Chile quake reconstruction 'to take up to four years'

Chile's reconstruction will take "three to four years" as the country recovers from the earthquake that killed some 800 people, its president has said

BBC News | 4 March 2010

Chile is still assessing the enormous cost of the quake

"There are rural areas where everything has tumbled to the ground... infrastructure has been destroyed," Michelle Bachelet told Chilean radio.

It would take foreign aid and most of the mandate of President-elect Sebastian Pinera to rebuild, she added.

Three days of national mourning have been declared, to begin on Sunday.

Tremors have continued to rock the nation after Saturday's 8.8 magnitude earthquake, one of the strongest recorded.

One of 6.3 hit the north of the country, 255km (160 miles) north-east of Antofagasta and 1,260km north of the capital Santiago, the US Geological Survey said.

On Wednesday, strong aftershocks of magnitude 5.5 and higher were felt in several cities, including Santiago, and prompted tsunami warnings, which were later lifted.

'Government of reconstruction'

The cost of the damage, which Ms Bachelet described as "enormous", has so far been estimated at between $15bn and $30bn.

"Chile has the resources for a number of actions, but we will have to ask for credit from the World Bank and other entities," Ms Bachelet said.

President-elect Pinera is set to take office next week.

He said his government would be one of reconstruction, with a plan of four clear stages - "to cope with the emergency needs of citizens, find people who are still missing, provide prompt and timely assistance to the sick and wounded, and restore law and order so that people can return to peace".

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is to visit Chile on Friday to assess the damage and meet Ms Bachelet and Mr Pinera.

An 18-hour nightly curfew remains in place in Concepcion, Chile's second largest city, and six other towns badly affected by the earthquake.

Officials have said 802 people are confirmed to have died, of whom 279 have been identified. But there are reports of many people still missing in the coastal town of Constitucion.

About two million Chileans are believed to have been affected by Saturday's 8.8 magnitude earthquake, the seventh most powerful on record and the worst disaster to befall Chile in 50 years.

The epicentre of the quake was 115km north-east of Concepcion and 325km south-west of the capital Santiago.

About 1.5 million homes in Chile have been damaged.

Most of the collapsed buildings were of older design - including many historic structures.

© MMX

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Scrabbling for survival: Haiti two weeks after the earthquake

As international aid reaches a devastated people, their leaders wonder how to rebuild a country in ruins

The Economist | Jan 28th 2010

AFP

IN THE days after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti on January 12th, the country’s shock and grief were tempered by the urgent need to save lives. Now that search-and-rescue operations are officially over—with just 132 people plucked from the rubble alive, and estimates of the dead ranging as high as 300,000—Haitians are confronting the devastation wrought on their perennially troubled land.

The past week has seen remarkable progress. Because Haiti’s roads and ports were badly damaged by the quake, little aid arrived in the disaster’s immediate aftermath. Moreover, since the government was almost wiped out—the presidential palace and most main ministries collapsed—there was no one to co-ordinate those relief workers that did arrive.

Now, such systems are returning, and outside help is beginning to make a difference. Port-au-Prince’s single-runway airport is receiving three times as many flights as it did before the quake, and aid supplies are also pouring into the part-repaired main port. The United Nations has begun hiring up to 220,000 Haitians to work on clearing-up and reconstruction. Electricity, fuel and telecommunications services are back. Locals are queuing for hours at reopened money-transfer kiosks to receive much-needed remittances from abroad.

The streets seem calm, and are now largely free of corpses and their stench. Teams of doctors from elite foreign medical schools are tending to the injured, ensuring their wounds do not get infected. A 1,000-bed American hospital ship is floating in the harbour. The care that the poorest Haitians are now receiving is of a higher standard than anything normally available before the disaster. Small pouches of clean drinking water are being widely distributed.

The saddest sight is of the many badly wounded, particularly the thousands of amputees, who limp and hop along the capital’s streets. People paralysed from their injuries are still being brought to hospitals. Providing long-term care for these victims will further drain Haiti’s scarce medical resources. Its human-development indicators were among the world’s worst even before the earthquake struck (see chart).

The most common problem is homelessness. The International Organisation for Migration estimates that 1m people have been displaced, and that 200,000 tents will be needed to house them. Just 10,000 are in the aid pipeline. Even those who get tents will find them inadequate when the hurricane season starts in June. In the tent cities now occupying most of Port-au-Prince’s parks and squares—mostly consisting of tarps hung from washing-lines—throngs wander in search of shelter. More than 200,000 people have simply abandoned the city. Many of those whose homes survived have nevertheless lost their livelihoods. Ageni Pierre-Louis, who used to sell clothes, says her entire $1,000 stock was buried, and she is now making a living by peddling potatoes.

The inadequate distribution of food aid is also causing tension. Walls across the city feature English-language messages like “We need food and water.” President René Préval complained that a few aid NGOs were putting more effort into creating photo-opportunities than co-ordinating their efforts with the government. The UN World Food Programme has so far been able to reach only 450,000 of the 2m people it hopes to feed. Some distributions have been cancelled due to rowdy crowds—Brazilian peacekeepers resorted to using tear-gas to control one mob this week. Relief workers fret about earthquake profiteering, with good reason: in one large tent city, sacks of grains marked “US rice” were on sale. Some locals feel insulted by those trying to help them. Marie Sam Bastien, a mother of five, complains that relief workers throw food at Haitians as if they were dogs.

Efforts to clean up the destruction from the quake have barely begun. Mr Préval says 25,000 commercial buildings are destroyed and 60m cubic metres of rubble needs to be cleared. Only a few wrecked buildings are being excavated—some of them belonging to shop-owners seeking to recover their stock. At the remains of the five-storey Caribbean Market, mechanical diggers tear through shattered concrete and tangled wire, while workers load everything from tins of beans to printers into shopping trolleys, under protection from Filipino soldiers. In the rest of the city, such work proceeds with simple hand tools. At the collapsed La Union Protestant church ten parishioners with crowbars pulled out five bodies on January 25th.

Haiti was already a failed state before the disaster. Now its government has to start from scratch. It has taken refuge in a police station. Responding to widespread criticism of his near invisibility since the disaster struck, Mr Préval says: “170,000 bodies were removed from the streets in 8 days. That means somebody is in charge. Working in an office is less glamorous than going to hospitals, but I prefer to work at alleviating the suffering of my people.”

The state has lost millions of records kept only on paper, like tax receipts and court filings, which now litter streets in the city centre. At the building that housed the foreign-ministry archives, workers are trying to salvage decades of folders and filing cabinets from the wreckage. Atop the pile on January 26th was a 1934 document restoring control of the Bank of Haiti to the government from the American bank that held it during a military occupation. More worrying still, more than 5,000 prisoners fled the country’s jails in the earthquake, and most remain at large.

Until now, international aid agencies have filled the void while the government has focused on disposing of the dead. Over $2 billion of relief funding has already been pledged. But officials estimate recovery could take a decade. And when the foreigners’ attention inevitably drifts to the next crisis, Haiti may be left trying to reconstruct unaided what it could never build properly in the first place.

Nevertheless, Marie Laurence Jocelyn Lassègue, the culture minister, is optimistic about Haiti’s chances of dragging itself back to its feet. “This time is different,” she says. “The national palace, the cathedrals and the ministries have been destroyed, and everyone has lost someone. In their name, we are obliged to rebuild. Otherwise, we’re not a real people.”

Copyright © The Economist Newspaper Limited 2010. All rights reserved

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Haiti: US military occupation worsens suffering, blocks aid

Right-wing columnist David Brooks began his January 15 New York Times piece by reminding his readers that when, in October 1989, the San Francisco Bay Area was hit by an earthquake similar in magnitude to the one that devastated Haiti on January 12, the death toll was 63

Tony Iltis | Green Left Online | 23 January 2010

The death toll in Haiti is estimated to be 200,000 and is still rising.

Brooks used crude racism to blame “a complex web of progress-resistant cultural influences [including] the influence of the voodoo religion”.

Most media coverage of Haiti’s latest tragedy lacks Brooks’ crudeness, but the same assumptions dominate. This racist narrative is being used as a smokescreen, behind which the US is cynically using the earthquake to increase its military, political and economic control of Haiti. (Actively hampering relief efforts in the process.)

US President Barack Obama immediately responded to the tragedy with trademark lofty rhetoric, declaring: “I have directed my administration to respond with a swift, coordinated, and aggressive effort to save lives.

“The people of Haiti will have the full support of the United States in the urgent effort to rescue those trapped beneath the rubble, and to deliver the humanitarian relief — the food, water and medicine — that Haitians will need in the coming days.”

Unfortunately, he lied.

The US response was swift, coordinated and certainly aggressive. However, it was not aimed at saving lives.

A week and a half after the earthquake, most Haitians in the capital, Port-Au-Prince, were still without food, water and medical supplies. Aid agencies, meanwhile, have complained that the US military takeover of the main airport blocked the arrival of badly needed supplies.

Haitians have been digging their compatriots out of the rubble with their bare hands or makeshift implements — without heavy lifting equipment. Western rescue teams have concentrated their efforts on tourists and expatriates.

Outside the capital, conditions are even worse.

The main US response has been the dispatch of a naval flotilla and almost 13,000 soldiers.

“I haven’t seen them distributing food downtown, where the people urgently need water, food and medicine”, Wilson Guillaume, a 25-year-old student, was quoted as saying in Cuban newspaper Granma on January 19.

“This looks more like an occupation.”

The article reported injured Haitians shouting “Go home!” and “Don’t occupy us!” at the US soldiers.

A United Nations military force has been occupying Haiti since 2004, when the US sent marines to support a coup against the democratic government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide. In response to the earthquake, the UN announced it would add 2000 soldiers and 1500 police to the 9000-strong force already there.

“We don’t need military aid. What we need is food and shelter”, a young Haitian yelled at UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon during his January 17 photo-opportunity in the stricken city, the Tehran Times reported the following day.

Since 2004, Haiti has been a virtual colony of the self-styled “international community”, with the UN supervising the government and with more NGOs per head of population than any other country.

It is true that the dismal state of Haiti’s infrastructure before the earthquake has hampered relief and rescue efforts. However, this is not, as Western politicians and media often claim, a “Haitian failure”. It is a failing of the “international community”.

The first relief flight to arrive in Port-Au-Prince following the earthquake was from Venezuela. It contained aid, doctors and search and rescue teams.

It arrived on January 13, as did a medical team from Cuba. There were already more than 300 Cuban medical workers working in Haiti, providing free health care to the poor.

Three other planes have come from Venezuela.

However, since the country’s airport was taken over by the US military, the high volume of military traffic has prevented many aid flights from landing. Five planes belonging to Doctors Without Borders (MSF) have been turned back by the US forces.

On January 16, when US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton demonstrated her government’s compassion by flying in to Haiti for a press conference, the airport was closed to other flights for three hours, further disrupting the arrival of aid.

However, an even bigger problem is that upon arrival, most aid and aid workers have not left the airport.

The reason an alleged threat to security posed by marauding gangs of Haitian looters — also the pretext for the US military occupation.

Times Online said on January 17 that “many aid workers are reported to have orders not to venture out without armed guards … [T]he Haitian people seem to scare aid workers more than Somali warlords, Darfuri Janjawid or Afghan Taleban.

“Frightened Dutch aid workers abandoned a mission without reaching the collapsed building where people were trapped, and frightened doctors have left their patients unattended.”

Most media coverage has fuelled this hysteria. However, some journalists, as well as others including MSF aid workers and Cuban doctors, who have braved the streets have reported that, far from mob violence and looting, Haitian survivors are displaying remarkable resilience and social solidarity.

Eyewitness David Wilson wrote in a January 18 MRZinearticle: “The only force we saw rescuing survivors … was, as a fellow guest at the Hotel Oloffson remarked, ‘young men with crowbars’.

“Every few blocks as we walked downtown from the hotel we found young men carefully clearing rubble from collapsed buildings or trying to remove blocks of cement where they thought there were survivors …

“In contrast to the police, most people we saw that morning were already hard at work. Some were carrying the injured, in wheelbarrows, on planks, on doors, on stretchers made from sheets. Other people were removing rubble from the middle of the street ...

“Everywhere we walked we were on the lookout for any sign of looting. For the record: we didn't see any.”

Inter Press Service reported on January 15: “In the absence of any visible relief effort in the city, the help came from small groups of Haitians working together. Citizens turned into aid workers and rescuers.

“Lone doctors roamed the streets, offering assistance

“In the day following the quake, there was no widespread violence. Guns, knives and theft weren’t seen on the streets, lined only with family after family carrying their belongings.

“They voiced their anger and frustration with sad songs that echoed throughout the night, not their fists.”

Others reported that, on the rare occasions food aid was distributed, far from rioting (as US defence secretary Robert Gates predicted they would), people formed orderly lines and made sure that children and the weak were prioritised.

While the US responded to the earthquake with armed troops the International Monetary Fund showed its compassion with a $100 million loan, with conditions. This brings Haiti’s IMF debt to $265 million.

[Haitian solidarity activists have issued an open letter demanding “relief, not militarisation” and are calling for people around the world to add their names. The Haiti Emergency Relief Fund, a grassroots aid organisation that has been working on the ground with Haitian organisations since 2004, is organising relief in the aftermath of the earthquake. Donate to it at here.]

All articles appearing in Green Left Weekly are copyright by their authors. However, most regular contributors have granted permission for their work to be republished by non-profit green, left, human rights or generally progressive publications

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Fidel Castro: The lesson of Haiti

By Fidel Castro Ruz | LINKS | January 15, 2010

Two days ago, at almost six o’clock in the evening Cuban time and when, given its geographical location, night had already fallen in Haiti, television stations began to broadcast the news that a violent earthquake -– measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale -– had severely struck Port-au-Prince. The seismic phenomenon originated from a tectonic fault located in the sea just 15 kilometres from the Haitian capital, a city where 80% of the population inhabit fragile homes built of adobe and mud.

The news continued almost without interruption for hours. There was no footage, but it was confirmed that many public buildings, hospitals, schools and more solidly constructed facilities were reported collapsed. I have read that an earthquake of the magnitude of 7.3 is equivalent to the energy released by an explosion of 400,000 tons of TNT.

Tragic descriptions were transmitted. Wounded people in the streets were crying out for medical help, surrounded by ruins under which their relatives were buried. No one, however, was able to broadcast a single image for several hours.

The news took all of us by surprise. Many of us have frequently heard about hurricanes and severe flooding in Haiti, but were not aware of the fact that this neighbouring country ran the risk of a massive earthquake. It has come to light on this occasion that 200 years ago, a massive earthquake similarly affected this city, which would have been the home of just a few thousand inhabitants at that time.

At midnight, there was still no mention of an approximate figure in terms of victims. High-ranking United Nations officials and several heads of government discussed the moving events and announced that they would send emergency brigades to help. Given that MINUSTAH (United Stabilization Mission in Haiti) troops are deployed there -– UN forces from various countries –- some defence ministers were talking about possible casualties among their personnel.

It was only yesterday morning when the sad news began to arrive of enormous human losses among the population, and even institutions such as the United Nations mentioned that some of their buildings in that country had collapsed, a word that does not say anything in itself but could mean a lot.

For hours, increasingly more traumatic news continued to arrive about the situation in this sister nation. Figures related to the number of fatal victims were discussed, which fluctuated, according to various versions, between 30,000 and 100,000. The images are devastating; it is evident that the catastrophic event has been given widespread coverage around the world, and many governments, sincerely moved by the disaster, are making efforts to cooperate according to their resources.

Why is Haiti so poor?

The tragedy has genuinely moved a significant number of people, particularly those in which that quality is innate. But perhaps very few of them have stopped to consider why Haiti is such a poor country. Why does almost 50% of its population depend on family remittances sent from abroad? Why not analyse the realities that led Haiti to its current situation and this enormous suffering as well?

The most curious aspect of this story is that no one has said a single word to recall the fact that Haiti was the first country in which 400,000 Africans, enslaved and trafficked by Europeans, rose up against 30,000 white slave masters on the sugar and coffee plantations, thus undertaking the first great social revolution in our hemisphere. Pages of insurmountable glory were written there. Napoleon's most eminent general was defeated there. Haiti is the net product of colonialism and imperialism, of more than one century of the employment of its human resources in the toughest forms of work, of military interventions and the extraction of its natural resources.

This historic oversight would not be so serious if it were not for the real fact that Haiti constitutes the disgrace of our era, in a world where the exploitation and pillage of the vast majority of the planet's inhabitants prevails.

Billions of people in Latin American, Africa and Asia are suffering similar shortages although perhaps not to such a degree as in the case of Haiti.

Situations like that of that country should not exist in any part of the planet, where tens of thousands of cities and towns abound in similar or worse conditions, by virtue of an unjust international economic and political order imposed on the world. The world population is not only threatened by natural disasters such as that of Haiti, which is a just a pallid shadow of what could take place in the planet as a result of climate change, which really was the object of ridicule, derision and deception in Copenhagen.

Real and lasting solutions needed

It is only just to say to all the countries and institutions that have lost citizens or personnel because of the natural disaster in Haiti: we do not doubt that in this case, the greatest effort will be made to save human lives and alleviate the pain of this long-suffering people. We cannot blame them for the natural phenomenon that has taken place there, even if we do not agree with the policy adopted with Haiti.

But I have to express the opinion that it is now time to look for real and lasting solutions for that sister nation.

In the field of healthcare and other areas, Cuba –- despite being a poor and blockaded country -– has been cooperating with the Haitian people for many years. Around 400 doctors and healthcare experts are offering their services free of charge to the Haitian people. Our doctors are working every day in 227 of the country’s 337 communes. On the other hand, at least 400 young Haitians have trained as doctors in our homeland. They will now work with the reinforcement brigade which traveled there yesterday to save lives in this critical situation. Thus, without any special effort being made, up to 1000 doctors and healthcare experts can be mobilised, almost all of whom are already there willing to cooperate with any other state that wishes to save the lives of the Haitian people and rehabilitate the injured.

Another significant number of young Haitians are currently studying medicine in Cuba.

We are also cooperating with the Haitian people in other areas within our reach. However, there can be no other form of cooperation worthy of being described as such than fighting in the field of ideas and political action in order to put an end to the limitless tragedy suffered by a large number of nations such as Haiti.

The head of our medical brigade reported: "The situation is difficult, but we have already started saving lives." He made that statement in a succinct message hours after his arrival yesterday in Port-au-Prince with additional medical reinforcements.

Later that night, he reported that Cuban doctors and ELAM’s Haitian graduates were being deployed throughout the country. They had already seen more than 1000 patients in Port-au-Prince, immediately establishing and putting into operation a hospital that had not collapsed and using field hospitals where necessary. They were preparing to swiftly set up other centers for emergency care.

We feel a wholesome pride for the cooperation that, in these tragic instances, Cuba doctors and young Haitian doctors who trained in Cuba are offering our brothers and sisters in Haiti!

[Fidel Castro Ruz is the former president of Cuba.]

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HAITI: As Aid Efforts Flounder, Haitians Rely on Each Other

The roof of Haiti's national penitentiary is missing. The four walls of the prison rise up and break off, leaving only the empty sky overhead

By Ansel Herz | Inter-Press Service | Jan 15, 2010

A view of the Haitian National Penitentiary in Port-au-Prince following the powerful Jan. 12 earthquake. Credit:UN Photo/Logan Abassi

The gate to the jail in downtown Port-Au-Prince is wide open; the prisoners and police are all gone. Bystanders walk freely in and out, stepping over the still-hot smoldering remains of the facility's ceiling.

The 7.0 magnitude earthquake on Tuesday afternoon broke it to pieces.

"I don't know if he's alive or not alive," said Margaret Barnett, whose son was a prisoner. "My house is crushed down. I'm just out in the street looking for family members."

"Where is the help?" she asked. The former government employee spits the question again and again, hands on her hips. "Where is the help? Is the U.N. really here? Does America really help Haiti?"

In the absence of any visible relief effort in the city, the help came from small groups of Haitians working together. Citizens turned into aid workers and rescuers. Lone doctors roamed the streets, offering assistance.

The Red Cross estimates that 45,000 to 50,000 people were killed in Tuesday's earthquake, with some three million others left homeless and in need of food and water.

At the crumbling national cathedral, a dozen men and women crowded around a man swinging a pickaxe to pry open the space for a dusty, near-dead looking woman to squeeze through and escape.

The night of the quake, a group of friends pulled bricks out from under a collapsed home, clearing a narrow zig-zagging path towards the sound of a child crying out beneath the rubble.

Two buildings over, Joseph Matherenne cried as he directed the faint light of his cell phone's screen over the bloody corpse of his 23-year-old brother. His body was draped over the rubble of the office where he worked as a video technician. Unlike most of the bodies in the street, there was no blanket to cover his face.

Central Port-Au-Prince resembles a war zone. Some buildings are standing, unharmed. Those that were damaged tended to collapse completely, spilling into the street on top of cars and telephone poles.

In the day following the quake, there was no widespread violence. Guns, knives and theft weren't seen on the streets, lined only with family after family carrying their belongings. They voiced their anger and frustration with sad songs that echoed throughout the night, not their fists.

"Only in the movies have I seen this," said 33-year-old Jacques Nicholas, who jumped over a wall as the house where he was playing dominoes tumbled. "When Americans send missiles to Iraq, that's what I see. When Israel do that to Gaza, that's what I see here."

Late at night, Nicholas heard false rumours that a tsunami was coming and he joined a torrent of people walking away from the water.

Nobody knows what to expect. Some people said Haiti needs a strong international intervention - a coordinated aid effort from all the big countries. But there was no evidence on the streets of any immediate cavalry of rescue workers from the United States and other nations.

"My situation is not that bad," said Nicholas, "but overall the other people's situation is worse than mine. So it affects me. Everybody wants to help out, but we can't do nothing."

Haitians are doing only what they can. Helping each other with their hands and the few tools they can find, they lack the resources to coordinate a multi-faceted reconstruction effort.

U.N. agencies and humanitarian organisations on the ground are struggling to help survivors of the quake, but many are hindered by large-scale damage to their own facilities, as well as lack of heavy equipment to clear rubble.

Logistics remained the main obstacle on Friday, according to news reports, with damage to the main airport, impassable roads and problems at the docks continuing to bottleneck the outpouring of international relief workers and basic supplies.

The United Nations is issuing a flash appeal Friday for more aid as part of a coordinated immediate response and long-term reconstruction plan.

A popular radio host here reminded everyone that the strength of the Haitian people cannot be underestimated, posting on his Twitter: "We can re-build! We overcame greater challenges in 1804" - the year Haiti threw off the yoke of colonial slavery in a mass revolt.

As the days tick by and the bodies pile up, it will take bold vision and hard work on that scale for Haiti to recover from Tuesday's tremors.

Copyright © 2010 IPS-Inter Press Service. All rights reserved

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Hell on earth: The earthquake in Haiti

Why the outside world—and especially the United States—must respond

The Economist | Jan 14th 2010

EARTHQUAKES can be measured and mapped, but it will be days and perhaps weeks before the scale of the human suffering unleashed on Haiti this week by the collision of the Caribbean and North American plates can be known. The pictures reaching the outside world are horrific and heart-rending: whole districts reduced to dust; the trapped, the dead, the wounded, the dazed, in their hundreds and thousands, jumbled together in the rubble and in the streets. The hope is that many more people than expected have survived. The fear is that it turns out to be the worst natural disaster since the Kashmir earthquake of 2005, when 86,000 died, or even the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 that killed 230,000.

Haiti is unusually ill-equipped to cope. That is partly because the earthquake struck the capital, Port-au-Prince, knocking out such institutions as the country possessed. The devastation included the parliament, the cathedral, the only two fire stations, hospitals and schools, the tax office, the prison and the headquarters of the United Nations mission, which had been trying to build a nation out of a failed state (see article). So Haitians are almost entirely dependent on what the outside world can do. The priority in the coming hours must be rescue, medical care and emergency feeding. It helps that the airport is just about open, and that Haiti is close to the United States.

But Haiti’s vulnerability—and hence its suffering—is not just an act of God. The poorer, more crowded third of the island of Hispaniola, it was once the heart of the world’s richest sugar colony, providing France with a quarter of its wealth in the late 18th century. That wealth came from 700,000 African slaves who made up 85% of the population. Their war for freedom brought independence in 1804. But the legacy of slavery has scarred Haiti ever since. It is a place of subsistence farming, where four-fifths are poor and a few are very rich. Long misgoverned, it was meddled in by the United States, often with the best of intentions but the worst of outcomes. The latest outside intervention came in 2004 with the ousting of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, an elected president turned despot. Since then, under the care of the UN, Haiti made modest progress. A Brazilian-led peacekeeping mission brought a fragile security. At a cruel stroke, nature has now undone all this.

Common humanity and self-interest

Haiti’s emergency will continue long after the last survivor has been lifted from the rubble. Millions will need help for years. Some outside will object that decades of foreign aid has achieved little except to enrich a few of the politicians. But there are two reasons for outsiders—and especially the United States and Haiti’s neighbour in Hispaniola, the Dominican Republic—to do as much as possible to help the stricken country start afresh. One is common humanity. It is not Haiti’s fault that geography has been so cruel. The other is self-interest.

A failed state of 9m people in the Caribbean is a danger to its neighbours. Haiti was already a source of illegal migrants and a crossroads for drugs. Unless the rudiments of government and a modern economy can be swiftly set up, both problems will only get worse. That means a massive aid effort, focused on more robust housing, hospitals and schools. Help from the diaspora of 1m Haitians in the United States will be vital. (Barack Obama rightly promised Haiti “unwavering support” and halted the deportation of Haitians living illegally in America.) But Haitians themselves, and especially their political leaders, will have to pull together. Elections due this year will have to be postponed; René Préval, the president, remains popular, and should lead the reconstruction. But all this is for the weeks ahead. Just now the task is to save lives.

Copyright © The Economist Newspaper Limited 2010. All rights reserved

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Catastrophe in the Caribbean: Haiti's earthquake

One of the world’s most vulnerable countries is devastated by a murderous earthquake

The Economist | Jan 14th 2010

IF THERE is one country in the Americas that cannot afford to suffer a natural disaster, it is dirt-poor and politically fragile Haiti. In 2008 four tropical storms killed 800 people, left 1m of the 9m population homeless and wiped out 15% of the economy. But the earthquake that devastated the country, including Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, just before 5.00pm on January 12th was a yet crueller blow.

Many died—how many nobody will know until Haiti’s people and the rescue workers who began arriving the next day have completed the grim task of picking through the choking mounds of rubble and concrete. But by the morning of January 14th they were talking of tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of lives lost as schools, hospitals, houses, offices, shops and the cathedral and the headquarters of the United Nations mission collapsed in those 45 murderous seconds. The president, René Préval, as stunned and dazed as the people seeking refuge in the streets, said simply, “It is a catastrophe.”

Seismologists have long worried about the island of Hispaniola (shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic). It sits on the Gonave microplate, a small strip of the earth’s crust squeezed between the North American and Caribbean tectonic plates. This makes it vulnerable to rare but violent earthquakes. The Dominican Republic suffered a serious quake in 1946. But the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault which separates the plates on the Haitian side of the border had been accumulating stress during more than a century of inactivity.

When it finally struck, therefore, the earthquake was all the more violent. They could feel the shaking as far away as eastern Cuba. It was followed by a series of powerful aftershocks lasting into the following day. Two things magnified its destructive power. Its epicentre was just 15 miles south-west of Port-au-Prince and it began only eight miles below ground. As a result, the millions who live in south-western Haiti were open to the quake’s full force when it reached the surface.

And the region is hopelessly ill-suited to withstand a shaking. Most of Port-au-Prince’s 2m residents live in tin-roofed shacks perched on unstable, steep ravines. In the centre of the capital and the neighbouring towns the buildings are too often made of weak concrete, cut with sand and lacking the steel rods that would fortify them against shocks. After a school collapsed in the suburb of Pétionville in 2008, the capital’s mayor said that 60% of its buildings were shoddily constructed and unsafe even under normal conditions. That smaller tragedy bodes ill for the multitudes trapped under rubble today: scores of people in the school died because the government could not free them quickly enough.

No one yet knows how widely the earthquake’s devastation has spread. There has been almost no news from the towns outside the capital, nor from the remoter areas that may have suffered landslides. But if the terrible scenes in Port-au-Prince are any guide, the suffering has been on a sickening scale.

Counting the dead

Dead bodies littered the pavements, sometimes numbering dozens on a single block. Ambulances, more concerned with saving the living, had to swerve to avoid them—and when the injured reached clinics and hospitals, often carried by hand on stretchers improvised from splintered doors and anything else that came to hand, they joined a long, subdued queue waiting patiently for help.

Back on the streets, human limbs protruded from destroyed buildings, while muffled cries from victims trapped within filled the thick air. The screams and wails of the injured and mourning mixed with prayers and hymns from dazed, disbelieving survivors caked in dust and blood.

The physical destruction was almost as shocking. Entire hillsides that had been packed with slums had been swept bare. No landmarks were spared. The magnificent white rotunda of the presidential palace caved in, as did part of the parliament building, the roof and sides of the national cathedral, the offices of several international aid agencies and the Hotel Montana, a haunt for tourists. Telecommunications, power and running water failed. Although Mr Préval was not in the palace and escaped injury, he said that his home had been destroyed and he did not know where he would sleep. The capital’s main jail split open, leaving thieves, rapists and murderers to join the pain, hunger and disease that are stalking the streets. After dark the only light came from fires near the shoreline, though it was dimmed by a cloud of dust. Even people whose homes remained whole chose to sleep outside, lest they be caught in another aftershock.

Haiti’s pain

One task now is to count the dead. Mr Préval said it was too early to provide a figure, but that he had heard estimates in the tens of thousands. Foreign governments and agencies were the first to confirm their losses. The Hotel Christopher, where the UN has its headquarters, collapsed with over 200 workers inside. Two days after the quake, 14 were confirmed dead and 56 injured, and most of the rest, including the head of the mission, remained unaccounted for. At least 16 UN peacekeepers also perished. The Roman Catholic archbishop died as he attended a conference with some 100 ordained or aspiring priests. Kely Bastien, the president of the Senate, survived the quake but was trapped in the destroyed parliament building for a day before being evacuated to the Dominican Republic.

More urgent, however, is to spare the living. The Red Cross estimated that 3m people—a third of Haiti’s population—might need emergency aid. The World Food Programme will deliver 15,000 tonnes of food. The United States sent a hospital ship and numerous rescue teams, and ordered 2,000 marines to the country while putting a further 8,000 soldiers in readiness. Barack Obama’s administration also suspended deportations of undocumented Haitian immigrants. Help—including doctors, trained sniffer dogs, and tents, blankets and food—was pledged from other countries, including Mexico, Venezuela, China, Britain, France, Germany, Canada and Cuba.

Financial assistance also poured in. The World Bank led with a $100m commitment, pending the approval of its board. The UN released $10m from its emergency fund and European countries pledged $13.7m. The Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility, a scheme backed by the World Bank, will pay out $8.5m. Inevitably, celebrities joined the effort: Ted Turner and the Angelina Jolie-Brad Pitt foundation were reported to be offering $1m each.

The agony is only beginning (Reuters)

Yet most of this aid will arrive too late for the thousands who remain trapped in rubble or waiting for treatment. Some survivors have been dug out of buildings by hand, but those buried deep within them cannot be freed without heavy equipment. They must receive help within a few days if they are to survive. Even reaching Port-au-Prince is hard. Most of its roads are now blocked and the seaport has been severely damaged. Mercifully the runway of the national airport is still working, but its capacity is limited because the control-tower’s communications equipment has broken down.

Even with all that help, the fear is that there will be many more deaths over the coming weeks. A country that is equipped with only two fire stations will be unable to do anything for itself. The Haitian army was abolished in 1995 in an attempt to get it out of politics. The police force, under the guidance of the UN, is still a work in progress. The quake has degraded an already feeble health service by destroying many hospitals and clinics, including all three aid centres run by Médecins Sans Frontières, an NGO. The lack of medicine and facilities and the scale of the injuries mean that many people will perish from a lack of timely medical care.

Crowded Haiti has long suffered from squabbling and venal politicians, extreme inequality and ecological stress. Under the stewardship of the UN since 2004, the country had made halting progress. Security had improved, and the economy picked up a bit. Bill Clinton, a former American president who is acting as a UN special envoy to the country, led a delegation of private investors there last year. But it is hard to see how the country’s legislative elections due on February 28th, or a presidential poll later in the year, can go ahead. Instead, Haiti will have to start all over again, from even weaker beginnings. Over the coming years it will need a lot of help.

Copyright © The Economist Newspaper Limited 2010. All rights reserved

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Disaster risk increasing, says UN

The risk of disaster worldwide is increasing, says a new UN report

By Imogen Foulkes, BBC News, Geneva, Saturday, 16 May 2009 00:59 UK

Disasters like Hurricane Nargis can't be prevented but could be planned for

Climate change, environmental degradation and badly planned urban development more likely to affect populations around the world.

The report warns that millions of lives are in jeopardy because proper risk assessment is rarely carried out, particularly in developing countries.

The UN says money spent on risk reduction is a cost-effective way to reduce deaths and injuries.

The Asian tsunami of 2004, or last year's earthquake in China are natural phenomenon which can't be prevented.

But the Global Assessment on Disaster Risk Reduction says there is a lot we can do to reduce our own risk - the problem is, we aren't doing it.

We already know that climate change means more extreme weather events - but the UN's Assistant Secretary General Margareta Wahlstrom says most countries have failed to look at how that will affect their own towns and cities.

The local effects of disasters like the 2004 tsunami need research

"We don't know enough of the impact of climate change at local level," she explained.

"We know a lot about the global parameters but how it is going to play out in local communities, we don't have enough research, knowledge and scientific basis for that yet."

The report highlights some staggering differences in risk assessment and reduction between rich and poor countries.

Japan and the Philippines for example have equal exposure to tropical cyclones - but for every one death in Japan, 17 people die in the Philippines.

This report is aimed not at the emergency services, but at governments and their planning and finance ministers.

The UN says spending money on risk reduction is a good investment - while loss of life, property and livelihoods is very costly.

© MMIX

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Inside the hottest place on Earth

BBC News, Thursday, 19 March 2009

Erta Ale, the most active volcano in Ethiopia, is located in the Afar Region

Earth scientist Dr Dougal Jerram, from Durham University, joined a BBC team to investigate the geology of the Danakil desert in northern Ethiopia - officially the hottest place on Earth. Here is his account of mapping an active volcano from inside the crater.

“Like a true journey to the centre of the Earth, volcanoes provide a unique window into our planet's interior.

They provide a direct means by which our Earth cools itself, form a vital link with the developing atmosphere and can be an awesome yet terrible hazard to the people and animals that live around them.

But just how do we get into the guts of a volcano?

This is exactly what I set out to do as part of a scientific expedition into the Danakil desert.

As part of a team headed by Kate Humble, with vet Steve Leonard, medic Mukal Agarwal and biologist Richard Wiese, and a full expedition crew, we explored the region's legendary Afar tribes people, saw how the animals and man live in the extreme environment and came face to face with one of the Earth's most geologically active areas.

Feeling the heat

To get "up close and personal" with the active volcanic environment in the Danakil, I used 3D technology from the University of Durham's structural and visualisation facility, to provide a high resolution 3D map of the inside of a volcano.

This 3D technology uses millions of laser points reflected off surfaces to map out features of interest, providing a virtual 3D reconstruction of the environment surrounding the scan site, with a resolution down to millimetres.

The team was able to test the equipment at the Dabbahu fissure

The only problem was how to get the laser scanner into the volcano to capture this real life snapshot of such an active and dangerous phenomena.

On the way to the volcano we encountered the harsh living conditions in the Afar at first hand as we followed the old routes into the Danakil desert, where the active volcanoes are located.

The geology team had two main objectives: to test the equipment's portability through a camel train to image a giant volcanic crack - the Dabbahu fissure.

The other goal was to get down into Erte Ale, one of the oldest lava lakes on the planet.

The Dabbahu fissure opened overnight in 2005, where the ground literally tore itself apart as part of a much larger process which is happening as the Horn of Africa rips away from the main African continent, forming the Great African Rift system.

It is very rare to witness such a fissure forming event, pretty much as it happens and the team was keen to get the scanning equipment to the fissure to record this geological wonder before it erodes and becomes just another scar on the landscape.

This part of the expedition was almost thwarted by the difficulty of getting the equipment to the fissure and the fact that dangerous gases are still emanating from it.

'Gateway to hell'

With only 12 hours at the fissure, geologist Steve Smith and I managed to get three scans of the fissure completed and provide a vital test of the equipment before embarking on the main part of the expedition - to scale Erte Ale and provide the first laser scan of one of the oldest lava lakes on the planet.

The scanning equipment weighed some 80kg and, for the most part, was being transported to the experiment sites by camel - a fitting mode of transport for such state-of-the-art kit.

Now the team needed to get the kit and the scanning team down into the heart of Erte Ale and get a scan from within the crater itself.

Standing at the lip of the lava lake you can see why the locals see this as "the gateway to hell", as the incandescent bubbling lava lake hisses like some badly burned porridge cauldron, overturning and occasionally belching molten lava.

This was to be a major technological feat, as well as a science first.

The kit, myself and Steve, plus camera man and climbing expert all needed to get down into the volcano, set up the final laser scan and get out in one piece.

It was a precision job, like landing on the Moon, as the team lowered into Erte Ale and recorded the first ever 3D laser scan of this remarkable volcano.

The laser scanning technology enabled us to investigate the natural environment in a completely new light by bringing the outcrop with its inaccessible cliffs, volcanic fissures and lava lakes into the computer where it could be analysed.

Such data provides the high resolution details from which we can see how the Earth's structures have formed, measures the exact size and shape of the volcano and provides a vital snapshot of the Earth's active and sometimes violent volcanic system in action. “

The Hottest Place On Earth: episode one on Thursday 19 March on BBC One at 2100 GMT and episode two on Thursday 26 March at 2100 GMT

© MMIX

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Collapse fears amid Papua quakes

BBC One-Minute-World News, 5 January 2009

Many buildings were destroyed in the quake. Click here to see the video.

Thousands of people are refusing to return to their homes in the remote Indonesian region of West Papua following a series of earthquakes.

They fear more buildings could collapse as aftershocks shake the area.

An aid official in the region's main town, Manokwari, said aid teams had yet to reach some of the worst-hit areas.

At least one person died and nearly 50 were badly injured in the quakes, which began on Sunday, and the strongest of which reached a magnitude of 7.6.

They prompted authorities to issue a tsunami alert, but it was withdrawn within an hour.

There are fears more buildings could collapse in the coming days

Tsunami fears

Aid workers in Manokwari say thousands of people have either moved to government camps or are simply sleeping in the streets outside their homes.

An aid official said almost 500 buildings in Manokwari had been heavily damaged, and there are fears more will collapse, reports the BBC's Lucy Williamson in Jakarta.

Several bridges have been damaged or collapsed, and power lines are down.

Our correspondent says there are also fears that the quakes could trigger a tsunami - although as the quakes get smaller, the likelihood of one happening has decreased.

Toll revised

A 10-year-old girl was killed in her home when a wall collapsed, the news agency Associated Press quoted hospital director Hengky Tewu as saying. "Her head was crushed," he said.

But officials revised down initial reports that four people had been killed in the quakes after it was discovered that three had died of illnesses, AP said.

A UN employee in Manokwari said the local government was running out of tents and would soon need food, water and medicine.

However, the local airport has now reopened and the government in Jakarta has said it is sending several tonnes of food and medicine, as well surgeons and other medical staff.

But other aid officials warn that some of the worst-hit areas have yet to be reached.

© MMIX

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West Papua: Magnitude 7.6 earthquake rocks Indonesia

Welt Online, 4.January 2009, 08:22

A series of quakes off the northern coast of West Papua, Indonesia, early on Sunday killed four people, injured several others, and flattened several buildings, officials and local television said. The magnitude 7.6 earthquake is no rarity in Indonesia, a nation located in an area of intense seismic activity.

Manokwari, in the West Papua region of Indonesia, was shaken by a magnitude 7.6 earthquake that killed four people. (Picture: Wikimedia Commons)

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said a magnitude 7.6 quake occurred some 150 km (95 miles) northeast of Manokwari in the Indonesian half of the island of New Guinea, at a depth of 35 km (21.7 miles). An official at Indonesia’s meteorology agency said there were several quakes in the area during the night.

"Hotel Mutiara and tens of houses are flattened to the ground,“ Pitsau Amafnini, an eyewitness, told Reuters.

Rescue teams were still looking for people trapped under buildings, while hundreds of people had gathered at a football stadium seeking medical aid for minor injuries, Elshinta radio reported.

However, an important BP-led liquefied natural gas (LNG) project close to the area was not affected, a BP spokesman told Reuters.

Manokwari, with a population of about 161,000, is in a remote, sparsely-populated part of Papua which attracts tourists thanks to its diving sites, wildlife, including birds of paradise, and spectacular scenery.

Predominantly Christian Papua, which occupies the western half of New Guinea island, has fewer than 3 million inhabitants out of Indonesia’s total population of 226 million.

Several different tribes, some animist, live in this part of Indonesia, which was under Dutch rule until 1963 and which, despite its vast natural resources, tropical forests, and mineral wealth, remains one of the poorest and least developed parts of the country.

The quake triggered a small tsunami that hit the Japanese coast but there was no damage, Japan’s Meteorological Agency said. The Indonesian authorities also issued a tsunami warning for Papua, but lifted it shortly afterwards.

Manokwari, in the West Papua region of Indonesia, was shaken by a magnitude 7.6 earthquake that killed four people. (PICTURE: AP)

Intense Seismic Activity

Indonesia is located in an area of intense seismic activity and frequently experiences quakes and tsunami warnings. A 9.15 magnitude earthquake on Dec. 26, 2004 triggered a massive tsunami, killing about 230,000 people in Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and other countries around the Indian ocean.

Priyadi Kardono, spokesman for the disaster management centre, said that the health ministry had confirmed four deaths from the quakes. Metro TV reported that six people had been hospitalised.

Kardono said buildings had been damaged and power supplies cut in the area. Hotel Mutiara in Manokwari was damaged, with one of the three buildings in the complex flattened, he said.

The BP-led Tangguh LNG project is near the area affected by the quakes.

"There is no significant impact, only a crack in the office building. The work continues,“ BP spokesman Nico Kanter said, adding that employees at the Tangguh operations had felt the tremblors.

BP’s Tangguh project includes an operating site in Bintuni Bay, which is about 100 km south of Manokwari, as well as offices in Babo, Sorong, Manokwari, Bintuni and Fak Fak, according to its website.

A spokesman for Australian disaster relief agency Emergency Management Australia told Reuters that the quakes were felt in Papua New Guinea, and in the northern Australian city of Darwin, but there were as yet no reports of major damage or injuries.

PNG generally calls on Australia for help when major natural disasters occur.

"It was certainly felt but as far as we understand there is no report of damage or injury or people hurt. That is our information so far,“ the spokesman said.

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Powerful earthquake strikes Indonesia's Papua, kills three - 4th Update

The Earth Times, Sun, 04 Jan 2009

Jakarta - A series of powerful earthquakes on Sunday morning rattled the eastern Indonesian province of West Papua, cutting off powerline, killing at least three people and injuring dozens of others, officials said. The quake, which hit at a shallow depth of 10 kilometres, struck at 4:43 am (1943 GMT Saturday), about 135 kilometres north-west of Manokwari, the provincial capital of West Papua, the BMG said.

A series of aftershocks followed the quake, sparking a panic among residents and deterring them from returning to their homes.

A more powerful aftershock, measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale, with its epicentre on land about 76 kilometres north-west of Manokwari, struck about two hours later but triggered no tsunami, said Fauzi, a BMG official in Jakarta.

Thousands of residents including children and the elderly could be seen thronging the roads of the blacked-out Manokwari town, and they remained outdoors even after the tsunami warning was lifted, local police officials said.

Two three-story hotels, the Mutiara and Kalidingin, collapsed following the second quake, officials said.

An official at Manokwari general hospital said one person had died and 26 others were injured, two of them in intensive care.

"We also received reports from the field that two other persons were still trapped under the rubble after Mutiara Hotel collapsed," the official who identified himself as Roni said by telephone.

In addition, another three people were pulled alive from the rubble at Mutiara Hotel, reported detik.com online news portal.

A number of damaged buildings and homes were reported in Sorong district town but no reports of casualties.

Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago, sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire," the edge of a tectonic plate prone to seismic upheaval.

A major earthquake and subsequent tsunami struck in December 2004, leaving more than 170,000 people dead or missing in Indonesia's Aceh province and around 500,000 homeless.

© 2009 www.earthtimes.org, The Earth Times, All Rights Reserved

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At least three dead in Indonesian quakes

7.6-magnitude temblor collapses hotel; small tsunamis reported in Japan

in MSNBC News, Jan. 3, 2009 

JAKARTA, Indonesia - A series of powerful earthquakes at dawn killed at least three people and injured dozens more in remote eastern Indonesia on Sunday, cutting power lines and badly damaging buildings.

A 7.6-magnitude quake struck at 4:43 a.m. local time about 85 miles from Manokwari, Papua, at a depth of 22 miles, the U.S. Geological Survey said. It was followed by 10 aftershocks and a second major 7.3-magnitude tremor that sent small tsunamis into Japan's southeast coast, but there were no reports of damage there.

In Indonesia three bodies were found including a 10-year-old girl, hospital director Hengky Tewu told The Associated Press.

"Her head was crushed. We have our ambulances picking up two more," he said. Another 19 patients at the hospital were treated for broken bones, cuts, crushed fingers and other injuries.

Papua police chief Maj. Gen. Bagus Ekodanto said he received reports that a hotel and rice warehouse had been "destroyed," but he did not know if anyone had died.

Attempts were under way to search for possible victims.

Several stories of the Mutiara Hotel in the main city Manokwari collapsed, said Ina, a nurse at a navy hospital treating 20 quake patients. Like many Indonesians she goes by a single name.

Electricity went off and people in the coastal city of 167,000 fled their homes in the dark, fearing a tsunami, said Hasim Rumatiga, a local health official. The Indonesian Meteorology and Seismology Agency issued a tsunami alert, but it was revoked within an hour after it was determined the epicenter was on land.

Japan's Meteorological Agency said tsunamis of 4 inches to 16 inches in height splashed ashore in towns along the coast. It also warned that bigger tsunamis were possible later. Television broadcasts of the coastal areas showed calm beaches and cars driving as normal on roads near the ocean.

The damage in Indonesia was still be being assessed.

"My son's head was wounded when a cabinet fell on him," said Ferry Dau, a father of two who said the walls in his house were cracked. "It was very strong and scary. The power and phones went dead after the utility lines fell down."

Rahmat Priyono, a supervisor at the National Earthquake Center, said there was no immediate information on casualties or damage. "But since the epicenters were on land, they have a potential to cause significant damage."

Relief agency World Vision Indonesia was flying in 2,000 emergency provision kits, including canned food, blankets and basic medical supplies, said spokeswoman Katarina Hardono.

Papua, about 1,830 miles east of the capital Jakarta, is some of the nation's least developed territory. A low-level insurgency has simmered in the resource-rich region for years and it is off limits to foreign reporters.

Indonesia straddles a chain of fault lines and volcanoes known as the Pacific "Ring of Fire" and is prone to seismic activity. A huge quake off western Indonesia caused the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that killed about 230,000 people, more than half of them in Sumatra.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

© 2008 Microsoft

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Series of powerful quakes rock eastern Indonesia

National Examiner, Jan 3, 2009 6:55 PM

JAKARTA, Indonesia (Map, News) - A series of powerful earthquakes in remote eastern Indonesia cut power lines, damaged buldings and sent panicked residents running out of their homes Sunday, officials and witnesses said.

A 7.6-magnitude quake struck at 2:43 a.m. local time about 85 miles from Manokwari, Papua, at a depth of 22 miles, the U.S. Geological Agency said.

Indonesian radio broadcaster El Shinta cited two witnesses who said a hotel in the city of Manokwari, the provincial capital, had been flattened and other buildings significantly damaged.

The Indonesian Meteorology and Seismology Agency issued a tsunami alert but it was revoked within an hour after it was determined the epicenter was on land.

© 2008 Copyright Examiner.com. All Rights Reserved

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