The epicentre was a town named Leogane; about 19km (12 miles) west of Port-au-Prince, thousands were left homeless and up to 80-90% of buildings in Leogane were destroyed. The quake was quickly followed by two strong aftershocks of 5.9 and 5.5 magnitudes. It was the worst earthquake to hit the Caribbean island in 2 centuries. The island lies on the Enriquilla-Plantain Garden Fault however it was caused by an interaction between the North American and Caribbean Plates. After which the barely noticed island became the centre of the world’s news channels, it became one of the most noticed natural disasters in history with celebrities and normal people alike doing allsorts to raise money and aid for the victims of the quake.
A lot of houses, buildings, cars and other vehicles will be ruined and people can be killed. When a hurricane is done, it rains very hard. Some hurricanes may cause floods or landslides depending on how much water falls. Hurricane Sandy has been one of the most recent hurricanes that have hit the US in the past 15 years. Hurricane Sandy destroyed millions of homes, brought a bunch of sand onto the roads, and killed 209 people.
This earthquake was named Loma Prieta earthquake and occurred at a time of 5:04 (PDT) with a magnitude measurement of 6.9 and a surface wave magnitude of 7.1. The earthquake was caused by a slip in slip in San Andreas or a subsidiary and its epicenter was located ten miles northeast of the city Santa Cruz. The earthquake had also had a death toll of 62 people with the number of injured people reaching a amount of 3,757 ! Not only this however the earthquake had cost California approximately 6.8 billion dollars. This was because of many fires, houses with severe damages, and buildings with severe damages.
According to Pete Garrat, the Red Cross head of disaster relief, the most lethal combination of all of the factors contributing to the huge death toll, was location of the epicentre and the density of the population in heavily urbanised and poverty stricken areas nearby. In the region of Haiti affected by the Earthquake over 72% of the population were living on less than two American dollars a day, due to this majority of the population were housed in overcrowded shantytowns and poorly constructed buildings, constructed using poor building practices and outdated materials. As there had been no previous disasters of this type, Haitians were poorly educated on what to do during an earthquake, and the building standards were much less than those being used now, following the earthquake. Following the earthquake more than 50% of Port au Princes’ population were left homeless and 316,000 were reported to have died or are still missing. 3) What were some of the key responses by the international community in the days and weeks following the disaster?
Two news articles one by Boston Globe [ (Earthquake in Haiti, 2010) ] and the other by CNN [ (7.0 quake hits Haiti; 'Serious loss of life' expected, 2010) ] have been summarized describing the damage that the earthquake entailed on the poor nation. The third section describes a view point on how the major governments turned a blind eye on this disaster after confirming initial donations of up to $5.3. It is estimated that only about one-tenth of the donations pledged to help Haiti overcome this disaster actually arrived. One of articles published on wordpress.com website gives a clear picture of how the empty promises were never fulfilled [ (Haiti – What Happened to All the Money?, 2010) ]. The last section describes the progress Haiti has made after the earthquake and what has been the recovery plan.
The effect of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans was extremely severe, resulting from one of the most deadly natural disasters in U.S. history. By August 30th, 2005, one day after the Category 4 storm made landfall, about 80 percent of the city of New Orleans, was flooded with some parts of the city under 20 feet of water. The flood was caused by several levees breaches, which most people didn’t believe it could breach, due to a combination of a powerful storm surge, strong winds and excess water in the bodies of water surrounding the city. After reading the author’s response, her curiosity was based on her belief that the delayed response time was due to racism. She first noticed when watching the T.V.
But on August 25, 2005, when Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, everything changed. The levees failed, over 75% of the city was submerged in water and over 1,800 lives were lost. By the time the storm passed, over $81 billion in physical damages had been done. It is estimated that Katrina has resulted in the loss of over 230,000 jobs in Louisiana alone. When the storm struck New Orleans and the levees failed, the low-lying lands flooded at record levels.
Pakistan Assessment: Why did so many people die in the Pakistan Earthquake? On 8th October 2005, a devastating earthquake struck at the town of Muzaffarabad in Kashmir located in the country of Pakistan at about 8:50 am in the morning. It registered a moment magnitude of 7.6 on the Richter scale, affecting millions of people. Figures have shown that about 88,710 people died, 106,266 people were injured and up to three million became homeless and without proper shelter. There were many reasons why so many people died in the Pakistan Earthquake.
In 2008-2009 the island was ravaged by hurricanes causing massive destruction to the natural resources and causing strain on the already untrusted government. In 2010 a massive earthquake hit the Haiti killing thousands. The elections that followed did not have a large turn out and the election went to Michel Martelly. According to Time World (2012) Dominican Senator Félix Bautista, who owns or controls construction companies that in the past year have received Haitian government contracts worth more than $200 million and paid Martelly a total of almost $2.6 million during Martelly's presidential campaign and after his landslide victory in Haiti's 2011
Like the other volcanoes found in the Cascade Range, Mt St Helens (MSH) had been dormant for many years. In March 1980 there were signs of an impending eruption, as several earthquakes occurred. However on the 18th March 1980, an earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter Scale rocked the volcano. Within a few seconds of the earthquake, the volcano erupted and the whole northern side of the volcano collapsed causing the largest known landslide in US history. This pulverised rock, glacier ice and ash wiped out all living