2010 Haiti earthquake

===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" />