2010 Haiti earthquake

===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 />