CU professors comment on Haiti earthquake

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Guiseppi Marzelli, a 22-year-old senior film major, said he woke up one morning after a night of partying and saw the news.

On Jan. 12, an earthquake measuring 7.0 in magnitude hit the island nation of Haiti. The earthquake struck about 10 miles west of the capital, Porte-au-Prince, according to a CU news release.

This is the most severe earthquake suffered by the island of Hispaniola in over a century, according to a Podcast on the U.S. Geological Survey Web site.

Over three million people were exposed to severe shaking. Six aftershocks, one of which reached a magnitude of 5.9, occurred right after the main quake, further hampering rescue efforts and destroying more buildings.

“An earthquake near a major city on one of the several faults bounding the edge of the Caribbean plate is one that many of us were expecting sooner or later,” said Roger Bilham, a professor in the university’s geological sciences department, in a CU news release.

Kathleen Tierney, a professor in the department of sociology and behavioral science director of the Natural Hazards Center at CU, said she has spent her whole career on social responses for disasters.

“Haiti is on a boundary of two plates, on the plate boundary of the Caribbean and the North American plate,” Tierney said. “The epicenter [of the earthquake] was just west of Porte-Au-Prince and the focus of the earthquake was just six miles under the earth, which is very shallow.”

Many of the buildings didn’t follow any sort of particular code at all and were mostly low-rise, two story cinderblock buildings with flat roofs, a style that will always collapse in earthquakes, Tierney said.

“It would have been like a huge bomb going off,” Tierney said. “In fact, the forces that were released were like several nuclear explosions hitting non-earthquake prepared buildings.”

Several things come into play when gauging the severity of an earthquake, such as location, depth, magnitude, and in some cases, the style of building and the kind of ground, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

A combination of a shallow quake, poor infrastructure and several aftershocks ultimately concluded in one of the most devastating natural disasters in a century.

“One of the things that we have to do is put this event in a context,” Tierney said. “What we’re talking about is a catastrophe that has essentially crippled an entire society. We have many buildings down, damage to government facilities. The harbor at Port-au-Prince has been badly damaged so aid can’t come in through the water, the airport system is damaged, and there is debris in the streets of the cities, damage to the transportation systems. Most of what’s coming in right now is coming by air and there’s only one operating runway.”

Though there are tremendous amounts of aid coming in from all around the world, it’s arriving at the airport and it’s difficult to get it to the victims of the earthquake, Tierney said.

In a special to CNN, Tierney said that the Haitian earthquake has destroyed much of its capital and affected approximately one-third of the population of the entire country. Haiti is the poorest nations in the western hemisphere and consequentially, 80 percent of its population lives in poverty.

Many agencies and non-governmental organizations were already in Haiti when the earthquake struck, but their capabilities have been damaged within the area, Tierney said.

“For example, Doctors Without Borders have lost the clinic that they have there,” Tierney said. “The coordination that they have there, the U.S., the U.N., and the government of Haiti, is not particularly well organized but we wouldn’t expect it to be in a catastrophe. But unfortunately the victims don’t have time.”

Joining with worldwide relief efforts are many student initiatives, such as the Colorado Student Public Interest Research Group’s campaign on campus to recruit volunteers and raise money for Haiti.

Blia Yang, a 19-year-old freshman open-option major, was outside the UMC asking for donations for the Red Cross. Though this was just her second day with CoPIRG, Yang said she had been looking for a way to help out.

“We’re trying to get money to help them out and trying to get people involved for CoPIRG,” Yang said. “There are different campaigns being run, such as homelessness, environmental and transportation, but we also help with whatever current event is going on.”

Yang had a sign that asked passersbys to text HAITI to the number 90999. $10 would then be added to your cell phone bill and sent to the Red Cross.

Marzelli said he had similar Good Samaritan thoughts after seeing the news the morning of the quake.

“I woke up and I saw the news, and I like to help people so I figured I could do everything to get involved,” Marzelli said.

Marzelli helped to organize an event that will take place at The Goose bar on the Hill this Friday from 3-7 p.m.

“What it is, is a happy hour where there’s a $5 admission fee, prizes, drink and food specials, and live music,” Marzelli said. “All of it goes to the Colorado Haiti Project. They’ve been in Haiti for 20 years now and need money for their buildings that have been damaged and funding for victims.”

“CHP is a state-wide non-profit organization founded in 1989 to extend aid to the poorest of the poor in a rural area called Petit Trou de Nippes, about 80 miles west of Port-au-Prince,” according to The Colorado Haiti Project’s Web site.

“It’s also my message to get involved and help out,” Marzelli said. “I wanted to show how easy it is to get involved.”

Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Sheila V Kumar at Sheila.kumar@colorado.edu.