The Earthquake in Haiti

On January 12, 2010, at 4:53 p.m. local time, Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti was hit by the strongest earthquake in more than 200 years, registering a 7.0 magnitude. The earthquake epicenter was about 15 miles (24 km) away from the center of the city; that is a distance between midtown in New York City and the John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens (an outlying district of the city of New York). The earthquake was also barely 7 miles (11.3 km) deep, making it extremely close to the surface. This was followed by a series of afterschocks, more than 25 in total, with the strongest measuring at 5.9 which is a strong earthquake in itself. This alone is enough to bring much devastation to any city.

Men gathered outside the Justice Palace in Port-au-Prince, where countless victims lay buried.

(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

 

The Port-au-Prince Cathedral was destroyed in the earthquake.

(Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

I cannot recall a capital city being so badly hit by an earthquake in modern times other than 1985 Mexico City earthquake which was of 8.1 magnitude and where 10,000 people died even though the epicenter was more than 200 miles (322 km) away from the center of Mexico City. In that earthquake, many homes were lost and several small commercial buildings either collapsed or were badly damaged. Despite of the damage that city suffered, all of the major government buildings remained intact and most of its infrastructure was in place. A far worse scenario occurred in Managua, Nicaragua, which was twice affected by earthquakes in the 20th century, in 1931 and 1972, both of 6.2 magnitudes. Both earthquakes displaced about two-thirds of the populations and killing 2,000 people in the first earthquake and about 20,000 people in the second. Making the situation worse was that in both events large fires broke out and huge tracts of the city lay in ruins. Despite of the extent of the damage to the city’s infrastructure and human death toll, some of the most important government structures and landmarks remained intact albeit severely damaged. What happened in Port-au-Prince on January 12th was far worse.

The National Palace in Port-au-Prince: Before and After the Earthquake

(The New York Times)

In this capital city of 1.5 million people, the National Palace (a.k.a. the Presidential Palace), the Justice Palace, the Parliament Building, the National Assembly, the Port-au-Prince Cathedral, the U.N. headquarters mission in Haiti, the city’s largest jail, various embassies and hotels, and virtually all the hospitals and schools either collapsed or have been heavily damaged perhaps beyond repair.  When a capital city is hit with such devastation, there is always the fear that the country will collapse along with it. It takes a great effort from its people, its leaders, and that nation’s allies to bring it up from its knees. This effort takes many years.

In our modern history, other capital cities have been heavily destroyed but they have all been man-made as a result of war (Berlin, Warsaw, or more recently Kabul and Baghdad) or by megalomaniac leaders like in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, during the regime of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. Few, however, have been destroyed by natural disasters. One historical event that mimics what happened in Haiti is the Lisbon earthquake of November 1, 1755.  In that earthquake which historians place at a magnitude near 9 was subsequently followed by a tsunami with waves of up to 18 feet (5.5 m) in height. The monstrous earthquake was felt as far away as Germany, England and Morocco. The cataclysmic event brought much destruction to one of the most powerful cities in the western world.  In a time when candles were used to light a room and fire to cook or heat rooms and stoves, fires quickly broke out soon after especially in areas not affected by the tsunamis. It has been estimated that eighty-five percent of the city’s buildings, including the Royal Ribeira Palace (the official residence of the king of Portugal) with its Royal Library which also housed important artworks from Titian, Rubens and Correggio as well as the historical records of Vasco da Gama and other early explorers, were destroyed by the earthquake, tsunami and fires. Also destroyed were the Royal Hospital of All Saints (the largest hospital in Europe at the time), the Royal Opera House, the Carmo Convent, the Cathedral of Santa Maria, the Basilica of São Vicente de Fora and various other palaces and landmarks. It has been estimated that up to 90,000 people out of a population of about 250,000 may have died. Lisbon, which had been one of the largest, and some chroniclers say one of the most beautiful, cities in Europe, now had the largest populations of people who were displaced: even King José I, lived in a complex of tents on a hillside outside the city until his death in 1777.

The earthquake was an ominous sign to Portugal. The country never regained its political and economic stature it once had. It dashed its dreams of expanding its colonial possessions or continuing with scientific explorations. The rebuilding of the city and aiding its people economically nearly bankrupt the state. For the next 220 years, the country continued in its decline until the late 20th century with the death of António Salazar in 1970 and the subsequent Carnation Revolution of 1974.  The granting of independence to its colonies in Africa in 1975, which by this time had become an economic burden and a place of guerrilla warfare, helped Portugal to restructure its local economy and social development. Portugal joined the European Union in 1986.

Many people would consider the comparison between the Lisbon and Port-au-Prince earthquake preposterous or laughable at best. It is obvious that at the time of the earthquake, Portugal and Haiti were two very distinct countries. The former was a wealthy country able to recover mostly by itself while Haiti is not and cannot. Another major difference is that most of the buildings in Port-au-Prince were constructed below accepted standards of the time and geographic reality. The city sits almost 10 to 20 miles (16 to 32 km) from a fault line. But the point here is that the destruction of a capital city, especially the crumbling of its landmarks and seats of power, due to a natural disaster bring a psychological trauma not only to the local population but also to those far beyond its borders.

After the Lisbon earthquake, Voltaire questioned the philosophy of theodicy of Leibniz and Pope, which championed the belief that good things happen in this world because there exist a benevolent God. He questioned the optimism of Rousseau that all men are born good, and that all men are equal and have sympathy for one another. Voltaire tried to rationalize how it was possible that the innocent and the guilty all suffer equally. His most famous book, Candide, was in part written as a reaction to this catastrophic event.  In “Poème sur le desastre de Lisbonne” (tran. Poem on the Lisbon Disaster) Voltaire writes, “Did Lisbon, which is no more, have more vices / Than London and Paris immersed in their pleasures? / Lisbon is destroyed, and they dance in Paris!” Like Voltaire, other leading intellectuals and scientists of the time struggled in their search for rational and scientific explanations. On the other hand, theologians and the religious believed it was a Divine message to Portugal for all the ills committed during the inquisitions, slavery, treatment of the Indians, and lavish lifestyles of the court. Similar questions are now being raised with the 2010 Haiti earthquake.

An engraving of the Lisbon earthquake of 1755, which Voltaire depicted as morally blind.

(Bettmann Archive / Corbis)

Many people are now asking why did such a tragic event happened to an already poor nation that has been devastated by a mudslide in 2007 and three hurricanes in 2008, and in each killing dozens or even hundreds of people and displacing thousands. Unfortunately there are some people like Pat Robertson who believe that what befell upon the Haitians was a result of their pact with the devil during their struggle for independence from French. In his television program, the 700 Club, he said that all the misery that Haitians have experienced throughout their history is a result from this sinful event. But the question becomes, why would God choose Haiti and not, say, Sudan, Iran, North Korea, or even Europe with its ardent believe in secularism. Why not their former imperial masters, France? Why not England or the United States for enslaving millions of Africans? Pat Robertson and people who think like him have no shame.

In both cities, the massive earthquakes left virtually a void in government with chaos appearing to be the rule of law. However, Portugal quickly returned to normalcy because it had a history of stable government. For Haiti, unfortunately, its future looks dire at best because of its history of political turmoil. The fear is that the destruction of the National Palace—the one building that Haitians feared for it housed brutal rulers, admired for its beauty and respected for it was a symbol of the nation— will bring a return to the old days and worse.

Haiti was just beginning to show political and social stability for the first time in decades after the United Nation Mission assumed its function in full in 1995 and the transition of an elected democratic leader to the next, the current president René Preval. The one thing that we do not want to see, especially for countries in this hemisphere, is to see Haiti fall into the likes of Somalia where hope and peace is a distant dream and where the rule of the strongmen is accepted as the norm. It is up to all of us, especially those in the Americas, to help Haiti not only with disaster relief efforts and foreign aid but with long-term projects, that will help this country develop its economic and social infrastructure. In the meantime, let us hope for the best.

 

Cindy Terasme screams after seeing the feet of her dead 14-year-old brother Jean Gaelle Dersmorne

in the rubble of the collapsed St Gerard School.

(Gerald Herbert / AP)