Family Preparedness for Earthquakes

Outreach accounts for the multi-hazard context, which during the project duration has included tropical cyclones, floods, landslides, and epidemics.  GHI promoted preparedness steps specific to where people live, and in plain language explained the science behind local risk. Community outreach focused in areas of high earthquake and tsunami hazard in Cap Haitïen, Port-de-Paix and Anse-à-Veau, Haiti, and in four communities in the Cibao Valley in the northern Dominican Republic. Sourcebooks (coming soon) that compile available hazard and preparedness information, for professionals to use when working to increase resilience to geologic hazards, are available for Haiti in Creole, French, and English and for the Dominican Republic inSpanish and English.

Earthquake Threats to People in Hispaniola

Many families in Haiti and Dominican Republic live in areas where a damaging earthquake, and the landslides it could trigger, will occur suddenly without warning. A powerful offshore earthquake near the north coast could also quickly generate a lethal tsunami. Through understanding where large earthquakes and tsunamis are likely to occur, we know where the impacts to people will be most damaging, and where taking action to prepare will protect lives. Residents of both countries generally take steps to be safer from hurricanes and tropical storms that strike every year, but they lack information about how to prepare for earthquakes and tsunamis, which strike at intervals of decades to centuries.

Haiti and the Dominican Republic are situated along the boundary of two major tectonic plates. The Caribbean plate is steadily pushing northeast, relative to the North American plate pushing westward. Hispaniola, the island the two nations share, has many active faults that can generate large earthquakes, most notably the Septentrional fault in the north, the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault system in the south, and two offshore faults, the North Hispaniola fault (a continuation of the Puerto Rico trench) along the northern coast, and the Muertos trough off the southern coast. GHI selected project areas along the Septentrional Fault in northern Haiti and the Dominican Republic, and near the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault zone in southern Haiti. Anse-à-veau is located near the eastern end of the area affected by the 2021 M7.2 Nippes earthquake, and west of the area affected by the 2010 M7.0 earthquake. Tsunamis are triggered when a fault moves under the ocean or by submarine landslides, which themselves can be triggered by earthquakes. The 1842 earthquake triggered a major tsunami that struck Haiti’s northern coast, and a 1946 M7.9 offshore earthquake caused a major tsunami affecting the northeast coast of the Dominican Republic.

Project Activities and Impacts

The project benefitted over 129,000 people by providing actionable preparedness information in Cap Haitïen, Anse-à-Veau, and Port-de-Paix, Haiti; and in four smaller communities in vicinity of Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic: Villa Bisonó (Navarrete), Villa Gonzáles, San Francisco de Jacagua (Jacagua) and Tamboril. GHI reached families through trusted social institutions such as schools and churches, and via direct outreach primarily at markets, cultural festivals, and via local radio. People learned practical steps to make their homes more disaster resistant, what to do before, during and after a disaster, and how to make a family or organizational emergency plan.

GHI trained over 800 people serving the population in Haiti’s schools and religious organizations on how to prepare their institutions and the people they serve for disasters. Participants learned to prepare emergency plans, what to do in a disaster, and practical skills to build resilience. These trained leaders are now able to support preparedness and resilience in their communities.