Haiti's unique position and geography in the Carribean makes it especially vulnerable to many kinds of natural disasters. The most notable of these disasters are landfalls from tropical cyclones, major earthquakes (due to its position over an active fault line), and general flooding events (often accompanied with landslides that kill hundreds).
Confirmable records of these disasters go back to at least the 15th century, and it is all but certain that many more were unrecorded or otherwise lost affecting the indigenous tribes of Haiti even before then.
The following is a non-exhaustive list of natural disasters which have struck Haiti. [1]
2022
2023
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Jacmel is an arrondissement in the Sud-Est department of Haiti. As of 2015, the population was 338,728 inhabitants.
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.
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 674, although other sources reported more than three times that figure.
On October 6, 2018, at approximately 8:11 p.m, a magnitude 5.9 earthquake struck 19 kilometers northwest of Port-de-Paix, Haiti. The earthquake damaged structures and killed 18 people.
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 Franklin in August 2023.
At 08:29:09 EDT on 14 August 2021, a magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck the Tiburon Peninsula of southern Haiti. It had a 10-kilometre-deep (6.2 mi) hypocenter near Petit-Trou-de-Nippes, approximately 150 kilometres (93 mi) west of the capital, Port-au-Prince. Tsunami warnings were briefly issued for the Haitian coast. At least 2,248 people were confirmed killed as of 1 September 2021 and more than 12,200 injured, mostly in the Sud Department. An estimated 650,000 people were in need of assistance. At least 137,500 buildings were damaged or destroyed.
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.