Asian Tsunami

December 26th, 2004

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How the disaster occurred

1. An earthquake occurs when at the surface of the Earth the plates suddenly move against each other, causing a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust - this creates seismic waves 2. On December 26th, 2004 an earthquake was caused between the Eurasian and Australian plates in the Indian Ocean - measuring 9.0 on the moment magnitude scale, the largest earthquake in 40 years 3. This earthquake lasted several minutes and triggered a tsunami at 00:58 UTC, a series of huge waves, which spread thousands of kilometres over the Indian ocean over several hours 4. The tsunami formed due to the energy from the earthquake jolting the seabed vertically by several metres, causing the displacement of hundreds of cubic kilometres of water 5. Large waves began to move through the Indian Ocean, away from the epicentre 6. In the ocean's deep water the tsunami moved at staggering speeds of up to 800km/h (500mph), but when it reached shallower water near coastal areas it slowed down, and increased in height 7. Some areas, such as the Sri Lankan tourist resort of Kalutara, had almost no warning of the approaching tsunami; the first warning they had was moments before the tsunami struck, when the waterline suddenly retreated and hundreds of metres of beach and seabed became exposed 8. The waves of the tsunami hit land at intervals varying between 5 and 40 minutes

Other earthquakes compared

The earthquake that triggered the 2004 Asian tsunami measured 9.0 on the moment magnitude scale, the biggest earthquake to have occurred in 40 years.

Since 1900, there have been only 3 other earthquakes recorded with a greater magnitude: 1960 Great Chilean Earthquake (Chile) - magnitude 9.5 1964 Good Friday Earthquake, in Prince William Sound (Alaska) - magnitude 9.2 March 9th, 1957 earthquake in the Andreanof Islands - magnitude 9.1

Also, in 1952 another earthquake of magnitude 9.0 was recorded off the coast of Kamchatka. Each of these huge earthquakes also triggered tsunamis (in the Pacific Ocean), but the death toll was significantly lower than that of the Asian tsunami - ranging from zero to a few thousand.

{ParagraphsSidebar} Asian Tsunami - December 26th, 2004

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1985 Mexico City earthquake

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search 1985 Mexico City earthquake

Mexico city - Collapsed General Hospital

Map showing the epicenter of the earthquake[1] Date Magnitude Epicenter Countries or regions Tsunami Casualties 19 September 1985 8.3 Mw (8.0 ML) 1736N 10230W / 17.6N 102.5W Mexico Yes (2+ meters) 10,153 - 40,000 (see below)

The 1985 Mexico City earthquake, a magnitude 8.0 earthquake that struck Mexico City on the early morning of 19 September 1985 at around 7:19 AM (CST), caused the deaths of at least 10,000 people and serious damage to the greater Mexico City Area. The complete seismic event consisted of four quakes. A pre-event quake of magnitude 5.2 occurred on 28 May 1985. The

main and most powerful shock occurred 19 September, followed by two aftershocks: one on 20 September 1985 of magnitude 7.5 and the fourth occurring seven months later on 30 April 1986 of magnitude 7.0. The quakes were located off the Mexican Pacific coast, more than 350 km away, but due to strength of the quake and the fact that Mexico City sits on an old lakebed, Mexico City suffered major damage. The event caused between three and four billion USD in damage as 412 buildings collapsed and another 3,124 were seriously damaged in the city. While the number is in dispute, the most-often cited number of deaths is an estimated 10,000 people but experts agreed that it could be up to 40,000.[2]

Contents
[hide]

1 The seismic event 2 Mexico Citys vulnerability to earthquakes 3 Damage from the earthquake o 3.1 Localization of the damage o 3.2 Building damage in the city o 3.3 Infrastructure 3.3.1 Metro service o 3.4 Damage to hospitals 4 Human toll in the city 5 Emergency response 6 Memorable sites o 6.1 Hospital Jurez o 6.2 Sewing factory o 6.3 Central Communications Center o 6.4 Conjunto Pino Surez o 6.5 Hotel Regis o 6.6 Apartment complexes in Tlatelolco o 6.7 Televisa studios o 6.8 Other structures 7 Geological and structural engineering issues 8 Political consequences o 8.1 Government response o 8.2 Community response o 8.3 Weakening of the PRI 9 Effects of earthquake in other parts of Mexico 10 Legacy 11 References

[edit] The seismic event

Map showing Cocos and Caribbean plates The earthquake occurred in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of the Mexican state of Michoacn, a distance of more than 350 km from the city, in the Cocos Plate subduction zone, specifically in a section of the fault line known as the Michoacn seismic gap[2] at coordinates 18.190 N 102.533 W.[3] The Cocos Plate pushes against and slides under the North American Plate, primarily along the coasts of the states of Michoacn and Guerrero in Mexico. Volatile trenches along the Cocos plate generally have had seismic events 30 to 70 years before 1985.[2] This subduction zone outside the Michoacn gap was the source of 42 earthquakes of magnitude 7.0 or stronger in the 20th century prior to the 1985 event.[4] However, this particular section of the subduction zone had not had an event for a much longer time.[2] Shockwaves from the earthquake hit the mouth of the Ro Balsas on the coast at 7:17 am and hit Mexico City, 350 km away, two minutes later at 7:19 am.[5] The 19 September quake was a multiple event with two epicenters and the second movement occurring 26 seconds after the first. Because of multiple breaks in the fault line, the event was of long duration. Ground shaking lasted more than five minutes in places along the coast and parts of Mexico City shook for three minutes,[2] with an average shaking time of 3 4 minutes.[5] It is estimated the movement along the fault was about three meters. The main tremor was foreshadowed by a quake of magnitude 5.2 on 28 May 1985, and was followed by two significant aftershocks: one on 20 September 1985 of magnitude 7.5 lasting thirteen seconds and the third occurring seven months later on 30 April 1986 with magnitude 7.0 lasting ten seconds.[2] However, at least twelve other minor aftershocks were associated with the seismic event.[6] The energy released during the main event was equivalent to approximately 1,114 nuclear weapons exploding.[7][8] The earthquake was felt over 825,000 square kilometers, as far away as Los Angeles and Houston in the United States.[2][9] In the port of Lzaro Crdenas, near the epicenter, the 19 September event registered as IX on the Modified Mercalli Intensity scale; in parts of Mexico City, it registered the same, even at a distance of about 400 km away. There was no historic record of such a strong quake in Mexico.[2] While the fault line was located just off the Pacific coast of Mexico, there was relatively little effect on the sea itself. The earthquake did produce a number of tsunamis but they were small, ranging between one and three meters in height. Ecuador reported the highest waves of 60 centimeters.[2][10]

[edit] Mexico Citys vulnerability to earthquakes

Much of Mexicos volcanic and seismic activity stems from the movement of the North American plate against the Cocos and Pacific plates and it is one of the most active trenches in the world.[2] Each year more than 90 temblors above magnitude 4.0 are recorded in this zone.[7] While not on or near any fault line like San Francisco or Los Angeles, Mexico City is vulnerable to earthquakes. The main reason for this is the surface geology of the area, especially the downtown area. The city grew from an island in the middle of Lake Texcoco outward, as this lake was eventually drained. The near surface geology of this area is classified into three sections: the old lake bed which is soft clay from volcanic ash with a high water content, a piedmont area, much of which is capped by 5 to 30 meters of lava less than 2,500 years old, and an old river delta area.[2] The downtown of Mexico City mostly lies on the silt and volcanic clay sediments of the bed of the historic Lake Texcoco, which are between seven and thirty-seven meters deep and have a high water content. Above this is a layer of sand and above this is a layer of sand and rock. The western and northwestern parts of the city are outside the old lakeshores and are located on sands from eroding volcanic cones that surround the Valley of Mexico. The southern part of the city rests on hardened basalt lava flows. The old lakebed, with its high water content, is easily moved or compressed. The old lakeshore area also has a fairly high water content, allowing movement, though not as much as the lakebed. The old lava flows have little water content or movement in comparison and are therefore stable.[2] On the bed of the historic lake, the prevailing silt and volcanic clay sediments amplify seismic shaking. Damage to structures is worsened by soil liquefaction which causes the loss of foundation support and contributes to dramatic settlement of large buildings.[2][11] Another factor is that the old lakebed resonates with certain seismic waves and low frequency signals.[2] This lakebed has a natural "pitch" of one cycle every 2.5 seconds making everything built on the bed vibrate at the same frequency. Unfortunately, this is the same pitch as a number of shallow earthquake waves.[12] This resonance amplifies the effects of the shock waves coming from an earthquake far away.[2][13] However, only certain types of structures are vulnerable to this resonance effect. Taller buildings have their own frequencies of vibration. Those that are six to fifteen stories tall also vibrate at the 2.5-second cycle, making them act like tuning forks in the event of an earthquake. The lowfrequency waves of an earthquake are amplified by the mud of the lakebed, which in turn, is amplified by the building itself. This causes these buildings to shake more violently than the earthquake proper as the earthquake progresses. Many of the older colonial buildings have survived hundreds of years on the lakebed simply because they are not tall enough to be affected by the resonance effect.[12][13]

[edit] Damage from the earthquake

[edit] Localization of the damage

Mexico City is divided into boroughs. Eighty percent of the earthquake damage was confined to four of them: Venustiano Carranza, Cuauhtmoc, Benito Jurez and Gustavo A. Madero.[14] The damage area corresponds to the western part of the lake zone within two to four kilometers of the Alameda Central. Nearly all the buildings that collapsed were located in this lake zone that extended from Tlatelolco in the north to Viaducto Miguel Alemn in the south, Chapultepec Park in the west and to a short distance east of the Zcalo or main plaza.[2]

[edit] Building damage in the city

Cuauhtmoc, which includes the historic downtown suffered the most damage. In this particular area, 258 buildings completely crumbled, 143 partially collapsed and 181 were seriously damaged. The next seriously affected area was Venustiano Carranza where 83 buildings collapsed, 128 partially collapsed and 2,000 structures were seriously damaged.[15] Damage was localized to the center parts of the city, leaving much of the residential outer rim unscathed, but the damage in the affected area was extensive. Over 720,000 tons of debris was removed during the first six weeks after the event.[14] The Metropolitan Commission for Emergencies of the Federal District reported 2,831 buildings damaged for the entire city: 31% or 880 were completely ruined, 13% were reinhabitable with major repairs and the rest, totaling 1581, were recoverable with minor repairs.[7] This translates to more than 30,000 housing units completely destroyed and another 68,000 units damaged.[14]

[edit] Infrastructure
Infrastructure was severely affected. The number of people with potable water went from six million to 90,000.[14] as 6,500 meters of primary and secondary water and drainage pipes suffered breaks in 163 places, cutting off water and contaminating it. 516,000m2 of asphalt was damaged, and 137 schools collapsed. The number of jobs lost due to the event was estimated at 200,000. Forty percent of the population was without electricity and seventy percent without telephone service.[14][16] 1,687 school buildings were damaged. Interruption of classes, either to the lack of facilities and/or the need to help with rescue efforts, affected over 1.5 million students.[3] [edit] Metro service On the day of the quake, the Metro stopped service and completely shut down for fear of electrocution. This caused people to get out of the tunnels from wherever they were and onto the street to try to get where they were going.[17] At the time, the Metro had 101 stations, with 32 closed to the public in the weeks after the event. On Line 1, there was no service in stations Merced, Pino Surez, Isabel la Catlica, Salto del Agua, Balderas or Cuauhtmoc. On Line 2, there was no service between stations Bellas Artes and Taxquea. On Line 3 only Jurez and Balderas were closed. Line 4 continued to operate normally. All of the closed stations were in the historic center area, with the exception of the stations of Line 2 south of Pino Surez. These stations were located above ground. The reason these stations were closed was not due to damage to the Metro proper, but rather because of surface rescue work and clearing of debris.[3]

[edit] Damage to hospitals

The area most severely hit by the earthquake had the highest concentration of hospitals. Most of the damages occurred in secondary and tertiary hospitals.[14] Thirteen hospitals of six or more floors were partially or totally destroyed, most of these public institutions. One out of every four then-available beds were lost.[7] The National Medical Center of the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) was considered the most important hospital complex in Latin America with over 2,300 beds and the largest medical library in the country. It had to be evacuated because all of its 25 buildings suffered severe damage. Most of the beds that it lost were dedicated to tertiary, high-technology care. The ISSSTE hospital for government workers lost 36 percent of its capacity. The 2,158 beds of the Ministry of Health (SSA) were lost, representing 43 percent of its capacity in the city. This included the 700 beds lost with the complete collapse of Jurez Hospital and the gynecologyobstetrics tower of the General Hospital of Mexico. In total, the city lost more than 4,000 public hospital beds in the earthquake, severely disrupting these institutions ability to handle the crisis. In addition, five of the largest private hospitals had to be evacuated. More than 900 patients, physicians, nurses and paramedical workers died in the initial shock.[14] In contrast, the network of twenty four community general hospitals with 1,600 beds belonging to the city (federal district) were not affected as these were spread out beyond the city center and the old lakebed.[14]

[edit] Human toll in the city

To this day, the death toll has been in dispute. About 5,000 bodies were recovered from the debris and represent the total of legally certified deaths but does not include those who were missing and never recovered.[14] Reports have numbered the dead anywhere from 5,000 to 30,000 (claimed by a number of citizens groups)[7] to 45,000 claimed by the Mexican National Seismological Centre.[8] However, the most commonly cited figures are around 10,000. While high as an absolute number, it compares to other earthquakes of similar strength in Asia and other parts of Latin America where death tolls have run between 66,000 and 242,000 for earthquakes of magnitude 7.8 or above. Part of the explanation for that was the hour in which the earthquake struck, approximately 7:20am, when people were awake but not in the many schools and office buildings that were severely damaged.[4][14] However, the death toll was great enough to necessitate the use of the IMSS baseball field as a morgue, using ice to conserve bodies for identification.[18] The main reason that the figures have been disputed is the governments response to the tragedy.[7] President Miguel de la Madrid ordered a news blackout[5] and did not address the situation at all for 39 hours after the event.[7] When the government did give estimates of the number dead, they vacillated between 7,000 to 35,000 people.[5] Consequently, most of the populace believes that the true numbers have never been revealed.[7]

According to government figures, approximately 250,000 people lost their homes directly due to the earthquake. Unofficial sources put that figure much higher.[15] Some sources state that more than 50,000 families lost their homes, and INEGI reports that 700,000 people in the Federal District and the suburbs in the State of Mexico lost their homes.[7]

Eight-story frame structure with brick infill walls broken in two. The foundation also came off.

[edit] Emergency response

In the hours and days immediately after the first shock, there was an enormous response and solidarity among the city population of 18 million people. Ordinary citizens organized brigades to help with rescue efforts and to provide food, clothing and emotional support to the homeless.[14] Patients had to be moved from damaged hospitals, especially the National Medical Center. Many of these patients were very ill. 1,900 patients were successfully moved from here, without any deaths, in just four hours.[14] More than 4,000 people were rescued alive. 9,600 injured people received treatment, including 1,879 who needed hospitalization. Despite the loss of 5,000 hospital beds, there was never a shortage of facilities for the injured. Some of the reason for this was that those with postponable care were discharged, but mostly because the public and private facilities unified de-facto during the crisis.[14] There were also people rescued as late as ten days after the initial event.[18]

[edit] Memorable sites

[edit] Hospital Jurez
One of the most visible government institutions to fall in the event was the tower of Hospital Jurez, one of the oldest hospital institutions in Mexico. It was founded in 1847, converting the old convent of San Pablo to treat wounded soldiers from the Mexican-American War. It originally was called San Pablo Hospital but its name was changed to Jurez Hospital in 1872.[19] The Torre de Hospitalizacin was built in 1970 with the main building being twelve stories tall. It had two wings, one facing north and the other south, with an inpatient capacity of

536 beds. At the top was a helipad. It was also surrounded by a number of other buildings belonging to the hospital complex such as a blood bank, teaching facilities, offices as well as the original convent. At the time of the earthquake, the hospital was 80% full, and it was shift change time for nurses, doctors and residents. Within minutes, the steel-frame structure collapsed, crushing and trapping many people inside.[19] Those who were rescued first were taken to another building for treatment, as the ambulances were trapped inside the collapsed tower. The hospital did not have an emergency plan but nonetheless, surviving hospital workers and neighbors quickly improvised, under the management of the hospital, setting up aid stations and scavenging supplies. Rescue workers soon arrived to take start digging through to rubble. A second quake made rescue work slower, because of fear of further collapse. Most bodies were identified by personal effects, some by dental records and some were so mangled that they wound up being cremated without ever being identified, due to the lack of morgue facilities. 561 bodies were found and 188 were never identified. 266 were hospital workers and 44 were medical residents. The majority who were rescued were found in the first five days. The number of bodies recovered was high during those first days as well but the numbers dramatically increased between days 17 and 31.[19] Heavy machinery was unable to get to the site until 5 days after the earthquake. Numbers of dead did not include unidentified body parts found. Most of the injured had contusion injuries and many suffered from dehydration, with the severity of the dehydration increasing with those rescued later.[19] However, the most memorable story to come from this event was the rescue of nearly all the newborn babies that were in the nursery at the time. These babies were pulled out of the wreckage mostly unscathed but lost their mothers.[20] These babies were found seven days after the initial event and came to be known as the Miracle Babies or the Miracle of Hospital Jurez.[18] The reason for this was that these babies survived without nourishment, water, warmth or human contact for all that time.[18]

[edit] Sewing factory

Bronze statue at corner of Manuel J Othn and San Antonio Abad at site of collapsed factory On Manuel Jos Othn Street, in the Colonia Obrera neighborhood, near Metro station San Antonio Abad, was one of the many garment factories located in the city center area. It was destroyed along with approximately 1,200 other workshops.[3][21] It was one of three buildings that collapsed on this block, and called Topeka. The magazine Proceso reports that by the time rescue workers got to the building, the owners were already in a hurry to demolish it, without trying to rescue or recover the seamstresses that were trapped inside.[22] About 150 bodies of workers had already been pulled from the wreckage by other workers with their bare hands.[21] The collapse of this factory exposed the deplorable conditions that many of these seamstresses were subject to. The building that collapsed, as well as many others, were found to be decrepit. It came to be known that many of these women had to work extended hours with little or no compensation, and few, if any of the labor laws on the books were being followed. This event made the garment industry a labor embarrassment.[23] All that is left to remind of the factory is a small empty lot with a bronze statue of a woman sewing to commemorate the event. On the rest of the property, apartments have been built.[21]

[edit] Central Communications Center

On Eje Central and Xola Avenue, at the southern end of the lakebed zone was (and is) the Secretara de Comunicaciones y Transportes (Ministry of Communication and Transportation), a reinforced concrete structure with its microwave tower. This structure failed, causing the near total collapse of long distance communications between Mexico City and the rest of the world.[11]

[edit] Conjunto Pino Surez

The current market at the Conjunto Pino Suarez site. One of the most spectacular building collapses was that of the Conjunto Pino Surez, which was a complex of five steel frame buildings. A 20-story tower, Tower Four, doubled over at the third floor and fell south onto a fourteen-story building.[2] The fall left a huge piece of concrete blocking the road that leads to the Zcalo. People at the scene stated that there was simply no

time to run and escape the buildings fall. The other three 20-story buildings were closed because of damage, as well as the Metro entrance next door. The building was occupied by family courts and offices of the public defender.[24] The area now is a commercial center.[7]

[edit] Hotel Regis

Plaza of Solidarity at site of former Hotel Regis The Hotel Regis was built in the beginning of the 20th century as a luxury hotel in neo-Classical style. It had its own cabaret, gourmet restaurant and a small but luxurious cinema with wide reclining armchairs.[25] It was located at the corner of Balderas and Avenida Jurez in the historic center and completely collapsed within moments of the quake.[7] Shortly after its collapse, it began to burn due to a gas leak, which made it extremely difficult to rescue survivors. Nothing has survived of the hotel except for a wall with a mural done by Diego Rivera.[25] The space is now the Plaza de la Solidaridad park.[7] On the north side of this park is a wall from the hotel, containing a mural done by Diego Rivera. It is now housed there in a small museum.[26]

[edit] Apartment complexes in Tlatelolco

There were two apartment complexes in the area of the city called Tlatelolco to the north of the historic center that became major scenes of disaster, the Unidad Habitacional NonoalcoTlatelolco and the "Multifamiliares Jurez" near the Metro Centro Mdico. Together, these apartment complexes were a large percentage of the 30,000 units lost, with the city losing about 30% of its living space.[3] Nonoalco Tlatelolco was located on Paseo de la Reforma Norte #668,[27] covering an area of about two km2. It had 102 buildings with seven medical facilities, twenty-two schools and about 500 small businesses, serving the 80,000 people that lived there. Constructed under the presidency of Adolfo Lpez Mateos, it was considered the most important complex of its kind in the country.[28] In the Conjunto Urbano, two of the three modules of the building called "Nuevo Len," at thirteen-stories tall, completely collapsed, while the other one was severely damaged. In other buildings, dozens of people terrified by the event jumped from high windows to their death, trying to escape.[17] People became trapped in stairwells, elevators and their apartments without any way to contact the outside world.[28] At the collapsed building lines of 50100 men

passed rubble by hand and buckets, trying to reach victims.[27] During these rescue efforts, a nearby building, called Oaxaca, began to creak noisily, causing everyone to run and abandon the site temporarily, but it did not collapse.[28] All the buildings suffered damage but along with the collapsed Nuevo Len building, buildings such as those called Veracruz, Coahuila, Zacatecas, Oaxaca, Puebla, Jalisco, Churubusco, Guelatao, 2 de Abril, 15 de Septiembre, Chihuahua, Tamaulipas, ISSSTE 11, Quertaro, Guanajuato, Ignacio Comonfort, Ignacio M. Altamirano, Jess Tern, Ponciano Arriaga, Nios Hroes and 20 de Noviembre suffered severe damage such as severely cracked foundations. In the days after the quake, military and police cordoned off ten buildings to keep people out, leading a number of them to sleep on the streets.[28] Twelve buildings in the complex were so severely damaged that they were demolished in the next six months.[18][29] Buildings A1, B2 and C3 of the Multifamiliar Jurez complex partially collapsed with a total of nine structures eventually being demolished.[18][29]

[edit] Televisa studios

Televisa building at Nios Hroes and Chapultepec Ave. One of the famous images of the event was the live broadcast of Hoy Mismo, a news program in the Televisa television network, when the earthquake struck. In the video, movement can be seen, especially in the lights above the newscasters. The three newscasters were Mara Victoria Llamas (substituting for Guillermo Ochoa), Lourdes Guerrero and Juan Dosal. As the movement began Llamas reports grabbing the underside of the desk, and whispering quickly to Guzmn that she hoped no one could see how scared she was.[30] The last image broadcast from that studio was that of Lourdes Guerrero stating it's still shaking a little (sigue temblando un poquitito), but we must take it calmly. We will wait just a second so we can keep talking.[24] Then the image disappeared. The transmission ended because a nearby 10-ton antenna had bent over and noisily crushed parts of Televisas buildings that were located on Nios Hroes and Dr. Ro de la Loza Streets in Colonia Doctores.[24] Everyone ran from the studio but Llamas and Guerrero stayed, hiding under their anchor desks. After the shaking stopped, they both left the Televisa studios through a back door, and hours later they were back on the air in the studios of Canal de las Estrellas to broadcast live what was happening.[30] Some members of the Hoy Mismo staff died, including producer Ernesto Villanueva and engineer David Mendoza Corcega, who had just parked at the Televisa building, but had no time to escape from his car.[24] The falling debris also

killed street vendors who worked just outside the studio building.[30] Reconstruction of the studio building began in 1995 and ended in 2000.

[edit] Other structures

Televicentro (now Televisa Chapultepec) Los Televiteatros (now Centro Cultural Telmex) Hotel D'Carlo and Hotel Prado, which were located in the Alameda Central area near the Hotel Regis

[edit] Geological and structural engineering issues

Most of the earthquake damage was to buildings. Two reasons are the resonance in the lakebed sediments and the long duration of the shaking.[2] The buildings most damaged were from 6 to 15 stories in height. These buildings tended to resonate most with the energetic frequency band of the lakebed motions. One interesting characteristic was that many buildings had their upper floors collapse, leaving the lower floors relatively undamaged.[2] In many damaged buildings, just one floor had collapsed, In some cases, the damage was caused by the top of a lower, adjacent building banging against the walls and the supporting columns of its neighbor. Eventually, the columns gave way. In other cases, the first few floors of buildings were designed as parking garages, open lobbies or large shopping areas. These "soft" stories were particularly flexible and tended to collapse after prolonged shaking. Some types of foundations, particularly those involving piles driven into clay and held in place by friction, turned out to be weak. One 9story building, for example, overturned. Its piles were pulled entirely out of the ground.[31] A survey of the damage done by the government found that few buildings from one to five stories suffered serious damage; the same was true for buildings over fifteen stories. When the buildings were built seemed to have an effect as well. Before the 1957 earthquake, there were no building codes with respect to earthquake resistance. Some regulations were passed in that year and more in 1976 after another, stronger earthquake shook the city. However, none of these regulations had an event like 1985s in mind when passed. Most of the seriously damaged buildings were built between 1957 and 1976, when the city was starting to build upwards, in the six-to-fifteen floor range. In second place were buildings from before 1957, possibly because they were weakened by the earlier earthquakes. Buildings from 1976 to 1985 suffered the least damage.[3] At the time of the earthquake, Mexico City had one of the most stringent building codes, based on experience gained from earthquakes in 1957 and 1979. However, the codes were not designed for seismic activity of the intensity experienced in 1985.[2][31] The event was one of the most intense of any recorded in the world, allowing for macroseismic waves to arrive in the Valley of Mexico with unusually high energy content.[2] Prior to the event, estimates about ground movement on the lakebed were generally accepted and a number of buildings were built on these estimates.[31] Several notable buildings were relatively untouched by the quake. One significant example is the Torre Latinoamericana. Despite being 44 stories tall, it survived the 1985 event almost

undamaged. It was constructed with two hundred piles extending down over a hundred feet into the stable earth stratum.[12]

[edit] Political consequences

[edit] Government response

First ladies Paloma Cordero of Mexico (left) and Nancy Reagan of the United States (right) with U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, John Gavin observing the damage done by the earthquake. The military was deployed to patrol streets to prevent looting after a curfew was imposed,[32] as well as rescue, sanitary efforts and other, with 1,836 soldiers initially sent in and another 1,500 conscripts sent later.[3] The federal governments first public response was President de la Madrids declaration of a period of mourning for three days starting from 20 September 1985.[17] The earthquakes created many political difficulties for the then-ruling Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) or Institutional Revolutionary Party. The crisis was severe enough to have tested the capabilities of wealthier countries, but the government from local PRI bosses to President de la Madrid himself exacerbated the problem aside from the lack of money.[15] The Ministry of Foreign Affairs declared it would not request aid; it specifically rejected aid from the United States. It was also widely reported in the days after the earthquake that the military assisted factory owners in retrieving their machinery rather than in removing the bodies of dead factory workers.[33] At many levels of the government, who was helped and by how much was determined by ones standing vis--vis the PRI. Those belonging to the party received preference and those considered opposition received the runaround. President de la Madrid refused to cut foreign debt payments to use the money to help with the recovery effort. The governments response to the earthquake was widely criticized at various levels of Mexican society, being seen as both authoritarian and incompetent.[15] As most of the collapsed buildings were of recent construction and public works projects, the government was seen at fault due to mismanagement and corruption in these constructions.[5] The government itself realized that it could not handle the crisis alone through already-established institutions and decided to open the process up to opposition groups.[15]

[edit] Community response

Housing project by CUD on Dr Andrade Street in Colonia Doctores On the other hand, the disaster created an opportunity for political opponents, especially at the grassroots level. Much of the community organizing focused on helping those left homeless by the earthquake. The three largest and most effective organizations were based in Tlatelolco and Colonia Roma. These consisted of families from the Multifamilar Jurez housing project, which completely collapsed and the combined colonias (neighborhoods) of Centro, Morelos, Guerrero, Doctores, Obrera, Peralvillo, Asturias, Nicols Bravo among others which housed the working and lower classes. These groups along with the Sindicato Nacional de Costureras united to form the Coordinadora nica de Damnificados (CUD).[15] CUD and other popular movement representatives met with head of the Secretariat of Urban Development and Ecology (SEDUE) Guillermo Carrillo Arena on 27 September 1985. Carrillo Arena at first insisted that the movements incorporate themselves into the PRI before gaining any concessions. This was refused. Many media outlets expressed support for the popular movements and marches like that of 2 October 1985, demanding that the reconstruction process be more democratic, meaning the inclusion of non-PRI political organizations into the decision-making process. On 11 October 1985, the President granted a seven-minute audience to the heads of a dozen popular movements, which turned into a 45-minute meeting where de la Madrid was handed a document outlining what would remain the movements core demands: expropriation of all condemned buildings, followed by a popular and democratic reconstruction project which would include the active participation of the community movement. De la Madrid conceded some with the expropriation of 5,500 properties in the four most affected boroughs.[15] After the government created the Programa de Renovacin Habitacional Popular (PRHP) on 14 October to help deal with the crisis, friction between the government and community groups grew again, PRHP used PRI-membership as a requirement to be included into the census of earthquake victims. More protests followed on 26 October calling for, among other things, the firing of SEDUE head Carrillo Arena. Things got worse through February 1986, mostly due to the ineffectiveness of SEDUE and PRHP. Finally Carrillo Arena was fired from SEDUE and replaced by Manuel Camacho Sols.[15] In March, only weeks after taking office, Camacho Sols changed the charged atmosphere between SEDUE and the community groups. He actively integrated Tlateloloco citizen groups into a new program meant for that area, defusing the most volatile area of the city. Camacho Sols continued to work to integrate and smooth relations between his agency and the community

groups. On 16 May 1986, Camacho Sols met with the heads of all the major groups. He offered a commitment to build 48,000 housing units in one year if the groups would all sign a Convenio de concertacin democrtica para la reconstruccin de vivienda (Democratic agreement for the reconstruction of housing). Basically, this document required the cooperation of community groups in exchange for solid commitments from the agency. All sides would compromise in order to get something done. The deal generally worked; movements like CUD moderated their stances and agencies like SEDUE and PRHP made progress in rebuilding housing, regardless of political affiliation.[15]

[edit] Weakening of the PRI

At the time of the earthquake, Mexico was in its fifth year of a foreign debt crisis, and a contracting economy causing serious political problems for the PRI. Much of the PRIs authoritarian nature was tolerated because the country had seen four decades of economic expansion of six percent or better. When this disappeared, the PRIs power base began to shrink. Its reputation was damaged further when the government seemed to be deliberately downplaying the number of earthquake victims. President de la Madrid made relatively few public appearances afterwards and during those he did, he received strong heckling, in contrast to the near-reverence that past presidents enjoyed at such events.[34] The severe damage in so many buildings, including many public works projects construction to house the rapidly growing population of Mexico City, were blamed on lax enforcement of building codes. Critics argued that the lack of enforcement of such codes was indicative of corrupt practices in all levels of government.[33] The stepping-in of non-PRI organizations to take over where the government could not also took its toll on PRIs reputation. Burton Kirkwood states Out of the disaster emerged the realization that a viable civil society existed in Mexico. This revelation also caused many to consider why they needed a centralized state that so obviously could not care for its people. As a consequence, the opposition movements pointed to the governments shortcomings and advanced candidates for the greater goal of defeating the PRI.[33] Shortly after the event, the PRI began to face serious challenges at the polls, forcing it to rig elections, sometimes in an embarrassingly messy way.[34]

[edit] Effects of earthquake in other parts of Mexico

Although much closer to the epicenter, the states of Jalisco, Colima, Guerrero and Michoacn suffered only mild to moderate damage. Landslides caused damage at Atenquique, Jalisco, and near Jala, Colima. Rockslides were reported along highways near Ixtapa, Guerrero, with Sand volcanos and ground cracks in Lazaro Cardenas. Students at the Universidad de las Amricas in nearby Puebla reported feeling as if the cafeteria had been lifted and rocked back and forth, shattering windows and injuring some people but mostly causing panic. A small tsunami caused only mild damage to Lzaro Crdenas and Zihuatanejo. Some fishing boats were reported missing but these reports were never confirmed.[2] One exceptional case was in Ciudad Guzmn, Jalisco, where about 60 percent of the buildings were destroyed,[2] with about 50 dead.[5] Some

damage also occurred as far away as the states of Mexico, Morelos and parts of Veracruz, on the Gulf coast. Coastal and most inland damage was moderated by the fact that most of the west of Mexico sits on bedrock, which serves to transmit the shockwaves without amplifying them. La Villita, and Infiernillo Dams, near the coast, were superficially damaged and undamaged respectively.[2] Off the coasts of Michoacn and Guerrero, the 19 and 20 September events caused a rupture in the seabed 240 km long and 70 km wide, located between the subduction trench and the coastline. This is an intertidal zone and the event caused widespread mortality in a number of species living in the area such as algae and shellfish.[35]

[edit] Legacy
One preparation that was made for future events was the alert system, Sistema de Alerta Ssmica (SAS), which sends early-warning messages electronically from sensors along the coastal subduction zone in Guerrero. It was expanded to a similar area on the coast of Oaxaca.[36] An alarm is supposed to go off in Mexico City (similar to an air-raid siren) when an earthquake of 6.0 or higher is detected. However, it does not always work.[7] To better help deal with major disasters, the Civil Protection Committee was created.[7] This committee organizes drills in cooperation with rescue workers, police, hospital staff and even metro personnel.[37] Affiliated with the Civil Protection Committee is the Brigada de Topos de Tlatelolco (Mole Brigade of Tlatelolco). This group arose from youths who spontaneously volunteered to risk their lives crawling into collapsed buildings to look for survivors.[38] Despite having no equipment, training or knowledge of rescue tactics,[38] these youths were instrumental in saving a number of lives, including the babies rescued from the collapse of the Jurez Hospital.[20] Shortly thereafter, these youths decided to formally band together in February 1986. These topos have developed into highly trained specialists in times of disaster, with branches in other parts of Mexico. They are now expertly trained and even have scent dogs to help them. They have gained international fame as they have helped in disasters in San Salvador, Taiwan, in the countries of the rim of the Indian Ocean after the tsunami there in 2004,[38] and most recently in the January 2010 Haiti Earthquake.[39][40] Despite warnings and predictions, in 2005, an estimated 32 million people live in the high-risk lakebed area.[7] As of 2005, there are still two camps where approximately eighty families are still waiting for relocation from the earthquake.[7] Centuries-old structures have been reinforced across the city and new construction must comply with very strict codes.[37] There are several instances of tall buildings in Mexico City incorporating earthquake-resistant engineering. A few notable examples are: the Torre Latinoamericana, one of the first buildings in Mexico City to do so, the Torre Ejecutiva Pemex, built before the 1985 earthquake, and the Torre Mayor, built in 2003.

Every 19 September, in all public buildings at Mexico City and all the nation the civil protection authorities conduct evacuation drills to evaluate the evacuation response in the case of an earthquake. Televisa's San Angel studios, one of the few Televisa facilities in Mexico City not damaged by the earthquake, became the new home of two long-running series, Siempre en domingo and En familia con Chabelo, both of which saw their studios at Chapultepec damaged. The earthquake also inspired the creation of another long-running Televisa series, Silvia Pinal's Mujer, casos de la vida real, which was also produced at Televisa San Angel.

[edit] References
1. ^ "El Sismo del 19 de Septiembre de 1985: informe y evaluacin preliminar" (in Spanish). UNAM. http://www.ssn.unam.mx/website/jsp/Sismo85/sismo85_inf.htm. Retrieved 2011-03-28. 2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Moreno Murillo, Juan Manuel (1995). "The 1985 Mexico Earchquake". Geofisica Coumbia (Universidad Nacional de Colombia) (3): 519. ISSN 0121-2974. 3. ^ a b c d e f g (in Spanish). Mexico City.. 1987. pp. 828. 4. ^ a b Anderson, J.G.; J.N. Brune, J. Prince, S.K. Singh, R. Quaas & M. Onate (1986). "Strong Ground Motion from the Mochoacan, Mexico, Earthquake". Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 233 (4768): 1043. doi:10.1126/science.233.4768.1043. PMID 17746576. 5. ^ a b c d e f -1985 "El terremoto en Mexico de 1985" (in Spanish). http://www.laguia2000.com/mexico/el-terremoto-en-mexico-de -1985. Retrieved 200810-04. 6. ^ "Mexican quake update". Science News. 1985-10-05. p. 214. ISSN 00368423. 7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Campus, Yunnven (2005-09-19). "A 20 aos del sismo del 85" (in Spanish). Mexico City: Televisa. http://www.esmas.com/noticierostelevisa/terremoto/475688.html. Retrieved 2008-10-04. 8. ^ a b "SNN Mexican National Seismological Centre" (in Spanish). http://www.ssn.unam.mx/website/jsp/Carteles/sismo85.jsp. Retrieved 2008-10-04. 9. ^ "Earthquakes and Tsunamis". http://www.statssheet.com/articles/article7082.html. Retrieved 2008-10-04. 10. ^ "Mexican quake make small sea ripples". Science News 129 (8). 1986-02-22. ISSN 00368423. 11. ^ a b "Datasets 1985". http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/nndc/servlet/ShowDatasets?EQ_0=64&bt_0=&st_0=&EQ_1= &bt_1=&st_1=&query=&dataset=101634&search_look=2&group_id=null&display_look =4,44&submit_all=Select+Data. Retrieved 2008-10-04. 12. ^ a b c Hardman, Chris (Jul/August 2004). "A Damper on Quakes". Americas 56 (4): 4. ISSN 03790940. 13. ^ a b Svitil, Kathy A. (April 2003). Earths Deadly Pulses. 24. Discover. p. 12. ISSN 02747529.

14. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Soberon, Guillermo Julio; Jaime Sepulveda (June 1986). "The Health Care Reform in Mexico: Before and After the 1985 Earthquakes". AJPH 76 (6): 673680. doi:10.2105/AJPH.76.6.673. 15. ^ a b c d e f g h i Haber, Paul Lawrence (1995). "Earthquake of 1985". Concise Encyclopedia of Mexico. Taylor & Frances Ltd.. pp. 179184. 16. ^ "Terremoto en cifras" (in Spanish). UNAM. http://ssn.unam.mx/website/jsp. Retrieved 2008-10-04. 17. ^ a b c "Suicidios in Tlatelolco:Sismo en Mexico" (in Spanish). Mexico City: La Prensa. 2005-09-14. p. 2. 18. ^ a b c d e f "Ms de 40 mil muertos en el sismo de 1985?" (in Spanish). 2008-09-19. http://www.diariocritico.com/mexico/2008/Septiembre/noticias/99041/mas-de-40-milmuertos-en-el-sismo-del-1985.html. Retrieved 2008-10-09. 19. ^ a b c d Rojas, Enriquez (November 1987) (in Spanish). El Terremoto de 1985 en el Hospital Jurez de la Ciudad de Mxico. Secretara de Salud, Mexico. http://cidbimena.desastres.hn/docum/crid/Febrero2005/pdf/spa/doc187/doc187.htm. Retrieved 2008-10-11. 20. ^ a b "Cumplen 20 aos nios rescatados terremoto 1985 Ciudad de Mxico" (in Spanish). Mexico City: Terra. 2005-09-18. http://noticias.terra.com/articulo/html/act228316.htm. Retrieved 2008-10-04. 21. ^ a b c Notimex (2005-09-19). "Misa en honor de costureras muertas en 1985" (in Spanish). http://www.esmas.com/noticierostelevisa/mexico/475900.html. Retrieved 2008-10-09. 22. ^ Ponce, Roberto. "Los buenos los malos y las feas cifras y realidades del terremoto segun un libro de un brigadista de Plcido Domingo" (in Spanish). Mexico City: Proceso. http://www.proceso.com.mx/impreso_articulo.php?articulo=130785. Retrieved 2008-1011.[dead link] 23. ^ Flores, Miguel Angel. "Zona de Desastre" (in Spanish). Proceso. http://www.proceso.com.mx/impreso_articulo.php?articulo=92538. Retrieved 2008-1011.[dead link] 24. ^ a b c d Manueco Guzman, Hector (1985-09-20). "Desastres" (in Spanish). Exclsior. pp. 14a. 25. ^ a b "Hotel Regis". http://www.edemx.com/citymex/demolidos/H_Regis.html. Retrieved 2008-10-09. 26. ^ "Museo Mural de Diego Rivera" (in Spanish). http://www.minube.com/rincon/1160. Retrieved 2008-10-11. 27. ^ a b Gomez Moreno, Ricardo (1985-09-20). "Una voz bajo escombros del Edificio Nuevo Len" (in Spanish). Mexico City: Exclsior. p. 15. 28. ^ a b c d Medina, Carlos A.; Manuel Noguez (1985-09-20). "Dramaticos Momentos Para 80,000 habitantes de la Unidad Tlatelolco" (in Spanish). Mexico City: Exclsior. pp. 39a. 29. ^ a b Cuchi, Giana (2005-09-19). "Terremoto de la Ciudad de Mexico de 1985" (in Spanish). http://www.elfinanciero.com.mx/ElFinanciero/Portal/cfpages/contentmgr.cfm?docId=144 567&docTipo=1&orderby=docid&sortby=ASC. Retrieved 2008-10-09.[dead link] 30. ^ a b c "Terremoto de 1985: 13 aos despues" (in Spanish). Mexico City: Terra. 1998-0919. http://www.terra.com.mx/articulo.aspx?articuloid=15607&paginaid=4. Retrieved 2008-10-10.

31. ^ a b c Peterson, Ivars (1986-01-18). "Mexico Citys Earthquake: Lessons in the Ruins". Science News (Society for Science &) 129 (3): 36. doi:10.2307/3970646. JSTOR 3970646. 32. ^ Velasco Molina, Carlos (1985-09-20). "Estricto Patrullaje Militar Para Garantizar paz: Aguirre" (in Spanish). Mexico City: Exclsior. pp. 1a,22a. 33. ^ a b c Kirkwood, Burton (2000). History of Mexico. Westport, CT, USA: Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.. p. 203. ISBN 0313002436. 34. ^ a b Orme, William A. (1986-11-08). "Playing with Loaded Dice: Mexicos political machine". The Nation: 483486. 35. ^ Bodin, Paul; Terrie Klinger (1986-09-05). "Coastal Uplift and Mortality of Intertidal Organisms Caused by the September 1985 Mexico Earthquakes". Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 233 (4768): 10711073. doi:10.1126/science.233.4768.1071. PMID 17746579. 36. ^ "Centro de Instrumentacin y Registro Ssmico, A. C., CIRES MXICO". Archived from the original on 2009-10-10. http://www.cires.org.mx. Retrieved 2008-10-04. 37. ^ a b Peters, Gretchen (2003-01-24). "Preparation saves lives in Mexican Earthquake". Christian Science Monitor. http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0124/p07s02-woam.html. Retrieved 2011-03-28. 38. ^ a b c "A 20 aos de terremoto: Los topos de Tlatelolco" (in Spanish). Mexico City: Televisa. 2005-09-19. http://www.esmas.com/noticierostelevisa/terremoto/475628.html. Retrieved 2008-10-04. 39. ^ "Mexican elite earthquake rescue team, Los Topos, departs for Italy". Mexico Times (Mexico). 6 April 2009. http://mexicotimes.newsvine.com/_news/2009/04/06/2648042mexican-elite-earthquake-rescue-team-los-topos-parts-for-italy. Retrieved January 14, 2010. 40. ^ del Toro, Evangelina (14 January 2010). "Viajan Topos mexicanos a Hait [Mexican Topos travel to Haiti]" (in Spanish). Yahoo News. http://mx.news.yahoo.com/s/14012010/7/negocios-viajan-topos-mexicanos-haiti.html. Retrieved 14 January 2010.[dead link] [hide]

v d e

Earthquakes in 1985

Mendoza (6.2, January 26) Santiago (8.0, March 3) Pichilemu (7.5, April 8) Luquan (6.3, April 18) Wuqia (7.4, August 23) Mexico City (8.1, September 19) Nahanni (6.9, December 23)

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Haiti earthquake: Bodies piled up on the streets as disaster leaves 'thousands' dead
By David Gardner and Liz Hazelton Last updated at 9:29 AM on 14th January 2010

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Red Cross fears around three million people affected by 7.2 quake Up to 100 UN staff including believed dead after headquarters collapse Charities launch emergency appeals to help stricken survivors Presidential palace crumbles, hospital collapses and houses swept away Britain sends emergency team as Obama vows 'unwavering' support

Bloodstained bodies are piled high in the streets of the Haitian capital of Portau-Prince today amid fears that thousands have died in a catastrophic earthquake. Rescuers have been forced to dig through rubble with their bare hands to free trapped survivors as the Red Cross said up to three million people may have been affected. British and international aid agencies are rushing to assist today as the full horror of the disaster began to emerge.

Helpless: An injured child receives medical treatment in Port-au-Prince

Chaos: Residents sleep in the streets of Port-au-Prince which has been hit by more than 30 aftershocks

It is still unclear how many have been killed in the earthquake, which measured 7.2 on the Richter scale, but aid agencies fear thousands are dead. Haitian president Rene Preval described the scene in Port-au Prince as 'unimaginable.'

More...

Journalist in six-hour dash across Haiti to rescue wife trapped under earthquake rubble Why was Haiti earthquake so devastating? Haiti earthquake: The latest news for travellers to the Caribbean Evidence of dogs' sixth-sense: Labrador bolts from U.S. office before earthquake tremors strike building

'Parliament has collapsed. The tax office has collapsed. Schools have collapsed. Hospitals have collapsed,' he said.

Among the fatalities were up to 100 UN staff, including Hedi Annabi, the Secretary General's special envoy, who were working inside its five-storey headquarters when it collapsed. The Roman Catholic Arcbishop of Port-au-Prince Monsignor Joseph Serge Miot also died. His body was found in the ruins of the archdiocese office.

Digging with their bare hands: A woman receives assistance in a collapsed building in Port-auPrince

Collapse: Much of the Haiti National Palace was destroyed in the massive earthquake

Around 200 people are also feared dead after a hotel crumbled to dust, the National Palace is in ruins and a major hospital also destroyed. The destruction is said to be staggering, even in an impoverished nation accustomed to tragedy and disaster.

HOW TO DONATE
To give to the Red Cross Haiti appeal visit www.redcross.org.uk/haitiearthquake or call 08450 535353 To donate through Christian Aid go to www.christianaid.org.uk/haitiappeal To give to the Oxfam appeal call 0300 200 1999, visit www.oxfam.org.uk or call in at a local Oxfam shop To contribute to CARE International UK's appeal go to www.careinternational.org.uk

Eyewitnesses said gravely injured Haitians were crying out from the rubble, pleading for doctors as night fell. With the country in chaos and facing still more damage from a series of 30 aftershocks, their cries went mostly unheard. The quake, the most powerful in the region for 200 years, was centred about ten miles west of the Haitian capital, a city of two million people, many of them living in flimsy shanty slums. It struck at 4.53pm yesterday and was followed by as many as 30 aftershocks, one of them as strong as 5.9 on the Richter scale, a sizeable earthquake in its own right. The centre was also relatively shallow, less than ten miles below ground, raising the risk of damage.

Survivors: A boy and a woman wounded and covered in dust are unable to comprehend what has happened

First aid: Residents carry an injured man through the streets of Port-au-Prince

Survivors held hands and sung hymns as they waited for help to come. But many people spent the night fighting for their lives.

DEVASTATING BUT PREDICTED

The major earthquake which devastated Haiti came as no surprise to many geologists. In 2008, five scientists authored a paper warning that a fault line on the south side of the island posed a 'major seismic hazard.' Last night's devastating earthquake ripped through the unstable region, the Enriquillo-Plaintain Garden fault zone. Paul Mann, one of the paper's authors and a senior research scientist at the University of Texas' Institute for Geophysics, said: 'We were concerned about it.

'The problem with these kinds of strikes is that they can remain quiescent dormant - for hundreds of years. So it's hard to predict when they'll occur.' The island of Hispaniola, which Haiti shares with the Domican Republic, is caught betwen two teutonic plates, making it particularly suspceptibile to earthquakes. Although lesser known, the Enriquillo-Plaintain Garden fault is similar to the San Andreas fault in California, responsible for some of America's most devastating earthquakes. The last major earthquake in Hispaniola was in 1946, measured 8.0 and left 20,000 people homeless. Geologists said the last similar size event in the Port-au-Prince region was in 1770. 'I can hear very distressed peoplea lot of distress, people wailing, trying to find loved ones trapped under the rubble, said Ian Rodgers, of Save the Children, who is in Port-au-Prince. I couldn't even stand up, that's how bad it was, said Valerie Moliere, 15. There's a lot of people in the street everywhere. Some are wounded. I just heard that right next to my neighbourhood there's this pharmacy and this school that broke down and many people died, she added. Everybody is just totally, totally freaked out and shaken, said Henry Bahn, a US Department of Agriculture official visiting Port-au-Prince. The sky is just gray with dust. Mr Bahn said there were rocks strewn about and he saw a ravine where several homes had stood: It's just full of collapsed walls and rubble and barbed wire. Jocelyn Valcin, a resident of Boynton Beach, Florida who flew in to Miami International Airport from Port-au-Prince on Tuesday evening, said he was at the airport when the earthquake hit. The whole building was cracked down said Mr Valcin. The whole outside deteriorated.

US State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said in Washington that US Embassy personnel were literally in the dark after power failed. They reported structures down. They reported a lot of walls down. They did see a number of bodies in the street and on the sidewalk that had been hit by debris. So clearly, there's going to be serious loss of life in this, he said. Aid agencies were today scrambling to co-ordinate a relief effort for the poorest nation in the world. Gordon Brown confirmed Britain was sending help and said he was 'deeply saddened and worried' by the scale of the earthquake.' Experts from the Department for International Development (DFID) are already on the way to the stricken region.

Shock: Stunned Haitians walk past a damaged building in Port-au-Prince in the aftermath of the quake

Desperate: Two women crouch in the rubble hours after the earthquake ripped through Haiti

Douglas Alexander, Secretary of State for International Development, told the Commons around six million people live in the affected region with one million in the area worst hit. 'By any measure, this is a terrible tragedy,' he said. 'We have mobilisted a UK Fire and Rescue Service search and rescue team of 64 people with dogs and heavy rescue equipment.

NEW BLOW FOR COUNTRY MIRED IN MISERY

The earthquake that plunged Haiti into darkness is another blow to a nation that has seen more than its share of misery. Much of Haiti's nine million population is impoverished and the disaster comes after years of political instability.

The country has suffered a number of recent disasters, including hurricanes and storms in 2008. In November 2008, following the collapse of a school in Petionville, the mayor of Port-au-Prince estimated about 60% of the buildings were shoddily built and unsafe in normal circumstances. The earthquake yesterday was felt in the Dominican Republic - but no major damage was reported there. Houses also shook in eastern Cuba but there were also no reports of significant damage. 'The team and their ten tonnes of equipment are at present assembling at Gatwick and are ready to deploy as soon as the airport reopens following heavy snow. 'We are urgently looking at all options to ensure the search and rescue team can deploy as quickly as possible, including the possiblity of an RAF flight.' In Washington, President Obama vowed 'unwavering support' to help Haiti recover. 'We are just now beginning to learn the extent of the devastation, but the reports and images that we've seen of collapsed hospitals, crumbled homes and men and women carrying their injured neighbors through the streets are truly heartwrenching,' he said. 'I have directed my administration to respond with a swift, coordinated and aggressive effort to save lives.' A number of emergency appeals have already been launched. Save The Children has released 50,000 from its funds while the British Red Cross has allocated 200,000. Gareth Owen, emergencies director at Save the Children, which has around 60 staff in Haiti, said: 'We are very concerned about the high likelihood of a significant loss of life because Port-au-Prince is a very densely populated city and the earthquake epicentre was very close to it.

Emergency aid: Two men help a woman freed from rubble in Haiti

Dust storm: Damaged buildings in the neighbourhood of Petionville, Port-Au-Prince after the earthquake hit

'Initial reports from our people there from the immediate vicinity of where they are indicate that it looks very bad indeed.' Both Oxfam and Christian Aid have also launched emergency appeals. Haitian musician Wyclef Jean urged his fans to donate to earthquake relief efforts, saying he had received text messages from his homeland reporting that many people had died. We must think ahead for the aftershock, the people will need food, medicine, shelter, etc,' Mr Jean said on his website. Most of Haiti's nine million people are desperately poor, and after years of political instability the country has no real construction standards. In November 2008, following the collapse of a school in Petionville, the mayor of Port-au-Prince estimated about 60 percent of the buildings were shoddily built and unsafe in normal circumstances.

Tuesday's quake was felt in the Dominican Republic, which shares a border with Haiti on the island of Hispaniola, and some panicked residents in the capital of Santo Domingo fled from their shaking homes. But no major damage was reported there. In eastern Cuba, houses shook but there were also no reports of significant damage.

The earthquake epicentre was ten miles outside Port-au-Prince, the Haitian capital

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View all I think one of the saddest pictures there is the woman with a Bob the Builder bag... without a child next to her. - Alex, Petersfield, 14/1/2010 08:12 Click to rate Report abuse its really horrible. hope UAE and India send their troops to help these innocent people. - sumesh nambiar, abu dhabi, 14/1/2010 04:57 Click to rate Report abuse I hope such horrors will make us all wake up to the fact that comparatively speaking our lives are not so bad at all. We are indeed fortunate - Paul Taylor, Shenzhen China, 14/1/2010 04:24 Rating 28 Rating 32

Click to rate Report abuse

Rating 40

So God's wrath comes into the equation. He strikes at one of the poorest nations on Earth. Makes sense....not. - Stuart, Manchester UK, 13/1/2010 23:22 Click to rate Report abuse Does anyone know the duration of the quake? How many seconds or (God forbid) minutes did it last? - Christine, Denver, USA, 13/1/2010 21:56 Click to rate Report abuse Already Christian Aid, CARE, the Red Cross and World Vision are on the scene without any delay helping the helpless in Haiti, whilst the self-conceited, greed-intoxicated, megalomaniac tax Glutton Brown is still debating the issue - talk talk talk blah blah blah - that's all these parasites-turned-politician excel at - all words and NO ACTION. - James Davenport, Manchester UK, 13/1/2010 21:24 Click to rate Report abuse If this country had been properly run over the past 50 yrs, we'd have British Army and RAF Transports over there right now stocked full of food, tents and medical equipment. Now because there is no forward contingency planning in Westminster people will die needlessly because we are always caught by surprise, what was it last week, oh yes, snow, bunch of amateurs we have running this country, running around like headless chickens making it all up as they go, one calamity after another. Come on Generals, show them how to organise a nation, kick the door in on the useless parasites we have running our country, let's have a bit or order, strategy. Hell they even discuss the weather in Parliament like its a new phenomenon !!! - Adrian Peirson, hull Great Britain, 13/1/2010 20:36 Click to rate Rating 2 Rating 16 Rating 11 Rating 20

Report abuse If there is a God, why does he allow this to happen to the poorest and most disadvantaged. - alan, uk, 13/1/2010 20:31 Click to rate Report abuse Horrendous. It speaks volumes that hardly anyone has posted condolences. - Mel, Newcastle, 13/1/2010 19:46 Click to rate Report abuse Truly a nightmare for these poor people... - harry callahan, north lincs,non e.u., 13/1/2010 19:17 Click to rate Report abuse The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. Bing Site Web Enter search term: Search Rating 4 Rating 2 Rating 3

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Whitney Houston's daughter Bobbi Kristina joins grandmother Cissy as pair lead mourners at wake ahead of singer's New Jersey funeral Havana cigars laced with crack, rumours of a lesbian affair and the woman who may hold the key to Whitney's tragic death 'Whitney smoked crack in the back of my limo as her daughter sat next to her playing with a doll' says former chauffeur Al Bowman Whitney Houston 'binged on cocaine, alcohol and pills in her final months' Her wild behaviour continued right until her death

Call that SWEAT?! Rochelle Wiseman hits out at Vanessa White for tweeting sticky shot of The Saturdays at dance rehearsals Break-up left me a mess says Katherine Jenkins as she speaks of split with Gethin Jones The Welsh singer opened her heart on tour 'Who is that fat, dimpled, wrinkly, broad-flanked person?' Woman who posed nude at 25 recreates photos two decades on Onwards and upwards! Russell Brand's mystery woman revealed as stunning Mexican painter Oriela Medellin Amieiro Not your best look! Kim Kardashian gets it wrong in a pair of unflattering trousers and a rather see-through top Welcome home! Victoria Beckham fights her jet-lagged fatigue as she jets back to London to launch her new collection Keep your eye on the ball, David! Becks has a night out with his boys in LA while Victoria launches her collection in London Women say the dress they'd wear forever is one like Victoria Beckham's pink Roland Mouret Moon Debenhams aim to create the perfect frock From Perth to... Loughton! Maria Fowler jets back from Scotland for a night out in good old Essex Dick Van Dyke Popp-ins to the supermarket... but looks a little fragile-istic A shadow of his all-singing, all-dancing Mary Poppins alter ego Best of British! The English roses pack out the front row as Lydia Bright joins Caroline Flack Day one of London Fashion Week Fun in the sun! Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez show their playful sides as they take singer's young siblings to the beach Why did Paul O'Grady give up the chat show? He couldn't stand the guests! He's landed his dream job on Coronation Street musical Sexy in silver! Christina Ricci shows off her hourglass curves in a stunning sequinned gown at Bel Ami premiere in Germany How did she do it? Amanda Holden snaps back to incredible pre-baby figure just THREE WEEKS after giving birth Stunning BGT return Having a whale of a time! Denise Welch kicks up her heels as she splashes about on children's pool slide on holiday It's been a turbulent time 'I was bullied at school for being a goth... I had no idea I could be pretty': Christina Hendricks recalls her unhappy student past Who's laughing now? A wicked stepmother? No, Diana came to love 'Acid Raine' more than her real mother Letters shed light on relations between princess and countess Kim Kardashian covers up in combats as Khloe parades bright orange tan in VERY short LBD The sisters were sporting extremely different styles Here's one I made earlier MasterChef accused of faking scenes as collapsed souffle mysteriously 'rises' He's favourite to win Will TOWIE have it's own Ricky and Bianca? Playboy Rayment and reality star Gascoigne get cosy after a night out at Nu Bar in Loughton Good girl gone back: Rihanna suffers a bad hair day as reports emerge that she WILL reunite with Chris Brown on a new single An old-fashioned romantic at heart! Justin Bieber sweetly kisses girlfriend Selena Gomez's hand during shopping trip

The day my wife was murdered: Husband of victim killed in random attack reveals how his perfect world was destroyed by a stranger's savagery Eating herself to death: The 42stone 42-year-old woman who costs taxpayers 700 per week Brenda Flanagan-Davies needs a team of carers The long ride home: Natasha Giggs heads back up north after a wild night in London with her Celebrity Big Brother housemates Back to reality One BIG happy family! Hilary Duff tweets super cute photo of her growing bump as she kisses husband Mike Comrie One step away from the real thing! Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux pledge their commitment with matching name rings Next step..? Making a splash! Candice Swanepoel shows off her Angelic curves in stunning beach shoot for Victoria's Secret swimwear Revealed: Ellie Goulding's romance with long haired dubstep DJ kept secret to avoid ex's heartbreak Used to date Greg James Andie MacDowell tells women over 50 not to wear short skirts The American actress, 53, has shared her top tip for women past their half-centuries It was word vomit! Cher Lloyd apologises for implying that former mentor Cheryl Cole relies on autotune Backtracked on TV Well that's a first! Wild-haired Frankie Cocozza rejects a desperate female fan While his glamorous woman of choice tries to disguise herself 'I can't read scripts anymore': Dame Judi Dench reveals that she is battling to save her eyesight Condition affected her mother Kisses on the courtside: Paul McCartney and his wife Nancy Shevell indulge in a PDA while watching the New York Knicks

DON'T MISS

Who needs Brad Pitt? Angelina Jolie continues to promote In The Land of Blood and Honey alone in a radiant copper dress Copy cat: Jessie J arrives at the BBC studios wearing Rihanna's favourite designer as she covers We Found Love 9021-uh oh: AnnaLynne McCord is in a spot of bother as she suffers from a bad skin day shooting wedding scenes So she isn't perfect! She's a natural! Make-up free Alessandra Ambrosio shows off her pregnancy glow She is almost six months pregnant Nick Cannon 'didn't give himself time to heal and returned to work too early' following kidney failure Tangerine dream! Viola Davis takes the plunge in daring low cut gown as she takes top honours at the NAACP Awards Nautical but nice: Kelly Brook launches a new ferry dressed as very seductive naval captain Looked a real beach babe for Dover to Calais route Adele to sue French magazine for publishing fake sex tape photographs Rubbished claims which came out just days after Grammy success

His and hers! Rooney Mara and boyfriend Charlie McDowell step out in matching all-black ensembles Life's a beach for Kelly Ripa as she shows off her perfect pins on holiday in Hawaii with husband Mark Consuelos Blue beauty! Stunning Jennifer Hudson steals the show in a floaty azure dress at the NAACP Awards 'Where I come from, beating up on a woman is never okay:' Miranda Lambert continues to wage her war against Chris Brown Booties and the beach: Gillian Zinser teams a bikini with practical Uggs as she films surf scenes for 90210 Que bella! Monica Bellucci creates lipstick line for Dolce & Gabbana She shows off that perfect pout in brand new campaign 'Fashion is not fashion anymore' Yves Saint Laurent creative director, Stefano Pilati, on elegance, waistlines and his epic workload What a dazzling dress! Michelle Williams dons hypnotising frock to promote Marilyn in Berlin Another spellbinding appearance Warding off those pregnancy pounds: Kristin Cavallari hits the gym as she displays the first sign of her growing belly Bad luck, skinny girls! Victory for curves as Marilyn Monroe is crowned best beach body of all time Even beat voluptuous Kim! Can you see him? Matt Smith looks just like Where's Wally as he travels incognito with Doctor Who co-star Karen Gillan 'I know they aren't going to call. I don't want them to call': How women who want no-strings-attached sex are fuelling boom in gigolo services Sharon Stone breaks down in tears as she recalls meeting child AIDS victim She met the young girl while travelling through Africa Isn't Paris normally the sexy one? Nicky Hilton spices up her sister's birthday party in black leather outfit Socialite celebrated her 31st birthday Back on? Glee star Dianna Agron and ex-boyfriend Sebastian Stan smooch in the street Had a Valentine's Day dinner date Top of the flops: Despite all the hype, Madonna's new single is set to slip out of top 40 after ONE week Performed song at the Super Bowl It's over: Teen Mom star Amber Portwood banned from appearing in MTV show as part of probation deal Ordered to get a court approved 9-to-5 job Gabriel Aubry will not be charged with pushing nanny But he still has to have supervised visits with Nahla Make mine extra hot! Kate Upton illustrates her curves in spicy Carl's Jr. burger commercial Took a large bite from the meaty delight You can't out-chic the pop princess! Kylie steps out in same poodle coat as Lindsay Lohan... but wears it better Those don't look like mom jeans! Iman hosts catwalk show of fashion for real-life mothers Worked the runway with strollers Natural beauties live up North! Liverpool women most confident without make-up Scouse lady leaves home 17 times a month without slap Kitty Brucknell doesn't have the style Factor in atrocious leather get-up But somehow manages to purr her way on to the front row at London Fashion Week

Nice view! Bikini clad Eliza Dushku looks out to sea but boyfriend Rick Fox only has eyes for her Celebrating their three-year anniversary Naomi Watts shows her flirtatious side in a bikini... as she prepares to seduce her best friend's son in new film The Grandmothers Raunchy viewing BEL MOONEY: Why do I still love my cruel uncaring boyfriend? One reader is considering ending a relationship because of her boyfriend's attitude Has Gail Porter's mystery man rescued the troubled TV presenter from her Valentine's misery? Star tweeted her 'heart was scarred' 'Call me anytime, Kate!': Reese Witherspoon reveals she's dying to be friends with the Duchess of Cambridge Has only met her once Moving on again? Natasha Giggs heads back to hotel room hand-in-hand with Kirk Norcross But what will Rhodri say? Playing your Trump card? The Apprentice star Aubrey O'Day steals limelight from pregnant Kristin Cavallari Not exactly boardroom attire Blondes have more fun! Kendall and Kylie Jenner show off their lightened locks But don't worry, they're just wigs The aliens have landed! Green skin, crazy hair and see-through dresses... Yes, it's London Fashion Week FYODOR GOLAN show Saddle up! Gael Garcia Bernal gets ready to star as Zorro in 'western themed futuristic reboot' The noble Spanish swordsman is back They must really love pancakes! Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez hold hands as they brave the rain for their favourite snack Chuck E Cheese diner From chubby-cheeked teen to gaunt fashion icon: What HAS happened to Victoria Beckham's face? She could cut herself on those cheekbones... Made an effort? Born again Christian Daniella Westbrook glams up... but fails to steer the attention away from her nose Looked terrifying 'Back to square one': Jennifer Ellison's meltdown as she struggles to get back on skates following nasty Dancing On Ice injury Been crying non stop It's Lilo... er, not that one! With her long dark locks and deep tan... Tulisa's a dead ringer for Disney's cute Hawaiian girl Ditched chav look It's a hard life: Eva Mendes pampers herself in Bangkok salon as boyfriend Ryan Gosling is hard at work on movie set Saved by the Bell star Tiffani Thiessen, 38 , can still turn heads just like Kelly Kapowski Looked enviably cute... hard to believe she is 38 Foxy's $4m smile: Ecstatic Amanda Knox celebrates lucrative book deal with her new man Making space for spending spree Working it! The Saturdays show off unique sense of styles as they continue making the most of their LA business trip Met up with Tulisa Have you got something to tell us? Kelly Brook sparks engagement speculation with ring on her wedding finger Very large diamond Still soaking up the sun! Emma Forbes shows off her feminine curves as she enjoys another day on the beach Opted for one-piece 'I'm about to go crazy... sometimes a b****h snaps!' Khloe is pushed to the limit in new season of reality show with husband Lamar 'I own Kate's bargain-basement dress!': Woman stunned to find Duchess wore same outfit she bought in closing down sale Bought it for 60

Those smiles say it all! Nicole Scherzinger and Lewis Hamilton can't hide their delight as they step out following reconciliation Looked happier than ever Strictly 'aving a break: Charlie Brooks dances away from EastEnders for six months to compete on Strictly But what will happen to Janine? In full bloom: Angelina Jolie steals the show in a flower detail dress with Brad Pitt At Paris premiere of In the Land of Blood and Honey 'I'm tired of pretending Ashton doesn't suck!': Charlie Sheen is back to blasting Two and a Half Men Gloves come off, again Lusting after everyone but your boyfriend? Jennifer Aniston flirts with all her Wanderlust co-stars... But keeps her distance from Justin Theroux 'Oh my god': Janet Jackson is caught off guard hinting she might be one of X Factor USA's new judges Three spots open after mass firing She's got a Spring in her step! Katie Holmes cuts a stylish appearance in poppyprint heels Gone from scruffy to chic Trend for MALE polish on the rise as Seal, Cash Warren and Johnny Depp spotted with painted fingers Tasty talons... but is it attractive? Rose McGowan looks fit for purpose in tight black lycra at the gym Showed off slender frame in a low cut black vest 'If I don't slow down, work will kill me': Nick Cannon quits radio show after being hospitalised with blood clots on his lungs Taylor Momsen is uncharacteristically calm in Pretty Reckless video for You... But retains her panda eyes and scant attire You don't miss an opportunity do you? Stacy Keibler treats a work out in Central Park like it's her very own photoshoot What a poser! Don't you wish you were home A-Rod? Candice Swanepoel leads Victoria's Secret Angels on lingerie shoot at sport star's Miami pad Gentlemen prefer blondes! Courtney Stodden channels inner bombshell for Marilyn Monroe photo shoot Striking a pose (as usual) Platinum is a singer's best friend but diamonds will do: Lana Del Rey shows off some sparkle in sultry photo shoot Dazzles in diamonds Forget love, it's BOGOF that sets the heart racing: Brits become more excited over bagging a bargain than finding the one Girl's gotta eat! Beach beauty Scarlett Johansson grabs a burger lunch with her boyfriend Looking stunning in a bikini and eats burgers! 'Mark Sanchez is cute': Kate Upton plays coy and states the obvious about her rumoured boyfriend on the Ellen Show Cagey over love life The confessions of George Clooney... I'm lonely, I can't sleep and I used cocaine (but I hated it) Soul-searching interview with Hollywood Reporter A jean-ius way to stay comfortable? Miley Cyrus leaves skin-tight trousers unbuttoned Fastened up in a hurry Consumed by baby envy: The new social divide between women struggling in their late 30s to become pregnant and friends who have children Her little leading man: Sandra Bullock's son Louis shows her the way as she drops him off at school Who needs Sylvester Stallone? The set where they met! Halle Berry flaunts her fabulous figure and equally hot fianc Olivier in new trailer for Dark Tide Strips off wetsuit

It's too late for Bobby's crocodile tears for Whitney, writes JAN MOIR No one has grieved quite so visibly or lavishly as her ex-husband How Chris Brown celebrated with Rihanna at birthday party... and tried to cover it up Wanted everyone to sign confidentiality agreements What a sweet name! Jason Bateman and wife Amanda become parents welcoming daughter Maple Horrible Bosses star is a father for the second time Five-star suites, swimming pools and massage therapists: It's rehab celebrity-style But are these luxury retreats a waste of money? Mick Jagger supports designer fiancee L'Wren Scott as she delivers dazzling finale to New York Fashion Week Proud rocker It's back to a candy-coloured childhood for Jeremy Scott as he sends Rainbow Brite and Bart Simpson down the catwalk Bombastic designs A sweet treat: Sharon Stone indulges in ice cream as she makes the most of a trip to Milan Bella! Oxygen-Factor: Cowells anti-ageing trick is inhaling cans of fresh air Another weapon in media mogul's notorious quest for eternal youth What WOULD the Dowager Countess say? Ralph Lauren shows a very Englishinspired collection to Downton Abbey theme music Cloche hats featured Hungry for love: Hunger Games star Jennifer Lawrence wraps her lips around Nicholas Hoult Couldn't resist the Skins star The mean Mike is about to come out: The Situation gets ready to seek revenge on his Jersey Shore roommates At boiling point How Whitney lost her dazzling voice because of her 'extra-curricular activities' BAZ BAMIGBOYE talks to voice coach Gary Catona Not a very convincing vampire! Keanu Reeves steps out in broad daylight as bizarre Internet fans obsess over his 'bloodlust' Don't be cruel! American Idol adds shocking new twist, cutting contestants after they've been deemed 'safe' in Las Vegas 'I don't need photoshop!' Coco bares her bikini body without any help from an airbrush The girl has confidence Je t'adore! Vanessa Hudgens smooches and snuggles with beau Austin Butler as they stroll round the city of love PDA in Paris New figure... now new 'do! Little Mix's Jesy Nelson reveals ruby red hairstyle Ditched trademark curls to become flame haired pop princess The love boat: George Michael and Fadi Fawaz relax in Australia Rented the small cruiser in Sydney Harbour Heidi Klum rings in Valentine's Day with her wedding band in place... after Seal takes his off She was dining in West Hollywood 'They will never accept us a married couple': Beauty queen has child with gypsy but family's disapproval means they have to live separate lives Marchesa takes a leaf from art for fairytale ballgowns at New York Fashion Week From William Adolphe Bourgueraus' A Soul Brought to Heaven Stella McCartney leads the pack as London's most glittering fashion week ever opens today London Fashion Week It's Better Than A Dream! Katie Melua debuts stunning ring after getting engaged to biker James Toseland Picked a blinder!

Made In Chelsea star Cheska Hull makes a dazzling first public appearance after her father's suicide Chatted to MailOnline after shoot Agyness Deyn has ugly days! Model reveals she doesn't always feel so super And Manchester-born star tells why she shaved her head That's not very ladylike! Caprice fails to maintain her dignity as she flashes suspenders during night out on town Not such a classy look Flirty maharajahs, milkmen on Harleys and Dames Judi and Maggie Celia Imrie shares her hair-raising diary from the set of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotelexotic India Big moment for little Ronnie...and it's good day (ma'am) from him! Even the Queen couldnt resist a chuckle when Ronnie Corbett collected his CBE Lenny Henry goes public with new love Lisa... who looks like a younger (slimmer) version of ex Dawn French But is she funny? My, how you've grown! Toddlers and Tiaras pageant moms are given beauty queen makeovers ... with terrifying results

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Today's headlines Most Read You try raising a family on 1,000 a month Edwina: Mother challenges ex-MP after clash on national radio over family finances East Europeans create a crimewave in the capital as it is revealed they were responsible for 11,000 offences last year Gypsy jailed for pocketing 100k in benefits while she had 180k savings (that she claimed were for her children as 'gypsy tradition') Snag your tights, get a payout! How civil servants are allowed to claim for everyday wear-and-tear of their clothes - and taxpayers foot the bill It wasn't such a sacrifice after all: RBS chief Stephen Hester gets 600k shares windfall weeks after giving up 1m bonus 'I helped Lord Lucan live a secret life in Africa': Incredible new claims from aide to one of fugitive peer's wealthy friends You're sued! Apprentice winner turns on Lord Sugar in bitter legal battle over lost job 'Ere, Sarge, what rhymes with gender sensitivity? Incredulity at the Yard over politicallycorrect poetry contest

Gary Lineker says footballers shouldn't be paid more than nurses (and yes, he does get 2m a year from the BBC for Match of the Day) Green taxes add 15% to your energy bills: Government finally admits how much more families pay to meet emissions targets Diesel reaches record high of 1.43 per litre as price rise means it now costs 100-plus to fill up Pictured: Limbless motivational speaker enjoys honeymoon on the beach a week after marrying the love of his life Would-be 'suicide bomber' arrested in FBI sting after he 'plotted to blow up U.S. Capitol' Three cups of tea a day protects against heart problems and diabetes Why lack of male teachers could be the reason boys fail in the classroom Forget love, it's BOGOF that sets the heart racing: British (women) more excited over bagging a bargain than finding the one I can't listen to my daughter sing - it reminds me how badly I let her down: Adele's father reveals torment over their rift Forget being called husband and wife, gay rights group wants 'parties to marriage' in bill to legalise same-sex marriage The Rolls Royce brains proving Britain can still beat the world - and no, they don't get for mega bonuses in the City Student who hacked Facebook from his bedroom 'could have brought down the 31bn empire' MORE HEADLINES You try raising a family on 1,000 a month Edwina: Mother challenges ex-MP after clash on national radio over family finances Whitney Houston's daughter Bobbi Kristina joins grandmother Cissy as pair lead mourners at wake ahead of singer's New Jersey funeral You're sued! Apprentice winner turns on Lord Sugar in bitter legal battle over lost job Pay 300 a day or go home, NHS hospital tells teenager paralysed from waist down after accident at hockey training camp 'Immigrant crimewave' warning: East Europeans were responsible for a QUARTER of all offenses in London Here's one I made earlier MasterChef accused of faking scenes as collapsed souffle mysteriously 'rises' Staring into the abyss: Faced with losing her job, a Greek woman threatens to jump to her death in a desperate, despairing nation where hungry families are queuing at soup kitchens Snag your tights, get a payout! How civil servants are allowed to claim for everyday wear-and-tear of their clothes - and taxpayers foot the bill Living off the state - and how: Inside the 16 bedroom, 42-loo mansion of Government's families tsar whose 8.5m payday provoked outrage Adele to sue French magazine for publishing fake sex tape photographs The human flamingo: Painted sculptures of naked women who dont mind being called birds Pictured: Limbless motivational speaker enjoys honeymoon on the beach a week after marrying the love of his life

Eating herself to death: The 42stone 42-year-old woman who costs taxpayers 700 per week and needs a team of carers to look after her First picture of boy, six, who drowned with his grandmother, 71, in freezing village pond while feeding the ducks 'Known prostitute' loses left arm and leg after pit bull 'viciously attacks her as she was shut inside a home with the beast' Pictured: The 'miracle' baby ripped from his mother's womb by woman who murdered the expectant mom as the killer pleads guilty Student who hacked Facebook from his bedroom 'could have brought down the 31bn empire' Did Hitler father a lovechild? New claims emerge that Fuhrer had a son with Frenchwoman She devoted her life to others. Now, aged 93, this eminent ex-teacher faces ruin over 5,000 care bill The very big arrival: Suzie is UK's heaviest baby girl at 12lb 12oz - and she took just 44 minutes to deliver MOST READ IN DETAIL

EDITOR'S SIX OF THE BEST

ROBERT HARDMAN: The Rolls Royce brains proving Britain can still beat the world and no, they don't work for mega bonuses in the City

SIMON HEFFER: Things are dire, George. Just where's your strategy for growth?

CHARLIE WOLF: She's been found innocent... so why shouldn't Foxy Knoxy sell her story?

ALEX BRUMMER: Why did we hand them our N-plants in the first place?

I never even enjoyed the sex: Christine Keeler reflects on the scandal that defined the Sixties and how she now 'doesn't bother' with men

AMANDA PLATELL: It's a bit late to give up drugs now Sir Paul...

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