Avian Flu Diary: It Doesn’t Have To Be An Earthquake . . .

# 4247

Like many of you, I am watching the tragedy unfold in Haiti.

Early reports are always a bit suspect, and while we can pray some of the more dire estimates of deaths and destruction are overstated, the truth is we won’t know for days or perhaps weeks.

Regardless of the eventual numbers, the impact in Haiti will be nothing less than horrendous. Based on early reports, it looks very bad.

Humanitarian Aid will no doubt be offered to Haiti from many countries. NGOs, like Save The Children and CARE , were already on the ground and providing assistance to that under-developed nation, and are now scrambling to assess the status of their own volunteers.

This from the Save The Children Website.

Major Earthquake Hits Haiti, Save the Children Staff Working On the Ground

WESTPORT, Conn. (Jan. 12, 2010) — Save the Children is verifying the safety of staff just hours after a major 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck Haiti, near the capital city of Port-au-Prince.

Houses are down in the area surrounding the Save the Children office, which was also damaged in the quake, according to Ian Rodgers, the agency's Emergency Response Advisor, who is currently in Port-au-Prince.

An estimated 1.8 million residents were violently shaken by the earthquake and aftershocks affecting the densely populated areas near Port-au-Prince.

Save the Children has worked in Haiti since 1985, primarily in the capital city of Port-au-Prince and the Central Plateau region, providing health, education, protection and food security programs to vulnerable children.

Right now, Save the Children is assessing staff and program safety, which will be complicated by the onset of evening. Employees who were in the office at the time are uninjured, though about half of program staff were elsewhere. The agency plans to deploy emergency teams and begin relief efforts soon.

I would urge my readers, that while they follow this story they also consider donating to the relief effort. Whether through Save the Children, CARE, the Red Cross, or some other relief agency, your help is needed.

But I would also remind you that while we tend to think of these sorts of disasters as happening in remote, often underdeveloped parts of the world . . . it can happen here.

Last Saturday’s earthquake off the California coast (see Shaken And (Hopefully) Stirred) should serve as a stern reminder. The map below shows (in red, orange, yellow, and green) those areas of the globe that are most seismically active.

For about 10 years I lived in the orange ring of the bullseye (New Madrid fault) in the center of our country. In 1811 and 1812, that fault produced four of the largest quakes ever felt in the United States (8.1-8.3).

The 1812 earthquakes actually changed the course of the Mississippi river. Today, should it happen again, it would change the course of millions of lives.

This from

http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/prepare/factsheets/NewMadrid/

Although earthquakes in the central and eastern United States are less frequent than in the western United States, they affect much larger areas. This is shown by two areas affected by earthquakes of similar magnitude-the 1895 Charleston, Missouri, earthquake in the New Madrid seismic zone and the 1994 Northridge, California, earthquake. Red indicates minor to major damage to buildings and their contents. Yellow indicates shaking felt, but little or no damage to objects, such as dishes.

Of course, it doesn’t have to be an earthquake.

Last year FEMA declared 59 major disasters. In 2008, there were 75. Hurricanes, ice storms, blizzards, wild fires, floods, severe storms, earthquakes . . . you name it . . . we live on a dangerous planet.

All of which points out the need to be prepared for emergencies, no matter what the cause.

Disasters happen.

And so you need to have adequate emergency supplies (including a good first aid kit), to care for your family for at least the first 72 hours following a natural disaster.

A good place to learn how is Ready.gov.

Other good places to get started include:

FEMA http://www.fema.gov/index.shtm

READY.GOV http://www.ready.gov/

AMERICAN RED CROSS http://www.redcross.org/

For more in-depth emergency preparedness information I can think of no better resource than GetPandemicReady.Org. Admittedly, as a minor contributor to that site, I'm a little biased.