A group of engineers has been investigating the effects of the Haiti earthquake, and has made suggestions for things that could help in the future.

At least 217,000 people died during and after the quake. The report says that many of these lives could have been saved if buildings had been designed and built with earthquakes in mind.

In one town, Léogâne, the engineers found that more than 90% of buildings had collapsed or needed major repair work.

Team leader Marc Eberhard of the University of Washington says that most earthquakes look worse on TV. However, he said the Haiti quake was much worse in real life.

Since there were no monitoring stations near Haiti, scientists don’t know exactly where the quake started. The team installed equipment to measure aftershocks and hopefully locate where the main fault is.

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