Free Republic

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...

... Haiti's $7 billion economy -- roughly a quarter the size of North Dakota's -- is a collection of subsistence farming and small-scale production of apparel primarily for export to the U.S., the nation's largest trading partner. The nation, where 80% of the population lives under the poverty line, has yet to recover from a spate of four hurricanes in 2008. The storms wiped out roughly 15% of the country's gross domestic product, and killed 165,000 goats, 26,000 cows and 60,000 pigs, according to Ludovic Comeau, a native of Haiti and economics professor at DePaul University. Four years earlier, Hurricane...