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The Death Toll Of Haiti

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It was typical late afternoon in Haiti capital of Port-au-Prince. People were strolling the streets, and local vendors were selling various goods at the Port-au-Prince historic Iron Market. Then at 4:53 pm on January 12, 2010 a 7.0 magnitude hit Haiti. Haiti had not seen a major earthquake like this in almost 200 years. People scrambled through the streets as the ground roared knocking down huge stone and brick building onto the streets of Port-au-Prince. An eyewitness describes the moment that the earthquake hit, “The earth screamed; a sound of thunder that came from its belly as it violently shook the plants, the car, the walls, the pavement that I stood on. I called out to everyone to walk out of the house quickly. It seemed like a long, long time. Then silence. Then screams from some of the residents of the rural neighborhood” (Clesca, 2010). This would be one of the deadliest earthquake of our generation. The estimated death toll was 316,000 deaths, and over 3 million people were displaced by the earthquake. Many people died when their dwelling collapsed and they were trapped under the rumble. People also died from falling objects, such as large building materials. This earthquake will ultimately change the structured of Haiti and leave many residents asking, who is responsible for the huge loss of life? As I have mention above, Haiti has not been hit by a major earthquake since the 18th century. Geologists first believed that Caribbean tectonic plates were responsible

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