Two years since the Haiti earthquake

Two years have passed since a ferocious earthquake levelled much of Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, and killed about 250,000 people. It was one of the worst natural disasters of recent times, striking one of the poorest nations. There is still lots of work to do in Haiti (60,000 people still live in tents) and it is worth reading some reports that show how difficult it is for poor countries to recover after such devastating disasters, even with the assistance of foreign help.


Click on the title to read one report about the earthquake


Click here to read a different article


Click here to read a blog from UNICEF about the earthquake

Toads can predict earthquakes!

Scientists believe they have an explanation for Italian toads' apparent ability to sense the earthquake that struck the city of L'Aquila on 6 April 2009. Animals may sense chemical changes in groundwater that occur when an earthquake is about to strike and this could be the cause of bizarre earthquake-associated animal behaviour.

By chance, Dr Rachel Grant of the UK's Open University was monitoring a toad population at San Ruffino Lake, around 74km from the quake's epicentre. Five days before the 6.3 magnitude shake, "the number of male common toads in the breeding colony fell by 96 per cent", while "most breeding pairs and males fled" three days before the earth moved.


click on the title for more information

Earthquake in Haiti

On Tuesday a big earthquake hit the poor Caribbean country of Haiti.

The extent of the devastation from the huge quake in Haiti is slowly emerging thousands of people feared dead.

Jordan, Brazil and China have all reported deaths, and France says it fears the Tunisian head of the UN mission in Haiti has been killed.

The 7.0-magnitude quake, Haiti's worst in two centuries, struck south of the capital, Port-au-Prince, on Tuesday.

The Red Cross says up to three million people have been affected

The quake's epicentre was only 10 miles from the Capital city, Port-au-Prince, which has a population of about 1 million, and aftershocks as powerful as 5.9 rattled the city throughout the night and into today. Reports on casualties and damage were slow to get out of Haiti due to communication problems.

As the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti is ill-equipped to respond to such a disaster, lacking heavy equipment to move debris and a sufficient force of emergency personnel.


Click the headline to go to BBC reports about the disaster.