Haiti Earthquake January 2010: What Actions and Policies Can the Government of Haiti Implement to Improve Emergency Management Response

In 2010, Haiti experienced a devastating earthquake that destroyed much of its capital city and the governmental offices that should have guided the response to the disaster. This research focuses on how Haiti can benefit from the Caribbean Disaster Management Agency’s standards for disaster resilience as it works to recover from the earthquake. Unfortunately, Haiti has long been dependent on assistance from non-governmental organizations due to its extreme poverty; its recovery is complicated by the need to integrate disaster assistance and on-going economic and social assistance into its development of a more resilient society

The Role of Transportation in Campus Emergency Planning, MTI Report 08-06

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina created the greatest natural disaster in American history. The states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama sustained significant damage, including 31 colleges and universities. Other institutions of higher education, most notably Louisiana State University (LSU), became resources to the disaster area. This is just one of the many examples of disaster impacts on institutions of higher education. The Federal Department of Homeland Security, under Homeland Security Presidential Directive–5, requires all public agencies that want to receive federal preparedness assistance to comply with the National Incident Management System (NIMS), which includes the creation of an Emergency Operations Plan (EOP). Universities, which may be victims or resources during disasters, must write NIMS–compliant emergency plans. While most university emergency plans address public safety and logistics management, few adequately address the transportation aspects of disaster response and recovery. This MTI report describes the value of integrating transportation infrastructure into the campus emergency plan, including planning for helicopter operations. It offers a list of materials that can be used to educate and inform campus leadership on campus emergency impacts, including books about the Katrina response by LSU and Tulane Hospital, contained in the report´s bibliography. It provides a complete set of Emergency Operations Plan checklists and organization charts updated to acknowledge lessons learned from Katrina, 9/11 and other wide–scale emergencies. Campus emergency planners can quickly update their existing emergency management documents by integrating selected annexes and elements, or create new NIMS–compliant plans by adapting the complete set of annexes to their university´s structures

Haiti Earthquake Response: Four-Year Update

The American Red Cross is continuing to rebuild what the earthquake destroyed in Haiti. In the quake's immediate aftermath, they worked side by side with our Red Cross partners to provide lifesaving relief supplies. Since that time, they have helped nearly 4.4 million Haitians to get back on their feet. This report describes the accomplishments and challenges of the past four years

An exploration of the construction industry's role in disaster preparedness, response and recovery

The construction industry’s role in reconstruction activities following disasters such as the Indian Ocean Tsunami, is well documented. In particular, post-disaster reconstruction has been the subject of a significant body of research, with particular emphasis on developing countries that are less able to deal with the causes and impacts of disasters. There is, however, growing recognition that the construction industry has a much broader role to anticipate, assess, prevent, prepare, respond and recover from disruptive challenges. Advocates suggest construction professionals have a key role to play because they are involved in the construction of the infrastructure, and therefore should also be involved when an event destroys that infrastructure. They also suggest that the construction professions are in the best position to frame the discussion of the costbenefit trade-offs that occur in the risk management process; for example, the need for risk avoidance against the cost of implementing safety strategies. This exploratory paper considers the need for a more expansive view of the life cycle of infrastructure projects: one that extends beyond the traditional cycle of feasibility analysis, planning, design, construction, operation, maintenance and divestiture. This revised life cycle considers the construction professional’s ability to anticipate and respond to events, such as the Indian Ocean Tsunami, which damage or destroy an infrastructure project and reflects the construction industry’s ongoing responsibility toward an infrastructure’s users

Effects of post disaster infrastructure reconstruction on disaster management cycle and challenges confronted: The case of Indian Ocean tsunami in Sri Lanka

There has been an increase in the number of natural disasters over the past few years. Sri Lanka was particularly hard hit by the Indian Ocean tsunami of 26 December 2004, which caused devastating effects on the economy, in terms of huge human and economic losses, and washed away most of its basic infrastructure that served the poorer communities while significantly setting back the development efforts of the country. The developing countries are less able to face the impacts of disasters and so it is imperative to develop the infrastructure for the poorer nations in order to quip them to manage disasters. Without being able to provide the basic infrastructure, the plight of these affected people have been further compounded. Post-disaster reconstruction has a key relevancy to development discourse and disaster management cycle; particularly infrastructure reconstruction should be envisaged from development perspectives. However infrastructure reconstruction projects are sandwiched between the short-term necessity to act promptly and the long-term requirement of sustainable development. In this context this paper aims to discover the necessity of rebuilding infrastructure for a successful disaster management cycle and some key challenges for post-tsunami long-term infrastructure reconstruction in Sri Lanka. A comprehensive literature review was carried out regarding these issues. Results confirm that infrastructure can both reduce the losses resulting from natural disasters and facilitate easy post-disaster recovery and thus more investment in infrastructure reconstruction is needed. Currently disaster management teams in Sri Lanka faces some key challenges in reconstructing the affected infrastructure; most aggravating is the unfamiliarity of the event, poor institutional capacity, and current security problems in the north and east of the country. Sri Lanka has to learn much from other settings and there is a strong need to develop the capacity

Understanding the Workforce Needs of New Jersey's Public Health and Other Disaster Management Employers

This report explores the priority workforce needs of New Jersey's public disaster management system. An advisory group of disaster management-related employers from law enforcement and state and local public health systems and educational institutions was convened in the spring of 2006 to identify priority workforce skill needs. Researchers also conducted interviews with state officials, domestic security, public health, and disaster planning experts, as well as reviews of labor market information, state and national websites, and industry and scholarly literature

Returns on Resilience: The Business Case

Real estate projects designed to withstand the effects of climate change can provide substantial returns on investment and an array of other benefits, according to this new report. Case studies from 10 leading resilience projects are highlighted, ranging from a Boston hospital built to withstand coastal storms to a residential community in San Antonio built to withstand the effects of intense heat and drought. Other communities with highlighted case studies include Queens, N.Y.; Miami, FL; Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands; Nashville, TN; Tucson, AZ and Lancaster, CA.The study found an array of benefits from the climate-smart designs in addition to their strength against climate unpredictability. They include:Better energy efficiency. For example, multilayered impact-resistant windows save energy and reduce utility bills.Greater marketing, sales and leasing success driven by buyers' desires for well-built structures that will withstand harsh conditions and keep their value longer.Better financing options and lower insurance rates based on the reduced risk from resilient and hardened structures