why it hasn't been done. I can only think that their priority must be somewhere else."
There was considerable damage to communications infrastructure. The public telephone system was not available, and two of Haiti's largest cellular telephone providers, Digicel and Comcel Haiti, both reported that their services had been affected by the earthquake. Fibre-optic connectivity was also disrupted.^[According to Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF), most of the radio stations went off the air and only 20 of the 50 stations in Port-au-Prince were back on air a week after the earthquake.

General infrastructure

Large portions of the National Palace collapsed

In February 2010 Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive estimated that 250,000 residences and 30,000 commercial buildings were severely damaged and needed to be demolished^. The deputy mayor of Léogâne reported that 90% of the town's buildings had been destroyed. Many government and public buildings were damaged or destroyed including the Palace of Justice, the National Assembly, the Supreme Court and Port-au-Prince Cathedral. The National Palace was severely damaged, though President René Préval and his wife Elisabeth Delatour Préval escaped injury. The Prison Civile de Port-au-Prince was also destroyed, allowing around 4,000 inmates to escape.

Léogâne, close to the earthquake epicentre

Most of Port-au-Prince's municipal buildings were destroyed or heavily damaged, including the City Hall, which was described by the Washington Post as, "a skeletal hulk of concrete and stucco, sagging grotesquely to the left." Port-au-Prince had no municipal petrol reserves and few city officials had working mobile phones before the earthquake, complicating communications and transportation.Minister of Education Joel Jean-Pierre stated that the education system had "totally collapsed". About half the nation's schools and the three main universities in Port-au-Prince were affected. More than 1,300 schools and 50 health care facilities were destroyed.

The earthquake also destroyed a nursing school in the capital and severely damaged the country’s primary midwifery school. The Haitian art world suffered great losses; artworks were destroyed, and museums and art galleries were extensively damaged, among them Port-au-Prince's main art museum, Centre d'Art, College Saint Pierre and Holy Trinity Cathedral.

The headquarters of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) at Christopher Hoteland offices of the World Bank were destroyed. The building housing the offices of Citibank in Port-au-Prince collapsed, killing five employees. The clothing industry, which accounts for two-thirds of Haiti's exports,reported structural damage at manufacturing facilities.
The quake created a landslide dam on the Rivière de Grand Goâve. The water level was low as of mid-February. Authorities believe that the dam is likely to collapse during the rainy season which would flood Grand-Goâve, a 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) downstream.

Earthquake destroyed the poor courtry like Haiti made all the things in there collapsed as economic, education, traspotation and so on. we can not stop it when it's happen, we should alert people about it, and use the technology to know how it come to prevent and limit the destroy of it, public information and prepare anthing to support it....

Flood in VietNam 2010

3 weeks ago, I came back my country. Unfortunately, I was eye witness a great damage of flood in middle part of Vietnam.

According from BBC news (6 October 2010 Last updated at 09:07 GMT)

"More than 34,000 people in the worst-hit provinces of Ha Tinh and Quang Binh have evacuated their homes after days of torrential rain.

The army has been using boats and helicopters to move people to safety and deliver food to the affected area.

Vietnam is frequently hit at this time of year by tropical storms and heavy flooding.

On Tuesday, officials said 130cm (51 inches) of rain had fallen in the region since Friday.

"This is the second time since 1985 that the water level went up too fast," said Phan Trietn in Quang Binh province.

"I just escaped from the water and all my belongings were swept away."

Landslides and floods have cut off several highways, including highways 1 and 9 and the Ho Chi Minh highway, officials said.

Thousands of hectares of rice fields have been flooded.

Water levels on rivers were dropping in Quang Binh province while rivers from Quang Tri to Thua Thien-Hue provinces were continuing to rise, said the national meteorology centre.

More rain was forecast for the central coast of Vietnam."



I'm so sad to share about feeling of people, who are lost family member...

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Surging currents sucked a bus off a flooded highway and swept away 20 of its passengers, including a girl ripped from her mother's arms, as flooding caused 30 other deaths in Vietnam and a monster Typhoon Megi loomed offshore Monday.

Seventeen other people from the bus, including the driver, escaped by swimming to safety or clinging to trees or power poles, said Nguyen Hien Luong, head of Nghi Xuan district in Ha Tinh province. They were later rescued by fishermen and police, but 20 remained missing.

A 46-year-old woman carrying her daughter treaded water for 3 hours as the current dragged her 1.9 miles along the Lam River. But she was forced to let go of her daughter due to exhaustion before she was rescued. The girl was among three missing children

The bus was traveling from the central highlands province of Dak Nong to the capital when it drove through about 2 feet of gushing water and was knocked off balance around 4:30 a.m. on Monday, Luong said. Many passengers were jolted awake when the bus began to tilt sideways, state-controlled media reported.

"I heard people screaming that the bus was being swept away. I looked out and it was all water," the online newspaper Bee.net quoted survivor Ha Xuan Toa as saying. "People smashed windows to get out, but only one window was broken and we got out one by one."

About 500 soldiers, police and fishermen searched for the bus and possible survivors. Those remaining on the bus were presumed dead, Luong said.

Elsewhere in central Vietnam, heavy rains killed at least 30 people and left three others missing.

Disaster officials said Monday up to 31.5 inches of rain had pounded the region in a few days, forcing 126,000 people to flee their homes. About 300 soldiers have been deployed to rush instant noodles, rice and water to people affected by the floods.

The country's north-south rail service was interrupted after the tracks were submerged, forcing thousands of travelers to transfer onto buses.

Central Vietnam is still recovering from severe flooding earlier this month, which killed 66 people and left 17 missing.

"People are exhausted," Vietnamese disaster official Nguyen Ngoc Giai said by telephone from Quang Binh province. "Many people have not even returned to their flooded homes from previous flooding, while many others who returned home several days ago were forced to be evacuated again."

The current flooding was not linked to Typhoon Megi, which was crossing the northern Philippines on Monday. Its next landfall is expected in Vietnam or southern China, but the track is uncertain.

Giai said many houses were severely weakened by the floods and the typhoon's winds could flatten many homes if Megi does strike Vietnam.

Last updated: 7/10/2010 12:00 

At least 48 people have died, 1 8 are missing and 19 have been injured in floods brought by torrential rains starting last week in the central provinces, the Central Flood Control Committee reported Thursday.
Quang Binh Province was hardest hit with 33 people dying and 14 missing. Ha Tinh Province ranked second with seven deaths, while Quang Tri and Nghe An posted three and five respectively, it said.
“The rains have stopped falling and the water level has visibly lowered. But the possibility of finding the missing is reduced after several days of searching,” AFP quoted Hoang Van Quyet, an official with Quang Binh Province’s natural disaster committee, as saying.
Many houses, schools, bridges and other constructions were either submerged or damaged by floods across the north of the central coast, the committee said.
More than 17,500 houses were submerged and 638 bridges and drainage systems were swept away or destroyed in Ha Tinh Province.
Tran Minh Ky, vice chairman of Ha Tinh’s People’s Committee, told the Tuoi Tre newspaper that Huong Khe District had been hit hard by flooding partly because the Ho Ho Hydropower Dam had failed to release water when heavy rains came.
In fact, as the sluice gates could be operated because of a power cut, water had overflown the dam and put it at risk of being breached, Ky said.
Water levels in rivers from Ha Tinh to Quang Binh provinces, meanwhile, have gone down after reaching the highest danger levels over the past few days, as rains have stopped or decreased.
Food and emergency medical supplies are being sent to affected communities, state media reported.
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on Wednesday ordered authorities in affected areas to spend budget funds to buy instant noodles and bottled water for local people in flooded area.






Tropical storms and flooding regularly hit Vietnam at this time of year.