On January 12, 2010 an earthquake ravaged Haiti (USGS, 2010). In the aftermath of the earthquake, a team of professors and students from Purdue University, the University of Washington, and the University of Kansas went to Haiti. The goal of the team was to evaluate the Priority Index proposed by Hassan and Sözen (1997).

The Priority Index is a measure of the vulnerability of buildings to earthquakes, and is calculated as follows:
Effective Wall Area : sum cross-sectional areas of reinforced concrete walls with one tenth of cross-sectional areas of masonry walls
(in the direction having the least amount of wall area)
Effective Column Area: half the total cross-sectional area of the columns on the ground floor.
Total Floor Area: total area of all floors above the ground floor.

The team took 6,526 photographs of 183 structures. These building were constructed using reinforced concrete and concrete masonry units. This database contains these photographs and all other information collected in the field.

Thirteen buildings were not surveyed completely because they were not deemed representative. Of the 170 building surveyed in detail, 138 were located in Port-au-Prince and 38 were located in Léogâne. (O'Brien, et al. 2010) The average Priority Index for these buildings is 0.36% with a high of 2.32%, and a low of 0.06%. The number of floors ranged from 1 to 12, with an average close to 2. One hundred and sixteen buildings had 2 or fewer stories. Among them, the average Priority Index was 0.39%. Fifty one of these buildings had light structural damage, while 13 had moderate damage, and 47 had severe damage. For the 54 buildings with more than two stories, the average Priority Index was 0.25%. Of these, 21 had light structural damage, 13 had moderate damage and 20 had severe damage.

The data are presented as a spreadsheet, with each row containing the information of a building. When available each row contains the following information for each building: (O'Brien, et al., 2010)

• Date the building was surveyed
• Letter corresponding to survey team
• Building waypoint
• Building latitude and longitude
• Photographs associated with the building.
  The picture believed to represent the building the best is used as the thumbnail, and if clicked on the others will appear.
• Diagram
  The diagram shows field sketches and other building survey information
• Number of floors in the building.
  (This does not count the ground floor, but counts the roof as a floor.)
• Material used for the roof.
• Area of the first floor
• Total area of all the floors
• Total cross-sectional area of the columns on the first floor
• Effective area of the columns on the first floor
  ( half of the total cross-sectional area of the columns on the first floor)
• Total cross-sectional area of the concrete walls that run North-South
• Total cross-sectional area of the concrete walls that run East-West
• Total cross-sectional area of the masonry walls that run North-South
• Total cross-sectional area of the masonry walls that run East-West
• Effective areas of the walls on the first floor
  (sum the cross-sectional areas of the concrete walls and the masonry walls divided by 10 for each direction and take the lesser)
• Wall Index used in calculating the Priority Index
  (one hundred times the effective area of the walls divided by the total floor area)
• Column Index used in calculating the Priority Index
  (one hundred times the effective area of the columns divided by the total floor area)
• Priority Index
  (see equation above)
• Measure of the damage sustained by the reinforced concrete
  (no damage or hair-line cracks were classified as light damage, wider cracks or concrete spalling were classified as moderate damage, and local or widespread structural failure were classified as severe damage) (O'Brien, et al., 2010)
• Measure of the damage sustained by the masonry walls
  (no damage or hair-line cracks were classified as light damage, wider cracks and flaking were classified as moderate damage, see-through cracks or collapse were classified as severe damage) (O'Brien, et al., 2010)
• Name of the primary photographer who took pictures of the building
• Was any permanent drift observed (yes or no)
• Did the building have any captive columns (yes or no)
• Notes or observations about the building.