AlertNet Blogs

Haiti: Shelter Coming Both Too Slow and Too Fast

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 21:58:00 +0000

Talk is already turning to reconstruction in Haiti. Architecture for Humanity, a non-profit design services firm that specializes in post-disaster reconstruction, has released some general concept notes. Writing at the firms website, Cameron Sinclair, an architect and the groups founder, referenced controversies following Hurricane Katrina in the United States:

I remember vividly well-known news personalities standing on the rubble of homes in the lower ninth [New Orleans Lower Ninth Ward, a neighborhood] proclaiming that this time next year we will see families back home. Some well-meaning NGOs, who usually have little building experience, are even worse well have 25,000 Haitians back home if you donate today. In reality, here is what it really looks like:

Pre-Planning Assessments and Damage Analysis (underway, will run for a year) Establish Community Resource Center and Reconstruction Studio (Week 6 to Month 3) Sorting Out Land Tenure and Building Ownership (Month 6 to Year 5) Transitional Shelters, Health Clinics and Community Structures (Month 6 to Year 2) Schools, Hospitals and Civic Structures (Month 9 to Year 3) Permanent Housing (Year 1 to Year 5)

Early reports on the damage pointed mostly to lax construction standards in Haiti. At the Earth Institutes State of the Planet blog, the focus was on bad construction:

Much of the rubble seen in the terrible videos we are now appallingly used to is composed of chunks of cement " and just cement. This is the style so typical of poorer parts of the world. Just cement is not enough; columns and walls should be built with high quality cement, with the right amount of sand, and sewn through with steel reinforcing bars " rebar. Thats what gives them strength. Next time you look at a video or a still image of damaged buildings in Haiti, look for rebar. I havent seen any yet.

But Adolphe Saint-Louis, a 49 year-old quake survivor interviewed in Port au Prince by New American Media, describes something more complicated than better concrete. Her home was built as a series of additions, and with rebar, she says to keep extended family under one roof, and share building costs in the family. Making the building expandable served an important function, but proved catastrophic when the structure failed.

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Haiti: “SolidaritÃ© HaÃ¯ti”

Sat, 16 Jan 2010 02:32:16 +0000

After a few days of silence, the collective blog Solidarit Hati, born after the 2008 hurricanes, has eventually posted [Fr] about a dozen solidarity and relief efforts led by French Caribbean people in Europe or elsewhere.

No homes in sight for 900,000 Myanmar cyclone survivors

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 17:02:00 +0000

BANGKOK - For about 100,000 people in Myanmar who have been living in makeshift shelters since Cyclone Nargis hit 18 months ago, Wednesday's news of fresh donor money spells light at the end of the tunnel.

But for the remaining 900,000 people whose homes were destroyed or damaged, the prospects are dim.

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Getting help to devastated Vietnam villages

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 10:28:00 +0000

This blog is written by Nick Finney, Deputy Team Leader of Save the Children's Cyclone Ketsana emergency response.

5th October

The day starts with some coffee, fried eggs and some fresh bread in a dusty roadside café. I can be happy anywhere with that combination.

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Heavy rains threaten Vietnam relief efforts

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 17:36:00 +0000

This blog is written by Nick Finney, Deputy Team Leader of Save the Children's Cyclone Ketsana emergency response.

Thurs 1st Oct, Hanoi

I arrived in Hanoi about 36 hours after storm lashed the coast of central Vietnam. The typhoon brought very strong winds but also dumped an enormous amount of rain after landfall. Our team has already jumped into action, Typhoon Ketsana hitting several provinces where we were already working to improve the situation of poorer children and families in Vietnam.

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Super-typhoon causes fear and panic in Philippines

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 17:20:00 +0000

Celso Dulce is CARE's Project Representative in the Philippines, and he is leading CARE's emergency response to Typhoon Ketsana in Manila. Celso is from Manila.

Oct. 2, 2009

It started to rain a few hours ago, and it's dark. Today we were supporting the government order to evacuate people from high-risk areas as a precautionary measure. I just returned from securing the warehouses for relief distribution, because the goods might be damaged. Another storm is coming. We don't know how bad, but the rain is getting harder.

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The failure to prepare for disasters in Asia Pacific

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 13:01:00 +0000

This blog is written by Mike Goodhand, Head of Disaster Management at the British Red Cross

As the world wakes up to news of an ever growing death toll in the Asia Pacific region, questions are being asked about why more deaths could not have been prevented. This, the most disaster prone region in the world, has once again been torn apart by a series of natural disasters which have killed hundreds.

In response, a massive global emergency response operation has been mounted to help reach those in need. But questions remain about why some of those communities affected were not effectively pre-warned. In a world of technological advances - when experts predict tsunamis and typhoons before they occur - why do the messages not reach everyone at risk in time to get them out of harms way?

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Philippines: Flooding documented on citizen videos

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 15:35:34 +0000

Picture from Twitpic user reahguevarra

Several parts of Metro Manila and nearby provinces are still flooded today even if Tropical Storm Ondoy (International name: Ketsana) has already left the country. Almost 200 were killed and hundreds of thousands displaced when the storm hit the countrys capital last Saturday.

The heavy rainfall triggered the worst flooding in the country in recent memory. The storm even dumped more rains than Hurricane Katrina:

RT @wizkitabet: FACT: Hurricane Katrina rainfall =380mm in Louisiana. Typhoon Ondoy rainfall = 410mm in Manila, Philippines.

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Philippines: Worst Flooding in 40 Years

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 06:20:14 +0000

More than 50 people were killed after tropical storm Ondoy (International Name: Ketsana) battered Metro Manila and nearby provinces. The storm triggered the worst flooding in the country in the past 40 years displacing 280,000 people in Manila and five other provinces, with more than 41,000 people in 92 evacuation centers. As of this writing, 1.2 million residents are still without power supply in the urban capital of the Philippines.

Social media sites were maximized not just to share information about the storm but also to report rescue efforts and emergency cases in disaster-struck areas. Joey Alarilla observes how the internet was used by Filipino netizens as the storm hits Metro Manila

Im blogging this using a prepaid HSDPA USB modem as our condominium still has no electricity after several hours, yet Im luckier than many of my countrymen, some of whom are still stranded on the road or even on the rooftops of their houses

Twitter and social networking sites such as Facebook have been the main means Filipino Internet users have kept pace with developments and shared information, such as the text numbers for disaster relief agencies and volunteer organizations now that voice networks are clogged.

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Obama, Hu and climate change: a question of who leads

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 17:25:00 +0000

What just happened? - it might be a good question to ask about the UN climate summit convened by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon last Tuesday. "Not a lot" is the most likely answer.

Hu smiled... ...