18 Feb, 2010
You can’t put a price on them
Estimates of Quake Damage in Haiti Increase by Billions
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — The devastating earthquake that hit Haiti last month may have caused billions of dollars more in damage than initially estimated, according to a study released Tuesday by the Inter-American Development Bank.
The study, based on a statistical analysis of data from 2,000 natural disasters over 40 years, estimates that the cost could be $7.2 billion to $13.2 billion, based on a death toll of 200,000 to 250,000.
The authors — Eduardo A. Cavallo, Andrew Powell and Oscar Becerra — note that Haiti’s economy is likely to be stunted by the earthquake for many years, citing an earlier study that shows that “even 10 years after a major disaster, the affected country growth may be some 30 percent below what growth would have been.”
The quake caused five times more deaths per million inhabitants, the bank said, than the second-ranking natural killer, the 1972 earthquake in Nicaragua. The Haiti quake will be vastly more destructive that the Asian tsunami in 2004 and the cyclone that hit Myanmar in 2008.
The astronomical figures were difficult to fathom for Haiti’s traumatized residents, but they certainly agreed that the earthquake’s damage had been profound.
“All those buildings, the cars, the collapsed houses, a lot has been lost,” said Jean Philippe Dorzin, 32, interviewed on the edge of a vast squatter camp in Port-au-Prince’s Champ de Mars, where thousands of displaced people now live within sight of the damaged National Palace and other destroyed government buildings. “One thing we’ll never recover is all the people we’ve lost. You can’t put a price on them.”
Story & photo courtesy of The New York Times.
Genesis 1:27 (NIV)
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
When God created male and female they were created "in the image of God". Of all the beauty in the universe, snow covered mountains, majestic animals, breathtaking wilderness, out of all the created order only human beings are said to be stamped with the very image of God. That's why, in the face of all the damage to the essential infrastructure in Haiti, the biggest and most costly losses are the human ones. That's also why we must make time to pray for those who are mourning in Haiti. Nothing is more difficult than grieving the loss of a loved one, a friend, a family member, someone in whom the grace, love, and image of God are most tangible. The amount of loss is historic, it has impacted more people per population size than almost any other natural disaster ever, that means that almost everyone in the country of Haiti is dealing with the loss of someone close to them.
Other than praying for those in mourning in Haiti how else can we respond? Well if there are any churches or service agencies going to do relief work in Haiti, go with them. While that's not reasonable or possible for all of us to do, we can all respond in some way. We can all do our best to see the image of God alive in our friends, family, and the people we meet. In doing so we'll truly be empowered to love our enemies, think of others before ourselves, and make known the radical love of Jesus to everyone we meet.
- How is the "image of God" visible in your life?
- Pray for those who are mourning in Haiti.
- Ask a friend how they would describe your image... you might be surprised what they say.
- Think about someone you're in a fight or feud with, what "image of God" can you see in their life? Allow that image to move you closer to reconciliation.
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