2%
Percentage of rubble that had been cleared from the earthquake in Haiti eight months after it had struck
The most devastated country in the Western hemisphere could not have had a more devastating year. The earthquake that struck in January destroyed a nation that had very little infrastructure to begin with, toppling schools, crushing roads and even ruining its presidential palace. The catastrophe led to a November outbreak of cholera that claimed more than 2,100 people and triggered protests by Haitians who accused the United Nations of bringing the disease inside their borders. But even with the world focused on the half-island nation for much of the first part of the year, aid organizations were still overwhelmed and much of the rubble from the quake still sits on Haiti's streets.