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