List of natural disasters in Haiti

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Throughout its history, Haiti has suffered cyclones, hurricanes, tropical storms, torrential rains, floods, famine, disease and earthquakes.

Contents

The hurricane season in Haiti lasts from June to the end of November.

The following is a non-exhaustive list of natural disasters which have struck Haiti. [1]

Disasters

Districts of Haiti Haiti departements map-fr.png
Districts of Haiti
Map of Haiti Haiti topographic map-fr.png
Map of Haiti
1684
1691
  • Earthquake [2]
1751
1816
1842
1887
1904
1909
1915
1935
1946
1952
1954
1963
1964
1966
1976
1980
1984
1986
1987
1988
1989
1994
1998
2002
2004
Hurricane Dennis, 10 July 2005 at 16:15 UTC. Dennis 2005-07-10 1615Z (alternate).jpg
Hurricane Dennis, 10 July 2005 at 16:15 UTC.
2005
2006
2007
Trajectory of Hurricane Hanna in 2008, prior to its extra-tropical transition Hanna 2008 track.png
Trajectory of Hurricane Hanna in 2008, prior to its extra-tropical transition
2008
2009
  • 20 October: heavy rain in the Haitian capital and its suburbs. Carrefour, in the southern suburbs, was completely flooded.
2010
  • 12 January: the magnitude 7.0 2010 Haiti earthquake which occurred on 12 at 16:53, local time. The earthquake killed between 100,000 and 316,000 people. Its epicentre was at approximately 25 km from Port-au-Prince, the capital. A dozen secondary shocks of magnitudes ranging from 5.0 to 5.9 were registered during the hours which followed. It was one of the deadliest earthquakes ever recorded.
  • 20 January: A second earthquake [15] [16] of magnitude 6.1 occurred on 20 January 2010 at 06:03 local time. Its epicentre was at approximately 59 km west of Port-au-Prince, and at least 10 km beneath the surface.
  • 20 October: A Cholera epidemic hit outside of Port-au-Prince, killing at least 3,597 and sickening over 340,000. [17]
  • 5 November: Hurricane Tomas hits and kills at least 10 Haitians causing damage and worsening the cholera epidemic.
2012
  • 24 October: Hurricane Sandy passes just west of Haiti, delivering heavy rainfall and leaving some areas with catastrophic flooding. At least 108 people were killed and 21 were left missing. Around 200,000 people were left homeless as of October 29.
2016
  • 3–4 October: Hurricane Matthew hits Haiti with catastrophic flooding of up to 40 inches and storm surge of up to 10 feet. [18] At least 580 people were killed and more than 35,000 left homeless by the storm.
2018
  • 6 October: A 5.9 magnitude earthquake with a depth of 11.7km [19] occurred at 20:11 local time killing 12 people and injuring 188. Damage was mainly recorded in the far north of the island as stated by the Prime Minister Jean-Henry Céant.
2020
2021
  • 4 July: Hurricane Elsa passed near the Tiburon Peninsula, Haiti although damage was reported to banana and corn crops, as well as damage to the roofs of some buildings; no other forms of significant damage to infrastructure were reported.
  • 14 August: A magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck Southwestern Haiti. Its epicenter was about 10 km from Petit-Trou-de-Nippes, approximately 150 km (93 miles) west of Port-au-Prince, the capital. The quake left behind significant damage. Tsunami warnings were immediately issued as several small tsunami waves struck surrounding areas. An estimated 2,207 people have been confirmed dead, while 344 remain missing, and over 12,000 left injured. It is the strongest earthquake to strike Haiti since 1842.
  • 17 August: Hurricane Grace brought heavy rainfall to Haiti, reaching around 10 in (250 mm); this caused flooding in areas affected by a magnitude-7.2 earthquake in the country that previously killed thousands. Strong winds destroyed homes previously damaged by the earthquake.

2022

2023

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geography of Haiti</span>

The Republic of Haiti comprises the western three-eighths of the island of Hispaniola, west of the Dominican Republic. Haiti is positioned east of the neighboring island of Cuba, between the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean.

All of the major transportation systems in Haiti are located near or run through the capital, Port-au-Prince.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ouest (department)</span> Department of Haiti

Ouest (French) or Lwès is one of the ten departments of Haiti. It is located in south-central Haiti, linking the Great-North and the Tiburon Peninsula.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nord-Ouest (department)</span> Department of Haiti

Nord-Ouest (French) or Nòdwès is one of the ten departments of Haiti as well as the northernmost one. It has an area of 2,102.88 km2 (811.93 sq mi) and a population of 728,807. Its capital is Port-de-Paix.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sud-Est (department)</span> Department of Haiti

Sud-Est (French) or Sidès is one of the ten departments of Haiti located in southern Haiti. It has an area of 2,034.10 km2 and a population of 632,601 (2015). Its capital is Jacmel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tropical Storm Alpha (2005)</span> Atlantic tropical storm

Tropical Storm Alpha was the 23rd tropical or subtropical storm of the extremely active 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. It developed from Tropical Depression Twenty-Five in the eastern Caribbean Sea on October 22, 2005. As the 21 pre-designated storm names had been exhausted, it was given the first name on the auxiliary list, which utilized the letters of the Greek alphabet. This was the first hurricane season ever to trigger this naming protocol, and the only one until the 2020 season.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nippes</span> Department of Haiti

Nippes (French) or Nip is one of the ten departments of Haiti located in southern Haiti. It is the most recently created department, having been split from Grand'Anse in 2003. The capital of the department is Miragoâne, and it is the least populous department in Haiti.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Departments of Haiti</span> First-level administrative territorial entity of Haiti

In the administrative divisions of Haiti, the department is the first of four levels of government. Haiti is divided administratively into ten departments, which are further subdivided into 42 arrondissements, 145 communes, and 571 communal sections.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tiburon Peninsula</span> Region and peninsula in Haïti

The Tiburon Peninsula, or The Xaragua Peninsula, simply "the Tiburon", is a region of Haiti encompassing most of Haiti's southern coast. It starts roughly at the southernmost point of the Haiti-Dominican Republic border and extends westward near Cuba, forming a large headland. Three of Haiti's ten departments are located entirely within the region. They are the departments of Grand'Anse, Nippes and Sud.

Belle-Anse is a commune in the Belle-Anse Arrondissement, in the Sud-Est department of Haiti. It has 51,707 inhabitants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1909 Greater Antilles hurricane</span> Category 2 Atlantic hurricane in 1909

The 1909 Greater Antilles hurricane was a rare, late-season tropical cyclone that caused extensive damage and loss of life in Jamaica and Haiti, and the wettest Atlantic hurricane on record. Forming out of a large disturbance in early November, the hurricane began as a minimal tropical storm over the southwestern Caribbean on November 8. Slowly tracking northeastward, the system gradually intensified. Late on November 11, the storm brushed the eastern tip of Jamaica before attaining hurricane status. The following afternoon, the storm made landfall in northwest Haiti with winds of 85 mph (135 km/h). After moving over the Atlantic Ocean, the hurricane further intensified and attained its peak winds of 105 mph (170 km/h) on November 13. The system rapidly transitioned into an extratropical cyclone the following day before being absorbed by a frontal system northeast of the Lesser Antilles.

The Haitian Basketball Federation (FHB) is the governing body of basketball in Haiti. It was founded in 1970 and members of the FIBA since its formation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Effects of Hurricane Dennis in Haiti</span>

In early July 2005, Hurricane Dennis brushed the southern coast of Haiti and produced deadly flash flooding across the nation. Forming from a tropical depression on July 4, Dennis began impacting Haiti two days later with heavy rains. Civil authorities and international agencies acted quickly to protect lives, ordering evacuations—approximately 1,000 people complied—and prepositioning emergency supplies. Over the subsequent two days, the hurricane's outer bands continued to impact the nation before effects abated. Widespread flash floods and landslides caused substantial damage, with areas along the Tiburon Peninsula taking the brunt of the impact. A bridge collapse near Grand-Goâve left 15 people dead or missing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Effects of Hurricane Matthew in Haiti</span>

Hurricane Matthew struck southwestern Haiti near Les Anglais on October 4, 2016, leaving widespread damage in the impoverished nation. Matthew was a late-season Category 5 hurricane on the Saffir–Simpson scale, having formed in the southeastern Caribbean on September 28. The hurricane weakened to Category 4 before making landfall near Les Anglais on October 4, at which time the National Hurricane Center estimated maximum sustained winds of 240 km/h (150 mph). This made it the strongest storm to hit the nation since Hurricane Cleo in 1964, and the third strongest Haitian landfall on record. Hurricane-force winds – 119 km/h (74 mph) or greater – affected about 1.125 million people in the country. The Haitian government assessed the death toll at 546, although other sources reported more than three times that figure.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hurricanes in Hispaniola</span>

Hispaniola is an island in the Caribbean, with the second largest size throughout all of the Caribbean. Throughout the centuries, since reliable records began, hundreds of hurricanes and tropical cyclones have affected Haiti and the Dominican Republic, the two countries that share the island. The most recent tropical cyclone to affect Hispaniola was Hurricane Fiona in September 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2023 Haiti floods</span> Flooding in Haiti caused by heavy rains

On 2–3 June 2023, heavy rains caused destructive flooding across Haiti. Western areas of the country were particularly hard-hit. At least 51 people were killed, 140 were injured, and 11 were reported missing as of 6 June.

References

  1. Natural disasters of Haiti Archived 2001-12-25 at the Wayback Machine (in French)
  2. Jules Trousset, Nouveau Dictionnaire encyclopédique universel illustré, 18861889, tome 3, p. 214
  3. In 1770, the historian Moreau de Saint-Méry reported that "la ville entière fut renversée" ("the entire city was turned upside down")
  4. Moreau de Saint-Méry, Description topographique, physique, civile, politique et historique de la partie française de l'Ile Saint Domingue, quoted in Claude Prepetit, "Tremblements de terre en Haïti, mythe ou réalité ?", Le Matin, Issue 33082, 9 October 2008
  5. Madiou, Thomas. Histoire d'Haïti. Tome V: 18111818; p. 368
  6. Séisme en Haïti, la bonne carte tectonique
  7. According to the Haitian Office of Civil Protection, quoted by Haiti-Press Network on 5 June 2002
  8. According to a report dated 8 June 2004 by Haitian Civil Protection
  9. Le cri de Mapou
  10. Haïti - Pays en crise
  11. Sources: Civil Protection, 4 October 2004
  12. Inondations en Haïti 25 novembre 2006
  13. Course of Tropical Storm Fay, 2008 Archived 2011-07-21 at the Wayback Machine
  14. "La ville est inondée et en certains endroits l'eau atteint deux mètres... De nombreux habitants sont réfugiés sur les toits des maisons depuis hier soir pour fuir la montée des eaux". ("The town is flooded and at certain points the water is up to two metres ... Numerous residents have taken refuge on house roofs since yesterday evening, in flight from the rising waters"), Alta Jean-Baptiste, Director of Civil Protection.
  15. Un nouveau séisme de magnitude 6 frappe Haïti
  16. Haïti : nouveau séisme de magnitude 6,1
  17. "Haiti cholera outbreak prompts fresh UN aid plea". BBC News. 12 November 2010. Retrieved 12 November 2010.
  18. "Hurricane Matthew advisory 22". National Hurricane Center. 3 October 2016. Retrieved 3 October 2016.
  19. "Earthquake Event Page". earthquake.usgs.gov. Retrieved 2018-10-07.