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Great Events from History: The 21st Century (2000-2016)

Massive Earthquake in Haiti Kills Over 220,000

by Charles E. “Chuck” MacLean

On January 12, 2010, a massive magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck near Port-au-Prince, Haiti in the Caribbean. The quake was followed by three very large aftershocks in the succeeding eight days. The human toll and property damage were immense. The quake killed up to 316,000 Haitians, that is, 3.5 percent of Haiti’s entire population. The earthquake left hundreds of thousands of Haitians injured, destroyed nearly a half-million buildings, left as many as 2.3 million homeless, decimated the already weak infrastructure, destroyed 60 percent of government buildings and 80 percent of schools, and engendered an immense international fundraising and government assistance effort. The rebuilding process continues in 2017, seven years after the earthquake.

Locale: Epicenter near Port-au-Prince, Haiti; damage extended to many nearby cities and rural areas

Category: Natural disasters

Key Figures

George Walker “George W.” Bush (b. 1946), U.S. president, 1993–2001; co-founder (with former President Bill Clinton) of the Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund

William Jefferson “Bill” Clinton (b. 1946), U.S. President, 2009–2017; co-founder (with former President George W. Bush) of the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund

Wyclef Jean (b. 1969), Haitian rap artist and actor, who was reputed to have personally benefited from donations to his charity

Barack Obama (b. 1961), president of the United States, 2009–2017

Summary of Event

The Republic of Haiti is located on the eastern third of the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea. It is ranked by the United Nations at 163 out of 188 countries in the UN’s human development index—the lowest rank of any country in the Western Hemisphere. This “poorest county in the Americas” is almost unimaginably poor with few building codes and little infrastructure to serve the needy of the country in a disaster.

Late on the afternoon of January 12, 2010, at 4:53 p.m., a massive earthquake struck Haiti. Its epicenter was eight miles deep and just over 15 miles southwest of Port-au-Prince, the nation’s capital. The earthquake was measured at 7.0 (according to the moment magnitude scale). The three largest aftershocks in the eight days following the earthquake were measured at magnitudes 6.0, 5.7, and 5.9. The January 12 earthquake has been labeled as the largest to strike Haiti in at least the preceding 200 years.

The physical and human tolls were enormous. At least 300,000 residences and thousands of other buildings collapsed or were irreparably damaged. Roads became impassable. Over 300,000 people were injured, and at least 2.3 million Haitians were rendered homeless in that single day. More than 60% of government buildings and more than 80% of schools were destroyed or damaged beyond repair. Somewhere between 220,000–316,000 people were killed. If the official Haitian government estimates of the number killed—316,000—is accurate, that single earthquake killed nearly 3.5 percent of the country’s total population at the time (9.6 million). This constitutes the largest percentage of any nation’s citizens killed by a single earthquake in recorded history. As this essay is being drafted, between 172,000 and 500,000 Haitians are still homeless.

The financial toll to Haiti was immense with total damages estimated at between $7–14 billion dollars; Haiti’s gross domestic product at the time was just $7 billion annually (Cavallo, Powell, & Becerra, 2010). Indeed, Haiti’s gross national product fell 5.5% in 2010 alone, only the second year of negative growth for Haiti since 1997. By some estimates, the earthquake eliminated twenty percent of all employment in Haiti. The United Nations estimates that 2.5 million Haitians still need humanitarian assistance seven years after the earthquake (UNOCHA, 2017).

Sacre Coeur, oldest church in Port-au-Prince (Wikimedia Commons)

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The local response to the earthquake was quite limited because of the degree of damage and the lack of resources and equipment. The international response began within days. The Dominican Republic (the other country on Hispaniola) was the first country to send aid, followed in turn by the United Nations and countries across the world. Former United States Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush co-chaired the U.S. aid effort through the Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund in association with the United States Agency for International Development.

Homeless Haitians set up makeshift tents (Wikimedia Commons)

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President Barack Obama promised U.S. support, and directed all executive agencies to cooperate with the U.S. Agency for International Assistance in providing assistance. Much of the work was done by the Department of Defense’s Southern Command, which established Joint Task Force-Haiti (JTF-Haiti). At its peak, the U.S. had 22,000 military personnel attached to JTF-Haiti, along with 33 naval vessels, and over 300 aircraft. The U.S. military effort continued through June 2010.

Many nations sent rescue and recovery teams to help search the wreckage. Hundreds, then thousands of flights brought emergency medical supplies, food, and safe drinking water in the weeks after the quake. Monetary donations poured in, but the depth of Haiti’s economic plight before the earthquake exacerbated the struggle to recover as did the country’s very poor infrastructure. The recovery process continues as this volume goes to press.

Tens of billions of dollars in private and government aid from across the globe flowed toward Haiti after the quake to aid in rescue, recovery, and reconstruction. As might reasonably be expected in view of the inflow of so much aid into such a poor country, there have been numerous stories and reports about billions in earthquake aid funds being mismanaged or worse. For example, Haitian rapper Wyclef Jean is reputed to have pocketed millions in Haitian earthquake aid funneled through the charity he had established in 2001. Some argue the US Red Cross wasted millions of dollars in donations that it received for Haitian relief. Governmental and nongovernmental aid agencies hope that these tales do not diminish charitable contributions to Haiti and other countries confronting epic disasters in the future.

Significance

In 2010, the 7.0 magnitude earthquake of that struck Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, claimed as many as 316,000 Haitian lives or 3.5 percent of the country’s entire population. That earthquake, measured by the percent of total population killed, would make it the most destructive earthquake in recorded history. Billions of dollars flowed in from countries and donors across the globe to help Haiti respond to and recover from the disaster. In 2017, seven years after the earthquake struck, Haiti still struggles to recover.

Citation Types

Type

Format

MLA 9th

MacLean, Charles E. “Chuck”. "Massive Earthquake In Haiti Kills Over 220,000." Great Events from History: The 21st Century (2000-2016), edited by Thomas Tandy Lewis, Salem Press, 2017. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=GE21A_0267.

APA 7th

MacLean, C. E. (2017). Massive Earthquake in Haiti Kills Over 220,000. In T. T. Lewis (Ed.), Great Events from History: The 21st Century (2000-2016). Salem Press. online.salempress.com.

CMOS 17th

MacLean, Charles E. “Chuck”. "Massive Earthquake In Haiti Kills Over 220,000." Edited by Thomas Tandy Lewis. Great Events from History: The 21st Century (2000-2016). Hackensack: Salem Press, 2017. Accessed December 14, 2025. online.salempress.com.

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