Haiti’s Most Dangerous Natural Hazards  - Mass Extinction

Considering rates of occurrence, severity, damage sustained, earthquakes - nearly one quarter of one million people were lost to the human population in the 2010Quake - would have to win the top position for Haiti’s most dangerous hazard.   But, the all-time winner and my personal favorite for cross-species mass extinction are volcanoes. Although Haiti lies in the islands known as the Greater Antilles, very close by on the same Caribbean plate, lies “The Lesser Antilles Volcanic Arc which forms the eastern boundary of the Caribbean plate. It is part of a subduction zone, also known as the Lesser Antilles subduction zone, where the oceanic crust of the South American Plate is being sub-ducted under the Caribbean Plate. The Lesser Antilles Volcanic Arc includes seventeen active volcanoes -  Soufriere Hills on Montserrat; Mount Pelée on Martinique; La Grande Soufrière on Guadeloupe; Saint Vincent on Saint Vincent; and the submarine volcano Kick 'em Jenny which lies about 10 km north of Grenada.” Remember Mount Pele? It destroyed a town of thirty-thousand within minutes of eruption in 1902. Mount Pele

Why do these natural hazards happen?

Earthquakes are usually caused when tectonic plates shift in a sudden release of energy called seismic waves which shake the Earth. Continental plates at convergence are rocks pushing against each other, lacking space to move, the rocks eventually break under pressure, this breaking point is the focus and the same point above ground the epicenter. Earthquakes How are plate tectonics and volcanoes closely interrelated? Visit USGS on the connection between plate tectonic theory and plate and inter-plate volcanoes. 

Terrestrial Causes of Mass Extinction Moving continents - when all land masses on Earth combine, the global diversity will be lower (long route) Globally low sea-level – cool climate, global volcanism (short route) 
Recommendations to address the natural hazards - mitigation.  Perhaps the best mitigation is an Early Warning System for both Earthquakes and Volcanoes, but especially volcanoes are difficult to predict.  People live in and visit the Caribbean for the natural beauty which abounds there.  People are connected in their hearts to the land or for urbanites, the cities in which they live, and are quite loyal to the places in which they live. It might be difficult to convince people to move away from these gorgeous islands of the Lesser and Greater Antilles, because of a future geological hazard, such as a volcanoe due for eruption, or perhaps even because they have survived an incident as great as the quake.  The most risky areas are the fault zones and it would be safe not build even your steel frame construction within five miles either way of the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden Fault (EPGFZ), nor near the Septentrional-Orient Fault Zone (SOFZ), away from the hazards of the coastline,  mass wasting, nor any of the thousands of square miles of deforested land, as during the Hurricane season, this will all flood, and your house will wash away.  The best place to be would be in the National Forests, but not on a subterranean cave opening - on relatively high ground on solid rock formation. Bring your own cooking fuel, and be brave!