Humanitarian response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake

Main article: 2010 Haiti earthquake
Main article: Casualties of the 2010 Haiti earthquake
American and French rescue workers carry a survivor, who was trapped under the rubble from the debris of the Hôtel Montana in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on January 15, 2010.
Rescue workers supplies delivered to Haiti from the U.S. Navy ships, on January 16, 2010.
The Israel Defense Forces team extracts a person, who was trapped under the rubble from the government building in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on January 17, 2010.
The Los Angeles County Fire Department urban search and rescue workers pulls Haitian woman from the earthquake debris in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on January 17, 2010.
U.S. Air Force pararescueman climb a ladder to save a survivor at the collapsed building in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on January 19, 2010.

The response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake included national governments, charitable and for-profit organizations from around the world which began coordinating humanitarian aid designed to help the Haitian people. Some countries arranged to send relief and rescue workers and humanitarian supplies directly to the earthquake damage zones, while others sought to organize national fund raising to provide monetary support for the nonprofit groups working directly in Haiti. OCHA coordinates and tracks this on a daily basis.[1] The information is disseminated through the UN news and information portal, ReliefWeb. As of September 5, 2013, ReliefWeb have reported a total relief funding of $3.5 billion given (and a further $1 billion pledged but not given).[2]

The United States was by far the largest single contributor to the relief efforts. The international community also committed numerous major assets such as field hospitals, naval vessels, a hospital ship, aircraft carriers, transport aircraft and emergency facilities soon after the extent of the disaster became apparent. The Dominican Republic was the first country to mobilize resources to aid and rescue Haiti immediately after the earthquake.

Progress in responding to the earthquake was hampered by a number of factors, including loss of life, a number of aftershocks, destroyed infrastructures, collapsed buildings blocking streets, the lack of electricity for gasoline station pumps, loss of the capital's seaport, and loss of air traffic control facilities. The damage to the Haitian government ministries, all of which suffered varying degrees of destruction and personnel deaths, impeded coordination of the disaster response.

In April 2010, the Haitian government asked that food distribution in the Pétion-Ville camp cease in order to allow the normal economy to resume.[3]

  1. ^ "Haiti earthquake aid pledged by country", The Guardian, 14 January 2010.
  2. ^ "Financial Tracking Service". www.reliefweb.int.
  3. ^ St. Pierre, Mary (April 23 – May 6, 2010). "Rebuilding Haiti one small step at a time". Florida Catholic. Orlando, Florida. pp. A1. Archived from the original on 2010-06-13.