What We Can Learn from Haiti The most damaging effect of the
earthquake in Haiti was not the ground movement itself, but that
buildings collapsed. The rebuilding has lessons for us all. When
the 7 moment magnitude (Mw) earthquake hit Léogâne, Haiti, about
16 miles west of the capital city, Port au Prince, on January
12, killing hundreds of thousands of people and leaving about 1
million homeless, at least 280,000 buildings collapsed or were
severely damaged. On February 27, an 8.8 Mw earthquake rocked
Chile. Although it released approximately 500 times more energy,
the Chilean earthquake was responsible for only about 500
deaths. What accounts for the difference? The most damaging
effect of the earthquake in Haiti was not the ground movement
itself, but the collapse of those 280,000 buildings, crushing
people, turning a natural disaster into a man-made one. How did
so many buildings fail, and what can we learn from this
experience to apply to future building practices, in seismic
zones and elsewhere, in Haiti