102-495: West Midlands Fire Service ( WMFS ) is the fire and rescue service for the metropolitan county of West Midlands , England . The service has 38 fire stations, with a blended fleet of vehicles and specialist resources. The service is led by a Chief Executive Officer who is overseen by the West Midlands Fire Authority. The Fire Authority is made up of 15 councillors who represent the seven councils within
204-560: A Greater Manchester Combined Authority as an indirectly elected, top tier, strategic authority for Greater Manchester . In 2014 similar indirectly elected combined authorities were established for the metropolitan counties of South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire, and two combined authorities were established which each covered a metropolitan county and adjacent non-metropolitan districts: the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority for Merseyside and
306-606: A reform of local government in England and Wales. They were the top tier of a two-tier system of counties and metropolitan boroughs , and were created to govern large urban areas. In 1986 their county councils were abolished, and since then the metropolitan counties have had no local government role. The local government functions were largely taken over by the metropolitan boroughs, with joint boards created to co-ordinate some county-wide services. The metropolitan counties are all ceremonial counties which share their borders. All of
408-449: A tsunami warning immediately after the initial quake, but quickly cancelled it. Nearly two weeks later it was reported that the beach of the small fishing town of Petit Paradis was hit by a localised tsunami shortly after the earthquake, probably as a result of an underwater landslide, and this was later confirmed by researchers. At least three people were swept out to sea by the wave and were reported dead. Witnesses told reporters that
510-487: A " guesstimate ", and Belgian disaster response expert Claude de Ville de Goyet noted that " round numbers are a sure sign that nobody knows." Edmond Mulet , UN Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations , said, "I do not think we will ever know what the death toll is from this earthquake", while the director of the Haitian Red Cross, Jean-Pierre Guiteau, noted that his organization had not had
612-498: A "roving ambassador" for Haiti, also pleaded for aid and donations. Images and testimonials circulating after the earthquake across the internet and through social media helped to intensify the reaction of global engagement. Many countries responded to the appeals and launched fund-raising efforts, as well as sending search and rescue teams. The neighbouring Dominican Republic was the first country to give aid to Haiti, sending water, food and heavy-lifting machinery. The hospitals in
714-627: A decade after they were established, the mostly Labour -controlled metropolitan county councils (MCCs) and the Greater London Council (GLC) had several high-profile clashes with the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher about overspending and high rates . Government policy on the issue was considered throughout 1982, and the Conservative Party put a "promise to scrap the metropolitan county councils", and
816-558: A depth of 13 km (8.1 mi) on blind thrust faults associated with the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault system and lasted less than 30 seconds. There is no evidence of surface rupture; based on seismological, geological and ground deformation data, it is also thought that the earthquake did not involve significant lateral slip on the main Enriquillo fault. Strong shaking associated with intensity IX on
918-761: A field hospital and provide assistance in Port-au-Prince and other affected areas in Haiti. A rescue team sent by the Israel Defense Forces ' Home Front Command established a field hospital near the United Nations building in Port-au-Prince with specialised facilities to treat children, the elderly, and women in labor. It was set up in eight hours and began operations on the evening of 16 January. A Korean International Disaster Relief Team with 40 rescuers, medical doctors, nurses and 2 k-9s
1020-418: A fleet of pump rescue ladders, technical rescue pumps, brigade response vehicles, aerial ladder platforms which are also referred to as Hydraulic platforms. WMFS also operate business support vehicles in addition to various specialist appliances and transport vehicles. Operating out of three locations, a primary base at Bickenhill fire station and two other bases at Wednesbury and Sutton Coldfield fire stations,
1122-400: A large field outside the settlement of Titanyen , north of the capital; tens of thousands of bodies were reported as having been brought to the site by dump truck and buried in trenches dug by earth movers . Max Beauvoir , a Vodou priest, protested the lack of dignity in mass burials, stating, "... it is not in our culture to bury people in such a fashion, it is desecration". Towns in
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#17327839266291224-490: A matter of some dispute. The government of Haiti estimated that 250,000 residences and 30,000 commercial buildings had collapsed or were severely damaged. Haiti's history of national debt , prejudicial trade policies by other countries, and foreign intervention into national affairs contributed to the existing poverty and poor housing conditions that increased the death toll from the disaster. The earthquake caused major damage in Port-au-Prince, Jacmel and other cities in
1326-838: A mobile donation initiative with Mobile Accord to raise over $ 2 million within the first 24 hours after the earthquake. Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders; MSF) reported that the hospitals that had not been destroyed were overwhelmed by large numbers of seriously injured people. The hospitals had to perform many amputations. Running short of medical supplies, some teams had to work with any available resources, constructing splints out of cardboard and reusing latex gloves. Other rescue units had to withdraw as night fell, amid security fears. Over 3,000 people had been treated by Médecins Sans Frontières as of 18 January. Ophelia Dahl , director of Partners in Health , reported, "there are hundreds of thousands of injured people. I have heard
1428-666: A number of well-known Haitian musicians and sports figures, including thirty members of the Fédération Haïtienne de Football . At least 85 United Nations personnel working with MINUSTAH were killed, among them the Mission Chief, Hédi Annabi , his deputy, Luiz Carlos da Costa , and police commissioner Douglas Coates. Around 200 guests were killed in the collapse of the Hôtel Montana in Port-au-Prince. On 31 May 2011, an unreleased draft report based on
1530-639: A similar effort with Cuban refugees in the 1960s named " Pedro Pan ". On 29 January 2010, a group of ten American Baptist missionaries from Idaho attempted to cross the Haiti-Dominican Republic border with 33 Haitian children. The group, known as the New Life Children's Refuge , did not have proper authorization for transporting the children and were arrested on kidnapping charges. The Canadian government worked to expedite around 100 adoption cases that were already underway when
1632-608: A study published in May 2010 suggested that the rupture process may have involved slip on multiple blind thrust faults with only minor, deep, lateral slip along or near the main Enriquillo–Plantain Garden fault zone, suggesting that the event only partially relieved centuries of accumulated left-lateral strain on a small part of the plate-boundary system. The rupture was roughly 65 km (40 mi) long with mean slip of 1.8 metres (5 ft 11 in). Preliminary analysis of
1734-459: A survey commissioned by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) challenged the Haiti earthquake death toll and several damage estimates. The unpublished report put the death toll between 46,000 and 85,000 and put the number of displaced persons at 895,000, of which only 375,000 remained in temporary shelters. The unreleased report, which compiled its figures from a door-to-door survey,
1836-508: A thousand bodies had been placed on the streets and pavements. Government crews collected thousands more by truck, burying them in mass graves. In the heat and humidity, corpses buried in rubble began to decompose and smell. Mati Goldstein, head of the Israeli ZAKA International Rescue Unit delegation to Haiti, described the situation as " Shabbat from hell. Everywhere, the acrid smell of bodies hangs in
1938-620: Is Haitian Creole . As a result, a mobile translation program to translate between English and Haitian Creole had to be written quickly. The generation of waste from relief operations was referred to as a "second disaster". The United States military reported that millions of water bottles and styrofoam food packages were distributed although there was no operational waste management system. Over 700,000 plastic tarpaulins and 100,000 tents were required for emergency shelters. The increase in plastic waste, combined with poor disposal practices, resulted in open drainage channels being blocked, increasing
2040-524: Is no stranger to natural disasters. In addition to earthquakes, it has been struck frequently by tropical cyclones, which have caused flooding and widespread damage. The most recent cyclones to hit the island before the earthquake were Tropical Storm Fay and hurricanes Gustav , Hanna and Ike , all in the summer of 2008, causing nearly 800 deaths. The magnitude 7.0 M w earthquake occurred inland, on 12 January 2010 at 16:53 (UTC−05:00), approximately 25 km (16 mi) WSW from Port-au-Prince at
2142-945: Is subjected to a periodic statutory inspection by His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS). The inspection investigates how well the service performs in each of three areas. On a scale of outstanding, good, requires improvement and inadequate, West Midlands Fire and Rescue Service has been rated as follows: The service divides its main functions into three areas: response, prevention and protection. Response covers responding to emergencies, risk-based attendance standards, dynamic mobilising and Fire Control. Prevention covers their up-stream firefighting work that includes safe and well visits, community engagement, vulnerable persons officers and other individual and home-based fire prevention work. Protection covers their work around commercial and business fire safety, licensing and safety around buildings such as high-rise and apartment blocks. The following people have held
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#17327839266292244-598: Is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and is ranked 149th of 182 countries on the Human Development Index . The Australian government's travel advisory site had previously expressed concerns that Haitian emergency services would be unable to cope in the event of a major disaster, and the country is considered "economically vulnerable" by the Food and Agriculture Organization . Haiti
2346-721: The 1692 Jamaica earthquake . Paul Mann and a group including the 2006 study team presented a hazard assessment of the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault system to the 18th Caribbean Geologic Conference in March 2008, noting the large strain; the team recommended "high priority" historical geologic rupture studies, as the fault was fully locked and had recorded few earthquakes in the preceding 40 years. An article published in Haiti's Le Matin newspaper in September 2008 cited comments by geologist Patrick Charles to
2448-819: The Borough of Halton unitary authority, and the North East Combined Authority for Tyne and Wear and the unitary authorities of County Durham and Northumberland . In 2017 the West Midlands Combined Authority was established for the West Midlands county. Many of these new combined authorities have elected or are in the process of electing authority-wide regional mayors. Since 1995, the cities of Birmingham, Bristol , Leeds , Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle , Nottingham and Sheffield have assembled together in
2550-539: The Core Cities Group . This organisation accords no distinct legal status on these councils over any other city council in England but appears to be organically moving towards some kind of recognition of their role as regional capitals outside London. 2010 Haiti earthquake The 2010 Haiti earthquake was a catastrophic magnitude 7.0 M w earthquake that struck Haiti at 16:53 local time (21:53 UTC ) on Tuesday, 12 January 2010. The epicenter
2652-834: The Lieutenancies Act 1997 they remain as ceremonial counties (sometimes called 'geographic counties') which have an appointed Lord Lieutenant . They are also used in certain government statistics, although they no longer appear on Ordnance Survey maps, which show the individual metropolitan boroughs. Some local services are still run on a metropolitan county-wide basis, administered by statutory joint boards and special joint arrangements; these include policing (by joint police authorities ), fire services , public transport (by passenger transport executives ) and waste disposal (in Merseyside and Greater Manchester). These joint boards are made up of councillors appointed by
2754-733: The Local Government Act 1985 ; the MCCs and the GLC were abolished at midnight on 31 March 1986. The last elections to the councils were held in May 1981; elections that would have been held in 1985 were abandoned under the Local Government (Interim Provisions) Act 1984 ; the original plan had been for councillors' terms to expire in April 1985, and for councillors to be replaced by nominees from borough councils until 1986. While
2856-812: The Modified Mercalli scale (MM) was recorded in Port-au-Prince and its suburbs. It was also felt in several surrounding countries and regions, including Cuba (MM III in Guantánamo ), Jamaica (MM II in Kingston ), Venezuela (MM II in Caracas ), Puerto Rico (MM II–III in San Juan ), and the bordering Dominican Republic (MM III in Santo Domingo ). According to estimates from the U.S. Geological Survey , approximately 3.5 million people lived in
2958-606: The North American plate . The strike-slip fault system in the region has two branches in Haiti, the Septentrional-Oriente fault in the north and the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault in the south; both its location and focal mechanism suggested that the January 2010 quake was caused by a rupture of the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault, which had been locked for 250 years, gathering stress . However,
3060-656: The North East Combined Authority . The six metropolitan counties and their metropolitan districts are: The idea of creating administrative areas based upon the large conurbations outside London , modelled on the County of London or Greater London , was mooted several times in the 20th century. In 1948, the Local Government Boundary Commission proposed several new counties, including ' South East Lancashire North East Cheshire ' ("Selnec"), and ' South West Lancashire North West Cheshire '. In
3162-515: The Thames Gateway ) was also proposed. The metropolitan counties were created by the Local Government Act 1972 . The county councils were first elected in 1973, and were formally established in April 1974. The metropolitan counties were first created with a two-tier structure of local government. Local government functions were divided between the metropolitan district councils as lower tier authorities and metropolitan county councils as
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3264-803: The United Nations noted that the emergency phase of the relief operation was drawing to a close, and on the following day, the Haitian government officially called off the search for survivors. The island of Hispaniola , shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic , is seismically active and has a history of destructive earthquakes . During Haiti's time as a French colony, earthquakes were recorded by French historian Moreau de Saint-Méry (1750–1819). He described damage done by an earthquake in 1751, writing that "only one masonry building had not collapsed" in Port-au-Prince; he also wrote that
3366-531: The World Bank were destroyed. The building housing the offices of Citibank in Port-au-Prince collapsed, killing five employees. The clothing industry, which accounts for two-thirds of Haiti's exports, reported structural damage at manufacturing facilities. The quake created a landslide dam on the Rivière de Grand Goâve . As of February 2010 the water level was low, but engineer Yves Gattereau believed
3468-564: The county boroughs in the West Midlands area ( Birmingham , Coventry , Dudley , Solihull , Walsall , Warley , West Bromwich and Wolverhampton ) had their own fire brigade, the largest of which was the City of Birmingham Fire Brigade . WMFS was created by a merger of these county borough fire brigades, plus fire stations rom the fire brigades of Warwickshire, Worcestershire and Staffordshire. Every fire and rescue service in England and Wales
3570-536: The "whole city collapsed" in the 1770 Port-au-Prince earthquake . Cap-Haïtien , other towns in the north of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, and the Sans-Souci Palace were destroyed during an earthquake on 7 May 1842 . A magnitude 8.0 earthquake struck the Dominican Republic and shook Haiti on 4 August 1946, producing a tsunami that killed 1,790 people and injured many others. Haiti
3672-543: The 1960s the Local Government Commission for England proposed such an arrangement for Tyneside and draft proposals considered it for Selnec. For the West Midlands conurbation , the commission proposed instead a group of contiguous county boroughs with no overall metropolitan authority. The Redcliffe-Maud Report of 1969 proposed the creation of three large "metropolitan areas" based upon
3774-654: The Children said: "The vast majority of the children currently on their own still have family members alive who will be desperate to be reunited with them and will be able to care for them with the right support. Taking children out of the country would permanently separate thousands of children from their families—a separation that would compound the acute trauma they are already suffering and inflict long-term damage on their chances of recovery." However, several organizations were planning an airlift of thousands of orphaned children to South Florida on humanitarian visas, modelled on
3876-781: The Dominican Republic were made available; a combined effort of the Airports Department (DA), together with the Dominican Naval Auxiliaries, the UN and other parties formed the Dominican-Haitian Aerial Support Bridge, making the main Dominican airports available for support operations to Haiti. The Dominican website FlyDominicanRepublic.com made available to the internet, daily updates on airport information and news from
3978-483: The GLC, in their manifesto for the 1983 general election . The exact details of the reform caused problems. In October 1983, Thatcher's government published a white paper entitled Streamlining the cities which set out detailed plans for the abolition of the MCCs, together with the abolition of the GLC. The bill was announced in the Queen's Speech and was introduced into Parliament soon afterwards. It became
4080-511: The General Hospital in Port-au-Prince, claimed that misinformation and overblown reports of violence had hampered the delivery of aid and medical services. Former US president Bill Clinton acknowledged the problems and said Americans should "not be deterred from supporting the relief effort" by upsetting scenes such as those of looting. Lt. Gen. P.K. Keen , deputy commander of US Southern Command , however, announced that despite
4182-627: The St. Michel District Hospital in the southern town of Jacmel , which was the largest referral hospital in south-east Haiti. The quake seriously damaged the control tower at Toussaint L'Ouverture International Airport . Damage to the Port-au-Prince seaport rendered the harbor unusable for immediate rescue operations; its container crane subsided severely at an angle because of weak foundations. Gonaïves seaport in northern Haiti remained operational. Roads were blocked with road debris or
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4284-732: The US. Local and state agencies in South Florida , together with the US government, began implementing a plan ("Operation Vigilant Sentry") for a mass migration from the Caribbean that had been laid out in 2003. Several orphanages were destroyed in the earthquake. After the process for the adoption of 400 children by families in the US and the Netherlands was expedited, Unicef and SOS Children urged an immediate halt to adoptions from Haiti. Jasmine Whitbread, chief executive of Save
4386-562: The WMFS Technical Rescue Unit has provides specialist rescue services such as rope and water rescue, dangerous buildings, and vehicle incidents involving trains and heavy goods vehicles. The United Kingdom International Search and Rescue Team (UK-ISAR) is on call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to respond to humanitarian accidents or disasters anywhere in the world. WMFS personnel are on call as UK-ISAR volunteers to respond to international incidents. Twelve members of
4488-548: The West Midlands area. The service's headquarters is located in Nechells in Birmingham, which is also the home to Staffordshire and West Midlands Fire Control. The control room, based at WMFS headquarters is the main incident management and mobilising centre for both WMFS and Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service . The service was created in 1974, when the West Midlands county came into being. Prior to its creation, each of
4590-626: The West Midlands team were deployed as part of the UKISAR (United Kingdom International Search And Rescue) mission to Haiti in the wake of the earthquake there on 12 January 2010. The team members were joined by two further members who had been in Sweden as part of a training exercise at the time of the earthquake. The team members were involved in the rescue of several people, including two-year-old Mia, who had been trapped for over four days. The Fire Investigation and Prevention Section (FIPS) investigates
4692-502: The abolition of the GLC was highly controversial, the abolition of the MCCs was much less so. The Liberal Party leader David Steel had supported abolition of the MCCs in his 1981 conference speech. The government's stated reasons for the abolition of the MCCs were based on efficiency and their overspending. However the fact that all of the county councils were controlled by the Labour Party led to accusations that their abolition
4794-613: The air. It's just like the stories we are told of the Holocaust – thousands of bodies everywhere. You have to understand that the situation is true madness, and the more time passes, there are more and more bodies, in numbers that cannot be grasped. It is beyond comprehension." Mayor Jean-Yves Jason said that officials argued for hours about what to do with the volume of corpses. The government buried many in mass graves, some above-ground tombs were forced open so bodies could be stacked inside, and others were burned. Mass graves were dug in
4896-495: The area that experienced shaking intensity of MM VII to X, a range that can cause moderate to very heavy damage even to earthquake-resistant structures. Shaking damage was more severe than for other quakes of similar magnitude due to the quake's shallow depth. The quake occurred in the vicinity of the northern boundary where the Caribbean tectonic plate shifts eastwards by about 20 mm (0.79 in) per year in relation to
4998-631: The border for medical assistance would be allowed to stay only temporarily. A local governor stated, "We have a great desire and we will do everything humanly possible to help Haitian families. But we have our limitations with respect to food and medicine. We need the helping hand of other countries in the area." Slow distribution of resources in the days after the earthquake resulted in sporadic violence, with looting reported. There were also accounts of looters wounded or killed by vigilantes and neighbourhoods that had constructed their own roadblock barricades. Dr Evan Lyon of Partners in Health , working at
5100-536: The boroughs. Since 2000, the metropolitan counties have been used as the areas of joint local transport plans . In 1999, following a successful referendum, the Labour government under Tony Blair legislated to create a strategic authority for London (the Greater London Authority ). Despite some talk of doing so, no bodies were established to replace the MCCs. The Blair government instead pursued
5202-504: The capital and undamaged. MINUSTAH had over 9,000 uniformed peacekeepers deployed to the area. Most of these workers were initially involved in the search for survivors at the organization's collapsed headquarters. The International Charter on Space and Major Disasters was activated, allowing satellite imagery of affected regions to be shared with rescue and aid organizations. Members of social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook spread messages and pleas to send help. Facebook
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#17327839266295304-540: The capital, collapsed, killing many, including the Mission's Chief, Hédi Annabi . Many countries responded to appeals for humanitarian aid , pledging funds and dispatching rescue and medical teams, engineers and support personnel. The most-watched telethon in history aired on 22 January, called " Hope for Haiti Now ", raising US$ 58 million by the next day. Communication systems, air, land, and sea transport facilities, hospitals, and electrical networks had been damaged by
5406-493: The cause of fire in a variety of different types of incidents including large fires, fires where the cause cannot be immediately determined, and fires where people may have been injured or died. FIPS works closely with the Police, other services, and organisations such as insurance companies when investigating fires. The officers also work on special projects including arson reduction policies and strategies, human behaviour in fire,
5508-474: The city. Further casualties are thought to have been minimal since people had been sleeping in the open. There are concerns that the main earthquake could be the beginning of a new long-term sequence: "the whole region is fearful"; historical accounts, although not precise, suggest that there has been a sequence of quakes progressing westwards along the fault, starting with an earthquake in the Dominican Republic in 1751. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued
5610-555: The conurbations surrounding Manchester , Liverpool and Birmingham (Selnec, Merseyside , and West Midlands ), which were to have both metropolitan councils covering the entire areas, and district councils covering parts. Harold Wilson 's government published a white paper broadly accepting these recommendations, and adding South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire as metropolitan areas. The proposals were radically altered when Edward Heath 's Conservative government came to power in 1970. The Conservatives' local government white paper
5712-496: The country has no building codes . Engineers have stated that it is unlikely many buildings would have stood through any kind of disaster. Structures are often raised wherever they can fit; some buildings were built on slopes with insufficient foundations or steel supports. A representative of Catholic Relief Services has estimated that about two million Haitians lived as squatters on land they did not own. The country also suffered from shortages of fuel and potable water even before
5814-506: The country's primary midwifery school. The Haitian art world suffered great losses; artworks were destroyed, and museums and art galleries were extensively damaged, among them Port-au-Prince's main art museum, Centre d'Art school, College Saint Pierre and Holy Trinity Cathedral . The headquarters of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) at Christopher Hotel and offices of
5916-562: The country." First responders voiced frustration with the number of relief trucks sitting unused at the airport. Aid workers blamed US-controlled airport operations for prioritising the transportation of security troops over rescuers and supplies; evacuation policies favouring citizens of certain nations were also criticised. The US military acknowledged the non-governmental organizations' complaints concerning flight-operations bias and promised improvement while noting that up to 17 January 600 emergency flights had landed and 50 were diverted; by
6018-509: The county borough of Southport , was added to Merseyside in the bill, at the local council's request. Several other proposals for metropolitan counties were made during the bill's passage, including a revival of the proposal for Hampshire (either the southern part or all of it) and central Lancashire . A Thamesside metropolitan county, covering areas of north Kent and south Essex on the Thames Estuary (and now considered part of
6120-420: The dam could collapse during the rainy season, which would flood Grand-Goâve 12 km (7.5 mi) downstream. In the nights following the earthquake, many people in Haiti slept in the streets, on pavements, in their cars, or in makeshift shanty towns either because their houses had been destroyed, or they feared standing structures would not withstand aftershocks. Construction standards are low in Haiti;
6222-571: The disaster. President Préval and government ministers used police headquarters near the Toussaint L'Ouverture International Airport as their new base of operations, although their effectiveness was extremely limited; several parliamentarians were still trapped in the Presidential Palace, and offices and records had been destroyed. Some high-ranking government workers lost family members, or had to tend to wounded relatives. Although
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#17327839266296324-455: The earthquake struck, issuing temporary permits and waiving regular processing fees; the federal government also announced that it would cover adopted children's healthcare costs upon their arrival in Canada until they could be covered under provincially administered public healthcare plans. Rescue efforts began in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, with able-bodied survivors extricating
6426-426: The earthquake, making communications and transportation very difficult. Minister of Education Joel Jean-Pierre stated that the education system had "totally collapsed". About half the nation's schools and the three main universities in Port-au-Prince were affected. More than 1,300 schools and 50 health care facilities were destroyed. The earthquake also destroyed a nursing school in the capital and severely damaged
6528-536: The earthquake, which hampered rescue and aid efforts; confusion over who was in charge, air traffic congestion, and problems with prioritising flights further complicated early relief work. Port-au-Prince's morgues were overwhelmed with tens of thousands of bodies. These had to be buried in mass graves . As rescues tailed off, supplies, medical care and sanitation became priorities. Delays in aid distribution led to angry appeals from aid workers and survivors, and looting and sporadic violence were observed. On 22 January,
6630-522: The earthquake-ravaged city. Easing refugee immigration into Canada was discussed by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper , and in the US Haitians were granted Temporary protected status , a measure that permits about 100,000 undocumented Haitians in the United States to stay legally for 18 months, and halts the deportations of 30,000 more, though it does not apply to Haitians outside
6732-725: The earthquake. From 12 January, the International Committee of the Red Cross , which has been working in Haiti since 1994, focused on bringing emergency assistance to victims of the catastrophe. It worked with its partners within the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, particularly the Haitian Red Cross and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. The American Red Cross also spearheaded
6834-414: The eastern Dominican Republic began preparing for tens of thousands of refugees, and by 16 January hospitals close to the border had been filled to capacity with Haitians. Some began reporting having expended stocks of critical medical supplies such as antibiotics by 17 January. The border was reinforced by Dominican soldiers, and the government of the Dominican Republic asserted that all Haitians who crossed
6936-485: The effect that there was a high risk of major seismic activity in Port-au-Prince. The U.S. Geological Survey recorded eight aftershocks in the two hours after the main earthquake, with magnitudes between 4.3 and 5.9. Within the first nine hours, 32 aftershocks of magnitude 4.2 or greater were recorded, 12 of which measured magnitude 5.0 or greater; in addition, on 24 January, the US Geological Survey reported that there had been 52 aftershocks measuring 4.5 or greater since
7038-654: The estimate that as many as 20,000 people will die each day that would have been saved by surgery." An MSF aircraft carrying a field hospital was repeatedly turned away by US air traffic controllers, who had assumed control at Toussaint L'Ouverture International Airport. Four other MSF aircraft were also turned away. In a 19 January press release MSF said, "It is like working in a war situation. We don't have any more morphine to manage pain for our patients. We cannot accept that planes carrying lifesaving medical supplies and equipment continue to be turned away while our patients die. Priority must be given to medical supplies entering
7140-463: The idea of elected regional assemblies , although after an unsuccessful referendum in the most positive region, the North East, this idea now has few proponents. The idea of city regions has been proposed subsequently, although the 2006 local government white paper had no firm proposals for formal recognition of this concept. This changed in 2010 when the Government accepted a proposal from the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities to establish
7242-405: The immediate Port-au-Prince area) "within six weeks of the earthquake" appears to be the 160,000 estimate in a 2010 University of Michigan study. Appeals for humanitarian aid were issued by many aid organizations, the United Nations and president René Préval. Raymond Joseph , Haiti's ambassador to the United States, and his nephew, singer Wyclef Jean , who was called upon by Préval to become
7344-503: The living and the dead from the rubble of the many buildings that had collapsed. Treatment of the injured was hampered by the lack of hospital and morgue facilities: the Argentine military field hospital , which had been serving MINUSTAH , was the only one available until 13 January. Rescue work intensified only slightly with the arrival of doctors, police officers, military personnel and firefighters from various countries two days after
7446-576: The main causes of fire, and the compilation of any information to identify trends in fire causes. This information is vital when undertaking targeted initiatives and campaigns relating to the education of fire safety awareness. Metropolitan county Metropolitan counties are a subdivision of England which were originally used for local government . There are six metropolitan counties: Greater Manchester , Merseyside , South Yorkshire , Tyne and Wear , West Midlands and West Yorkshire . The metropolitan counties were created in 1974 as part of
7548-409: The main quake. On 20 January, at 06:03 local time (11:03 UTC ), the strongest aftershock since the earthquake, measuring magnitude 5.9 M w , struck Haiti. USGS reported its epicenter was about 56 km (35 mi) WSW of Port-au-Prince, which would place it almost exactly under the coastal town of Petit-Goâve . A UN representative reported that the aftershock collapsed seven buildings in
7650-519: The metropolitan boroughs belong to combined authorities , which are statutory bodies introduced in 2011 that allow local authorities to voluntarily pool responsibilities and collaborate. The combined authorities for Greater Manchester, South Yorkshire, West Midlands and West Yorkshire cover the same areas as the metropolitan counties; the boroughs of Merseyside are part of the Liverpool City Region , and those of Tyne and Wear are part of
7752-540: The metropolitan county councils was as follows: The metropolitan counties are sometimes referred to as "former metropolitan counties", although this description is not entirely correct. The county councils were abolished, but under the Local Government Act 1972, the counties themselves remain in existence, although they no longer exist in ISO 3166-2:GB as extant administrative subdivisions. By virtue of
7854-401: The office of chief fire officer: In 2024, an interim chief executive officer was appointed in place of a chief fire officer. The current chief executive officer is Oliver Lee. The service currently uses the following frontline appliances West Midlands Fire Service operates 38 fire stations and employs 1,350 firefighters . It has no on-call retained firefighters . All fire stations within
7956-517: The official death toll, reporting an estimate of 92,000 deaths as being a more realistic figure. On the first anniversary of the earthquake, 12 January 2011, Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive said the death toll from the quake was more than 316,000, raising the figures from previous estimates. Several experts have questioned the validity of the death toll numbers; Anthony Penna, professor emeritus in environmental history at Northeastern University , warned that casualty estimates could only be
8058-861: The operations center on the Dominican side. The Dominican emergency team assisted more than 2,000 injured people, while the Dominican Institute of Telecommunications (Indotel) helped with the restoration of some telephone services. The Dominican Red Cross coordinated early medical relief in conjunction with the International Red Cross. The government sent eight mobile medical units along with 36 doctors including orthopaedic specialists, traumatologists, anaesthetists, and surgeons. In addition, 39 trucks carrying canned food were dispatched, along with 10 mobile kitchens and 110 cooks capable of producing 100,000 meals per day. Other nations from farther afield also sent personnel, medicines, materiel , and other aid to Haiti. The first team to arrive in Port-au-Prince
8160-460: The president and his remaining cabinet met with UN planners each day, there remained confusion as to who was in charge and no single group had organized relief efforts as of 16 January. The government handed over control of the airport to the United States to hasten and ease flight operations, which had been hampered by the damage to the air traffic control tower. Almost immediately Port-au-Prince's morgue facilities were overwhelmed. By 14 January,
8262-628: The region. Notable landmark buildings were significantly damaged or destroyed, including the Presidential Palace , the National Assembly building, the Port-au-Prince Cathedral , and the main jail. Among those killed were Archbishop of Port-au-Prince Joseph Serge Miot , and opposition leader Micha Gaillard . The headquarters of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), located in
8364-399: The risk of disease . The earthquake struck in the most populated area of the country. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies estimated that as many as 3 million people had been affected by the quake. In mid February 2010, the Haitian government reported the death toll to have reached 230,000. However, an investigation by Radio Netherlands has questioned
8466-499: The sea first retreated and a "very big wave" followed rapidly, crashing ashore and sweeping boats and debris into the ocean. The tsunami reached heights up to 3 m (9.8 ft). The quake affected the three Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) medical facilities around Port-au-Prince, causing one to collapse completely. A hospital in Pétion-Ville , a wealthy suburb of Port-au-Prince, also collapsed, as did
8568-489: The service are full-time, and work on two types of shift: Tettenhall is the only solely late crewed station. Following the closure of the Birmingham Central fire station, Birmingham city centre is now covered by three fire stations: Aston located and covering the northern side, Highgate located and covering the southern, central and eastern sides, and Ladywood covering the western side. WMFS currently operates
8670-401: The slip distribution found amplitudes of up to about 4 m (13 ft) using ground motion records from all over the world. A 2007 earthquake hazard study by C. DeMets and M. Wiggins-Grandison noted that the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault zone could be at the end of its seismic cycle and concluded that a worst-case forecast would involve a 7.2 M w earthquake, similar in size to
8772-566: The stories of looting and violence, there was less violent crime in Port-au-Prince after the earthquake than before. In many neighbourhoods, singing could be heard through the night and groups of men coordinated to act as security as groups of women attempted to take care of food and hygiene necessities. During the days following the earthquake, hundreds were seen marching through the streets in peaceful processions, singing and clapping. The earthquake caused an urgent need for outside rescuers to communicate with Haitians whose main or only language
8874-572: The surfaces broken. The main road linking Port-au-Prince with Jacmel remained blocked ten days after the earthquake, hampering delivery of aid to Jacmel. When asked why the road had not been opened, Hazem el-Zein, head of the south-east division of the UN World Food Programme said that "We ask the same questions to the people in charge...They promise rapid response. To be honest, I don't know why it hasn't been done. I can only think that their priority must be somewhere else." There
8976-451: The time to count bodies, as their focus had been on the treatment of survivors. While the vast majority of casualties were Haitian civilians, the dead included aid workers, embassy staff, foreign tourists—and a number of public figures, including Archbishop of Port-au-Prince Monsignor Joseph Serge Miot , aid worker Zilda Arns and officials in the Haitian government, including opposition leader Michel "Micha" Gaillard . Also killed were
9078-514: The town's buildings had been destroyed. Many government and public buildings were damaged or destroyed including the Palace of Justice , the National Assembly , the Supreme Court and Port-au-Prince Cathedral . The National Palace was severely damaged, though President René Préval and his wife Elisabeth Delatour Préval escaped without injury. The Prison Civile de Port-au-Prince
9180-501: The town. According to staff of the International Committee of the Red Cross , which had reached Petit-Goâve for the first time the day before the aftershock, the town was estimated to have lost 15% of its buildings, and was suffering the same shortages of supplies and medical care as the capital. Workers from the charity Save the Children reported hearing "already weakened structures collapsing" in Port-au-Prince, but most sources reported no further significant damage to infrastructure in
9282-673: The upper tier. The structure differed from the non-metropolitan counties in the allocation of powers between the county and district councils. The metropolitan districts had more powers than non-metropolitan districts , in that they were additionally responsible for education and social services, responsibilities allocated to county councils elsewhere. The metropolitan county councils were intended to be strategic authorities that ran regional services such as main roads, public transport, emergency services, civil protection, waste disposal, and strategic town and country planning . The metropolitan county councils functioned between 1974 and 1986. Just
9384-612: Was ICE-SAR from Iceland , landing within 24 hours of the earthquake. A 50-member Chinese team arrived early Thursday morning. From the Middle East, the government of Qatar sent a strategic transport aircraft (C-17), loaded with 50 tonnes of urgent relief materials and 26 members from the Qatari armed forces, the internal security force (Lekhwiya), police force and the Hamad Medical Corporation, to set up
9486-458: Was also destroyed, allowing around 4,000 inmates to escape. Most of Port-au-Prince's municipal buildings were destroyed or heavily damaged, including the City Hall, which was described by The Washington Post as, "a skeletal hulk of concrete and stucco , sagging grotesquely to the left." Port-au-Prince had no municipal petrol reserves and few city officials had working mobile phones before
9588-447: Was considerable damage to communications infrastructure. The public telephone system was not available, and two of Haiti's largest cellular telephone providers, Digicel and Comcel Haiti , both reported that their services had been affected by the earthquake. Fibre-optic connectivity was also disrupted. According to Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF), Radio Lumière , which broadcasts out of Port-au-Prince and reaches 90% of Haiti,
9690-473: Was deployed to epicenters to assist mitigation efforts of Haitian Government. The American Red Cross announced on 13 January that it had run out of supplies in Haiti and appealed for public donations. Giving Children Hope worked to get much-needed medicines and supplies on the ground. Partners in Health (PIH), the largest health care provider in rural Haiti, was able to provide some emergency care from its ten hospitals and clinics, all of which were outside
9792-455: Was done by a Washington consulting firm, LTL Strategies. A US State Department spokesperson said the report had inconsistencies and would not be released until they were resolved. As of January 2012, USAID has not released the report and states on its website that 1.5 million people were displaced, of which 550,000 remain without permanent shelter. The most reliable academic estimate of the number of earthquake casualties in Haiti (over 95% were in
9894-492: Was initially knocked off the air, but it was able to resume broadcasting across most of its network within a week. According to RSF, some 20 of about 50 stations that were active in the capital region before the earthquake were back on air a week after the quake. In February 2010, Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive estimated that 250,000 residences and 30,000 commercial buildings were severely damaged and needed to be demolished. The deputy mayor of Léogâne reported that 90% of
9996-479: Was motivated by party politics: the general secretary of the National and Local Government Officers' Association described it as a "completely cynical manoeuvre". Merseyside in particular put up a struggle against abolition. Most of the functions of the MCCs passed either to the metropolitan borough councils, or to joint boards. Some assets were given to residuary bodies for disposal. The split of functions from
10098-437: Was near the town of Léogâne , Ouest department , approximately 25 kilometres (16 mi) west of Port-au-Prince , Haiti's capital. By 24 January, at least 52 aftershocks measuring 4.5 or greater had been recorded. An estimated three million people were affected by the quake. Death toll estimates range from 100,000 to about 160,000 to Haitian government figures from 220,000 to 316,000, although these latter figures are
10200-799: Was overwhelmed by—and blocked—some users who were sending messages about updates. The American Red Cross set a record for mobile donations, raising US$ 7 million in 24 hours when they allowed people to send US$ 10 donations by text messages. The OpenStreetMap community responded to the disaster by greatly improving the level of mapping available for the area using post-earthquake satellite photography provided by GeoEye , and crowdmapping website Ushahidi coordinated messages from multiple sites to assist Haitians still trapped and to keep families of survivors informed. Some online poker sites hosted poker tournaments with tournament fees, prizes or both going to disaster relief charities. Google Earth updated its coverage of Port-au-Prince on 17 January, showing
10302-475: Was practicable, and the new white paper proposals generally reduced the metropolitan counties to the continuously built up area. Many areas on the edges were excluded from the metropolitan counties when the bill was passed: Easington , Harrogate , Knaresborough , Ellesmere Port , Neston , New Mills , Whaley Bridge and Glossop ; other areas were excluded during the bill's passage, such as Seaham , Skelmersdale and Holland , Poynton and Wilmslow . One area,
10404-662: Was published in February 1971, naming the metropolitan areas "metropolitan counties", and giving them as "Merseyside, south-east Lancashire and north-east Cheshire, the West Midlands, West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, and the Tyne and Wear area". The proposed counties were also far smaller than in the original proposals; they were trimmed at each successive stage. The Redcliffe-Maud Report had included Chester in Merseyside and Redditch and Stafford in West Midlands. The Conservative policy favoured retaining historic boundaries as far as
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