No disaster is completely natural. The devastating earthquake that struck Haiti on 12 January 2010 was no exception. Haiti's extreme levels of poverty and inequality exacerbated the devastation and determined who was vulnerable.
Topic:
Development, Poverty, Foreign Aid, and Reconstruction
The massive earthquake that struck Haiti on 12 January 2010 devastated rural areas as well as urban, destroying crops, farm buildings, equipment, and infrastructure. Indirect effects touched almost every corner of the nation, as 600,000 people migrated to the countryside, increasing pressure on already stretched food and fuel resources. Internal displacement worsened food insecurity, which affected six out of ten people even before the disaster.
''The situation was bad before the hurricanes in 2008 – there was a drought - but after them it got worse and more complicated people lost what little they had – houses, crops, livestock – which creates a catastrophe of hunger in this area. We feel ashamed, we have to beg from the state and other international agencies'' Lissage Geneus, a local government official (CASEC) in Baie d'Orange.