Considers the potential contribution of traditional construction techniques and materials to rebuilding in Port-au-Prince and other areas in Haiti that were devastated by the 2010 earthquake. Based on different examples of housing that collapsed or was damaged by the earthquake, it shows how traditional construction systems often demonstrated better resilience to earthquakes than buildings constructed with modern materials.
Drawing on field experiences with the organisation GOAL from the Haitian post-earthquake and cholera epidemic emergencies, provides a brief analysis of what systems worked well to support international non-government organisations and where and how greater support could be provided in a future emergency.
The Sphere Project, "Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response," identifies the minimum standards to be attained in disaster response. From a human rights perspective and utilizing key indicators from the Sphere Project as benchmarks, this article reports on an assessment of the living conditions approximately 12 weeks after the earthquake in Parc Jean Marie Vincent, a spontaneous IDP camp in Port-au-Prince.
The head of the IMF has called for a major multilateral aid plan to rebuild Haiti where the fight is still on to save lives after a devastating earthquake. The IMF has promised initial $100 million as emergency funding and urges donors to grant additional debt relief.
Landslides pose a serious physical and environmental threat to vulnerable communities living in areas of unplanned housing on steep slopes in the Caribbean. Some of these communities have, in the past, had to be relocated, at costs of millions of dollars, because of major slides triggered by tropical storm rainfall. Even so, evidence shows that: (1) risk reduction is a marginal activity; (2) there has been minimal uptake of hazard maps and vulnerability assessments and (3) there is little on-the-ground delivery of construction for risk reduction. This article directly addresses these issues by developing a low-cost approach to the identification of the potential pore pressure changes that trigger such slides.
Field hospitals were deployed by the Israel Defense Forces as part of the international relief efforts after major seismic events, one in Haiti (2010) and one in Japan (2011). The aim of this commentary is to share the experiences and lessons learned by field hospital obstetrics and gynecology teams after the major earthquakes in Haiti and Japan.
Midwives for Haiti is an organization that focuses on the education and training of skilled birth attendants in Haiti, a country with a high rate of maternal and infant mortality and where only 26% of births are attended by skilled health workers. Following the 2010 earthquake, Midwives for Haiti received requests to expand services and numerous professional midwives answered the call to volunteer.
A personal narrative of the author's experience of the January 2010 Haiti earthquake and the aftermath, focusing on the psychological impact of the destruction, the warnings by radio host Ingénieur Preptit who predicted the earthquake, and the lack of government leadership.
A benefit-cost analysis was performed on varying levels of standard buildings codes for Haiti and Puerto Rico. It was found that in the two areas studied, the expected loss of life was reduced the most by use of high seismic building code levels, but lower levels of seismic building code were more cost-effective when considering only building damages and the costs for code implementation.
