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Reconstructing Haiti

Rebuilding Haiti will cost perhaps $10-$20 billion, and will require much of the coming decade. Getting started now will save countless lives and prevent a further tragic downward spiral of a society that stands at the very brink of survival.

NEW YORK – The horrors of Haiti’s earthquake continue to unfold. The quake itself killed perhaps 100,000 people. The inability to organize rapid relief is killing tens of thousands more. More than one million people are exposed to hunger and disease and, with the rain and hurricane seasons approaching, are vulnerable to further hazards.

Even an economy as impoverished as Haiti’s is a complex system dependent on trade between rural and urban areas, transport, electricity, port services, and government functions. Haiti’s economy worked badly in the past, and was still reeling from four hurricanes in 2008 when the earthquake struck.

The fact that the quake hit the capital, and demolished every center of social activity, destroyed the systems upon which daily urban life depends. Millions of people are now without livelihoods and the means for survival.

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