Haiti earthquake

January 12, 2010

A magnitude 7.0 quake hit ten miles from Port-au-Prince in the late afternoon, collapsing the presidential palace, the cathedral, and acres of cinder-block neighborhoods built without reinforcement. Estimates of the dead ranged from 100,000 to 300,000. A poor country became poorer, and the international relief effort became a case study in failure and misplaced good intentions.