Haiti Earthquake: – A disastrous calamity

The earthquake in Haiti is one of the most disastrous natural calamities ever in the history of the UN, because it reduced to ruins the organization’s local infrastructure. There are many factors behind the huge calamity but the major factor was the false building styles in Haiti. As Haiti is not earthquake prone, so the buildings here are not made shock resistant. People here generally make concrete homes. Many people got trapped under concrete and rubble. It requires a lot of effort from the administration as well as from the social communities to improve Haiti’s condition. 

The Haiti Earthquake was measured 7.0 on the Richter scale. Damage done can vary depending on the epicenter location with same reading on the Richter scale. As cause of the earthquake remains same in most of the cases; land masses are built on floating tectonic plates. The Caribbean plates and the North American Plate got struck together along the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden Fault System. The plates slip away back and forth in the east-west direction causing earthquake- the Seismologists call this strike slip earthquake. Generally these plates keep on slipping a few millimeters every year.

This tragic earthquake has left Haiti in tottering condition; the inhabitants are facing furious challenges as the seawater has seeped into the water supply, the sanitary condition has been demolished, and relief agencies are struggling to reach to the inhabitants. The port and airport are damaged, and the road connecting the airport to the city is smashed. It is the poorest country in the western hemisphere, with more than 80% of its population below the poverty line. This earthquake caused major damage in the Port-au-Prince area which is densely populated. Haiti’s President has urged for help from all spheres.

We can learn lesson from this calamity. Yes we can’t prevent these natural calamities, but we can certainly lessen their affects. Administration can provide more information to its citizens on how to reduce its devastating results in seismic regions. Government can make modern building codes. It will make our home safer and help in returning much more quickly back to their normal life style. Nationwide health care centers and the creation of a rapid disaster response team can fasten the rescue work.  

One important thing one should look for is to identify the Haiti relief scams. Keep in mind that legal charities do not ask for donations through e-mail messages. These scammers usually make misspellings and poor grammatical mistakes. You can’t rely only on your mail boxes and spam filters to weed out subjects like “HELP THE POOR HABITANTS IN HAITI…..DONATE NOW.” These kind of scams not only try to hit your mail boxes alone but they also try to show up on social networking sites like Twitter , Face book , Tagged etc. Helping online to Haiti immigrants is easy and convenient way but one must choose the legitimate charities only. If one thinks he has been cheated by a charitable collection scam, he can file a complaint with the Internet Crime Complaint Center, which has been set to track criminals and punish them.

The pain and agony of the people of Haiti are felt in every sphere of the world. They need help; food, clean water, shelter, clothes. Lets us try to help them in every possible manner to get them out of it as soon as possible.