March 31, 2010

Upcoming Events

March 17-June 2: (Guatemala) – National Certification on Early Warning Systems

The National Coordinator for Disaster Reduction (CONRED), the Emergency and Disaster Humanitarian Response unit (CRHED), with the support of the Schools of Doctors of Guatemala is offering a nine-week course aimed at building a culture of preparedness and risk reduction in Guatemala.  Contact CONRED for more information (click here).

April 9: (Port-of-Spain, Trinidad & Tobago) – HSE committee meeting, AmCham TT

April 10: (San Pedro Sula, Honduras) – AmCham's Disaster Management & Business Continuity Committee visit to Sula Valley Agricultural School

April (TBD): (San Pedro Sula, Honduras) – there will be a breakfast/conference called “Why Save Energy?”with Ing. Carlos J. Flores, Engergy Consultant, Tecsa

Upcoming AACCLA meetings (click here for more information)

• April 21-23: CG-LA Infrastructure's 8th Annual Latin American Infrastructure Leadership Forum, Bogota, Colombia
• May 4-6: AmCham Dominican Republic's Building a New Haiti: Trade and Investment Conference, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
• June 21-24: Business Future of the Americas and AACCLA's Mid-Year Meeting (, 2010) Lima, Peru
• October 4-6: Forecast on Latin America and the Caribbean and AACCLA's Annual Meeting, Washington, DC

Director's Note

Dear Colleagues,

March 15 through 20, I participated in a rapid needs assessment mission conducted by a team led by my PADF colleague Marc Wachtenheim.  The team attended meetings with members of the American Chamber of Commerce of Chile, its corporate trustees, the US Ambassador, the Rotary Club of Chile, the COANIQUEM hospital, the Santiago Volunteer Fire Department (throughout all of Chile the Fire Department is run by VOLUNTEERS), the government’s Response Committee and Reconstruction Committee, other government authorities. The team also conducted site visits in the Maule and Concepcion regions with the Chilean Armed Forces.
 
I will be sharing pictures and videos from the trip on the DMA portal.  The lack of damage in Santiago, where both streets and structures alike were shaken violently, was remarkable. The resilience of Chilean adobe and modern structures is a testament to the accumulated knowhow and the decision to adapt, and enforce, a modern building code after the 1960 earthquake that set a world record.
 
Unfortunately the building code does not contemplate tsunamis and over 700 km of coastline were affected by the February 27th historic earthquake. While there USGS specialists stated that large areas of the Chilean coast continue to be vulnerable to tsunamis of 10 to 20 meters.
Last week was NOAA's first tsunami awareness week. For more information, please visit:  http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2010/20100319_tsunami.html.

There are many amazing examples of collaboration that we will document and share on the DMA portal.  The Coaniquem hospital, which treats children who are burn victims, is now serving as an outsourced surgery facility for the collapsed Felix Bulnes hospital nearby. The Arauco forestry company guaranteed all of its 25,000 employees their jobs and had recently conducted a tsunami drill which saved lives and property on February 27th.  Schools and universities are collaborating spontaneously as communities of mutual aid and support with educational centers in devastated areas.
 
Stay tuned for more information on http://www.planfordisasters.org/ and http://www.panamericanrelief.org/.
 
All the best,
 
Christine

Announcements

New Blog: Share Tools & Practices
Sharing your tools and practices is an important part of helping stakeholders leverage their resources. This blog is dedicated to providing information about the tools and practices that are helping stakeholders make progress towards their goals. The first thread contains some free online resources to help companies and individuals develop emergency plans. More>>

I’m United for Haiti Relief Effort Report
PADF published a 36-page report to chronicle some of the achievements the organization has made over the past 8 weeks in collaboration with the OAS, Hollywood Unites for Haiti, and others. To read the report and latest news about the ongoing relief effort in Haiti, visit PanAmericanRelief.org. Read Report>>

Haiti's Recovery Requires a Culture of Preparedness

The 7.0 magnitude earthquake that shook Haiti on January 12 recorded a death toll that has proven it to be one of the worst disasters of the past century. It was the strongest earthquake to hit the region of Port-Au-Prince in 140 years, in fact, to hit a Caribbean capital city. Haiti was unprepared for a disaster of this scale. The trouble is more shocks are coming and nobody can predict when or how strong they will be.

A secondary cause of the massive tragedy in Haiti was a severe lack of planning on many fronts including infrastructure, emergency plans, and early warning systems. At a conference in Port-au-Prince on February 26, Dr. Eric Calais, geophysicist at Purdue University in Indiana disclosed findings that organizations are using to educate the public about the dangers of continuing to be being unprepared.

As Dr. Calais presented, Haiti is surrounded by fault lines. Located along the Northern coast of Haiti, a fault is said to have caused an 8.0 magnitude earthquake in 1842. This current earthquake ruptured the country’s southern fault from west to east. This fault is made up of 100 km long segments and has the capacity to create earthquakes of 7.2 -7.4 magnitude. Only 50 km of the original fault line, which has a total length of 250 km, were ruptured.  Will there be more earthquakes in the future? Undoubtedly, the answer is yes.

The country will continue to experience aftershocks during the next few weeks and even months. The aftershocks will be less frequent, which will create a false sense of security. However, aftershocks of a higher magnitude are also possible that would cause further damage to the infrastructure. It is not certain when and where these aftershocks and/or future earthquakes will hit. Given the unpredictability of these disasters, organizations are planning projects to help increase awareness about seismic hazards, limit the vulnerability of the infrastructure, and develop scientific and technical competences in the country (i.e. engineers, Ms, PhD).

According to Dr. Calais’ presentation, the following points are actions that need to be taken in order to prepare Haiti for future events.

What to do (short and long term):

• Aftershocks = caution
• Do not occupy affected buildings – if uncertain regarding the stability-avoid returning to these structures
• Ask professionals to assess the buildings, consider reinforcing them.
• Emergency scientific assessment (geology, seismology, geodesy) before the disappearance of the “crime clues”
• Taking into account scientific, technical, economical and human criteria to decide:
• Where to rebuild the critical infrastructure
• How to reconstruct: materials, building techniques
• Decentralization- Knowing how to build to resist
• To improve scientific knowledge regarding potential seismic risks in Haiti – What are the possible scenarios?
• Where and what are the sources: magnitude, which faults (geology, seismology, geophysics)
• What is the ground reduction: distance between the epicenter and  the type of ground (geotechnics)
• Results: Maps of probable accelerations
• Vulnerability reduction
• Resistant buildings: technical solutions already exist, it is no longer possible to rebuild with the previous standards
• Information and education for the authorities and the population.
• Training

Visit the DMA’s Earthquakes page to see Dr. Calais presentation and a number of other resources:

Post-Regional Integration Conference Update

The DMA Regional Integration Conference provided companies, government agencies, NGO’s, and international funding organizations the opportunity to sit together in one room to build and strengthen collaborative alliances in support of disaster preparedness and risk reduction. A number of new ideas, directions, and connections were made in each member country of the Alliance. Generally, all countries agreed that building awareness through a diverse communications strategy and helping companies create business continuity plans are key elements for building strong alliances. See what each of the DMA partners are working on for 2010.

Colombia
As AmCham, Merck of Colombia, and Responsabilidad Integral of Colombia work to safeguard neighborhoods and the transportation of hazardous materials, they made agreements in Guatemala to develop two major alliances; 1) developing a communications system to determine and channel needs and resources during a disaster, and 2) creating a national network of Mutual Aid Committees.

Our Colombian partners are planning a national forum to engage the private sector in 5 cities: Bogota, Barranquilla, Cartagena, Cali, and Medellin. The first step was developing a survey to distribute to companies registered with AmCham, ANDI, and other industrial guilds. This survey has already been disseminated and will be running through April 20. The survey will provide the Alliance with information about what companies are currently participating in mutual-aid committees, what topics those committees are addressing, and whether or not they are interested in participating at a national level. To assist the partners, the DMA provided input for finalizing and disseminating the survey.  The DMA will also assist the partners in engaging companies virtually through the DMA’s online meeting space. We are planning the first web meeting for the third week in April. 

Costa Rica
The World Meteorological Organization, NOAA, Costa Rica’s National Emergency Commission (NEC), and other partners held a training workshop in San Jose, Costa Rica the week of March 22nd to strengthen partners and discuss institutional coordination related to multi-hazard early warning systems for the region. The NEC, along with other partners from the region, participated in the event. The DMA and the NEC are planning a multi-sector roundtable to take place in the next couple of months to start a dialogue with the private sector about Early Alert Warning Systems.

Guatemala
PADF and CONRED signed an MOU at the DMA regional integration conference in Guatemala to work together on building new alliances and finding resources for disaster preparedness and risk reduction. New connections were made with the Fundacion Castillo Cordova and the Rotary Club of Guatemala, and both expressed great interest in developing food security alliances. CONRED asked the DMA for help with solidifying those alliances in the near future.

CONRED also mentioned that they plan to make communications a strategic partner in all the agency’s activities. They want to educate the public and build awareness about dangers but also promote CONRED’S work. They are currently working on a communications campaign aimed at educating different segments of the population, including kids.
Lastly CONRED is very interested in building capacity. They have a regional effort to build response capacity through what they call ERICAs (Equipos Especializados de Respuesta Inmediata de Coordinación y Asistencia meaning specialized teams for immediate response, coordination, and assistance). They would like to engage the private sector through mutual aid committees.

Haiti
Agerca developed an ambitious two-year proposal focused on building resilient communities in Haiti. The committee is seeking funding to implement a number of proposed activities for building awareness about the risks affecting Haiti, training volunteers in first aid and response, and involving the private sector in disaster risk reduction and preparedness.  PADF/DMA is promoting this proposal to potential funding sources. In addition, Agerca is now on the DPC’s Education Committee and hopes to be on the Building Codes Committee that is being put together. To build capacity, Voila, who is on the Agerca committee, is sending two people to the disaster management program at Purdue University on scholarship.

Honduras
AmCham in San Pedro Sula had some big wins early this year. All 6 directors on this year’s new board have pledge their support for the activities of the Disaster Management and Business Continuity Committee. In addition, they have empowered the Regional Manager with more decision making authority that will expedite the implementation of the committee’s projects. The regional manager has already developed an annual plan and a calendar of activities that includes a multi-sector roundtable coming up in April and a BCP workshop in June. Other projects will be oriented towards recruiting new members, fundraising, and carrying out new BCP projects.

Jamaica
Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) is eager to build up the Planning and Preparedness Committee, following ODPEM’s lead.  Internally, the company began preparing for the 2010 hurricane season through simulations and employee training. JPS is anxious to see progress in the development of the committee to ensure that their plan includes an external collaboration component. PADF/DMA has met with JPS and ODPEM to discuss next steps. JPS identified several companies it would like to approach. ODPEM is currently working to set up with JPS and other key stakeholders at the end of March 2010.

Trinidad & Tobago
The HSE Committee at AmCham TT continues to move forward on their plans to help schools put emergency plans in place. During the last few weeks, AmCham has met with the Red Cross and the Ministry of Education. They recently found that that the Minister of Education has retired and that a new Minister has been appointed. They will work to get the new Minister up to speed on the current plans. The HSE committee has also begun planning this year’s 14th annual HSSE Conference.

Disaster Management Alliance

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