The search for miracles

Cities 2010 | Port-au-Prince is a city desperately seeking turnaround—and that’s before the earthquake | Jamie Dean

Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press/AP

A few weeks after an earthquake devastated Port-au-Prince, the Haitian ambassador to the United States described the capital's pre-quake building standards: Ambassador Raymond Joseph told an American audience that any Haitian could take "two bricks and mortar and build, and say, 'This is my house.'"

Damage from the 7.0-magnitude quake proved his point: In many areas of Port-au-Prince, mountains of rubble showed little sign of the reinforcements that could have saved some structures—and lives. In other places, houses built with low-quality concrete crumbled like sand castles. The evidence was painfully clear: Man-made failures turned a terrible natural disaster into a far worse catastrophe.

For Joseph, the destruction wasn't completely devastating news, especially if it meant a chance to fix old problems. "There is a silver lining," he said. "What was not politically possible was done by the earthquake. We will rebuild differently." He promised: "The future of Haiti will be very different from the past."