Catastrophe in Haiti
By Laia Esquerrà
An amazing cloud of dust covered Haiti after it was devastated by a massive earthquake. It was on Tuesday 12th of January at 4.53 p.m. and the capital was reduced to rubble. The earthquake lasted a whole minute and it had a lot of aftershocks. It had a magnitude of 7.3 in the Richter scale and the epicenter was only 16 kilometers from Port au Prince.
The poorest country of the world wasn’t prepared for this disaster and it has neither hospitals nor rescue teams. At first, there was only the army and the best intentions of the survivors. Most of the developed countries sent soldiers to help Haiti as soon as possible. During the first moments everyone panicked and people tried to get food from the ruins, but the soldiers tried to put order and distribute the food. Soon, gangs of young guys appeared who stole all the food and sold it. Many people tried to leave the country and to go to the Dominican Republic. One of the problems was that the prisons were also destroyed and some prisoners managed to escape, some of them were the founders of the rebel gangs.
The Haitians who survived are now looking for living relatives and going to say a last goodbye to their friends and relatives who lie in the morgue located in the outskirts of what the city was. Emergency teams, rescue teams and volunteers of rich countries don’t loose the hope of finding someone alive under the ruins. It’s a hard job but they’re doing it well and it’s always a reward finding someone alive. At first they found many living people but as time goes on there are fewer survivors. Some examples of real survival stories are of Anna Zizi, a 69 year old woman and a 22-days old girl who were found alive after a week under the rubble or a man who was found twenty six days after the earthquake under the ruins of a supermarket where he sold rice. “I was lucky that I was trapped near food and water and I had some space to move and eat”- said the man. Other people used other ways to get out alive, a Canadian man and also a 16 year old girl sent text messages and phoned the government and rescue teams to ask for help and tell that they were alive and where they were trapped. Both were found alive with other people. The teams of humanitarian aid have mounted hospitals and have taken ships with operating theatres to attend to the affected ones.
With this disaster we’ve seen more than ever the differences between the rich and the poor population of the city. Rich people organized funerals and were dressed well while poor people had all their dead relatives and friends in the morgue and built houses with cardboard.
Spain is trying to speed up the adoption process but it’s difficult with all the chaos because there may be children whose parents are still alive but they don’t know it. All foreign countries are trying to locate and bring back their citizens but some of them have died.
A week after the earthquake the U.S. moved 200 people from Port au Prince to Orlando in a military plane.
On 10th February the Haitian government gave a confirmed death toll of 230.000 people, 300.000 people have been injured and more than a million Haitians are homeless.
On February 15th Michael Jackson’s “We Are the World” was recorded again on its 25th birthday, this time for Haiti. The video premier was on Friday night during the Olympics.
By Laia Esquerrà
An amazing cloud of dust covered Haiti after it was devastated by a massive earthquake. It was on Tuesday 12th of January at 4.53 p.m. and the capital was reduced to rubble. The earthquake lasted a whole minute and it had a lot of aftershocks. It had a magnitude of 7.3 in the Richter scale and the epicenter was only 16 kilometers from Port au Prince.
The poorest country of the world wasn’t prepared for this disaster and it has neither hospitals nor rescue teams. At first, there was only the army and the best intentions of the survivors. Most of the developed countries sent soldiers to help Haiti as soon as possible. During the first moments everyone panicked and people tried to get food from the ruins, but the soldiers tried to put order and distribute the food. Soon, gangs of young guys appeared who stole all the food and sold it. Many people tried to leave the country and to go to the Dominican Republic. One of the problems was that the prisons were also destroyed and some prisoners managed to escape, some of them were the founders of the rebel gangs.
The Haitians who survived are now looking for living relatives and going to say a last goodbye to their friends and relatives who lie in the morgue located in the outskirts of what the city was. Emergency teams, rescue teams and volunteers of rich countries don’t loose the hope of finding someone alive under the ruins. It’s a hard job but they’re doing it well and it’s always a reward finding someone alive. At first they found many living people but as time goes on there are fewer survivors. Some examples of real survival stories are of Anna Zizi, a 69 year old woman and a 22-days old girl who were found alive after a week under the rubble or a man who was found twenty six days after the earthquake under the ruins of a supermarket where he sold rice. “I was lucky that I was trapped near food and water and I had some space to move and eat”- said the man. Other people used other ways to get out alive, a Canadian man and also a 16 year old girl sent text messages and phoned the government and rescue teams to ask for help and tell that they were alive and where they were trapped. Both were found alive with other people. The teams of humanitarian aid have mounted hospitals and have taken ships with operating theatres to attend to the affected ones.
With this disaster we’ve seen more than ever the differences between the rich and the poor population of the city. Rich people organized funerals and were dressed well while poor people had all their dead relatives and friends in the morgue and built houses with cardboard.
Spain is trying to speed up the adoption process but it’s difficult with all the chaos because there may be children whose parents are still alive but they don’t know it. All foreign countries are trying to locate and bring back their citizens but some of them have died.
A week after the earthquake the U.S. moved 200 people from Port au Prince to Orlando in a military plane.
On 10th February the Haitian government gave a confirmed death toll of 230.000 people, 300.000 people have been injured and more than a million Haitians are homeless.
On February 15th Michael Jackson’s “We Are the World” was recorded again on its 25th birthday, this time for Haiti. The video premier was on Friday night during the Olympics.
