In a fine think-piece on the underlying causes of Haiti’s tragedy, New York Times columnist David Brooks begins with a simple comparison. In 1989, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck the Bay Area of Northern California, and 63 people died. Last week a magnitude 7.0 quake shattered Haiti, and as many as 200,000 people died.
His point, paraphrased, is that Haiti’s tragedy was not seismic but economic: It was abject poverty, not plate tectonics, that caused so many deaths. Nations that can afford thoughtful zoning, good engineering, and quality construction can build to last and withstand such shocks. Nations forced by demographics and penury into haphazard sprawl must build for the moment and can’t survive natural disasters.
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