PAST NOTABLE DISASTERS IN THE CARIBBEAN BASIN

PAST NOTABLE DISASTERS IN THE CARIBBEAN BASIN

1963 TO THE PRESENT

Walter Hays, Global Alliance for Disaster Reduction, University of

North Carolina, USA

HURRICANE FLORA: 1963

• More than 8,000 people were killed as the fifth-deadliest tropical hurricane ever in the Atlantic devastated Haiti and Cuba.

HURRICANE FLORA: SEPT 26 - OCT 12, 1963

HURRICANE GORDON: 1994

•Nearly 1,000 Haitians were buried in mudslides caused by heavy rainfall in areas having wide-spread deforestation

HURRICANE GEORGES: 1998

• 400 victims

• 80 percent of the crops were destroyed.

HURRICANE JEANNE: 2004

• Floods caused by more than (40 cm) 13 inches of rain kill more than 3,000 people, mainly in Gonaives.

FAY, HANNA, GUSTAV, IKE: 2008

• 793 people died, 310 were missing and 593 were injured in successive strikes.

• Nearly 23,000 homes were destroyed.

• The storms affected 800,000 Haitians and wiped out 70 percent of the country's crops.

• Damage was estimated at $1 billion, 5 percent of Haiti's GDP.

EARTHQUAKE NEAR JAMAICA: JUNE 7, 1692

• Magnitude uncertain

• 2,000 deaths

EARTHQUAKE NEAR PUERTO RICO: MAY 2, 1787

• Magnitude 8

EARTHQUAKE NEAR LEEWARD ISLANDS: FEB 8, 1843

•Magnitude 8.3

• 5,000 deaths

EARTHQUAKE NEAR KINGSTON, JAIMACA: JAN 14, 1907

•Magnitude 6.5

• 1,000 deaths

EARTHQUAKE NEAR SAMAN, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: AUG 4, 1907

•Magnitude 8

• 100 deaths

EARTHQUAKE NEAR GUADELOUPE, LEEWARD ISLANDS: DEC 25, 1969

•Magnitude 7.2

EARTHQUAKE NEAR LEEWARD ISLANDS: OCT 8, 1974

•Magnitude 7.5

EARTHQUAKE: NEAR MARTINIQUE, WINDWARD ISLANDS: NOV 29, 2007

•Magnitude 7.4

EARTHQUAKE: NEAR PORT AU PRINCE, HAITI; JAN 12, 2007

•Magnitude 7.0

•A catastrophe with an estimated 220,000 deaths and over $1 billion economic loss.

THE HAITI EARTHQUAKE AND THE CARIBBEAN PLATE