Jacmel , seaside town of 40,000 about halfway from Port - au - Prince , is Haiti 's cultural capital . An estimated 10 percent of the town 's residents were killed in the quake . The French assembled a clinic where parents had dug for a trapped child unsuccessfully for days . The town has also lost its cultural buildings , paintings and masks that drew tourists . Young people put themselves to work , get the word out of Jacmel 's plight .
Jacmel , seaside town of 40,000 about halfway from Port - au - Prince , is Haiti 's cultural capital . An estimated 10 percent of the town 's residents were killed in the quake . The town has also lost its cultural buildings , paintings and masks that drew tourists . Young people put themselves to work , get the word out of Jacmel 's plight .