On January 12, 2010, an earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale shook Haiti to its core. By the 24th of January, at least 52 aftershocks measuring 4.5 or greater had been recorded. An estimated three million people were affected by the quake and approximately 450,000 persons have left Port‐au‐Prince since. On 27 January, the Haitian President Rene Preval stated that "nearly 170,000" bodies had been counted. In February, Prime Minister Jean‐Max Bellerive
estimated that 300,000 had been injured.
In the face of disasters such as this, the first question that people ask is “What can I do to help?” Spatial Innovision in collaboration with our global partners ESRI and GeoEye responded to the needs of the Haitian people by providing resources including personnel, maps, satellite imagery and data for aerial, pre‐disaster and post‐disaster assessment.
Spatial assigned four (4) team members to coordinate communication and relief assistance between our affected colleagues in Haiti and others who were willing to help. One staff member was dedicated solely to the CARICOM disaster response team led by the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM), Jamaica. This officer operates through the National Emergency Response GIS Team (NERGIST) which was formed by the Land Information Council of Jamaica in 2009.
Haiti still needs our assistance, for information on accessing resources for assisting the recovery effort, visit www.esri.com/haiti/index.html. Visit us at www.facebook.com/spatialvision to find ways to contribute to Haiti’s relief
operations and recovery assessments.
We continue to pray for our Haitian brothers and sisters.