Sixteen years after the January 12, 2010 earthquake, the memory of that catastrophic event is fading more and more from the collective consciousness. The annual fasts and prayers held in commemoration have gradually given way to simple reminder messages of this tragedy that claimed the lives of several hundred thousand people and left physical and psychological scars on hundreds of thousands of others. Sixteen years on, the risk of a major disaster is still present, even though notable progress has been made since then.

Speaking at the commemoration day for the victims of the January 12 earthquake, organized this Monday by the General Directorate of Civil Protection, engineer-geologist Claude Prépetit expressed some doubts about the country’s full preparedness for a major earthquake like the one in 2010. The director of the Bureau of Mines and Energy (BME) nonetheless noted several advances.