PORT-AU-PRINCE — Haitians paused Sunday to remember the tens of thousands of people who died in a catastrophic earthquake four years ago, holding somber low-key commemorations on a national day of reflection.
President Michel Martelly and first lady Sophia Martelly placed a bouquet of white flowers at a potter’s field north of the capital of Port-au-Prince that is being turned into an official memorial for those killed.
The pair observed a minute of silence facing a plaque placed at a large piece of rubble, with the inscription: “Jan. 12, 2010. We will never forget you.” Martelly said much had been accomplished since the disaster. “Four years later, I think we have moved forward tremendously,” Martelly told The Associated Press, noting a decline in the number of people still without housing and the number of hotels being built.
“Of course, a lot remains to be done.” The 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck outside Haiti’s capital on Jan. 12, 2010, and thousands of buildings toppled in Port-au-Prince and surrounding cities. Officials say more than 300,000 died, but no one knows for certain how many people perished.
An estimated 1.5 million people were left living in gloomy tent camps that became symbols of the devastation and desperation heaped upon this already deeply poor nation.