An earthquake, anywhere in the world, will inevitably cause utter devastation. In a country that is the poorest in the Western Hemisphere, the earthquake that shook Haiti's depths on 12th January rocked the foundations of both its geology and its social infrastructure.

Monumental changes in our lives can be cushioned by preparation. War, illness, divorce, unemployment; all have pre-emptive signals. We protect ourselves against these unwanted changes by bracing for them. At 4:53 p.m. on Tuesday 12th January 2010, without any warning signs, a massive earthquake ripped through the small island of Haiti. Three million people's lives were shattered within a split second. There was no time to prepare.

Just a few miles west of its capital Port-au-Prince, which houses over a fifth of all Haitians, an earthquake measuring a staggering 7.0 on the Richter scale devastated a region of Haiti that left over 3 million people in need of aid. To add to the quake, thirty three powerful aftershocks that ranged between 4.2 and 5.9 in size compounded the damage for days, in a country that was already razed to the ground. In this poverty stricken country, with over 80% of its population living under the poverty line and over 50% in abject poverty, the repercussions of such a cataclysmic natural disaster will no doubt resonate for decades.

The Presidential Palace, the Port-au-Prince Cathedral and the Capital's main jail were all destroyed during the quake. The President is currently seeking refuge at the Port-au-Prince airport. Governance of any representative kind has effectively ceased, barring a staccato attempt at aid relief. The World Food Program faces the biggest logistical undertaking in its history.

The 300 jail-breakers that seized their chance to escape, as the walls came tumbling down around them, remain at large in a country that has had the thrust of its Police Force wiped out. In an attempt to quash violence in the region, the U.S has pledged 9,000 soldiers to help with peace keeping duties.

As the markets and shops began to open last week, looters and racketeers bombarded the streets, stripping supermarkets bare. Two men were shot in the head from point blank range. This did little to stop the chaos. Gabriel Diallo, a United Nations officer from Guinea said; "The population was throwing stones at us to stop us from preventing the looting," he went on to explain; "They said we can't stop them from looting the food because they were hungry."

Arrests were made outside the World Food Programme Unit this week, where 4,000 hungry Haitians pushed forward en masse in the queue for rice bags and other needed supplies. Us Army soldiers were forced to use rubber bullets and tear gas in attempt to quell the crowd.

In amongst the chaos of the dusty streets in Port-au-Prince, UN Aid Workers, International Armies and other aid agencies fight to tend to the survivors in most need. Miracle cases of survival are appearing daily in the media. Darlene Etienne was pulled from the rubble 15 days after the earthquake on January 27th, having had little more than a few sips of Coca Cola in her time trapped under the concrete of one of the Capital's University buildings.

An American film maker, Dan Woolley, used his iphone medical application to stem bleeding and tend to a compound leg fracture. He then used his digital camera to orientate himself in his desecrated hotel lobby, and find the most likely place to be discovered by search parties.

These miracle survivals that break the news everyday are representative of a miniscule portion of the citizens' fates. Up to 200,000 are estimated dead and 3 million remain reliant on food and medical aid from contributing countries. The event of the earthquake itself was just the start of the devastation. It will take billions to repair Haiti. The little country 'discovered' by Columbus will now have to embark on its own voyage of discovery. It is up to those in the West to keep it afloat.

Written by Joe Woodhouse