A 7.0-magnitude earthquake devastated Haiti on Jan. 12, leaving much of the country in shambles. Hospitals, entire neighborhoods, schools and even the presidential palace were among the wreckage. For many people, the quake hit close to home, but for some University students, it was home. According to International Services, three Haitian citizens were enrolled as students at the University during fall 2009.Myrtho Joseph, geography graduate student, said he waited two days before hearing his family in Haiti was alive.
“It’s a big relief,” Joseph said. “It seems that when you are waiting for news, and you don’t know whether it’s good or bad, you can’t manage. I don’t have to worry anymore.”Joseph, who was born in Haiti, came to the U.S. in 2005 and enrolled at the University in 2008 to pursue his master’s degree. His family flew to Haiti the week before the earthquake after visiting Joseph in Baton Rouge for two weeks.”The hope is they can come back and stay with me,” he said. “But, there’s no way to fly them out.”Gaelle Sampeur, economics graduate student, returned to her home in Haiti for the winter break. Maureen Hewitt, director of the International Cultural Center, said she received an e-mail from Sampeur on Thursday evening. Though the brief e-mail confirmed Sampeur is safe, Hewitt said she is unsure when Sampeur will be able to return to campus from Haiti. “She is in a city in crisis,” Hewitt said. “We’ll help her in any way we can.”The death toll may be as high as 50,000 to 100,000 people, according to the Pan American Health Organization, and many countries have already contributed to the disaster relief effort.Haiti is one of the poorest and least developed countries in the world, and it lacks the necessary infrastructure to respond to disasters, according to Kent Matthewson,      geography professor.”But the people, as a result of being poor in terms of material possessions, have developed over the centuries a very resilient culture,” he said. “They have been able to meet diversity, in many ways, head on.”Jay Edwards, anthropology professor and vernacular architecture specialist, said buildings in Haiti take many years to complete. Edwards said the houses are built layer upon layer at a time as materials accumulate.Because Haiti lacks sufficient building regulations, Edwards said people often skimp on rebar, a metal structure that stabilizes a house’s foundation.Typical Haitian homes are made of concrete frame posts with plates across the top and bottom, and open spaces are filled with cinder blocks, Edwards said.  “There’s nothing holding those cinder blocks in there except gravity,” Edwards said. “Even if the frame doesn’t collapse, it’s very likely the blocks will.”Edwards said the earthquake occurred at a highly urbanized area full of the cement constructions. “The area was highly vulnerable to exactly the kind of shocks that it got,” Edwards said. “It couldn’t have happened in a worse place.”
The University is also doing its part in disaster relief.Amy Potter, geography graduate student, spearheaded a campus-wide relief group called “Tigers for Haiti,” which will be collecting donations to purchase LifeStraws — portable water filters for prevention of common diarrheal disease.Students can bring $5 to the “Tigers for Haiti” booth in Free Speech Alley on Thursday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Students can also follow the organization on Twitter and Facebook.–Contact Sarah Eddington at [email protected]