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Why Haiti keeps getting hammered by disasters
Associated Press ^ | Thursday, January 24, 2010 | SETH BORENSTEIN

Posted on 01/14/2010 9:51:26 AM PST by presidio9

When it comes to natural disasters, Haiti seems to have a bull's-eye on it. That's because of a killer combination of geography, poverty, social problems, slipshod building standards and bad luck, experts say.

The list of catastrophes is mind-numbing: This week's devastating earthquake. Four tropical storms or hurricanes that killed about 800 people in 2008. Killer storms in 2005 and 2004. Floods in 2007, 2006, 2003 (twice) and 2002. And that's just the 21st Century run-down.

"If you want to put the worst case scenario together in the Western hemisphere (for disasters), it's Haiti," said Richard Olson, a professor at Florida International University who directs the Disaster Risk Reduction in the Americas project.

"There's a whole bunch of things working against Haiti. One is the hurricane track. The second is tectonics. Then you have the environmental degradation and the poverty," he said.

This is the 15th disaster since 2001 in which the U.S. Agency for International Development has sent money and help to Haiti. Some 3,000 people have been killed and millions of people displaced in the disasters that preceded this week's earthquake. Since the turn of this century the U.S. has sent more than $16 million in disaster aid to Haiti.

While the causes of individual disasters are natural, more than anything what makes Haiti a constant site of catastrophe is its heart-tugging social ills, disaster experts say. It starts with poverty, includes deforestation, unstable governments, poor building standards, low literacy rates and then comes back to poverty.

This week's devastating quake comes as Haiti is still trying to recover from 2008, when it was hit four times by tropical storms and hurricanes, said Kathleen Tierney, director of the University of Colorado's Natural Hazard Center.

And while there is bad luck involved, former top FEMA official Mark Merritt,

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: earthquake; haiti; haitianearthquake; haitianeconomy; haitiearthquake; haitipoverty; haitiquake; haitiquake2010
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To: presidio9
Terra not firma.
21 posted on 01/14/2010 10:08:55 AM PST by Berlin_Freeper (word of the day: scowl)
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To: Dick Bachert

BTW, Haiti must be the AIDS capital of the W hemisphere.


22 posted on 01/14/2010 10:09:38 AM PST by SMARTY ("What luck for rulers that men do not think. " Adolph Hitler)
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To: Reaganesque

“The remaining population may want to consider moving. Shut the country down and find somewhere else to live.”

Don’t say that. We already pay for tons of them in Florida.

Peggy Joseph best known for saying “Obama is gonna pay my mortgage and put gas in my car” was a Haitian-American.


23 posted on 01/14/2010 10:10:48 AM PST by Frantzie (TV - sending Americans towards Islamic serfdom - Cancel TV service NOW)
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To: presidio9
Try changing the name to Lovee.
24 posted on 01/14/2010 10:11:34 AM PST by Berlin_Freeper (word of the day: scowl)
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To: presidio9
Could it be that Christ is sounding a wake-up alarm to not just the good people of Haiti, but to the world as well? Because if you can't feel poorly for the poor of Haiti, what's left of your soul you should nourish. And no matter how wonderfully they build their future buildings (if they would be able to do that anyway), there's nothing that's going to take a hit very well from a "delivered" powerful earthquake (in Haiti, California, or even Illinois).

Pray for the good people of Haiti, and for yourself and your family as well.
25 posted on 01/14/2010 10:11:45 AM PST by mlizzy ("Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person" --Mother Teresa.)
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To: Rome2000

I am convinced that many people who write for a living are numbers-challenged. One sounds so much like another, don’cha know! Part of the reason why “trillion” does not have the teeth-jarring, neck-snapping effect that any “N-word” seems to have, for instance.

From the Yahoo article:
“former top FEMA official Mark Merritt, president of the disaster consulting firm James Lee Witt Associates, says, “It’s an economic issue. It’s one of those things that feeds on each other.”

For the record, because we all know that the relief efforts will be compared to Bush/Katrina responses:

James Lee Witt was the Clinton FEMA head who advised Louisiana Gov. Blanco not to ask that the Katrina response be federalized; thus delaying for at least 24 hours the presence of many military rescue teams and efforts. He sabotaged the Administration initial response in the interest of democrat politics. But he stays a multi-millionaire authority on disaster response, instead of having a name as disparaged as “Brownie’s”.


26 posted on 01/14/2010 10:12:56 AM PST by maica (Freedom consists not in doing what we like,but in having the right to do what we ought. John Paul II)
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To: glide625

LOL! Yeah, forgot about that one...


27 posted on 01/14/2010 10:13:19 AM PST by TADSLOS (Nigerian Crotch Bombers are U.S. Citizens too!- B. Obama)
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To: presidio9

It isn’t because of Voodoo. We have a state religion (secular humanism/evolutionism) which is stupider than Voodoo and we don’t seem to suffer from repetitive disasters...


28 posted on 01/14/2010 10:13:32 AM PST by wendy1946
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To: wendy1946

Not to mention the Islamic countries.


29 posted on 01/14/2010 10:15:15 AM PST by dfwgator
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To: Jedidah

We ought to just conquer Haiti. It is a beautiful landscape and a lot of money could be made. They have proven unable to handle their own sovereignty and nobody would or could stop us. An added bonus would be the ease of keeping tabs on Castro.


30 posted on 01/14/2010 10:15:18 AM PST by wolfman23601
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To: Reaganesque
The remaining population may want to consider moving. Shut the country down and find somewhere else to live.
Sam Kinison said the same thing 20+ years ago ...
31 posted on 01/14/2010 10:16:11 AM PST by oh8eleven (RVN '67-'68)
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To: presidio9
My brother used to have a really funny tee shirt that said:

STOP PLATE TECTONICS

I wonder when the left will start crafting tectonics legislation. They should get a few scientists on it.

32 posted on 01/14/2010 10:16:15 AM PST by Huck (Q: How can you tell a party is in the majority? A: They're complaining about the fillibuster.)
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To: Berlin_Freeper

Boooo....


33 posted on 01/14/2010 10:16:36 AM PST by reagan_fanatic (Bush at his worst was still better than Obama at his best.)
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To: Dick Bachert
That is an excellent and top-notch analysis. There was an article linked to Drudge that mentioned about aid begining to go to Hati followed by the first couple of ensuing comments, no doubt by liberals, that stated that we should not help Hatians because America has already mettled in too many countries affairs and we should not do so here.

What an outrage, yet it clearly demonstrates the Obama liberal's mentality that roundly denies the "uniqueness" of America. That is what I find so repelling about Obama and his Marxists followers. They view America as an invading, conquering country. We, on the other hand, view America for it's greateness, for our eager willingness to send national aid, personal treasure, and to sacrifce blood to help other downtrodden people around the world. Does this aways turn out well? No, but the heart and values of Americans cannot be in doubt.

No other comment summarized for me the two stark views there are currently in America. The one held by Obamaites, and those who love this country and the principles she was founded on.


34 posted on 01/14/2010 10:17:39 AM PST by Obadiah (The corrupt MSM are cannivingly dishonest information brokers.)
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To: presidio9
"There's a whole bunch of things working against Haiti. One is the hurricane track. The second is tectonics. Then you have the environmental degradation and the poverty," he said.

This clown has the factors all bassackwards. There are a lot of placed in tectonically active and hurricane prone areas that are not the cesspools Haiti is.

The primary cause is a hyper corrupt and incompetent gov't more willing to take payoffs than to cut and past building code standards well established in the rest of the civilized world. They don't give a rats rear end about the people, only their desires.

35 posted on 01/14/2010 10:17:49 AM PST by Godzilla (3-7-77)
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To: Fiji Hill

Shut the country down and find somewhere else to live.

#####

Other groups of man have had to do the same thing after they destroyed their own environment. Apparently the Sahara desert is growing because of lack of water, because of continuing denuding of any forestation/vegetation. Some Pacific islands thrive, and some become barren rocks. Much depends on rule of law, and respect for the land, and respect for personal property rights.


36 posted on 01/14/2010 10:18:13 AM PST by maica (Freedom consists not in doing what we like,but in having the right to do what we ought. John Paul II)
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To: tubebender

You didn’t look very hard, re-bar in a lot of photos.


37 posted on 01/14/2010 10:19:10 AM PST by OregonRancher (Some days, it's not even worth chewing through the restraints)
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To: Godzilla

Exactly. The fact is, a 7.0 earthquake in most of the world, doesn’t do that much damage, because of building codes.


38 posted on 01/14/2010 10:19:13 AM PST by dfwgator
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To: presidio9

I find it odd that there’s no mention of Bush in this article......


39 posted on 01/14/2010 10:19:27 AM PST by Hot Tabasco (I want a hoochie-mama for Christmas, only a hoochie-mama will do............)
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To: presidio9
Isn't Haiti still officially a Roman Catholic country ?
shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach

40 posted on 01/14/2010 10:20:18 AM PST by Uri’el-2012 (Psalm 119:174 I long for Your salvation, YHvH, Your law is my delight.)
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