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2010-01-12

2010-01-12: (A 7.0-Magnitude Earthquake Strikes Port-au-Prince at 4:53 P.M., Killing as Many as 300,000 People, Destroying the National Palace, the National …

Haitian

2010-01-12: (A 7.0-Magnitude Earthquake Strikes Port-au-Prince at 4:53 P.M., Killing as Many as 300,000 People, Destroying the National Palace, the National Cathedral, and the UN Headquarters, the Most Devastating Natural Disaster in Haitian History): On January 12, 2010, at 4:53 in the afternoon, a 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck Haiti with its epicenter in the town of Léogâne, sixteen miles west of Port-au-Prince. The earthquake killed as many as 300,000 people, including Roman Catholic Archbishop Joseph Serge Miot and MINUSTAH head Hédi Annabi. Over one million people were left homeless. At least 250,000 private residences, 30,000 commercial and public buildings including the National Palace and the National Cathedral, 1,300 schools, and 50 hospitals and clinics were destroyed. Over 4,000 prisoners escaped from Port-au-Prince’s main prison. The international community pledged $10 billion in relief aid. The Dominican Republic was the first nation to respond. The U.S. military launched Operation Unified Response. A telethon organized by George Clooney and Wyclef Jean raised $57 million. The earthquake destroyed Port-au-Prince as a functioning city and confronted the international community with the full scale of Haitian vulnerability. The fault line that produced the earthquake ran beneath the same ground that had produced the Revolution, the indemnity, the occupation, the dictatorship, and every other catastrophe in between. The earth itself, it seemed, conspired against the first Black republic.