Haiti Six Months Later: Where Do Things Stand?
July 8, 2010— -- Six months after a devastating earthquake struck the heart of Haiti, the poorest nation in the western hemisphere still is struggling to recover and rebuild.
The earthquake on Jan. 12 ravaged the region and left hundreds of thousands dead, and the problems in the country still are widespread with little hope for major progress anytime soon.
Watch David Muir's series of reports on his return to Haiti this week on "World News with Diane Sawyer."
Rubble chokes the streets of Port-au-Prince, and on our trip through the capital we discovered only one bulldozer can be seen working in the Haitian capital.
By some estimates, up to 25 million cubic yards of debris remains uncleared, enough to fill 5 Louisiana Superdomes. That figure doesn't begin to include the teetering homes, whose instability has forced residents to move to some 1,300 tent cities that dot the country.
The lack of progress is not for lack of funding. Between 23 major charities, $1.1 billion has been collected for Haiti for relief efforts. But only 2 percent of the funds donated to the impoverished nation have been released, and only 1 percent has been used on operations.
So far, $96.5 million has been spent on housing alone. Yet new shelters have been built for just 10,000 of the 1.3 million homeless since January.
Click here to learn more about the organization helping in Haiti.
