With the government of Haiti the way it was the earthquake’s magnitude was amplified far beyond its true value. This can be seen by comparing the earthquake in Haiti to the one in Chile the same year. Although the Chilean earthquake had a magnitude of 8.8, approximately 500 times more forceful than Haiti’s 7.0 earthquake, the effects were not as disastrous (BARRIONUEVO and ROBBINS). Although the earthquake in Haiti was weaker there was an almost 300% increase in the number of deaths and the financial and structural toils proved to be higher also. This is due to the political structure of Haiti; Chile was prepared for a disaster of this magnitude, they had building policies set and many other regulatory things that the Haitian government had ignored. Due to the lack of these seemingly common regulations, Haiti’s earthquake was made far more catastrophic as it should have been.