2010 Haiti earthquake

==Damage to infrastructure==
{{Main|Damage to infrastructure in the 2010 Haiti earthquake}}
[[File:Haiti Earthquake building damage.jpg|thumb|Damaged buildings in Port-au-Prince]]

===Essential services===
Amongst the widespread devastation and damage throughout Port-au-Prince and elsewhere, vital infrastructure necessary to respond to the disaster was severely damaged or destroyed. This included all hospitals in the capital; air, sea, and land transport facilities; and communication systems.{{citation needed|date=September 2021}}

The quake affected the three [[Médecins Sans Frontières]] (Doctors Without Borders) medical facilities around Port-au-Prince, causing one to collapse completely.<ref name='metroint' /><ref name="onehospital" /> A hospital in [[Pétion-Ville]], a wealthy suburb of Port-au-Prince, also collapsed,<ref name=HospitalCollapse/> as did the St. Michel District Hospital in the southern town of [[Jacmel]],<ref name="BBCNews8476185" /> which was the largest referral hospital in south-east Haiti.<ref name='unia' />

[[File:Earthquake damage in Jacmel 2010-01-17 4.jpg|thumb|left|Damaged buildings in Jacmel]]

The quake seriously damaged the [[control tower]] at [[Toussaint L'Ouverture International Airport]].<ref name='nytimesdevastation' /> Damage to the [[Port international de Port-au-Prince|Port-au-Prince seaport]]<ref name="brannigan1" /> rendered the harbor unusable for immediate rescue operations; its [[container crane]] subsided severely at an angle because of weak foundations. [[Gonaïves]] seaport in northern Haiti remained operational.<ref name="brannigan1"/>

Roads were blocked with [[road debris]] or the surfaces broken. The main road linking Port-au-Prince with [[Jacmel]] remained blocked ten days after the earthquake, hampering delivery of aid to Jacmel. When asked why the road had not been opened, Hazem el-Zein, head of the south-east division of the UN [[World Food Programme]] said that "We ask the same questions to the people in charge...They promise rapid response. To be honest, I don't know why it hasn't been done. I can only think that their priority must be somewhere else."<ref name="BBCNews8476185"/>

There was considerable damage to communications infrastructure. The [[Public switched telephone network|public telephone system]] was not available,<ref name="AJC"/> and two of Haiti's largest [[cellular telephone]] providers, [[Digicel]]<ref name="indiaprwire20100114" /> and [[Comcel Haiti]],<ref name=st119 /> both reported that their services had been affected by the earthquake. [[BDSNi|Fibre-optic connectivity]] was also disrupted.<ref name="WSJ20100115" /> According to [[Reporters Sans Frontières]] (RSF), [[Radio Lumiere|Radio Lumière]], which broadcasts out of Port-au-Prince and reaches 90% of Haiti, was initially knocked off the air, but it was able to resume broadcasting across most of its network within a week. According to RSF, some 20 of about 50 stations that were active in the capital region before the earthquake were back on air a week after the quake.<ref name=rw125 />

===General infrastructure===
[[File:Haitian national palace earthquake.jpg|thumb|left|Large portions of the [[National Palace (Haiti)|National Palace]] collapsed.]]
In February 2010 Prime Minister [[Jean-Max Bellerive]] estimated that 250,000 [[residential area|residences]] and 30,000 [[commercial building]]s were severely damaged and needed to be demolished.<ref name=age25/> The deputy mayor of Léogâne reported that 90% of the town's buildings had been destroyed.<ref name=bbc127 /> Many government and public buildings were damaged or destroyed including the [[Ministry of Justice (Haiti)|Palace of Justice]], the [[National Assembly of Haiti|National Assembly]], the [[Supreme Court of Haiti|Supreme Court]] and [[Port-au-Prince Cathedral]].<ref name="st20100114" /><ref name='obs1' /> The [[National Palace (Haiti)|National Palace]] was severely damaged,<ref name="fox20100112" /><ref name="tsr20100113" /> though [[President of Haiti|President]] [[René Préval]] and his wife [[Elisabeth Delatour Préval]] escaped without injury.<ref name="WP20100119" /><ref name=nytimes /> The Prison Civile de Port-au-Prince was also destroyed, allowing around 4,000 inmates to escape.<ref name=sherwell1-16/>

[[File:Haiti earthquake damage overhead.jpg|thumb|Léogâne, close to the earthquake epicenter]]
Most of Port-au-Prince's municipal buildings were destroyed or heavily damaged, including the City Hall, which was described by ''[[The Washington Post]]'' as, "a skeletal hulk of concrete and [[stucco]], sagging grotesquely to the left."<ref name=wp /> Port-au-Prince had no municipal petrol reserves and few city officials had working mobile phones before the earthquake, making communications and transportation very difficult.<ref name=wp/>

Minister of Education Joel Jean-Pierre stated that the education system had "totally collapsed". About half the nation's schools and the three main universities in Port-au-Prince were affected.<ref name=rwreuter118 /> More than 1,300 schools and 50 health care facilities were destroyed.<ref>{{cite news | first=Ken | last=Hackett | title=Support is touching lives | newspaper=Florida Catholic | location=Orlando, Florida | pages= A2 | date=6–19 August 2010 }}</ref>

The earthquake also destroyed a nursing school in the capital and severely damaged the country's primary [[midwifery]] school.<ref name=rwunpf122 /> The [[Haitian art|Haitian art world]] suffered great losses; artworks were destroyed, and museums and art galleries were extensively damaged, among them Port-au-Prince's main art museum, [[Centre d'Art]] school, College Saint Pierre and [[Holy Trinity Cathedral, Port-au-Prince|Holy Trinity Cathedral]].<ref name=lat124 />

The headquarters of the [[United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti]] (MINUSTAH) at [[Christopher Hotel]]<ref name="unbriefing"/> and offices of the [[World Bank]] were destroyed.<ref name="R20100112" /> The building housing the offices of [[Citibank]] in Port-au-Prince collapsed, killing five employees.<ref name="IBT20100124" /> The clothing industry, which accounts for two-thirds of Haiti's exports,<ref name='bloombergdeath' /> reported structural damage at manufacturing facilities.<ref name="apparelnews" />

The quake created a [[landslide dam]] on the [[Rivière de Grand Goâve]]. {{As of|February 2010}} the water level was low, but engineer Yves Gattereau believed the dam could collapse during the rainy season, which would flood [[Grand-Goâve]] {{convert|12|km|abbr=on}} downstream.<ref name="LP20100215" />