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From Nick Kristof of the NYT, excerpt:
Poverty always hugely magnifies natural disasters. I saw this first in the terrible 1991 cyclone in Bangladesh that killed more than 100,000 people. The poorest people lived in marginal areas, such as flood plains, and in flimsy huts that were immediately washed away. So they were killed. Those who were better off lived on firmer land in sturdier homes, and after the disaster they were able to afford clean water and medical care for their children. Frequently what kills people in these disasters isn’t just nature but its interconnection with poverty, and in Haiti it’s imperative to arrange not only the earthquake response — digging people out of rubble — but also a public health response by controlling disease and assuring access to clean water for survivors.
