Puerto Rico Earthquakes 2019 - 2020
Haiti has two
Roman Catholic ecclesiastical provinces: Cap Haitien and
Port-au-Prince.The tenth anniversary of the Port-au-Prince earthquake
has just passed. The area around Cap Haitien, which had an urban
population of about 155,000 and a metropolitan area population of
about 260,000 in 2009, is on the northern shore, and was largely
undamaged in 2010. But in Port-au-Prince, then with an urban
population of 880,000 and a metropolitan area population of 2,400,000,
the deaths and injuries were horrific, the bulk of the city was
leveled, and the national cathedral of Haiti was destroyed. About six months
prior to that disaster we had strongly suggested to the government of
Haiti and to the Roman Catholic archbishop that churches and
cathedrals be given a seismic safety assessment. This is usually done
by licensed structural engineers: a long-time colleague, the late Mark
Saito, did such an assessment of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the
Assumption. He was very alarmed by his findings, but was unable to
convince Archbishop Serge Miot to live elsewhere.
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