From the moment the pitch landed in our inbox, it was clear “An Unnatural Disaster” would be a Long Lead feature. “After an earthquake destroyed Haiti’s capital, a new city was born on an empty plot of land at the edge of a graveyard,” Jacob Kushner’s email read. “In a matter of months, 300,000 earthquake survivors flocked there. Forgotten by their nation’s leaders, they had to figure out how to govern on their own.”
But just as the city had sprouted from rubble, it was now threatening to collapse. What would become of its people, displaced Haitians who simply want a home? We explore that and more in the latest feature from Long Lead.
A fascinating concept born out of years of reporting, Kushner proposed writing about the rise and fall of one of the world’s newest cities — and what it means in an increasingly stateless world. Featuring dozens of photos by Allison Shelley, the feature shows Haiti’s beauty and chaos, the hope of its people, and the dire straits of their plight. For years the two reported on Haiti under grants from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, cultivating deep, enduring relationships with their sources.
More than a decade in the making, this account publishes at its ideal moment. “An Unnatural Disaster” is destined to change the conversation America has been having about Haitians during this toxic presidential election news cycle, and most importantly, platform a story of survival unlike anything the world has ever seen.