The magnitude 8.8 earthquake that struck Chile last week was 501 times stronger at its epicenter than the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti in January. But the death toll in Chile is expected to be orders of magnitude less than the estimated 220,000 killed in the Haitian quake.
The disparity can be partially explained by seismology: the Chilean earthquake occurred at a much greater distance from major population centers than the Haitian earthquake, and at a greater depth in the earth's crust. However, historical, economic and political circumstances also played a central role in fomenting the susceptibility or resistance of each country to disaster. Chile's preparedness and resilience holds many lessons for the rebuilding of Haiti's infrastructure and government and the healing of its people.
The engineering of earthquake resistant structures is no great mystery. The proper use of the correct materials can protect a building from being reduced to rubble and its inhabitants from being crushed or buried under it. In practice, implementation of these building standards is prohibitively expensive and complicated; tragically so, in Haiti's case.
While both countries straddle fault lines, Haiti had not experienced a major earthquake in centuries, while Chile has experienced several in the past few decades. Those earthquakes led to the establishment of strict building codes in Chile, something almost entirely absent in Haiti. More importantly, the Chilean government has the power and resources to enforce building codes. Chile's relative economic prosperity, democratic institutions and rule of law saved as many Chilean lives as steel and reinforced concrete. With endemic governmental corruption and 80 percent of the population living in poverty, Haiti lacked the will and resources to establish or enforce building codes. Haiti has suffered two coups since the 1990s and is routinely pounded by hurricanes. Following a school collapse November 2008, the mayor of Port-au-Prince estimated that 60 percent of buildings in the city were "unsafe, shoddily built and standing on ground weakened by a torrential hurricane season," according to The Washington Post.
These earthquakes are a reminder that natural disasters strike irrespective of human vulnerability. Humans cannot afford to be as oblivious of the natural world as it is of us. We can and should prepare for what is inevitable. We should also do what we can to help prepare those who cannot prepare themselves.
It is uncomfortable and perhaps even objectionable to say, but a large proportion of the Haitian earthquake victims died absolutely needlessly, and they were as much casualties of political and economic conditions as they were of shaking earth and crumbling concrete.
The United States has had a long and complicated relationship with our hemispheric neighbors. At times, we have bullied, come to the aid of, exploited and rescued various Latin American countries. Through the World Trade Organization, the Organization of American States and the United Nations, we have an incredible amount of influence in hemispheric relations. In other words, Haiti is our neighbor, and so is Chile, and so is Panama, and so is Guyana and so is Bolivia.
Our bluff may not always be called by an earthquake, but wherever individuals suffer poverty as a result of regional and global economic constructs, there will inevitably be consequences. Hundreds of other cities in the developing world are just as vulnerable as Port-au-Prince. What will the world do for them?
I am certainly not blaming the U.S. or any other country for the Haitian death toll, but the Chilean earthquake demonstrates the scale of the Haitian disaster was manifestly preventable.
As a neighbor, the U.S. will invariably play a key role in Haiti's reconstruction. Using whatever political and economic means necessary, we must help Haiti do things right this time. Haiti will suffer more disasters in the future. Hurricanes, earthquakes and disease are a fact of nature.
With the help and guidance of a friend, no country need ever suffer as Haiti has.
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Haitian president René Préval has estimated the Haitian death toll may surpass 300,000, making it one of the worst natural disasters in recorded history.
Let's make it the last worst preventable disaster Haiti or any other country ever suffers.
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