The case for moving the Haitian capital

As Haitians begin to look toward rebuilding Port-au-Prince, some suggest that they might be better off moving the capital to a safer location. According to Claude Prépetit, Haiti’s official seismologist, Port-au-Prince, which is home to two million of the country’s nine million people, could be hit by another quake, even more devastating than the 7.0 tremor that rattled Port-au-Prince to the core earlier this month, in as soon as 20 years. Arguing that the city is the most seismically dangerous place in the country, Prépetit, who predicted the last quake, is among those urging officials to make the most of the opportunity to rebuild—and do so elsewhere.

Der Spiegel