The rivers run through it: At left, Haitians wash clothes in a stream on Jan. 8, 2011 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. One year prior, the same river dried up after Haiti's devastating Jan. 12, 2010 earthquake, which killed more than 200,000 people. The river was later replenished by a sudden flash flood. On the anniversary of that disaster, though, Haitians are mostly still struggling to clear the wreckage and restore some semblance of normal life. The following photos pair a photo from Haiti taken immediately after the earthquake, at right, with a photo taken in the last several weeks, at left.
A trashed bureaucracy: Basic government services came to an abrupt halt when the earthquake hit, and many have yet to be restored. One year ago, on Feb. 5, 2010, trash was routinely burned on the streets of Port-au-Prince because the government could no longer organize garbage collection. In the absence of a functioning market economy, Haitians today collect garbage themselves in order to exchange recyclables for cash.
Hail Mary, full of grace: The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption in Port-au-Prince lies in ruins on Jan. 9, 2011, just as it did a year ago, at right, after the earthquake destroyed it. Despite its deteriorated condition, the church now regularly holds services, while also serving as a place where some of the country's 1 million homeless people can pitch a tent for the night.
A new leg to stand on: The earthquake, which measured 7.0 on the Richter scale, produced 675 million cubic feet of rubble in the capital of Port-au-Prince, only 5 percent of which has been cleared in the past year. Kettely Gadet, whose leg was amputated after her house collapsed on top of her during the earthquake, has since been fitted with a prosthesis, but she is still living in a refugee camp. A year earlier, a U.S. soldier patrolled the streets of Port-au-Prince.
Distributing water: Various aid groups, like UNICEF and World Vision, have been involved in creating some of the refugee camps and organizing the distribution of water to their residents, as seen in the photo on the left, taken on Jan. 4, 2011. The photo at right, taken on Feb. 2, 2010, shows similar methods for acquiring and distributing potable water that were in use immediately after the disaster.
Homes away from home: The tent cities that shot up in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake were originally meant to serve as stopgap solutions to the housing crisis. In the photo at right, Haitians are shown returning to their tents on Jan. 24, 2010, two weeks after the disaster. But one year later, the camp cities have settled into an uneasy semi-permanence: Left, a woman prepares to wash her clothing at a tent city in front of the destroyed presidential palace on Jan. 7, 2011 in Port-au-Prince.
The (relatively) orderly outskirts: Haiti's provinces, in some cases, appear more at peace than the chaotic capital city. In the town of Leogane, 30 kilometers from Port-au-Prince, the rubble seems to have been mostly cleared from the streets, as seen at left. (Leogane has also had a large decline in the population of its tent cities.) That is not to say that the city did not experience devastation -- the photo at right shows the remnants of Leogane's main church, one month after the earthquake.
From rubble to relief: Twelve months ago, with most Haitians nearly paralyzed by shock and the scale of devastation, attempts to clear the rubble -- a necessary first step toward rebuilding -- stalled. Lately, attempts to clear are finally picking up steam. But Jacques Gabriel, Haiti's minister for public works, recently estimated that it would be five years until the government would have sufficient infrastructure to function properly.
A faint economic pulse: Some semblance of economic life continued in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, and continues to this day. At right, a woman sells vegetables on the street in Port-au-Prince on Jan. 30, 2010. Left, an open-air market in Pétionville, a suburb of Port-au-Prince on Dec. 11, 2010.
Surrogate parents: The earthquake turned hundreds of thousands of Haitian children into orphans. In the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, overburdened orphanages did their best to cope: right, orphaned children sleeping on mattresses in a delivery truck on Jan. 20, 2010. One year later, orphaned children take a taxi to a Doctors Without Borders facility, where they are treated for cholera. More than 3,500 Haitians have died from cholera infections in the past year, with more than 170,000 infected.
Praying for improvement: At left, a Haitian boy prays inside the partially rebuilt church of St. Rose de Lima in Leogane, about 20 miles from Port-au-Prince. The gradual and partial reconstruction of the church, which was totally destroyed in the quake. In the photo at right, Haitians sit on a pew amid the wreckage a year earlier.
A ward of the international community: NGOs have largely assumed responsibility for providing Haiti with many basic services, including medical care. On the right, Haitians receiving treatment days after the disaster at an improvised medical center in Port-au-Prince. One year later, Doctors Without Borders maintains clinics throughout the country; left, doctors for the NGO treat patients suffering from cholera.
Coping with loss: On the anniversary of the quake, Haitians are erecting memorials, no matter how small, to the tragedy. At right, children playing in a tent city in Port-au-Prince on Jan. 22, 2010. At left, parishioners from St. Louis King of France Catholic Church hold a prayer service on Jan. 8, 2011, as they dedicate a memorial to the tens of thousands of people buried after the earthquake in a mass grave on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince.
