NEWS IN RELATION TO NATURAL DISASTERS

[nancyk58]

Updates of the situation in Southeast Asia on 5 March 2010

 

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN TAIWAN, HAITI AND CHILE ON 5 MARCH 2010

 

Danish TV2 text: 64 injured during the 6.4 earthquake in TAIWAN yesterday. 20 buildings collapsed. It is the first time in 100 years that this area is hit by an earthquake.

 

DR1 text: According to the United Nations the presidential election in HAITI is important. The United Nations encourages Haiti to hold the presidential election in 2010 in spite of the chaos caused by the massive earthquake. Two elections - a general and a presidential election - were scheduled to be held in 2010. The parliamentary election scheduled for February 2010 was cancelled. According to the UN it is important to prevent a constitutional crisis while the country is being rebuilt. Haiti's president, Réné Préval has promised to resign at the end of his 5-year term as president in February 2011.

 

DR1 text: Massive aftershock in CHILE. The earthquake-stricken area in Chile has been affected by a very strong aftershock. Strength: Magnitude 6.6 on the Richter scale. Next week Chile will have a new president, the conservative Sebastian Piñera. He admits that the reconstruction after the earthquake and the tsunami will leave its mark on his 4-year term as president. Piñera has announced that he will revise his government programme in accordance with the disaster.

 

DR1 text: Chaos in relation to the death toll in CHILE. According to the government 279 dead bodies have been identified. A number of dead bodies are yet to be identified. Earlier Thursday it was announced that the government's death toll reached 802. According to the Chilean Ministry of the Interior, the first information given when establishing those killed and those missing may not be exact.

 

Swedish SVT text: Only 279 dead bodies have been identified in CHILE according to the government. There will be 3 days of national mourning from Sunday 7 March. Thousands of soldiers and the curfew restored calm in the cities, towns and villages along the coast in Chile. Relief aid now reaches the affected Chileans.

 

Swedish SVT text: In CHILE there are reports of 3,000 people invading a Norwegian factory producing fish meal in Soronel south of the worst-hit Concepcion. The attackers stole about 200 tons of fish-meal.

 

Swedish SVT text: About 125 million litres of wine corresponding to 1.8 billion Swedish kroner were destroyed in the CHILE earthquake according to a US importer of Chilean wines. The largest losses were suffered by wine-growers in the Colchagua, Curcio and Maule valleys. 70% of the country's vineyards are situated very close to the epicentre of the earthquake. Wine is one of Chile's 5 largest export goods.

[nancyk58]

Updates of the situation in Southeast Asia and Chile

 

UPDATE OF THE SITUATION IN CHILE ON 5 + 6 MARCH 2010

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8552989.stm

 

CHILE SACKS OFFICIAL OVER TSUNAMI ALERT

 

Page last updated at 21:24 GMT, Friday, 5 March 2010

 

Chile has sacked the head of its oceanographic service following the earthquake and tsunami that killed about 800 people.

 

The service, part of the Chilean navy, has been widely criticised for failing to issue a nationwide tsunami warning immediately after the quake.

 

The navy has also launched an inquiry into how the disaster was handled, a government statement said.

 

Meanwhile three powerful aftershocks rattled Chile on Friday.

 

The tremors were strong enough to bring down some damaged buildings in the second city of Concepcion.

 

Last Saturday's 8.8 magnitude earthquake, the seventh most powerful on record, was centred 115km (71 miles) north-east of Concepcion and 325km south-west of the capital Santiago.

 

'DIAGNOSIS ERROR'

 

The official statement said Commander Mariano Rojas had been removed from his post at the Hydrographic and Oceanographic Service (Shoa) because he had failed to provide a clear warning of the tsunami.

 

Port authorities in several coastal towns issued their own tsunami warnings, but a national alert never came.

 

Some experts have said the failure led to deaths.

 

An investigation will "determine responsibility and clear up the circumstances surrounding the decision-making process" in response to the quake, the statement added.

 

Military officials have admitted "an error of diagnosis" and said they transmitted "very unclear information" to President Michelle Bachelet on whether to lift or maintain a tsunami alert.

 

Nations around the Pacific issued their own tsunami alerts but the feared giant waves never materialised.

 

The Chilean navy has named Commander Patricio Carrasco as the new head of Shoa.

 

President Bachelet has said that Chile's reconstruction will take three to four years.

 

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8548802.stm

 

TAIWAN EARTHQUAKE DISRUPTS POWER AND RAIL

 

Page last updated at 04:59 GMT, Thursday, 4 March 2010

 

An earthquake in southern Taiwan has disrupted power supplies in the capital, Taipei and caused the high speed rail service to be suspended.

 

There have been no reported deaths but several injuries from falling objects.

 

The US Geological Survey said the 6.4 magnitude quake hit about 70 km (43.5 miles) from southern Kaohsiung city.

 

Four years ago a 6.7 magnitude quake in the area severed undersea cables and disrupted telephone and Internet service throughout Asia.

 

Several fires broke out after the latest quake, including one in a textile factory in the southern city of Tainan, which sent out huge clouds of smoke and stalled lifts.

 

Services on the southern half of Taiwan's high-speed rail linking Taipei with the south were stopped pending safety checks. Subway service in the city of

Kaohsiung was temporarily disrupted.

 

Power outages hit Taipei and at least one county to the south, and telephone service in some parts of Taiwan was patchy. Buildings swayed in the capital when the quake struck.

 

SHAKING

 

The quake's epicentre was near the town of Jiashian, in the same area where the devastating typhoon Morakot struck last August.

 

A Kaohsiung county official told local television that some temporary housing in the town collapsed as a result of the quake.

 

Troops were sent to the area to check on the extent of damage and casualties, and local reports suggested several people were injured by falling objects.

 

"It felt like the buildings were going to collapse," Chen Pei-chi, a teacher in Shiaolin Elementary School in a village close to the epicentre told AFP news agency.

 

"I tried to get out, but my legs failed me because I was so frightened. Many children were screaming while they were running out of the classrooms."

 

Taiwan is often rattled by earthquakes. A 7.6-magnitude quake in central Taiwan in 1999 killed more than 2,300 people.

 

 

MAGNITUDE 6.5 EARTHQUAKE SHAKES INDONESIAN SUMATRA

 

(03/06/2010 | 05:20 AM - GMA News.TV)

 

JAKARTA, Indonesia — A magnitude-6.5 undersea earthquake shook the western shore of Indonesia's Sumatra island on Friday, causing panic but no casualties or damage, an official said.

 

The quake struck late at night 74 miles (119 kilometers) southeast of Pagai Selatan, an island off the western coast of Sumatra, Indonesian Meteorology and Geophysics Agency official Gian Ginanjar said.

 

The quake struck 6 miles (10 kilometers) beneath the Indian Ocean bed. There was no tsunami potential, he said.

 

Edi Firmanto, a resident of the Sumatra coastal town of Bengkulu, said people fled their homes and rushed to higher ground.

 

"I woke up when I heard my wife screaming in panic and got out with our two children and headed up a hill," Firmanto said. They went home when a village chief announced that the quake had no tsunami potential.

 

Indonesia rests on a series of fault lines that make the sprawling archipelago nation one of the most earthquake-prone.

- AP

[nancyk58]

Updates of the situation in Chile / BBC news article on 6 March 2010

 

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN CHILE ON 6 MARCH 2010

 

UN CHIEF BAN KI-MOON VISITS QUAKE-HIT CHILE CITY

 

From BBC World News on 6 March 2010

 

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has visited a Chilean city badly damaged by last week's earthquake and promised aid to help the country recover.

 

Mr Ban flew into CONCEPCION aboard a Chilean Air Force plane and was shown a 15-storey building that had collapsed, killing at least nine people.

 

As the clear-up continues, doctors have warned that debris piled up in towns and cities poses a health hazard.

 

The official death toll stands at 452 but hundreds are still missing.

 

"Remember that we are with you... our hearts are with you," Mr Ban said in a brief statement in Concepcion.

 

"Your people helped Haiti when it was in need - now is the moment when the international community must help Chile," he said.

 

UNCLEAN WATER

 

After returning to the capital Santiago, Mr Ban said Chile would receive field hospitals, temporary bridges and other international aid that the government needs.

 

Meanwhile, doctors say cases of diarrhoea are increasing among people drinking unclean water, and they are treating injuries caused by people trying to get through the debris.

 

We are going to keep needing water, electric systems, a functioning sewage system," said Gaston Saavedra, mayor of the port city of TALCAHUANO which was badly damaged by the quake and tsunami.

 

"We need to clean up rotting fish in the streets. We need chemical toilets, and when it starts raining, people living in tents are going to get wet and sick. All this is going to cause infections," he added.

The Chilean health ministry said that so far there had been no outbreaks of dysentery or other communicable diseases and it has enough tetanus and hepatitis vaccinations for the areas worst affected.

 

Chile has been hit by regular aftershocks since the 8.8-magnitude quake last week, including at least six on Saturday morning, the largest of which measured 5.1.

 

Government officials have also struggled to determine the death toll, announcing that they had double-counted at least 271 missing as dead.

 

On Friday the figure was revised down from about 800 to 452.

[nancyk58]

Updates of the situation in CHILE on 6 March 2010 from GMA News.TV

 

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN CHILE ON 6 MARCH 2010 FROM TEXT TV

 

CHILE QUAKE SURVIVORS PIN HOPES ON NEW PRESIDENT

 

03/05/2010 | 08:25 AM – GMA News.TV

 

DICHATO, Chile — Chile's earthquake and tsunami smashed this pretty little tourist town into splinters, leaving immense piles of wreckage and an awful stench. Rooting through the remains Thursday, Dichato's residents said they are pinning their hopes for renewal on the new president, a conservative billionaire who takes office next week.

 

Nothing short of mammoth reconstruction can return Dichato to a semblance of what it was, and survivors here — and throughout the disaster zone — said they're hoping President-elect Sebastian Pinera is up to the job.

 

"Chile is a country on the rise, economically strong, with many businesses. And because of this we expected more" of President Michelle Bachelet's leftist administration, said Amanda Ruiz, a secretary in a construction firm. "We're disillusioned."

 

"I think he has the ability to do it," said Luis Omar Cid Jara, 66, whose bakery and roast chicken shop on Dichato's main street were destroyed.

 

Critics said Bachelet initially was reluctant to summon the military to stop looting and deliver aid, given the armed forces' brutal repression of the Chilean left in the past, especially during the 1973-1990 dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

 

Pinera, who takes office March 11, stepped up his criticism of the outgoing president. He called Thursday for a sweeping modernization of Chile's disaster system to eliminate what he called "the lack of coordination and the weaknesses that this tragedy has uncovered with brutal eloquence."

 

Pinera named new governors for the six hardest-hit regions and told them to get to work even before his inauguration.

 

His immediate priorities: Find the missing; ensure law and order; restore utilities; and tend to the injured. Pinera said his administration will work more closely with the military on disasters than Bachelet, and he pledged to rebuild "with the most modern and efficient standards."

 

Bachelet, whose approval ratings were sky-high before the quake, bristled at the criticism and insisted "Chile will rise" from the devastation.

 

Touring an aid distribution center in the heavily damaged city of Concepcion, Bachelet denied any delays or indecision in the hours following Saturday's pre-dawn quake. Top military officers had complained they couldn't deploy troops to quash looting or deliver aid until Bachelet finally declared a state of emergency more than 24 hours after the temblor.

 

In the coastal town of CONSTITUCION, firefighters were looking for bodies of people swept away by the tsunami as they camped on Isla Orrego, an island in the mouth of the Maure River that flows through the city. CONSTITUCION suffered perhaps the greatest loss of life in the disaster, in part because many people had come for carnival celebrations and were caught in huge waves that reached the central plaza.

 

"There were about 200 people in tents who disappeared" on Isla Orrego, Fire Chief Miguel Reyes told The Associated Press.

 

An Associated Press Television News crew witnessed several bodies being recovered, including that of a baby girl washed up on the beach.

 

Rescue and recovery were in full swing in Dichato, where firefighters used long poles to probe for bodies in huge piles of muddy sand and beach wreckage. The navy ferried troops ashore to help unload 86 tons of food.

 

Volunteers canvassed camps up in the hills created by people who abandoned their ruined property in town, fearing another tsunami because of frequent aftershocks. They handed out carloads of clothing and food.

 

The magnitude-8.8 quake — one of the strongest on record — and the tsunami that followed ravaged a 700-kilometer (435-mile) stretch of Chile's Pacific coast and killed at least 802 people. The government said Thursday it had identified 279 of the dead.

 

Authorities have not said how many are missing but do say 2 million people were affected. They declared a three-day official mourning period starting Sunday.

 

Bachelet said it could take at least three years to bring the region back.

 

"The country doesn't deserve this. It's going to be — it's going to be very hard moving ahead," she told ADN radio.

 

The army was flying in 320 tons of aid, and the navy was shipping 270 more tons to coastal towns cut off from the rest of Chile.

 

DICHATO is nestled between pine-forested hills and a lovely sheltered bay where colorful fishing boats served coastal communities and export companies. Its residents proudly note their beach is the only one in the region where children could swim safely in the ocean. Its population of 4,000 triples each January and February with TOURISTS — many were in town when disaster struck — and residents count on that brief summer vacation for much of their income.

 

The quake and tsunami killed at least 19 people in DICHATO and smashed neat wooden houses and small hotels into huge splinter piles. The surge ruined most other buildings in town, which stank Thursday with decomposing fish. One fishing boat marooned far inland was full of rotting octopus.

 

The Bachelet government had made a difference in DICHATO, building 130 neat mustard-yellow duplexes in a public housing project that just opened in September and providing 60 million pesos — $120,000 — to restore the facades of businesses along main street, said Mabel Gomez, president of the local chamber of commerce.

 

Gomez, 29, ran several small businesses, providing public baths on the beach, an Internet and phone center, and several small cabanas to tourists. But Dichato doesn't have a bank, and like many business owners, Gomez lost the entire season's profits — 6 million pesos, about $12,000 — she had planned to deposit later this month.

 

"Just like the government has helped other countries, now it has to help us here," said Cid, the bakery and chicken shop owner. Booming profits from the state-owned Codelco mining company — which Bachelet zealously husbanded even as she spent more on social programs than any previous president — will have to be spent by Pinera on reconstruction, Cid said.

 

Chile has asked other countries and the United Nations for temporary bridges, field hospitals, satellite phones, electric generators, water purification systems, field kitchens and dialysis centers. Some 36 hospitals were either severely damaged or destroyed, Bachelet said Thursday.

 

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon planned to meet both Bachelet and Pinera on Friday and tour Concepcion.

 

Pinera now plans an austere inaugural, with only brief stays by foreign dignitaries to enable police to focus on quake duty, and will fly to the disaster zone immediately after he is sworn in. Bachelet has canceled a farewell dinner planned for the eve of the inaugural.

 

A quake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.3 struck late Thursday near Calama, 780 miles (1,260 kilometers) north of Santiago and roughly 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) north of the epicenter of Saturday's quake. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

 

Both quakes occurred along the same tectonic boundary where the Nazca Plate, moving eastward, is forcing its way under the continental plate of South America, said Susan Potter, a geophysicist with the US Geological Survey's National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colo. – AP

 

 

STRONG AFTERSHOCKS HIT QUAKE-STUNNED CHILE

 

Eva Vergaria, Associated Press Writer / (03/06/2010 | 05:01 AM – GMA News.TV)

 

CONCEPCION, Chile — The most powerful aftershock in six days sent terrified Chileans fleeing into quake-shattered streets and forced doctors to evacuate some patients from a major hospital on Friday as the nation struggled to comprehend the scope of the disaster that hit it.

 

People raced into the streets in pajamas as a magnitude-6.0 aftershock struck Concepcion shortly before dawn.

 

A magnitude-6.6 shock at 8:47 a.m. (6:47 a.m. EST; 1147 GMT) then rattled buildings for nearly a minute.

 

It was the strongest aftershock since a magnitude-6.9 jolt shortly after Saturday's historic quake and it sent office chairs spilling from upper floor of an already-damaged 22-story building.

 

Fear of additional damage led officials to evacuate some patients from the regional hospital in downtown CONCEPCION.

 

"They sent us all home," said 47-year-old Aaron Valenzuela, who hobbled through the street because four toes had been amputated due to an injury he suffered in Saturday's big quake.

 

Dr. Patricia Correa, who was overseeing the hospital's emergency ward, said her part of the five-story building "is on the point of collapsing. The walls cracked."

 

As a daily curfew meant to halt looting expired at noon, people flooded into the streets of Concepcion and formed lines about 100 long behind an intermittently functioning automatic teller machine, for a rare open pharmacy and at a corner store.

 

A sign at the shop announced it was out of flour, water, candles, rice, cheese, eggs and diapers, though jam, sugar, coffee and onions remained.

 

President Michelle Bachelet, meanwhile, met with her successor, Sebastian Pinera, and they promised to try to avoid letting the March 11 hand-over of power interrupt aid efforts.

 

"The new government will have an immense challenge," Bachelet said.

 

Officials were still struggling to determine the human toll of the magnitude-8.8 quake, as well as the damage to roads, ports and buildings such as hospitals.

 

Disaster officials announced they had double-counted at least 271 missing as dead in the hardest-hit part of the country — an error that would drop the official death toll to about 540 if there were no other mistakes.

 

But Interior Department officials said that from now on, they would release only the number of dead who had been identified: 279 as of Friday.

 

The government also said Friday it had removed Cmdr. Mariano Rojas as head of the Navy's oceanographic service over its failure to issue a tsunami warning for the Pacific immediately after Saturday's quake.

 

Port captains in several towns issued their own warnings, but a national alert never came,/I] and some say that failure led to deaths. The tsunami is believed responsible for much of the deaths and damage.

 

Bachelet says it will take three years to rebuild the region wracked by the earthquake and tsunami, and that task is all too clear to the people trying to clean up the ruins of their towns.

 

In the tourist town of DICHATO, a few kilometers (miles) north up the coast from CONCEPCION, the quake and tsunami killed at least 19 people and smashed neat wooden houses and small hotels into huge piles of splinters.

 

The town of 4,000 people stank Thursday of decomposing fish and a fishing boat marooned far inland was full of rotting octopus.

 

Bachelet's government had made a difference in the town before the quake, building 130 neat mustard-yellow duplexes in a public housing project that opened in September and providing 60 million pesos — $120,000 — to restore the facades of businesses along main street, said Mabel Gomez, president of the local chamber of commerce.

 

But as they rooted through the ruins, Dichato's residents said they are pinning their hopes for renewal on the next president, a conservative billionaire.

 

Pinera, who takes office March 11, named new governors for the six hardest-hit regions and told them to get to work even before his inauguration. His immediate priorities: Find the missing; ensure law and order; restore utilities; and tend to the injured.

 

Pinera also stepped up his criticism of Bachelet's administration on Thursday, knocking "the lack of coordination and the weaknesses that this tragedy has uncovered with brutal eloquence."

 

Critics said Bachelet initially was reluctant to summon the military to stop looting and deliver aid, given the armed forces' brutal repression of the Chilean left in the past, especially during the 1973-1990 dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

 

Top military officers had complained they couldn't deploy troops to quash looting or deliver aid until Bachelet finally declared a state of emergency more than 24 hours after the temblor.

 

The magnitude-8.8 quake — one of the strongest on record — and the tsunami that followed ravaged a 700-kilometer (435-mile) stretch of Chile's Pacific coast.

 

In the coastal town of Constitucion, firefighters were looking for bodies of people swept away by the tsunami as they camped on Isla Orrego, an island in the mouth of the Maure River that flows through the city.

 

CONSTITUCION suffered perhaps the greatest loss of life in the disaster,/I] in part because many people had come for carnival celebrations and were caught in huge waves that reached the central plaza.

 

"There were about 200 people in tents who disappeared" on Isla Orrego, Fire Chief Miguel Reyes told The Associated Press. An AP Television News crew witnessed several bodies being recovered, including that of a baby girl washed up on the beach. - AP

 

 

DOCTORS WARN OF DISEASES FROM CHILE WRECKAGE

 

Eva Vergara, Associated Press Writer

 

(03/07/2010 | 01:33 AM – GMA News.TV)

 

CONCEPCION, Chile — Huge piles of wreckage and tons of rotting fish and other debris blanketing the ground are turning the coastal towns shattered by Chile's earthquake and tsunami into nests of infection, doctors warned./COLOR]

 

As calls for medicine and shelter grew, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon flew into the heavily damaged city of CONCEPCION aboard a Chilean air force plane Saturday, following at least six moderate aftershocks. He was driven immediately to the city's ground zero, where a building had collapsed and a couple called out one last time to a missing son believed killed in the wreckage.

 

As Chileans lined up for hepatitis and tetanus shots Friday on the opening day of an EXTENSIVE VACCINATION CAMPAIGN, doctors said cases of diarrhea are increasing from people drinking unclean water and a growing number of patients are suffering injuries wading through the mess.

 

"We are going to keep needing water, electric systems, a functioning sewage system. We need to clean up rotting fish in the streets. We need chemical toilets, and when it starts raining, people living in tents are going to get wet and sick. All this is going to cause infections," said Talcahuano Mayor Gaston Saavedra, whose port city was heavily damaged by the Feb. 27 quake and tsunami.

 

The government faces other health care problems. LOOTING OF PHARMACIES has made MEDICINE SCARCE for people suffering from diabetes, hypertension and psychological illnesses, and 36 hospitals were heavily damaged or destroyed in the quake.

 

Chile said more than a dozen of its own military and civilian field hospitals were operating Friday. Mobile hospitals from a half-dozen other countries also were opening or about to open — an unusual situation for a country that proudly sends rescue and relief teams to the world's trouble spots.

 

But most of the foreign units weren't treating anyone a week after the disaster. Chile insisted donor nations first figure out how to coordinate with Chile's advanced, if wounded, public health system.

 

A PERUVIAN field hospital opened in Concepcion on Thursday with three operating rooms and 28 beds. But surgeons and trauma specialists stood with their arms crossed Friday, waiting for patients to be sent by local health officials.

 

Luis Ojeda, a Spanish doctor working with Doctors Without Borders, said his team arrived Monday but was still waiting for Chile's instructions on where to deploy.

 

"This country is atypical," Ojeda said, adding he'd spent his time checking on the displaced in tent camps.

 

Chile signed an OPERATING AGREEMENT for a U.S. FIELD HOSPITAL Friday, enabling 57 U.S. military personnel to work side-by-side with civilian Chilean doctors in coming days to support a population of 3,000 in the town of ANGOL. In Rancagua, a Cuban field hospital was fully operational.

 

The Chilean Health Ministry said that there had been no outbreaks of dysentery or other communicable diseases and that it has enough tetanus and hepatitis vaccinations for the disaster zone.

 

Field hospitals being provided by ARGENTINA, BRAZIL, CUBA, PERU, SPAIN and the U.S. are meant to relieve 36 heavily damaged or destroyed Chilean hospitals, including Santiago's now-closed 522-bed Felix Bulnes Hospital. Brazil's emergency field hospital was sent to western Santiago to pick up the slack.

 

Powerful aftershocks Friday forced the evacuation of an older wing of CONCEPCION's five-story REGIONAL HOSPITAL.

 

Doctors couldn't access clean scalpels because a sterilization room was too dangerous to enter. PERUVIAN doctors donated their sterilizing equipment, which was quickly put to use for the amputation of four infected toes from Aaron Valenzuela, who stepped on broken glass Monday while looking for drinking water. He was sent home after surgery because of the hospital damage. "They threw us all out and told us to go home," Valenzuela said as he limped away.

 

The emergency room supervisor, Dr. Patricia Correa, said her part of the hospital "is on the point of collapsing." "The walls cracked," she said.

 

The most powerful aftershock in six days sent terrified Chileans fleeing into the streets and forced doctors to evacuate some patients from the regional hospital. The magnitude-6.6 shock at 8:47 a.m. rattled buildings for nearly a minute and sent office chairs spilling from an exposed upper floor of a badly damaged 22-story office building.

 

At least six smaller aftershocks shook Chile on Saturday morning, the largest of which had a preliminary magnitude of 5.1, according to the U.S. Geological Survey in Golden, Colorado. No additional damages or injuries were immediately reported.

 

Authorities decided Saturday to completely demolish a 15-story building that had partially collapsed in the earthquake in the neighborhood visited by U.N. Secretary-General Ban, after emergency workers determined there were no more survivors to be found.

 

But one couple took one last walk through the wreckage where they called out in vain for their missing son, Jose Luis.

 

Also Saturday, police recovered washing machines, refrigerators, plasma TVS, and mattresses that looters had stashed in their homes, said police Capt. Claudio Munoz. He said five people would be charged.

 

Survivors of the quake struggled to find medicines and fill prescriptions because pharmacies were looted earlier in the week and POWER OUTAGES still affected businesses and clinics. More than 100 people lined up outside one of Concepcion's few open drug stores on Friday. Soldiers stood guard nearby.

 

"I haven't taken my medicine for two or three days. I really should take it every day," said Miguel Hidalgo, a retired truck driver with chronic hypertension who was told there was one package left of a drug he needs to keep his kidneys working.

 

"People have nowhere to go to get medicine," said Dr. Solange Cadiz Iturrieta, who joined volunteers handing out donated drugs to people outside a community radio station.

 

The Chilean Health Ministry said its top priorities included mental health care for quake survivors, garbage removal, drinking water and shelter.

 

The U.N. has said Chile needs temporary bridges, field hospitals, satellite phones, electric generators, damage assessment teams, water purification systems, field kitchens and dialysis centers.

 

Housing Minister Patricia Poblete said at least 500,000 homes were destroyed but she expected that figure to reach as high as 1.5 million once surveys are complete. In New York, Chile's U.N. ambassador, Heraldo Munoz, said reconstruction will cost Chile an estimated $30 billion.

 

Officials struggled to determine the death toll. Disaster officials announced they had double-counted at least 271 missing as dead — an error that would drop the official death toll to about 540 without other mistakes. Interior Department officials said they would now release only the number of dead who had been identified: 452 as of late Friday.

 

After days of finger pointing over the disaster response, President Michelle Bachelet and President-elect Sebastian Pinera agreed Friday to set aside their differences and work with "unity, solidarity and generosity."

 

"The new government will have an immense challenge, and we will do our job until the last day" before Thursday's inauguration, Bachelet said.— AP

[nancyk58]

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION in CHILE on 7 March 2010

 

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN CHILE ON 7 MARCH 2010

 

Danish DR1 text: CHILE EARTHQUAKE DESTROYED CHILE'S CULTURAL HERITAGE

Chile's cultural heritage in the areas worst-hit by the earthquake has been destroyed as 200 year-old churches collapsed. All people in these areas are living in a state of post-traumatic stress.

 

The many wine-growers/vineyard owners in the worst-hit area were hard hit by the earthquake. They lost more than hundred million litres of wine from last year's harvest of wine grapes (vintage).

 

Swedish SVT text: CHILE'S VINTAGE SURVIVED THE EARTHQUAKE

Recently several media reported that this year's harvest of wine grapes/vintage had been totally destroyed - but this is not true according to Swedish Radio's reporter in Chile. The effect of the earthquake varies from vineyard to vineyard. Many have lost all wines already being in the maturation process, but in most vineyards the harvesting of wine grapes has begun and the grapes are still hanging. Now Chilean winemakers hope that the production can be normalized in a couple of weeks' time.

 

 

ZDF Text: ANGER DUE TO SLOW HELP IN CHILE

Life slowly returns to normalcy in Chile one week after the devastating earthquake with many deaths/casualties. In the city of TALCA some banks and some shops and businesses re-opened. There was widespread anger at too slowly organized help and lootings. In TALCA city angry citizens set fire to tyres. "We need food. The Police doesn't protect us", the text said on one banner. According to citizens there is NO ELECTRICITY and NO RUNNING WATER in TALCA in central Chile.

[nancyk58]

Updates of news on 8 and 9 March 2010 in Chile, Turkey and Haiti

 

UPDATE OF THE SITUATION IN CHILE, TURKEY and HAITI ON 8 and 9 MARCH 2010

 

UPDATE OF THE SITUATION IN CHILE ON 8 and 9 MARCH 2010

 

Swedish SVT Text on 8.3.10: LOOTERS IN CHILE GIVE UP

A brief amnesty did the trick: Looters in the earthquake-affected CONCEPCION returned the stolen goods or dumped them along the roads and the streets: Furniture, TV sets, refrigerators and freezers were returned. Even the threat of razzias and the arrest of at least 20 suspected looters have played a part. Policemen collected the goods dumped at the side of the pavement. The police filled a sports centre with the returned stolen goods.

 

Danish DR1, TV2 + Swedish SVT on 9.3.10: EARTHQUAKE MOVED CITY 3 METRES

Chile’s second-largest city, CONCEPCION with 350,000 inhabitants was one of the worst-hit cities by the massive magnitude-8.8 earthquake and moved 3 metres westwards according to US and Chilean researchers at Ohio State University. Chile’s capital, SANTIAGO moved almost 28 cm (27.7 cm) to the west. In neighbouring Argentina the capital Buenos Aires moved almost 4 cm westwards. About 800 Chileans lost their lives during the earthquake in Chile on 27 February 2010. There were such geological movements as far away as the Falkland Islands.

 

 

UPDATE OF THE SITUATION IN TURKEY AFTER EARTHQUAKE ON 8 MARCH 2010

 

(UPDATE) 6.0 EARTHQUAKE HITS EASTERN TURKEY, KILLS 57(3/08/2010 | 08:00 PM - GMA News.TV)

 

OKCULAR VILLAGE, Turkey – A strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6 struck eastern Turkey on Monday, killing 57 people as it knocked down stone or mud-brick houses and minarets in at least six villages, the government said.

 

The government's crisis center said about 100 other people were injured in the quake, which hit at 4:32 a.m. (0232 GMT, 9 p.m. EST Sunday) in Elazig province, about 340 miles (550 kilometers) east of Ankara, the capital.

 

The earthquake, which caught many people as they slept, was centered near the village of Basyurt and followed by more than 30 aftershocks, the strongest measuring 5.5 and 5.1, the Kandilli seismology center said.

 

The worst-hit area was the village of Okcular, where some 17 people were killed and homes crumbled into piles of dirt. Another 13 people were killed in the village of Yukari Demirci, Gov. Muammer Erol said.

 

By noon, everyone had been removed from the rubble and there was no one left buried inside the debris, Erol said.

 

"Everything has been knocked down, there is not a stone in place," said Yadin Apaydin, administrator for the village of Yukari Kanatli, where he said at least three villagers died.

 

Authorities blocked access to Okcular so ambulances and rescue teams could maneuver on the village's narrow roads. Relatives rushed to the village for news of their loved ones.

 

"The village is totally flattened," village administrator Hasan Demirdag told private NTV television.

 

Ali Riza Ferhat, an Okcular resident, said he was woken up by the jolt.

 

"I tried to get out of the door but it wouldn't open. I came out of the window and started helping my neighbors," he told NTV television. "We removed six bodies." Villagers lit fires to keep warm.

 

The quake was felt in the neighboring provinces of Tunceli, Bingol and Diyarbakir, where residents fled to the streets in panic and spent the night outdoors.

 

Some of the injuries occurred during the panic, when people jumped from windows or balconies. Video from the Dogan news agency showed residents bringing the injured to hospitals by cars and taxis.

 

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Kandilli Observatory's director, Mustafa Erdik, urged residents not to enter any damaged homes, warning that they could topple from aftershocks that Erdik said could last for days.

 

Television footage showed rescue workers and soldiers at Okcular lifting debris as villagers looked on. Rescuers dug into the dirt, finding the body of an elderly man, and quickly covered him with a sheet.

 

Two women sat on mattresses wrapped in blankets. The temblor also knocked down barns, killing farm animals.

 

Turkey's Red Crescent organization sent tents and blankets to the region. Erdogan said ambulance helicopters, prefabricated homes and mobile kitchens were also being sent.

 

Earthquakes are frequent in Turkey, much of which lies on top of the North Anatolian fault. In 1999, two powerful earthquakes struck northwestern Turkey, killing about 18,000 people.

 

In 2007, an earthquake measuring 5.7 damaged buildings in Elazig, briefly trapping a woman under debris. In 2003, an earthquake measuring 6.4 magnitude collapsed a school dormitory in the neighboring province of Bingol, killing 83 children. The collapse was blamed on poor construction. - AP

 

 

NO FILIPINO CASUALTY IN TURKEY QUAKE - DFA

 

German ZDF text, ARD text, Swedish SVTtext and Danish TV2 TTV:

MASSIVE EARTHQUAKE IN EASTERN TURKEY

A massive earthquake (6.0-magnitude on the Richter scale) occurred in eastern Turkey and killed at least 57 people including children and injured at least 100 people. Many are missing according to the Turkish authorities. There are many victims in villages with old mud-brick houses, and several are feared buried under collapsed houses. The official death toll was only half the number of deaths stated by TV channels. The strong earthquake surprised the inhabitants of the province ELAZIG around 4:40 local time (3:40 European MeanTime, EMT). Many ran out of their houses in panic. Fearing more earthquakes they spent the rest of the night outdoors. Minarets of mosques collapsed in several villages according to Elazig governor Mr. Muammer Erol. Numerous buildings are completely destroyed. Rescuers are looking for survivors in the rubble. An increase in the death toll is feared. The mayor of Kovancilar, Mr. Bekir Yanilmax told the news agency AP that at least 57 were killed in 3 villages in the ELAZIG province. At least 27 aftershocks were registered in the area around the epicentre Karakocan near the village of Basyart or Basyurt North of Diarbakir.

 

Being situated in an earthquake-prone zone Turkey regularly experiences earthquakes, also deadly ones, because the continental plates of Africa and Eurasia collide there. 2 massive quakes hit the densely populated areas in the north-western part of Turkey in 1999 and cost 20,000 human lives.

 

German ZDF text on 9.3.10: AFTER THE STRONG EARTHQUAKE IN EASTERN TURKEY MANY SPENT THE NIGHT OUTDOORS

 

Following the strong magnitude-6.0 earthquake that destroyed several villages early Monday morning, hundreds spent last night outdoors even though it was very cold. At least 57 were killed. Many aftershocks occurred, and this might continue for days according to Istanbul-based Kandilli Observatory's director, Mustafa Erdik. The Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the high number of victims by the magnitude-6.0 earthquake was due to the predominant mud-brick structure.

 

 

UPDATE OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 9.3.10

 

Danish DR1: HAITI’s PRESIDENT: STOP EMERGENCY AID IN THE FORM OF FOOD SUPPLIES

Haiti’s President, Réné Préval will tell the US President Barack Obama that the emergency aid in the form of food supplies must stop in order to avoid damaging Haiti’s economy. The two presidents are to meet on Wednesday in the White House. Emergency aid such as food and water has been a lifeline for > 1.2 million Haitians who lost their homes in the earthquake. If foreign countries keep sending emergency aid to Haiti, then Haiti’s own production will face competition. Instead he appeals for assistance to rebuild Haiti and to create jobs in Haiti.

 

Danish TV2 text plus TV2 News / live: HAITI: EMERGENCY AID IN THE FORM OF FOOD SUPPLIES TO BE DIMINISHED

Foreign aid in the form of food supplies to earthquake-stricken Haiti must not harm Haiti’s internal competition. Therefore the Danish relief organization, Danish ChurchAid has now decided to stop this kind of emergency aid to the disaster-hit area. “Foreign relief organizations are not to keep pumping food supplies into Haiti, because this will - in the long term - totally destroy Haiti’s own production and trade. We have to diminish our aid in form of food supplies so that the population begins to buy food from the local peasants”, states Secretary-General Henrik Stubkjær.

 

Swedish SVT Text, Danish TV2 + TV2 News/live at noon Danish time: HAITI: US MISSIONARY RELEASED

One of the US Baptist missionaries arrested in Haiti suspected of having kidnapped Haitian children during the chaos following the strong earthquake has been released. 8 other missionaries were released in February. Only the leader of the group of missionaries is still in custody.

[nancyk58]

Update of the situation in the Philippines on 9.3.10

 

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN THE PHILIPPINES FROM GMA NEWS.TV ON 9 MARCH 2010

 

MAGNITUDE-5 QUAKE ROCKS LEYTE

 

(03/09/2010 | 11:09 PM - GMA News.TV)

 

A magnitude-5 quake rocked parts of Leyte province in Eastern Visayas Tuesday afternoon, even as state seismologists warned of possible aftershocks.

 

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said the quake was recorded at 2 p.m., with the epicenter at 33 km southeast of Borongan town in Eastern Samar.

 

It said the quake was tectonic and felt at Intensity 4 in Borongan, Can-avid, and Llorente towns in Eastern Samar.

 

The quake was felt at Intensity 3 in Tolosa, Leyte, Tacloban City, San Policarpio, Gen. MacArthur, San Julian, Taft, and Sulat towns in Eastern Samar; and at Intensity 2 in Jaro, Carigara, and Baybay towns in Leyte.

 

While Phivolcs said there was no damage expected, it said aftershocks were possible. - JV, GMANews.TV

[nancyk58]

Update of the situation in Turkey on 9.3.10 from GMA News.TV

 

SURVIVORS SHIVER AFTER TURKEY QUAKE KILLS 51

 

(03/09/2010 | 09:00 AM - GMA News.TV)

 

OKCULAR, Turkey – Hundreds of earthquake survivors huddled in aid tents and around bonfires Monday in eastern Turkey, seeking relief from the winter cold after a strong temblor knocked down stone and mud-brick houses in five villages, killing 51 people.

 

The damage appeared worst in the Kurdish village of Okcular, which was almost razed. At least 15 of the village's 900 residents were killed, the Elazig governor's office said, and the air was thick with dust from crumpled homes and barns.

 

The pre-dawn earthquake caught many residents as they slept, shaking the area's poorly made buildings into piles of rubble. Panicked survivors fled into the narrow streets of this village perched on a hill in front of snow-covered mountains, with some people climbing out of windows to escape.

 

"I tried to get out of the door but it wouldn't open. I came out of the window and started helping my neighbors," Ali Riza Ferhat of Okcular told NTV television. "We removed six bodies."

 

The Kandilli seismology center said the 6.0-magnitude quake hit at 4:32 a.m. (0232 GMT, 9 p.m. EST Sunday) near the village of Basyurt in a remote, sparsely populated area of Elazig province. The region is 340 miles (550 kilometers) east of Ankara, the capital.

 

The US Geological Survey listed the quake at 5.9 magnitude.

 

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Kandilli Observatory's director, Mustafa Erdik, urged residents not to enter any damaged homes, warning they could topple from aftershocks that Erdik said could last for days.

 

More than 100 aftershocks measuring up to 5.5 magnitude shook the region on Monday alone.

 

In addition to the deaths, 34 people were being treated for injuries, Turkey's crisis center said.

 

Abdulkerim Sekerdag, 72, said he had just risen for early morning prayers when the quake hit.

 

"The jolt threw me onto the ground," he told The Associated Press. "When I got up I checked my animals and then I checked on my neighbors."

 

"Two of them were buried. We pulled them out," he said, adding that they were alive but injured.

 

Men used shovels and bare hands to dig two bodies out from under piles of dirt, rubble and concrete blocks, video footage showed. Both bodies were covered in blankets and carried away. One appeared to be a baby or young child.

 

Women in veils gathered near the rescue scenes, some crying.

 

"Everything has been knocked down, there is not a stone in place," said Yadin Apaydin, administrator for the village of Yukari Kanatli, where three died.

 

Fifteen people were killed in the nearby village of Yukari Demirci, Gov. Muammer Erol said, while four each were killed in the villages of Kayalik and Gocmezler and 10 others died after being taken to a hospital in the town of Kovancilar.

 

Most of the dead were immediately buried according to Muslim traditions. A few funerals had to be put off until Tuesday.

 

The temblor also knocked down barns, killing many farm animals. A half-dozen dead cows were seen partially buried near one collapsed home. One man, Haci Sekerdag, said he lost eight cows and calves — his main livelihood.

 

The Turkish Red Crescent set up tents and villagers laid plastic sheeting to shelter them from the cold and dirt. The government said it rushed ambulance helicopters, prefabricated homes and mobile kitchens into the stricken area.

 

Erdogan blamed the region's mud-brick buildings for the many deaths and said the government housing agency would build quake-proof homes in the area.

 

The quake was also felt in the neighboring provinces of Tunceli, Bingol and Diyarbakir, where residents fled to the streets in panic and stayed outdoors. Schools were closed for two days. In Tunceli province, the quake caused one school's walls to crack, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported.

 

A museum in Elazig displaying artifacts from the Iron-age Kingdom of Urartu was not affected by the quake, and nearby dams were also intact.

 

Earthquakes are frequent in Turkey, much of which lies on top of two main fault lines. In 1999, two powerful earthquakes struck the country's northwest, killing about 18,000 people. In 2003, a 6.4-magnitude earthquake killed 177 people in Bingol, including 84 children whose school dormitory collapsed.

 

Monday's quake in eastern Turkey followed deadly recent temblors in Haiti and Chile, but Bernard Doft, the seismologist for the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute in Utrecht, said there was no direct connection between the three.

 

"These events are too far apart to be of direct influence to each other," he said.

 

Richard Luckett, a seismologist from the British Geological Survey, said there has not been a spike in global seismic activity.

 

"If there was a big increase in the number of magnitude 6.0s in the past decade we would know it, because we would see it in the statistics," Luckett said. "We haven't seen an increase in 7.0s either."

 

He said scientists often see strong earthquakes but they don't get reported because the damage or death toll is minimal. According to USGS data, the world is hit by about 134 earthquakes a year in the 6.0- to 6.9-magnitude range — or about two a week.

 

"The point is that earthquakes are common and always have been," he said. - AP

 

 

 

NOT MORE QUAKES, JUST MORE PEOPLE IN QUAKE ZONES

 

(Seth Borenstein, AP Science Writer - 03/09/2010 | 11:24 AM) - GMA News.TV

 

First the ground shook in Haiti, then Chile and now Turkey. The earthquakes keep coming hard and fast this year, causing people to wonder if something sinister is happening underfoot. - It's not.

 

While it may seem as if there are more earthquakes occurring, there really aren't. The problem is what's happening above ground, not underground, experts say.

 

More people are moving into megacities that happen to be built on fault lines, and they're rapidly putting up substandard buildings that can't withstand earthquakes, scientists say.

 

And around-the-clock news coverage and better seismic monitoring make it seem as if earthquakes are ever-present.

 

"I can definitely tell you that the world is not coming to an end," said Bob Holdsworth, an expert in tectonics at Durham University in northern England, referring to the number of quakes.

 

A 7.0 magnitude quake last month killed more than 230,000 people in Haiti. Less than two weeks ago, an 8.8 magnitude quake — the fifth-strongest since 1900 — killed more than 900 people in Chile. And on Monday, a strong pre-dawn 6.0 magnitude quake struck rural eastern Turkey, killing at least 51 people.

 

On average, there are 134 earthquakes a year that have a magnitude between a 6.0 and 6.9, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. This year is off to a fast start with 40 so far — more than in most years for that time period.

 

But that's because the 8.8 quake in Chile generated a large number of strong aftershocks, and so many occurring this early in the year skews the picture, said Paul Earle, a seismologist at the U.S. Geological Survey.

 

Also, it's not the number of quakes, but their devastating impacts that gain attention with the death tolls largely due to construction standards and crowding, Earle said.

 

"The standard mantra is earthquakes don't kill people, buildings do," he said.

 

There have been more deaths over the past decade from earthquakes, said University of Colorado geologist Roger Bilham, who just returned from Haiti. In an opinion column last month in the journal Nature, Bilham called for better construction standards in the world's megacities. Last year his study of earthquake deaths, population, quake size and other factors produced disturbing results. And that was before Haiti, Chile and Turkey.

 

"We found four times as many deaths in the last 10 years than in the previous 10 years," Bilham told The Associated Press Monday. "That's definitely up and scary."

 

Other experts said they too have noticed a general increase in earthquake deaths. The World Health Organization tallied than 453,000 deaths from earthquakes from 2000 to 2009, up markedly from the previous two decades. In the 1970s, however, a massive quake in China killed about 440,000 people.

 

But those numbers fluctuate every year. Statisticians say the hit-or-miss nature of earthquake fatalities makes it hard to see a trend in deaths.

 

A quick analysis by two statistics experts found no statistically significant upward trend since the 1970s because of the variability — despite the earthquake experts' perceptions that deaths have been rising, at least since the 1980s.

 

The Haiti quake likely set a modern record for deaths per magnitude of earthquake "solely as a function of too many people crammed into a city that wasn't meant to have that many people and have an earthquake," said University of Miami geologist Tim Dixon.

 

Disaster experts say they've seen more deaths especially from quakes that wouldn't have been as bad decades ago. They point to two in Turkey and India — a 1999 earthquake in Izmit that killed 18,000 and the 2001 disaster that killed 20,000 in Bhuj.

 

"Look at some of the big ones recently," said Debarati Guha-Sapir, director of the WHO's disaster epidemiology research center. "Had the Izmit or Bhuj quakes happened 30 years ago, the events would have been relatively insignificant as the population of these cities were a third of what it was when it did happen. Increasing population density makes a small event into a big one."

 

Disaster and earthquake experts say the problem will only worsen. Of the 130 cities worldwide with more than 1 million population, more than half are on fault lines, making them more prone to earthquakes, Bilham said.

 

"I've calculated more than 400 million people at risk just from those," he said.

 

Developing nations, where the population is booming, also don't pay attention to earthquake preparedness, Bilham said. "If you have a problem feeding yourself, you're not really going to worry about earthquakes."

 

He said, when he went to Haiti after the January quake, he had hope that construction would be quake-proof because of the emphasis on it. Instead, people rebuilt their houses their old unsafe ways.

 

Another reason quakes seems worse is that we're paying attention more. The phenomenon of Haiti quickly followed by the 8.8 in Chile got everyone's attention.

 

But it won't last, said disaster researcher Dennis Mileti, a former seismic safety commissioner for the state of California.

 

"People are paying attention to the violent planet we've always lived in," Mileti said. "Come back in another six months if there has been no earthquakes, most people will have forgotten it again." - AP

[nancyk58]

Updates of the situation in HAITI / Red Cross Press Release 10.3.10

 

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 10 MARCH 2010

 

RED CROSS PRESS RELEASE on 10.3.10

 

http://www.redcross.org/

 

Posted in Press Releases, 03/10/10

 

RED CROSS PASSES THE $100 MILLION MARK IN AID FOR HAITI EARTHQUAKE RELIEF AND RECOVERY

 

Priorities in the months and years ahead will include shelter, water and sanitation, livelihood programs and disease prevention.

 

AMERICAN RED CROSS PASSES THE $100 MILLION MARK IN AID FOR HAITI EARTHQUAKE RELIEF AND RECOVERY

 

National Headquarters

2025 E Street, N.W.

Washington, DC 20006

http://www.redcross.org

 

Contact: Public Affairs Desk

FOR MEDIA ONLY

[email protected]

Phone: (202) 303-5551

 

WASHINGTON, Wednesday, March 10, 2010 — The American Red Cross today announced it is allocating an additional $24.4 million for Haiti earthquake RELIEF and RECOVERY, increasing its total commitment to date to $106.4 million.

 

The Red Cross made its funding announcement the same day that Haitian President Rene Preval is visiting the White House to discuss the urgent need for more aid from the international community to help that island nation recover from the January 12th earthquake.

 

The latest allocation of funds by the American Red Cross includes $16.1 million to support the construction of transitional shelters that will be coordinated by the global Red Cross network; $3.7 million will go to Habitat for Humanity for the purchase of emergency shelter materials, and $4.6 million will support cash grants to 16,000 families so they can buy essential items as part of a program to be run in close coordination with Haiti’s largest microfinance institute, Fonkoze .

 

“We are gravely concerned about the upcoming rainy season as well as the hurricane season for hundreds of thousands of Haiti’s homeless people,” said David Meltzer, senior vice president of international services with the American Red Cross. “The Red Cross is working feverishly to get tents and tarps to everyone who needs them, but we also recognize that these temporary shelters are not hurricane proof.”

 

“We hope that this additional infusion of millions of dollars today to Habitat for Humanity, among others, will provide emergency shelter to more people who are now sleeping out under the stars.“ Meltzer added.

 

The American Red Cross had previously spent or allocated $82 million for food, water, emergency care, shelter, relief supplies and family services for Haiti. To date, the American Red Cross has raised approximately $354 million for Haiti relief and recovery efforts.

 

Since the earthquake struck, the Red Cross global network and its partners have provided emergency shelter materials to more than 650,000 people ahead of spring rains and are reaching 80,000 people a week by delivering tens of thousands of tarps, tents, ropes, timber uprights and toolkits.

 

The remainder of the people in need are on track to receive emergency shelter on or before the beginning of May.

 

“No one ever feels that humanitarian relief is moving fast enough,” said Meltzer. “We know there are immediate and long-term needs in Haiti, and we are determined to meet them.”

 

In addition to shelter supplies, more than 400,000 people have received basic relief items from the Red Cross, such as hygiene kits, cooking tools, buckets, blankets, and mosquito nets. The Red Cross and its partners resumed a wide ranging vaccination campaign that will protect at least 250,000 children and adults from measles, diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus. To date, more than 100,000 people have received vaccinations.

 

American Red Cross President and CEO Gail McGovern will arrive in Haiti on Thursday, her second visit to Haiti since the earthquake, to get an update on the progress that has been made since her visit in January as well as to assess next steps in the recovery.

 

Red Cross priorities in the months and years ahead will include shelter, water and sanitation, livelihood programs and disease prevention.

 

Among the group of 16,000 families to receive cash grants are 6,000 host families residing in rural communities, who are now stretching scarce resources in order to care for loved ones who fled the disaster zone.

 

An additional 10,000 women heads of households, who have lost their homes, businesses or both, will also receive a small grant to help meet their families’ immediate needs, as well as a modest loan to restart their businesses, restore their families’ source of income and hopefully begin the process of empowering them after so much tragedy and personal loss.

 

The American Red Cross will also play an important role in helping to prepare Haiti for future emergencies, including the upcoming Caribbean hurricane season.

 

“The American people have entrusted us with their hard earned money to help the people of Haiti survive and thrive following earthquake in January,” added Meltzer. “We at the American Red Cross take this responsibility very seriously and are doing our best to ensure that every dollar counts today, tomorrow and in the years to come.”

 

You can help the victims of countless crises, like the recent earthquakes in CHILE and HAITI, around the world each year by making a financial gift to the American Red Cross International Response Fund, which will provide immediate relief and long-term support through supplies, technical assistance and other support to help those in need. The American Red Cross honors donor intent. If you wish to designate your donation to a specific disaster, please do so at the time of your donation by mailing your donation with the designation to the American Red Cross, P.O. Box 37243, Washington, D.C. 20013 or to your local American Red Cross chapter. Donations to the International Response Fund can be made by phone at 1-800-REDCROSS or 1-800-257-7575 (Spanish) or online at http://www.redcross.org.

 

About the American Red Cross:

The American Red Cross shelters, feeds and provides emotional support to victims of disasters; supplies nearly half of the nation's blood; teaches lifesaving skills; provides international humanitarian aid; and supports military members and their families. The Red Cross is a charitable organization — not a government agency — and depends on volunteers and the generosity of the American public to perform its mission. For more information, please visit http://www.redcross.org or join our blog at http://blog.redcross.org.

 

 

HOW THE RED CROSS IS HELPING

 

As part of its largest international response since the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the global Red Cross network has helped nearly 1.9 million Haitians since the country’s January 12 earthquake.

 

It has so far spent or allocated $82 million to meet the MOST URGENT NEEDS of earthquake survivors and will continue to SUPPORT hundreds of thousands of additional survivors in the years ahead until the last donated dollar is spent.

 

Since the earthquake, the Red Cross has focused its activities in four primary areas:

 

HEALTH:

• Nearly 33,600 people (or more than 1,000 people per day) have been treated by Red Cross health care facilities and mobile teams.

• Approximately 60,000 people have been vaccinated, including against measles.

• More than 23 million text messages with key health messages have been sent to survivors.

 

RELIEF:

• More than 31,500 families (or 157, 500 people) received items like hygiene kits and other basic relief supplies.

• More than 1 million people have received food items.

 

WATER and SANITATION:

• 30 million liters of drinking water (or more than 1.5 million liters per day) have been distributed.

• An estimated 290,000 people are benefiting from this regular service.

• More than 580 latrines have been built near settlements.

 

SHELTER:

• More than 350,000 people received shelter supplies, including tents, tarps and tools.

 

The Red Cross is also providing support to Haitian families in the United States, shipping blood products to the region and restoring family links for separated loved ones.

[nancyk58]

UPDATES / BBC 10.3.10: HAITI President visits OBAMA in the USA

 

HAITI-related news from BBC World Service on 10 March 2010

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8560909.stm

 

BARACK OBAMA SAYS SITUATION IN QUAKE-HIT HAITI 'DIRE'

 

US President Barack Obama has warned of a SECOND DISASTER IN HAITI, saying people should be under no illusion that the crisis there is over.

 

Mr Obama said the situation in Haiti remained "dire" almost two months after the earthquake struck.

 

He was speaking after talks with Haitian President Rene Preval in Washington.

Mr Obama told Mr Preval that the US would continue to help Haiti in its recovery and reconstruction efforts.

 

He praised Mr Preval for being a "profile in courage" in the aftermath of the 7.0-magnitude quake.

 

Mr Obama said there remained a desperate need for humanitarian help, especially as seasonal rains could threaten the more than a million Haitians left homeless by the quake on 12 January.

 

RAPID REACTION FORCE

 

"The challenge now is to prevent a second disaster, and that is why at this very moment, thousands of Americans, both civilian and military, remain on the scene at the invitation of the Haitian government," Mr Obama said.

 

The US president also pledged to continue to help Haiti in the long term.

 

"Even as the US military responsibly hands off relief functions to our Haitian and international partners, America's commitment to Haiti's recovery and reconstruction must endure and will endure," he said.

 

Mr Preval thanked the US for the material and moral support it had provided.

More than 20,000 US civilian and military personnel have taken part in the relief efforts, according to figures released by the White House.

 

Mr Preval said that while the response to the disaster had been massive and generous, it could have been more effective.

 

He also called for the creation of a United Nations rapid response team to provide humanitarian help when natural disasters struck.

 

"I support the idea of the creation of so-called 'red helmets' within the United Nations and these would be an observatory, a warning provisional system for natural disasters and a humanitarian force which will be the equivalent of the 'blue helmets'," Mr Preval said.

[nancyk58]

Updates of the situation in CHINA and CHILE on 11.3.10

 

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION ON 11 MARCH 2010

 

C H I N A

 

BBC World News / live: CHINA LANDSLIDE KILLS AT LEAST 17 PEOPLE IN THE SHAANXI PROVINCE

 

11 missing in the north-western China after today's landslide. At least 40 people were buried and at least 25 houses totally destroyed.

 

 

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN CHILE ON 11 MARCH 2010

 

Swedish SVT Text and Danish DR1 Text:

DESIGNATION AFTER QUAKE MISTAKE IN CHILE

 

Carmen Fernandez, director of the National Emergency Office - Onemi, resigned after admitting that she had acted too slow after the earthquake. "We were blind and speechless/ paralysed," Fernandez said recalling the hours after the quake. Last Friday President Michelle Bachelet sacked the head of the navy's oceanography service because no clear tsunami alert was issued before the deadly tsunami following the quake. So far 497 dead bodies have been identified after the disaster that affected about 2 million people. According to the authorities the regions Biobio and MAULE have power and running water again. At least 500 have been killed in the quake and in particular by the following tsunami.

 

BBC News / Live: Chile today had a new president in the Chile. Michelle Bachelet left office saying that the strong 8.8 magnitude earthquake almost 2 weeks ago was the defining moment of her term in office.

 

Danish Text/German ARD + ZDF/Swedish SVT Text: CHILE:

TREMORS AS PRESIDENT WAS SWORN IN.

Today Chile's new president, the conservative billionaire Sebastian Piñera, was sworn in as president at a low-key ceremony. The reasons for the low-key ceremony were the substantial damage and the many deaths after the massive earthquake on 27 February. Minutes before the ceremony in the city of Valparaiso, Chile was shaken by a 7.2 magnitude tremor. Many participants looked nervous and worried during the entire ceremony due to the new tremor. Almost 2 weeks after the strong 8.8-magnitude earthquake in Chile, 3 strong aftershocks / tremors shook Central Chile. The epicentre of the strongest 7.2 magnitude tremor was 150 km south of the capital, Santiago - 125 km south-west of Santiago. The earthquake occurred in about 10 km depth. The navy issued a tsunami alert. Inhabitants living close to the coast were told to seek higher ground at once. Later the tsunami alert was lifted again after a few hours. According to US Geological Survey the strongest tremor reached magnitude 6.9. The tremors could be felt in Valparaiso, where Chile's new president was sworn in and in the capital, Santiago, where thousands ran out of the houses and into the streets in Santiago.

Chile's new president says that the first reports indicate "substantial damage" in the city of Rancagua.

President Piñera's most important task is to be in charge of the rebuilding of the quake-affected areas of Chile. Chile's most important export good, copper, was not affected by the quake, but other trades / industries such as wine production and fishing industry were damaged. Many coastal areas were totally destroyed by the tsunami.

[nancyk58]

Updates of the situation in CHILE on 11.3.10

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8561340.stm/Page last updated at 22:22

GMT, Thursday, 11 March 2010

 

NEW CHILE QUAKE AS PINERA SWORN IN AS PRESIDENT

 

correspondent Andy Gallacher: "PINERA HAS A HUGE JOB ON HIS HANDS"

 

Sebastian Pinera has been sworn in as president of Chile, minutes after it was hit by the largest aftershock since last month's devastating earthquake.

 

The 6.9-magnitude tremor was centred in O'Higgins Region, some 140km (90 miles) south of the city of Valparaiso, where the inauguration ceremony took place.

 

The congress building was evacuated soon after. On taking office, Mr Pinera said: "It's time to get to work."

 

His presidency ends two decades of left-wing rule in Chile.

 

The tycoon not only faces the challenge of reconstruction, but takes over from the highly popular Michelle Bachelet, who was the country's first woman president.

Ms Bachelet left office with an 84% popularity rating despite criticism of her government's response to February's 8.8-magnitude earthquake and ensuing tsunami, which left close to 500 people dead.

 

Earlier, Chile's disaster management chief resigned, six days after the head of the navy's oceanography service was dismissed for failing to provide a clear warning of the tsunami.

 

A BBC correspondent in the capital, Santiago, says buildings there shook and people rushed out onto the streets after Thursday's tremor, but no damage was reported.

 

A tsunami alert was issued for a long stretch of Chile's coast but was later lifted, except for Easter Island, where it remained in effect.

 

The US Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said the aftershocks were too small to cause "a destructive widespread tsunami".

 

Mr Pinera said there had been "significant damage" in Rancagua, a city almost 100km (62 miles) south of the capital, which was close to the main tremor's epicentre, but there were no immediate reports of injuries.

 

The US Geological Survey initially estimated the largest aftershock's magnitude at 7.2, but later revised it down to 6.9. It was followed by more tremors, the biggest of which had a magnitude of 6.7.

 

'MASSIVE CHALLENGE'

 

The inauguration ceremony in the port city of Valparaiso, which houses the National Congress, was intended to be an austere affair.

 

The planned dinner was cancelled and the whole event scaled back out of respect for victims of the quake.

 

Ms Bachelet, who was constitutionally barred from seeking re-election, handed the red, white and blue presidential sash to Mr Pinera.

 

"I'm leaving office with sadness for the suffering of our people, but also with my head held high, satisfied with what we have accomplished," she said in her farewell address.

 

The leaders of Peru, Colombia, Argentina and Bolivia were among the dignitaries to attend the inauguration.

 

A 7.2 magnitude aftershock has sparked fears of another tsunami.

 

Seldom can an incoming president have faced such a massive and immediate challenge, says the BBC's Gideon Long in Santiago.

 

Many people have been made homeless by the quake, with about half a million homes destroyed.

 

BBC reader Ian Hutcheon, from San Vicente, 45km south of Rancagua, described Thursday's aftershock as "very severe".

 

"I was in a bank when it hit and there was mayhem, panic and chaos," he said.

 

BILLIONAIRE BUSINESSMAN

 

"We won't be the government of the earthquake, we'll be the government of reconstruction," Mr Pinera said recently.

 

Last month, Mr Pinera named his cabinet, leaving out any figures linked with the former military ruler, Augusto Pinochet.

 

In his election campaign, the 60-year-old the conservative leader said he would focus on boosting economic growth and producing jobs while continuing with the outgoing president's social policies.

 

Mr Pinera is one of the country's richest men.

 

He made his fortune introducing credit cards to Chile, then went on to buy a television channel, a stake in Chile's most successful football club, and put millions of dollars into other investments.

-------------------

 

DISASTER EXPERTS PRAISE CHILE QUAKE RESPONSE

 

(03/11/2010 | 09:06 AM - GMA News.TV)

 

SANTIAGO, Chile – President Michelle Bachelet leaves office Thursday with a chunk of her country in ruins — and her popularity in the clouds.

 

Despite complaints that aid was slow to reach the hungry and homeless, experts say Chile's response to one of history's most powerful earthquakes has been a model for disaster recovery.

 

At first, the problems were all too obvious: Chile's navy and emergency preparedness office failed to issue a tsunami warning that might have saved hundreds of lives after the Feb. 27 quake, and Bachelet didn't order soldiers to impose order in the streets until after looting had spun out of control.

 

But experts say other smart moves — like insisting that foreign help meet specific needs, quickly patching up roads and having the military handle logistics — made it possible to deliver 12,000 tons of relief in just 10 days.

 

And despite extensive damage to hospitals, few additional lives have been lost since the tsunami retreated, leaving at least 497 dead and hundreds missing.

 

Chile's critical north-south highway was restored the day after the quake, with thick metal plates covering cracks, dump-truck loads of gravel filling collapsed pavement and more than a dozen fallen pedestrian overpasses quickly pushed aside. The patchwork repairs soon enabled an aid convoy of 100 tractor-trailers to make the eight-hour journey south from the capital to the most damaged cities.

 

"We were where we needed to be immediately," the socialist president said in a Chilean TV interview ahead of Thursday's inauguration of conservative billionaire Sebastian Pinera.

 

It was frustrating to have to make decisions based on INCOMPLETE INFORMATION, Bachelet said: Seismographs were knocked offline when the power went out, and the navy gave MIXED SIGNALS ON THE TSUNAMI. She said there was no hint looting would soon begin when she toured the disaster area hours after the quake. Chile clearly needs to improve its emergency communications and warning systems, she said.

 

But veterans of other disasters have been impressed by Chile's response.

 

"There is nothing more frustrating than getting aid somewhere and not seeing it delivered to the people who need it. Here, there is no aid that sits anywhere. It hasn't collected any dust.

 

It's getting exactly to the people," said Col. Julio Lopez, who commands the US Air Force's 35th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron, which has been ferrying supplies and people in C-130 cargo planes between Chile's capital and Concepcion, the closest large city to the epicenter.

 

Ten days after the quake, more than 90 percent of homes in the disaster area have regular power and water and a half-million survivors are getting water trucked in. Food aid is flowing in huge cargo planes and military helicopters, navy ships and tractor-trailers.

 

Countless volunteers have turned out to help the 14,000 soldiers who stand guard and help deliver relief, and a national TELETHON raised $60 MILLION — enough to build SMALL EMERGENCY SHELTERS for most of the poorest survivors whose homes were destroyed.

 

The magnitude-8.8 earthquake that struck just off Chile's coast was more than 500 times more powerful than the 7.0 quake that devastated Haiti. It was so strong that it shifted the Earth's orbit and moved Concepcion three meters (10 feet) to the west, scientists say.

 

Yet Chile's infrastructure and modern buildings designed to withstand a magnitude-9 earthquake emerged largely intact. Chile had only a tiny fraction of Haiti's estimated 230,000 killed.

 

"The reality is far better than we originally feared," said Raul Rivera, chairman of the Innovation Forum, which promotes economic development in Chile.

 

Pinera has called for unity and solidarity — but has also sharply criticized the government response.

 

"When there is an earthquake of this magnitude — when one knows that it will interrupt basic services like power and water, and that it will generate fear, and also generate vandalism and looting — PUBLIC ORDER has to be guaranteed from the first day," Pinera told Radio ADN this week. "Here we lost a lot of time in establishing the state of catastrophe."

 

A poll sponsored by the conservative newspaper El Mercurio said 72 percent believe the government responded late and inefficiently to re-establish order, and 60 percent believe aid delivery has been too slow and inefficient. The survey of 600 adults in Santiago had a margin of error of 4 percentage points.

 

But a larger tracking poll done before and after the Feb. 27 earthquake said Bachelet's 84 percent approval rating hasn't been dented.

 

Most Chileans blame the navy and emergency managers for botching the tsunami warning, and while 59 percent disapprove of how Bachelet handled "delinquency" in the disaster, more than 90 percent still respect her and believe she cares about them, according to the Adimark/GfK survey of 1,100 people nationwide, which had an error margin of 3 percentage points.

 

The persistence of the criticism led Carmen Fernandez, director of the National Emergency Office, to resign Wednesday. The government previously removed Cmdr. Mariano Rojas as head of the navy's oceanographic service over its failure to issue a tsunami warning immediately after the quake.

 

Chileans might feel differently had the government not quickly overcome the kind of coordination problems that vexed responses to Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and Haiti's earthquake this year, Lopez said.

 

During KATRINA, it seemed like no one was in charge for the first nine days, creating CHAOTIC SITUATIONS that endangered lives, he said: "It was a free for all ... it was everyone wanting to help and no one directing traffic."

 

CHAOS also reigned initially in HAITI, where in the absence of a functioning government, hundreds of planes landed in the cramped Port-au-Prince airport with no clear plan for getting aid to survivors. Foreign NGOs competed for priority treatment, and badly needed food, water and medicine got stuck.

 

Bachelet, in contrast, insisted on a quick analysis of the disaster first. Then, within hours, she was asking other countries for field hospitals, satellite phones, floating bridges and dialysis centers — specialized equipment that complemented Chile's own rescue and relief effort.

 

"In this case you did see an effective and well-executed response," said Mark Ghilarducci, a 25-year disaster veteran who helped run California's emergency management office during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. "I've seen other governments take far longer, with far less coordination and communication."

 

"It's pretty phenomenal to have such a low number of deaths in such a large earthquake that was relatively such a direct hit," Ghilarducci added. "There was not a lot of waiting; there was a tremendous response immediately, search and rescue and fire outfits right on the spot. That was good.

 

"Even 36 hours starting to get the military in place, that's not a lot of time when we're talking about the magnitude of this particular kind of disaster." - AP

 

 

STRONG QUAKES TORMENT CHILE AS PRESIDENT SWORN IN

 

(3/12/2010 | 07:30 AM - GMA News.TV)

 

SANTIAGO, Chile – The earth shook and shook Thursday as dignitaries walked in for the swearing-in of Sebastian Pinera as Chile's president. It shook some more as they waited for him.

 

People in the balconies of the vast congressional hall in coastal Valparaiso shouted warnings as a massive light fixture rocked overhead, and heads of state nervously eyed the ceiling. But a steely calm prevailed, and Pinera strode in smiling.

 

The president and his ministers then quickly swore their oaths, and the audience of 2,000 headed for the exits and the hills, joining an evacution called out of concern that Thursday's repeated aftershocks would set off another tsunami.

 

Inauguration Day was peppered with more than a dozen significant aftershocks, amply demonstrating Pinera's challenges after last month's magnitude-8.8 quake, one of the biggest in modern history.

 

Chile's first elected right-wing president in 52 years won office promising to improve the economy. Now, he says he'll be the "reconstruction president." His advice to citizens: "Let's dry our tears and put our hands to work."

 

But relief efforts stalled Thursday as more than 10 earthquakes shook Chile in a span of six hours. The strongest, at 6.9, nearly matched the 7.0-magnitude quake that devastated Haiti on Jan. 12.

 

Pinera said there were no reports of more deaths, but a KEY HIGHWAY suffered more DAMAGE in the inland city of Rancagua, and VIOLENT WAVES hit the coastal towns of Pichilemu and Bucalemu, Interior Minister Rodrigo Hinzpeter said.

 

Pinera urged citizens to heed the Chilean navy's tsunami warning and seek higher ground. Then he made a show of normality, greeting other presidents for lunch at the Cerro Castillo summer palace, where he left them at the table and boarded a helicopter to tour disaster areas.

 

"How was your welcome, president?" Pinera asked Argentina's Cristina Fernandez. "Moving, moving!" she joked.

 

The inauguration had lasted just 30 minutes, marked by three of the aftershocks. One prompted Colombia's Alvaro Uribe to leave the hall for several minutes as an announcer appealed for calm. Outgoing President Michelle Bachelet sat unperturbed as a nearby flower arrangement rocked back and forth.

 

Chile doesn't allow immediate presidential re-elections, but Bachelet remains popular. She left the hall to loud applause and a shout of "Come back soon, presidenta." Earlier Thursday, when a reporter asked if she'll run again in four years, she said it's not the time for politics.

 

Pinera called on Chileans to dedicate themselves to "this colossal job of reconstructing our country, of rebuilding better than what we had before, not just to lift up our schools, our hospitals, our homes, but also to make them better, and also to lift up the soul of our country."

 

"I am sure that just as we have done so many times, the Chilean people will rise up to this challenge," he said.

 

The Feb. 27 earthquake — the fifth-strongest since 1900 — killed 497 identified victims and potentially hundreds of others, destroyed or heavily damaged at least 500,000 homes and broke apart highways and hospitals. Recovery costs could soar above $15 billion, including $5 billion for infrastructure alone.

 

Thursday's quakes terrified many who have been living in and around quake-weakened homes since last month's massive temblor. Tall buildings swayed and windows rattled in downtown Santiago. In Talca, supermarkets closed for fear of looting. And just before Pinera visited coastal Constitucion, survivors and volunteers building 60 emergency shelters fled uphill in panic.

 

The strongest of the aftershocks — magnitude 6.9 — was Chile's most powerful since Feb. 27, and occurred along the same fault line, said geophysicist Don Blakeman at the US Geological Survey in Golden, Colorado.

 

Chile's navy and emergency management office were much criticized for failing to issue a tsunami alert that might have saved hundreds of lives from the towering waves that followed the initial quake. This time, the alert went out — Pinera said an overabundance of caution was called for.

 

"Everything stopped — my meetings with business owners, work, life, everything has been paralyzed," said Mayor Gaston Saavedra of Talcahuano, where waves shoved huge shipping containers into downtown buildings last month.

 

Pinera repeatedly called for courage as he toured Constitucion, where he left 130 flowers along the riverbank for the dead and missing caught in the tsunami. He signed an order giving one-time cash handouts of $76 each to 4.2 million disaster survivors, and said he would send laws creating subsidies and tax-deductible donations to congress in the morning.

 

The billionaire investor, Harvard-trained economist and airline executive is known for his impatience with bureaucracy and ill-prepared aides. He quickly returned to Santiago, where he planned to speak from a balcony at the La Moneda presidential palace, and then work past midnight with his ministers.

 

Pinera had vowed to spend billions to make Chile "the best country in the world," accelerating economic growth, creating 1 million jobs and combatting crime while maintaining popular social programs that gave Bachelet 84 percent approval ratings.

 

His victory ended 20 years of center-left governments that followed Gen. Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship, and put Chile's business elite squarely back in power. But he lacks a legislative majority, and reconstruction will be very expensive.

 

Still, Chile's rainy-day fund has $11 billion in overseas liquid investments, and more than $3.5 billion in damaged property is not only insured, but reinsured abroad. "Because Chile is a country where markets work and people insure themselves, all of a sudden you have the equivalent of $3.5 billion in foreign aid coming in," said Raul Rivera, president of Chile's Innovation Forum. - AP

[nancyk58]

Updates of the situation in Southeast Asia, HAITI and CHILE on 12.3.10

 

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN THE PHILIPPINES ON 12 MARCH 2010

 

PHIVOLCS: MILD EARTHQUAKE ROCKS MASBATE

 

(03/12/2010 | 09:01 AM - GMA News.TV)

 

A mild magnitude-3.6 quake rocked parts of Masbate province Thursday night, but state seismologists said there was no casualty or damage expected.

 

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said Friday the quake was recorded at 10:32 p.m. Thursday, and was tectonic in origin.

 

It traced the epicenter to 17 km southeast of Masbate town in Masbate province.

 

Phivolcs said the quake was felt at Intensity III in Masbate, Masbate.

 

But it said it expected no damage or aftershock from Thursday night's tremor. — RSJ, GMANews.TV

------------------

 

UPDATE OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI on 12 march 2010

 

HAITI: KIDNAPPERS RELEASE 2 EUROPEAN AID WORKERS

 

(03/12/2010 | 11:07 AM - GMA News.TV)

 

PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI – Kidnappers have freed two Swiss women snatched off the streets of Haiti's capital and held for five days, officials said Thursday.

 

It is the first reported kidnapping since Haiti suffered a magnitude-7 earthquake with catastrophic damage on Jan. 12. More than 5,000 prisoners fled jails that collapsed or were damaged in the temblor. Only about 200 have been captured.

 

Doctors Without Borders confirmed the kidnapping. Agency spokesman Michel Peremans said the victims were released Wednesday night and are "in good health." He would not say if a ransom was paid.

 

Doctors Without Borders is one of hundreds of international aid agencies that have flooded into Haiti to help.

 

A security alert sent to nongovernmental agencies, obtained by The Associated Press, said the two were Swiss women working for the France-based agency. The alert said that they were kidnapped at night near the posh La Reserve restaurant in a Petionville suburb.

 

Aid groups told the AP that they have imposed dusk-to-dawn curfews following the kidnapping and amid increasing signs of insecurity in the capital, Port-au-Prince. Doctors still treating earthquake victims report that they are seeing many gunshot wounds, and it is common to hear cracks of gunfire at night.

 

Many women have reported being raped in some of the hundreds of makeshift tent camps set up by people whose homes collapsed or were damaged by the quake.

 

The Swiss aid workers were held during a weekend in which most of the thousands of US troops that had helped distribute aid and provide security following the quake were leaving the country.

 

A small number of troops — the US military has not said how many — have remained to help 10,000 Haitian police officers and 10,000 UN peacekeepers reassert control.

 

Kidnappings were rare in Haiti until 2004, when abductions took place during the bloody chaos that followed the ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Foreigners were often targeted, but Haitians were taken in much larger numbers.

 

Political officials, foreign aid workers and deeply impoverished Haitian children were all targeted in the kidnappings, which typically spiked before Christmas as bandits sought money to buy presents.

 

Crackdowns by UN police and a strengthened — and increasingly less corrupt — Haitian police force helped curb the crime in the 18 months leading up to the earthquake, but some of those suspected of heading kidnapping rings escaped from the national penitentiary during the disaster. - AP

 

 

Swedish SVT Text: HAITI WAS THE BREAKTHROUGH FOR SMS DONATIONS

The Suedes have donated more than 200m SEK (Swedish Kroner) corresponding to $28.5m to the earthquake victims in Haiti, and this disaster is a real breakthrough for SMS donations. "Dagens Nyheter" broadcasting the daily news has contacted 18 organizations which collected money for Haiti. Most of the organizations say that they received many donations. "Radiohjälpen" (translation: Radio Aid) received SEK 5.4 mio ($771,000) via SMS donations which is by far the largest sum of money collected via SMS. RED CROSS has collected the highest sum via SMS with 7.5m SEK (more than $1m).

 

Swedish SVT Text: THE UN HAS DIFFICULTIES IN GETTING THE PROMISED MONEY TO HAITI

In the days after the massive earthquake in HAITI on 12 January 2010 the UN launched an acute appeal for $562m from member countries. In February the appeal had increased to $1.46bn. The UN has received 49% of the funds needed for the entire year. The UN appeals for more resources and funds to the relief organizations.

---------------------------

 

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN CHILE ON 12 MARCH 2010

 

German ARD Text: CHILE'S NEW PRESIDENT VISITS DISASTER AREA AFTER STRONG AFTERSHOCK

According to Chile's new president Sebastian Piñera, rebuilding will be his biggest and most difficult task. He visited the city of CONSTITUCION. He signed a draft bill regarding the distribution of credit notes to the needy. This was one of his pledges during his election campaign. Almost 2 weeks ago, at least 497 were killed in Chile due to the massive earthquake. Since then there have been 3 strong aftershocks.

 

Swedish SVT Text: THE NAVY IN CHILE LIFTED THE TSUNAMI ALERT

The tsunami alert issued by the navy on Thursday afternoon after 3 strong aftershocks had damaged central Chile at the same time as Sebastian Piñera was sworn in as president in Chile was lifted again. The city of Rancagua is reported to have been affected by "significant damage". The Chilean government was criticised for not having issued a tsunami alert in time. The tsunami after the strong earthquake on 27 February killed almost 500 people.

 

Swedish SVT Text: Chile's new president Sebastian Piñera pledged the equivalent of SEK 570m (about $81m) to children from poor families to support them after the quake. The draft bill will be introduced to the Congress very soon. At the same time IDB, the Inter-American Development Bank, pledged 480m dollar (corresponding to SEK 3.3bn) for reconstruction.

[nancyk58]

Updates of the situation in Chile on 13 March 2010

 

UPDATE OF THE SITUATION IN CHILE ON 13 MARCH 2010

 

ARD Text: RECONSTRUCTION COSTS 22 BN EURO

President Piñera estimates the costs of reconstruction after the massive earthquake in Chile to be about 22 billion EURO. The work will take years, he said in his first speech after his inauguration.

 

Chile will be reluctant to take advantage of foreign loans/credits.

 

In connection with the 8.8 magnitude earthquake on 27 February 2010 , at least 500 people died, and many buildings were destroyed. On Thursday 11 March there were strong aftershocks.

[nancyk58]

Updates of the situation in HAITI on 13.3.10

 

DR1 News (live): HAITI:

A reporter from DR1 News is in HAITI and talked to a man who was very sad because some dear ones (family members or friends) had died today:

 

Some poor and very hungry Haitians had gone into the ruins of the Ministry of Finance to collect some planks and firewood as they needed money for food. 11 of them were killed as the roof of the damaged Ministry of Finance collapsed.

 

The situation in HAITI has not become better as President Preval has ordered the distribution of food stopped. He encourages the population to start working, but there is NO WORK available for them for the time being!! The population is very hungry and desperate.

 

 

 

TV2 News / live: HAITI ON THE WAY TO NORMALCY.

TV2 News has a reporter in HAITI – he has been there since the devastating earthquake that killed 230,000 Haitians and left more than 1 million Haitians homeless.

 

The homeless are still living under poor conditions living in bad-quality “tents” or under tarpaulins.

 

Danish Red Cross’s team of 4 persons are distributing tents. We see a young girl – pregnant in the seventh month – receive a big 5-person-tent (weight: 25 kilos). She has to carry the tent herself. Her next problem is to find out how to erect it – but she succeeded in doing that.

 

There are several lines at the distribution point: One for pregnant women, one for other women and one for men. The worst problem is that of security.

 

Danish Red Cross also distributes packages with boards and tarpaulins.

[nancyk58]

Updates of the situation in JAPAN and the PHILIPPINES on 14.3.10

 

UPDATE OF THE SITUATION IN JAPAN and the PHILIPPINES ON 14 MARCH 2010

 

Danish TV2 text and DR1 text plus Swedish SVT text and German ZDF Text:

 

JAPAN: BUILDINGS IN TOKYO SWAYING IN STRONG EARTHQUAKE IN NORTH JAPAN

 

An earthquake has hit Japan's largest island HONSHU. Japan's capital, Tokyo, is located on that island. The quake was measured at magnitude 6.6 on the Richter Scale, and the epicentre was in the Pacific Ocean in a depth of 40 km off the coast of the Fukushima prefecture North of Tokyo, according to the Japanese TV channel NHK.

 

There were strong tremors in Fukushima, but no reports of substantial damage.

 

The Danish journalist Thomas Hoej Davidsen, who is in Tokyo for the time being, told us that the buildings in Tokyo began to sway. Despite the strong earthquake no buildings collapsed, and there were no casualties. "There is no panic in Tokyo".

 

"Japan experiences about 1,000 quakes each year, so people here are used to earthquakes", he explained.

 

Japan lies in an earthquake-prone region. About 6,400 people died in 1995 by a magnitude-7.2 quake.

 

Danish TV2, Sunday evening: NO REPORTS OF DAMAGE AFTER EARTHQUAKE

 

There are no reports of material damage or casualties after the magnitude-6.6 earthquake in Northern Japan. Buildings were swaying menacingly. No tsunami alert was issued.

 

The earthquake occurred at 17 o'clock local time in the Pacific Ocean off the Fukushima prefecture on the Eastern part of the island of Honshu.

 

 

STRONG QUAKE ROCKS CENTRAL JAPAN, RATTLES BUILDINGS IN TOKYO

 

(03/14/2010 | 04:34 PM - GMA News.TV)

 

(UPDATED) TOKYO — A strong earthquake hit off the eastern coast of central Japan on Sunday, rattling buildings across a broad swath of the country, including the crowded Tokyo capital.

 

There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties, and the government said there was no danger from tsunamis.

 

The quake had an initial estimated magnitude of 6.6, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency. It hit at 0808 GMT on Sunday, or 5:08 p.m. local time.

 

The earthquake was centered about 50 miles (80 kilometers) off the eastern coast of central Fukushima Prefecture, and struck at a depth of 25 miles (40 kilometers).

 

It was strong enough to gently sway buildings in Tokyo, about 185 miles (300 kilometers) to the southwest, for several seconds.

 

Television images from the regions near where the quake was centered showed no damage, with cars driving normally.

 

Japan's early warning system predicted the earthquake just before it hit, with public broadcaster NHK interrupting a sumo match to warn residents to take cover.

 

The country is one of the world's most earthquake-prone countries. In 1995, a magnitude-7.2 quake in the western port city of KOBE killed 6,400 people. — AP

 

 

PHIVOLCS: MAGNITUDE-5 QUAKE ROCKS SURIGAO

 

(03/14/2010 | 08:52 PM - GMA News.TV)

 

A magnitude-5 quake rocked Surigao del Sur province in Mindanao Sunday evening, with state seismologists warning of possible aftershocks.

 

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said the quake was recorded at 5:50 p.m., with the epicenter traced to 38 km southeast of Tandag.

 

It said the quake was tectonic, and was felt at Intensity III in Lingig, Surigao del Sur; and San Francisco, Agusan del Sur.

 

The quake was also felt at Intensity II in Bislig, Surigao del Sur; and Barobo, Surigao del Sur.

 

While Phivolcs said there was no damage to property expected, residents should expect some aftershocks.

- KBK, GMANews.TV

 

 

EL NIÑO DRIVES MONKEYS AWAY FROM SANCTUARY

 

( Williamor Magbanua, GMANews.TV - 03/14/2010 | 11:22 PM )

 

MAKILALA, North Cotabato – The dry spell brought by the El Niño weather phenomenon has affected the primary tourist attraction of a small village here: monkeys.

 

According to Darwin Paraiso, councilman of Barangay New Israel, some of the area’s close to 1,000 free-roaming monkeys have fled to a nearby forested mountain to search for food as the unusually high temperature caused severe damage on crops.

 

“It all started when severe heat due to the El Niño phenomenon wilted some crops in the village," Paraiso said on Sunday, adding that banana plants, which are the monkeys' main sustenance, were among the affected crops.

 

Paraiso said the monkeys have also started fighting during feeding time, particularly over bananas donated by Dole-Stanfilco. He said these fights often resulted to deaths, particularly of small and aging monkeys.

 

“This may be the reason that some of these animals abandoned our place, preferring to live in the mountainous side of the village," Paraiso said.

 

Most of those who stayed in the village, however, have resorted to stealing food like biscuits and bread from residents, prompting the community to install iron grills and screens on their windows, Paraiso said.

 

He said that despite this, the villagers still refrain from harming the creatures. “We love them, that is why we are protecting them."

 

Barangay New Israel is recognized by the Makilala local government untis as one of the local tourist destinations in North Cotabato because of the numerous monkeys living harmoniously with the villagers.

 

Paraiso said monkeys are free to move from one place to another without fear of being killed by the villagers since the Barangay council passed a resolution protecting these creatures.

 

“These animals even play with us and our children and visitors who happen to visit our place," Paraiso said.

 

Local tourists coming from the neighboring towns in North Cotabato and provinces of Davao del Sur, Bukidnon and Maguindanao usually have their field trips in this village to enjoy observing these monkeys.

 

Since its official declaration as a tourist spot in the 1990’s, Makilala has become known not just in the Philippines but in other parts of the world as well.

 

Paraiso estimated that some 100,000 visitors, including foreigners, have already been to the monkey sanctuary. Proof of this are the old logbooks filed in the visitors' nook stockroom. - KBK, GMANews

[nancyk58]

UPDATES of the situation in FIJI ISLANDS

 

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN THE FIJI ISLANDS ON 15 MARCH 2010

 

Danish TV2 TTV: CYCLONE TOMAS RAVAGES THE FIJI ISLANDS

A strong category-4 cyclone with winds at the speed of 175 kilometres per hour destroyed homes and crops and forced thousands to flee to evacuation centres according til FMS, Fiji's Meteorological Service. Some gusts of wind led to chaos in the northern part of the nation of islands situated between Hawaii and New Zealand.

 

German ARD Text: CYCLONE RAVAGES FIJI ISLANDS

A strong cyclone swept over the Fiji Islands in the South Pacific and ravaged fields and villages. About 5,000 people were removed to a safe place in evacuation centres before the cyclone hit in particular the northern islands with winds reaching a speed of 175 kilometres per hour. The cyclone was a category 4 cyclone on a scale of 5 categories. 7m high waves were seen at sea.

 

Swedish SVT Text: THOUSANDS EVACUATED DUE TO CYCLONE

A strong cyclone (category 4) hit the northern part of the Fiji Islands in the South Pacific. Thousands left their homes and fled to evacuation centres. The winds reached speeds of close to 50 metres per second. According to Fiji's Meteorological Service there were no reports of the extent of the damage. It is known that a woman drowned. The cyclone is expected to become worse later Monday and Tuesday. Winds of speed up to 55 m/sec. are to be expected.

[nancyk58]

Updates of the situation in CHILE on 15 March 2010

 

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN CHILE ON 15 MARCH 2010

 

German ZDF Text: MILLIONS OF CHILEANS PLUNGED INTO DARKNESS BY POWER CUT

According to the Chilean electricity distributor Transelec, 80 to 90 % of the 17m population were affected by the power cut. The reason for the power cut was an accident in a transformer. One hour later some cities had light again - also in greater Santiago. In Santiago some people had to be rescued out of subway cars.

 

German ARD Text: POWER CUT IN CHILE

2 weeks after the strong earthquake in Chile, almost all of Chile was hit by a power cut on Sunday evening. 80% of the 17 million inhabitants were affected. According to the government the power grid was so affected by the earthquake that it finally failed Sunday. Suddenly all light went out in the capital Santiago just before 21 o'clock local time (1am Central European Time / CET). The Metro and several shopping centres were evacuated.

 

SVT Text: MASSIVE POWER CUT IN CHILE

80% of Chile's 17m inhabitants were affected by the power cut which covered a 2,000-km (= 1.250-mile) -long area. CONCEPCION which was hard hit by the recent massive earthquake and the capital Santiago were affected.

 

The power cut caused worries among Chileans still experiencing aftershocks after the devastating magnitude-8.8 earthquake that triggered a tsunami on 27 February 2010. The power was quickly restored.

 

 

Danish DR1 (updated at 4pm): A LARGE PART OF CHILE WITHOUT POWER

At 4pm Central European Time, power has been restored for 80% of Chile.

 

Early Monday there were dark villages across Chile. Problems with a 500 kilowatt transformer caused the lack of power according to Chile's Minister of the Interior, Rodrigo Hinzpeter.

 

The telephone network is still down in parts of Chile.

 

The power cut has no direct connection to the massive earthquake in February, but Hinzpeter would not dismiss the possibility of the earthquake being the indirect cause of the lack of power in Chile.

 

 

BLACKOUT LEAVES MILLIONS OF CHILEANS IN DARKNESS

 

(03/15/2010 | 11:54 AM - GMA News.TV)

 

SANTIAGO, Chile — A power failure plunged nearly the entire Chilean population into darkness Sunday night, rattling a country already anxious after last month's 8.8-magnitude quake.

 

The outage struck around nightfall and affected a 1,200-mile (2,000-kilometer) stretch from Taltal in the north to Chiloe in the south, according to the Interior Ministry's emergency office.

 

Officials blamed a transformer failure that caused a ripple effect and ultimately a total collapse of the Central Interconnected System grid.

 

An hour after the blackout began, lights began to come back on in some cities — including sporadically in greater Santiago, which is home to 7 million people.

 

Officials there initially reported having just 8 percent of the supply needed to meet demand for a normal Sunday evening.

 

Officials said it would take several hours to fully restore service.

 

Between 80 percent and 90 percent of Chile's 17 million people get power from the system and were affected, said Eduardo Andrade, vice president of electricity distributor Transelec.

 

"We hope to restore electrical supply in the coming hours, though we cannot anticipate a specific timeframe," Interior Minister Rodrigo Hinzpeter said. "We are working very hard so that happens as soon as possible."

 

Hinzpeter said the blackout did not coincide with one of the dozens of powerful aftershocks that have jolted the nation since the Feb. 27 quake and subsequent tsunami, which killed at least 497 people and caused an estimated $30 billion worth in damage.

 

Hundreds more are still missing, and President Sebastian Pinera said Friday that the death toll is likely to rise.

 

Like the initial quake and some of the stronger aftershocks, the outage sent many Chileans out of their homes, shopping malls and movie theaters and into the streets. Dozens of passengers were evacuated from subway cars in the capital, but there were no reports of any injuries.

 

Authorities were investigating, but Presidency official Cristian Larroulet said that "the most likely thing is that the blackout is the result of a weakness in the (transmission) lines as a result of the earthquake." - AP

 

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8567910.stm

 

Page last updated at 11:37 GMT, Monday, 15 March 2010

 

CHILE PLUNGED INTO DARKNESS BY POWER CUT

 

A fundraising concert was in full swing when the outage happened.

 

A massive power failure has plunged quake-hit Chile into darkness, stretching 2,000km (1,250 miles) and affecting up to 90% of the population.

 

In Santiago thousands were evacuated from the Metro and the failure affected a benefit concert for quake victims.

 

Power went out at 2050 (2350 GMT) on Sunday, when a key transformer failed, and began to return after an hour.

 

Chile's infrastructure was devastated by the quake on 27 February that killed about 500 and cost up to $30bn (£20bn).

 

The power cut is another reminder of the immense tasks facing President Sebastian Pinera, who was inaugurated last week.

 

FLOODLIGHT FAILURE

 

The BBC's Gideon Long in Santiago says the power cut stretched from Taltal in the north to the island of Chiloe in the south, the equivalent of London to Athens.

 

The entire area hit by the earthquake, including the badly affected second city of Concepcion, was plunged into darkness.

 

As well as halting the benefit concert, the big Sunday night football match in Santiago was abandoned after the floodlights failed.

 

The operators of the electricity grid said the blackout was caused by the failure of a high-voltage transformer about 700km south of the capital.

 

Officials said the blackout was not directly related to the earthquake.

 

However, Energy Minister Ricardo Rainieri said Chile's power grid remained fragile and he called on people to restrict their energy consumption.

 

Electricity to about 90% of the country had been restored soon after midnight.

 

One nanny in Santiago, Claudia Morales, told Reuters news agency: "Everyone started to say aloud maybe there had been another quake. Everyone was really panicked."

 

After taking office last week, Mr Pinera said it would cost at least $30bn to rebuild the country, nearly 20% of Chilean GDP.

 

He said loans and budgetary savings would be used to rebuild infrastructure, homes and industry.

 

 

CHILE PUTS QUAKE DAMAGE AT $30BN

 

Page last updated at 21:46 GMT, Friday, 12 March 2010

 

Chile's new President, Sebastian Pinera, has said it will cost at least $30bn (£20bn) to rebuild the country after January's earthquake.

 

Speaking on his first full day in office, he said loans and budgetary savings would be used to rebuild infrastructure, homes and industry.

 

Other nations would be asked to help, Mr Pinera told reporters in Santiago.

 

The 8.8 magnitude quake on 27 February killed nearly 500 people, with hundreds others missing and 1.5m homes damaged.

 

A 6.9-magnitude aftershock rattled the country as Mr Pinera's inauguration was being held.

 

The businessman is the first centre-right politician to come to power in Chile since the end of military rule in 1990.

 

COPPER INCOME

 

Mr Pinera told Friday's news conference that a special fund would be set up to rebuild around 300,000 houses plus hospitals, schools and roads.

 

He acknowledged that he would have to re-allocate funds from other projects to pay for the reconstruction, and that the process would take years, not months.

 

Some of the work would be paid for with income from exports of copper, of which Chile is the world's biggest producer. Fortunately we have had a strong, stable price for copper," he said.

 

As well as budget trimmings, the country would raise money through debt issues and would dip into savings from past copper income saved in investments abroad.

 

Finance Minister Felipe Larrain earlier said that the government had not yet determined how much debt the government would issue.

 

Chile, a model of economic stability in Latin America, can raise money relatively cheaply on international markets because it has an investment grade rating and is considered low-risk, Reuters news agency notes.

 

But $30bn represents nearly 20% of Chilean GDP and would make a significant dent in the state coffers, the BBC's Gideon Long reports from Santiago.

 

Shortly after he was sworn in on Thursday, Mr Pinera flew to some of the areas worst affected by the original quake.

 

In the city of Rancagua, he urged residents to remain calm as the government continued its efforts to reach all those in need.

 

"I want to tell all Chileans that the government will always respond in an effective and timely manner in catastrophes such as the one we have witnessed in order to save all the lives that we can and so that we can quickly reach those people needing help," he said

[nancyk58]

UPDATES of situation in several countries on 16 March 2010

 

MAGNITUDE-4.4 QUAKE SHAKES SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

 

(03/16/2010 | 11:06 PM - GMA News.TV)

 

LOS ANGELES – An earthquake east of downtown Los Angeles rippled across Southern California before dawn Tuesday, jolting millions of people awake and putting first-responders on alert.

 

UPDATE ON THE SITUATION IN THE PHILIPPINES ON 16 MARCH 2010

 

STORM WITH ONDOY's STRENGTH CAN SOLVE MINDANAO's WATER, POWER SHORTAGE

 

(03/16/2010 | 08:33 PM - GMA News.TV)

 

A storm with the magnitude of Ondoy — which submerged three-fourths of Metro Manila — will immediately solve Mindanao’s water and power shortages, Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) chief Prospero Pichay Jr. said on Tuesday.

 

“It will just take one Ondoy," Pichay said, referring to the storm which inundated Luzon, killed 337 persons, and damaged P10.45 billion worth of crops and infrastructure.

 

“One day, if not three to four days," he added, referring to the amount of rainfall needed. “[if that happens], nature will be able to address the calamity in Mindanao."

 

Pichay also expressed hope that a low pressure area near Mindanao will pass by the island and bring large amounts of rainfall although not as much as those brought by Ondoy.

 

However, the website of the government weather bureau — the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services — showed a cloudless satellite picture of the Philippines.

 

Extreme northern Luzon is currently experiencing a cold front while strong northeasterly to easterly winds are flowing in Luzon, Visayas and eastern Mindanao.

 

Last March 12, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo issued Proclamation 2022.

 

Besides placing Mindanao under a state of calamity, the declaration also allowed the use of calamity funds of local government units, which are expected to alleviate 11-hour blackouts in the country’s second largest island.

 

Mindanao requires an additional 700 megawatts of electricity.

 

Currently, Lanao Lake, which powers the Agus hydroelectric complex, needs to be desilted so that water flow could provide more electricity. The Agus 2 plant is only producing 100 mWs of electricity, instead of its capacity of 800 to 900 mWs.

 

When water levels are low, especially during El Niño, there will definitely be a lot of shortage, he said.

 

In the meantime, to solve Metro Manila’s water issues, Pichay proposed drilling deep wells along Laguna de Bay to provide an alternative when Angat Dam — the capital’s main water source — reach critical lows.

 

Water from Laguna de Bay is expected to be clean because it would be purified when it passes through the soil, he said.

 

“Mindanao, even without El Niño is already in a critical stage. The Visayas does not have much problem. Luzon, in the next five years if you do not address, will also have the same problem," he said. - GMANews.TV

 

 

UPDATE ON THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 16 MARCH 2010

 

Recent HEADLINES CONCERNING HAITI (most articles posted here)

 

ALL 33 HAITIAN ‘ORPHANS’ WITH BAPTISTS HAD PARENTS

(02/21/2010 | 11:14 AM)

 

HAITI LEADER SAYS QUAKE TOLL COULD REACH 300,000

(02/22/2010 | 09:55 AM )

 

US TROOPS WITHDRAWING EN MASSE FROM HAITI

(03/08/2010 | 10:01 AM - GMA News.TV)

 

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — US troops are withdrawing from the shattered capital, leaving many Haitians anxious that the most visible portion of international aid is ending even as the city is still mired in misery and vulnerable to unrest.

 

As troops packed their duffels and began to fly home this weekend, Haitians and some aid workers wondered whether UN peacekeepers and local police are up to the task of maintaining order. More than a half-million people still live in vast encampments that have grown more unpleasant in recent days with the early onset of the rainy season.

 

Some also fear the departure of the American troops is a sign of dwindling international interest in the plight of the Haitian people following the catastrophic Jan. 12 earthquake.

 

"I would like for them to stay in Haiti until they rebuild the country and everybody can go back to their house," said Marjorie Louis, a 27-year-old mother of two, as she warmed a bowl of beans for her family over a charcoal fire on the fake grass of the national stadium.

 

US officials say the long-anticipated draw down of troops is not a sign of waning commitment to Haiti, only a change in the nature of the operation. Security will now be the responsibility of the 10,000-strong UN peacekeeping force and the Haitian police.

 

A smaller number of US forces — the exact number has not yet been determined — will be needed as the UN and Haitian government reassert control, said Gen. Douglas Fraser, head of US Southern Command, which runs the Haiti operation.

 

"Our mission is largely accomplished," Fraser said.

 

American forces arrived in the immediate aftermath of the quake to treat the wounded, provide emergency water and rations and help prevent a feared outbreak of violence among desperate survivors. They also helped reopen the airport and seaport.

 

There has been no widespread violence but security is a real issue. A UN food convoy traveling from Gonaives to Dessalines on Friday was stopped and overrun by people, who looted two trucks before peacekeepers regained control, U.N. officials said.

 

They managed to escort the other two back to Gonaives. There were no reports of injuries.

 

The military operation was criticized by some Haitian senators and foreign leaders as heavy-handed and inappropriate in a country that had been occupied by American forces for nearly two decades in the early 20th century. But ordinary Haitians largely welcomed the troops, many out of disenchantment with their own government.

 

"They should stay because they have been doing a good job," 35-year-old Lesly Pierre said as his family prepared dinner under a tarp at an encampment in Petionville. "If it was up to our government, we wouldn't have gotten any help at all."

 

US soldiers said they had nothing but warm encounters with the Haitian people.

 

"They're real good people. They just want help," Army Private First Class Troy Sims, a 19-year-old from Fresno, California, said as he prepared to board a flight back to the US. "I feel that us being here helped a lot. If we weren't here, things probably would have gotten out of control."

 

There are now about 11,000 troops, more than half of them on ships just off the coast, down from a peak of around 20,000 on Feb. 1. The total is expected to drop to about 8,000 in coming days as the withdrawal gathers steam. The military said more than 700 paratroopers left this weekend.

 

Soldiers are now gone from the General Hospital, where they once directed traffic and kept order amid the chaos of mass casualties. There are no more Haitian patients on board the USNS Comfort, which treated 8,600 people after the quake. At a country club in Petionville, where some 100,000 Haitians are living in rough shelters in a muddy ravine, only a few soldiers remain of the several hundred there after the disaster.

 

Alison Thompson said she was nervous about the smaller US troop contingent.

 

"Soon we are not going to have any security," said Thompson, medical coordinator of the Jenkins/Penn Relief Organization, which runs a field hospital at the edge of the ravine. "Everybody is just so worried that they are pulling out because it's going to get dangerous."

 

It was the same concern for Louis at the national stadium.

 

"If the troublemakers see that there is some kind of force here, they will think twice before they do anything," she said. "They are already getting ready to stir up trouble."

 

But Ted Constan, chief program officer for Partners in Health, said that the way to address security is to get adequate shelter and other aid to the hundreds of thousands of people who are now stranded in squalid encampments.

 

"The real solution is to deliver services ... rather than turn Haiti into a military state," he said. - AP

 

NOT MORE QUAKES, JUST MORE PEOPLE IN QUAKE ZONES

(03/09/2010 | 11:24 AM)

 

HAITI: KIDNAPPERS RELEASE 2 EUROPEAN AID WORKERS (03/12/2010 | 11:07 AM)

 

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Kidnappers have freed two Swiss women snatched off the streets of Haiti's capital and held for five days, officials said Thursday.

 

It is the first reported kidnapping since Haiti suffered a magnitude-7 earthquake with catastrophic damage on Jan. 12. More than 5,000 prisoners fled jails that collapsed or were damaged in the temblor. Only about 200 have been captured.

 

Doctors Without Borders confirmed the kidnapping. Agency spokesman Michel Peremans said the victims were released Wednesday night and are "in good health." He would not say if a ransom was paid.

 

Doctors Without Borders is one of hundreds of international aid agencies that have flooded into Haiti to help.

 

UN CHIEF SEES DANGERS UP-CLOSE IN HAITI QUAKE CAMP

 

(03/15/2010 | 09:01 AM - GMA News.TV)

 

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon promised Haitians on Sunday that the world has not forgotten the quake-torn nation as it suffers from a shortage of shelter and growing violence in teeming camps for the homeless.

 

Security issues and the risk of flooding and disease in the squalid tarp-and-tent cities are pressing concerns for governments and international aid groups struggling to help hundreds of thousands of victims of the Jan. 12 disaster, which killed an estimated 230,000 people and left 1.3 million homeless.

 

Making his second visit to Haiti since the quake, the UN leader met with President Rene Preval and discussed plans for a UN donors conference in New York on March 31 to fund Haiti's reconstruction.

 

Ban said his message to Haiti's government and people is that "even if time passes, the world has not forgotten. The world is always at their side."

 

Haiti needs money for schools, infrastructure, roads, ports and electricity, Ban said at a news conference.

And "for the foreseeable future, the government will need international assistance simply to cover its payroll," he said. A government statement said the tax department expects to collect only a third of its expected annual take of 13 billion gourdes ($330 million). Duties on imports are the government's main source of income.

 

UN humanitarian chief John Holmes said last week that the United Nations is struggling to raise the $1.44 billion needed to help earthquake victims this year. Ban said only 49 percent has been raised.

 

Preval raised concerns that Haiti's farmers would be hurt by continuing imports of food aid. Already, rice farmers have told The Associated Press they cannot sell their harvest because of rice handouts.

 

"It was absolutely necessary that international aid arrive" after the earthquake, Preval said, but "we are now in a new reality."

 

Ban later toured a makeshift camp where more than 40,000 people are living under a tapestry of blue, orange and white tarps and tents sprawled across a valley golf course — emblematic of the mixed results of a $2.2 billion international aid effort.

 

Behind the tents is a country club that became the base of the US Army's 82nd Airborne Division in the days after the disaster. Only a few soldiers are left, but Ban said the withdrawal of US and Canadian troops "will not compromise the mission."

 

He said Haitian police and UN peacekeepers who have been on a stabilization mission in the country since 2004 are doing "an excellent job" providing security.

 

But with no electricity or security, the camps are growing increasingly dangerous at night, particularly for women and girls. Aid workers said a 7-year-old girl raped in the camp was being treated Sunday at its tent hospital.

 

"We will make every effort to ensure that IDP camps remain safe and secure, most especially for women and children," Ban said, referring to "internally displaced people."

 

Ban has also become concerned by reports of increasing gang activity, spokesman Yves Sorokobi said. More than 5,000 prisoners fled jails that collapsed or were damaged in the temblor, and only about 200 have been captured. Two European women with the Doctors Without Borders aid group were kidnapped last week and held for five days. It was not clear if a ransom was paid.

 

Thousands of people in the camp came down from their broken homes in the hills above the capital to be near food and water distributions overseen by the US soldiers. Those distributions, like those run by the UN World Food Program and others, were largely a success — though many were marred by small-scale violence and corruption by local officials.

 

The camp has been a hub of activity by humanitarian groups, with schools, medical clinics and social programs setting up under canvas tents. But the valley is at major risk for floods and landslides when the rainy season starts in earnest next week.

 

Ban said 60 percent of Haiti's quake homeless have received plastic sheets or tents to protect them from deluges.

 

"This is not enough," he admitted. "We are a little bit behind schedule but we are moving very quickly." He called for a "better structured" and "much more efficient way" of distributing emergency shelter.

 

The trouble is that the homeless have nowhere to go. Despite two months of efforts to establish government-run relocation camps on Port-au-Prince's outskirts, not one has yet opened.

 

Aid groups say they are ready to build but don't have the land. Government officials insist they are making progress on finding sites in closed-door negotiations with private landowners. - AP

 

 

HAITI LEADERS RUSH TO FINISH POST-QUAKE PROPOSAL

 

(03/16/2010 | 11:06 AM - GMA News.TV)

 

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Haiti's government and business community are finalizing details of a reconstruction plan that economists say could cost nearly $14 billion.

 

Haitian Chamber of Commerce President Reginald Boulos says he told the prime minister and international financiers at a meeting Monday that the private sector's earthquake losses alone totaled more than $2 billion.

 

Inter-American Development Bank economist Ericq Pierre says no definitive total was agreed on Monday. The bank estimates Haiti's total damage from the Jan. 12 quake between $8.1 billion and $13.9 billion.

 

The plan will be refined later this week at a meeting in the Dominican Republic. That meeting is to prepare for a March 31 aid conference at the United Nations. - AP

 

UPDATE ON THE SITUATION ON FIJI ON 16 MARCH 2010

 

Danish DR1 Text: The FIJI islands are in a STATE OF EMERGENCY.

Tuesday 17,000 people fled to evacuation centres on the second day of the group of islands being ravaged by cyclone "Tomas". According to the authorities there have been a few deaths. - "I think that a few inhabitants lost their lives - only a few, but we hear that the devastation, wind and storm were too much", says an official from FIJI. - The death toll cannot be established before the communication between the nation's islands have been restored.

 

ZDF Text: FIJI RAVAGED BY CYCLONE "TOMAS"

One of the strongest cyclones in 30 years caused substantial damage on the FIJI islands in the Pacific Ocean. The cyclone "Tomas" - with wind gusts of 230 km/h - passed the capital SUVA. 7 m high waves flooded villages on the second largest island, Vanua Levu. Tuesday, the governor declared state of emergency for the northern and eastern regions. 17,000 people had fled to emergency/evacuation centres. Tourists had not been in danger according to authorities in charge of tourism.

 

Swedish SVT TTV: FIJI: STATE OF EMERGENCY AFTER STORM

The military regime in FIJI has declared state of emergency since the cyclone "Tomas" hit the group of islands. 17,000 inhabitants were forced to leave their homes and seek refuge in evacuation centres.

The storm that hit FIJI Tuesday is the worst within living memory. The storm has caused substantial damage, says the leader of the regime, Voreqe Bainimarama. It is not clear whether the cyclone cost any human lives. Nor is the extent of the material damage clear.

 

UPDATE ON THE SITUATION IN CHILE ON 16 MARCH 2010

 

ZDF Text: A NEW STRONG AFTERSHOCK IN CHILE

3 weeks after the massive earthquake, Chile was - Monday evening - shaken by a strong magnitude-6.7 aftershock off the Pacific coast about 70 km northwest of CONCEPCION according to USGS. The epicentre was in a depth of about 35 km. According to the Chilean ministry in charge of disasters there were no reports of damage, and no tsunami was expected. CONCEPCION was severely damaged by the massive magnitude-8.8 earthquake on 27 February 2010 when about 500 people died.

 

Danish DR1 TTV, TV2 TTV and Swedish SVT Text: CHILE HIT BY A MASSIVE AFTERSHOCK

Monday evening Chile was shaken by a strong magnitude-6.7 earthquake. Its epicentre was 72 km northwest of the city, CONCEPCION. The quake occurred in a depth of 34 km. According to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre, historic data indicate that aftershocks do no trigger tsuamis, but countries with Pacific coasts should be on alert as there is a risk of gigantic waves.

On 27 February 2010 a massive earthquake with a magnitude of 8.8 on the Richter scale hit Chile and cost more than 800 human lives. CONCEPCION was one of the worst-hit cities.

[nancyk58]

Updates of the situation on FIJI / News articles from 16 and 17.3.10

 

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN FIJI MARCH 2010

 

FIJI DECLARES STATE OF EMERGENCY FOR CYCLONE AID

 

(03/17/2010 | 07:54 AM - GMA News.TV)

 

SUVA, Fiji – Australian and New Zealand air force planes began airlifting emergency supplies Wednesday to cyclone-battered Fiji, where a state of emergency has been declared and troops ordered to launch relief operations in northern regions hit by a powerful cyclone that forced thousands of people to flee into shelters.

 

Cyclone Tomas' onslaught was weakening Wednesday, but the scope of destruction was not clear because communications were cut to outer island groups and to northern areas of Vanua Levu, the group's second-biggest island, that were hardest hit, officials said.

 

One death has been reported, and a nationwide curfew was due to be lifted Wednesday.

 

Fiji's National Disaster Council declared a 30-day state of emergency for the country's northern and eastern divisions Tuesday, ordering troops to be deployed as soon as possible to provide relief, including food, water and basic supplies.

 

Packing winds of up to 130 mph (205 kph) at its center, and gusts of up to 175 mph (280 kph), Cyclone Tomas continued to blast through the northern Lau and Lomaiviti island groups and the northern coast of Vanua Levu on Tuesday, the nation's weather office said.

 

Matt Boterhoven, Fiji's Tropical Cyclone Center's senior forecaster, said sea surges of up to 23 feet (7 meters) were reported in the Lau island group, which was hit head-on by the cyclone, causing MAJOR FLOODING. The surges would take at least 36 hours to subside, he said.

 

Hercules cargo planes from Australia and New Zealand left early Wednesday for Fiji with relief supplies, including tarpaulins, food and water treatment tablets.

 

The planes would then carry out reconnaissance work and damage assessment.

"It appears that after the initial reconnaissance work's undertaken ... it'll be necessary to fly some supplies from Nadi or Suva to the affected areas," New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully told National Radio.

 

Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith pledged $1 million dollars in initial aid, adding that, "Australia will consider further assistance for reconstruction once damage has been more fully assessed."

 

Meanwhile, tourists on Australia's Heron and Lady Elliot islands off the Queensland state coast were told to evacuate Wednesday as another cyclone, named Ului, made its way toward the continent.

 

The storm was packing sustained winds of up to 115 miles per hour (185 kilometers per hour) with gusts up to 162 miles per hour (260 kilometers per hour), the Bureau of Meteorology said.

 

Ului was expected to impact the Australian coast over the weekend, the bureau said.

 

In Fiji, National Disaster Management Office spokesman Anthony Blake said power, water, sewage and other services were disrupted in many northern areas, with all airstrips and airports closed and storm surges smashing into coastal villages and schools. More than 17,000 people were in 240 government shelters, he said.

 

Initial damage assessments will be made Wednesday, when airplanes are expected to survey the northern islands and Vanua Levu, Blake said.

 

The country's military leader, Commodore Frank Bainimarara, has appealed for international assistance, and the governments of New Zealand, France and Australia were trying to determine how best to help.

 

The capital, Suva, has been lashed by high winds and rains, and the government extended a nationwide curfew to Wednesday morning to keep people in their homes.

 

Flights resumed on Tuesday into the main international airport at Nadi, on the main island of Viti Levu. There were no immediate reports of tourists being caught in the cyclone.

 

Late Friday, a 31-year-old woman was swept away by strong ocean currents in Vanua Levu's Cakaudrove province after she saved her two children from a storm surge, police spokeswoman Atunaisa Sokomuri said. — AP

 

 

CYCLONE CAUSES EMERGENCY IN FIJI (16 Mar 10)

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas

 

A state of disaster has been declared in parts of Fiji, as Cyclone Tomas blasts through the north and east of the Pacific island country. At least 5,000 people have had to leave their homes, and 50 properties have so far been destroyed.

 

CYCLONE CAUSES EMERGENCY IN FIJI (16 Mar 10) - Asia-Pacific

A state of emergency has been declared in northern and eastern parts of Fiji, after Cyclone Tomas blasted through the Pacific island nation. The National Disaster Council said troops would take food, water and other necessities to worst-hit areas.

 

CYCLONE TOMAS DEVASTATES FIJI (16 March 2010, evening)

Cyclone Tomas has cut a swathe of destruction through the Pacific island nation of Fiji. A state of emergency has been called in the northern and eastern parts of the country, and thousands of people have been forced into shelters.

 

AID FLOWN TO CYCLONE-STRUCK FIJI (17 March 2010 at 1am) Asia-Pacific

 

Australia and New Zealand have begun airlifting aid to the Pacific island nation of Fiji, battered by a powerful cyclone which sparked sea surges. The planes will take relief supplies including tarpaulins before carrying out an assessment of the damage.

 

A state of emergency was declared after Cyclone Tomas struck on Monday and Tuesday, battering the north and east.

 

The country's military leader, Voreqe Bainimarama, described the damage as "overwhelming".

 

The director of the country's National disaster management office, Pajiliai Dobui, said there were unconfirmed reports of a "few" deaths, AFP reports.

 

"Those who have experienced other cyclones say this is the longest and the strongest they have come across - and the most destructive," Mr Dobui said.

 

Australia's foreign ministry pledged $1m in aid and said the country would consider offering additional assistance after the damage had been assessed.

 

Cyclone Tomas, a category four storm, is weakening as it moves away though, according to Fiji's tropical cyclone centre, the sea surges have caused significant flooding and will probably take up to 36 hours to subside completely.

 

A nationwide curfew imposed on the island was due to be lifted later on Wednesday

 

The eastern Lau group of islands bore the brunt of the storm and the country's second largest island, Vanua Levu, was also hard-hit.

 

 

NEW ZEALAND AID ARRIVES IN FIJI (17 March 2010 at 11.30pm Central European Time)

 

A New Zealand airforce plane has arrived in the Pacific island nation of Fiji carrying aid and supplies after cyclone Tomas devastated the region. The planes will take relief supplies including tarpaulins before carrying out an assessment of the damage.

 

------------------------

Later today I will post some articles on the situation in HAITI: 2 articles about sexual assaults in Haiti and 2 articles with the title: "Haiti estimates $11.5 billion needed for reconstruction"

[nancyk58]

Updates of the situation in HAITI / articles from 17.3.10

 

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 17 MARCH 2010

 

Danish DR1 Text TV: SEXUAL ASSAULTS IN HAITI

 

HAITI is ravaged by crimes after the massive earthquake that shook Haiti on 12 January 2010.

 

In the capital, Port-au-Prince there are reports of an increase in the number of sexual assaults. Women and children as young as 2 years are victims of rapists in the many badly secured makeshift/temporary camps without electricity.

 

It is dark from 6pm to 6 am, and Haitians are living in fear all night long, and sexual assaults are inevitable when there is noone to keep order. This is reported by Thomas Ubbesen, Danish DR's special correspondent.

 

German ZDF TTV, Swedish SVT Text and Danish Text TV: HAITI WILL NEED $11.5 BILLION TO REBUILD HAITI

 

2 months after the earthquake in HAITI a draft for a reconstruction plan has been submitted. Financially about $11.5bn is needed. The plan was submitted by the Haitian government together with the United Nations as part of preparing the Haiti donors conference on 31 March.

 

In addition to direct emergency aid also long-term goals were listed such as for instance "the rebuilding of the state and society in the interest of all Haitians" and a reform of Haiti's judicial system. Before the earthquake HAITI was already a very poor country with a weak central authority.

 

 

HAITI ESTIMATES $11.5 BILLION NEEDED FOR RECONSTRUCTION

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8571593.stm - Page last updated at 10:29 GMT, Wednesday, 17 March 2010

 

Haiti will need $11.5bn (£7.5bn) to rebuild after the devastating earthquake in January, the country's government estimates.

 

The amount is a rough estimate of money required for a complete overhaul of the impoverished country, officials say.

 

The plan, co-authored by international aid agencies, will be put to donors at a conference on Haiti on 31 March.

 

More than 220,000 people were killed in the quake, which is thought to have caused around $8bn of damage.

 

"This is a process. This is not a final document," Haiti's Tourism Minister Patrick Delatour was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.

 

Estimates for the total reconstruction could be as high as $14bn, he added.

 

'UNPRECEDENTED'

 

The reconstruction plan, known as the Preliminary Damage and Needs Assessment (PDNA), will be discussed at a major conference on Haiti in New York at the end of this month.

 

The document put the total cost of earthquake damage at $7.9bn - 120% of Haiti's GDP.

 

More than 70% of those losses were sustained by the private sector. But damage was widespread, affecting schools, hospitals, roads, bridges, buildings, ports and airports.

 

"The earthquake has created an unprecedented situation, amplified by the fact that it struck the country's most populous region and its economic and administrative centre," the assessment said.

 

The plan emphasises that the SHORT-TERM PRIORITY is to prepare those left homeless by the quake for April's HEAVY RAINS and for the JUNE HURRICANE SEASON.

 

Nearly 220,000 quake survivors are living in temporary camps in the capital city of PORT-au-PRINCE, where there is a HIGH RISK of FLOODING and LANDSLIDES.

 

 

WOMEN, GIRLS RAPE VICTIMS IN HAITI QUAKE AFTERMATH

 

(03/17/2010 | 09:17 AM - GMA News.TV)

 

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – When the young woman needed to use the toilet, she went out into the darkened tent camp and was attacked by three men.

 

"They grabbed me, put their hands over my mouth and then the three of them took turns," the slender 21-year-old said, wriggling with discomfort as she nursed her baby girl, born three days before Haiti's devastating quake.

 

"I am so ashamed. We're scared people will find out and shun us," said the woman, who suffers from abdominal pain and itching, likely from an infection contracted during the attack.

 

Women and children as young as 2, already traumatized by the loss of homes and loved ones in the Jan. 12 catastrophe, are now falling victim to rapists in the sprawling tent cities that have become home to hundreds of thousands of people.

 

With NO LIGHTING and NO SECURITY, they are menacing places after sunset.

 

SEXUAL ASSAULTS are daily occurrences in the biggest camps, aid workers say — and most attacks go unreported because of the SHAME, SOCIAL STIGMA and FEAR OF REPRISALS FROM ATTACKERS.

 

RAPE was a big problem in Haiti even before the earthquake and frequently was used as a political weapon in times of upheaval. Both times the first democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was ousted, his enemies assassinated his male supporters and raped their wives and daughters.

 

But the quake that killed an estimated 200,000 people has made women and girls ever more vulnerable. They have lost their homes and are forced to sleep in flimsy tents or tarp-covered lean-tos. They've lost male protection with the deaths of husbands, brothers and sons. And they are living in close quarters with strangers.

 

The 21-year-old said her family has received no food aid because the Haitian men handing out coupons for food distribution demand sexual favors.

 

Sex-for-food is not uncommon in the camps, said a report issued Tuesday by the Interuniversity Institute for Research and Development in Haiti.

 

"In particular, young girls have to negotiate sexually in order to get shelter from the rains and access to food aid."/COLOR]

 

At the camp on Monday where the young mother was gang-raped, a woman in shorts tried to bathe discreetly. Stripped to her waist, she faced her blue tarp tent, her back to the rows of other shelters.

 

Nearby, a teenage girl squatted behind a pile of garbage, trying to avoid the stench and clouds of flies around tarp-covered latrines that provide the only privacy, but also are places where women are attacked.

 

In this camp, some 47,000 people live crowded into what used to be a sports ground in a neighborhood that always has been dangerous. Residents include a dozen escaped prisoners, among them a man accused of a notorious murder, according to Fritznel Pierre, a human rights advocate who lives at the camp.

 

"But nobody says anything because they're scared, scared of the criminals and scared of the police," he said.

 

Pierre has documented three other gang rapes in the camp, including of a 17-year-old who says she was a virgin before six men attacked her and raped her repeatedly.

 

"I really worry about the teenager because she has no one to look out for her. She says she sees her attackers but is afraid to report them because she would then have to leave the camp and she has nowhere to go," Pierre said.

 

Investigators for Human Rights Watch reported the first three gang rapes to U.N. officials. Then, two weeks later, on Feb. 27, the 21-year-old mother was gang-raped.

 

Only a week later did U.N. police officers begin patrolling.

 

"For me it seems completely bizarre that for this one camp that everyone knows is unsafe, it's taken them three weeks to get a patrol going," said Liesl Gerntholtz, executive director of the agency's women's rights division. "It's unrealistic to expect patrols in camps all the time, but I think they can identify hotspots and provide security to those spots."

 

Pierre complained that the U.N. patrols are ineffective. "They only drive their cars down the one road that covers only a small portion of the camp. They never get out of their cars," he said.

 

In the hilltop suburb of Petionville, where plush mansions look out over slums on hillsides and in ravines, a 7-year-old rape victim was being treated Monday in the hospital of a tent camp set up on a golf course. Another child, a 2-year-old, had been raped in the same camp two weeks earlier.

 

The toddler is taking antibiotics for a gonorrhea infection of the mouth, according to Alison Thompson, who is the volunteer medical coordinator for a Haitian relief group created by Sean Penn. She helped treat both children.

 

"Women aren't being protected," Thompson said. "So when the lights go down is when the rapes increase, and it's happening daily in all the camps in Port-au-Prince."

 

Besides SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASES and PREGNANCY, victims face possible HIV INFECTION. Haiti has the highest infection rate for the virus that causes AIDS in the Western hemisphere, with one in 50 people infected.

 

Among the many rape victims is an 18-year-old girl who lost her parents, grandmother, a sister and three cousins to the quake. She was roaming the streets distraught when a man approached her, promising her his wife would look after her, she said.

 

The middle-aged man took her to a house, then left and came back with two men. The three raped her repeatedly until she managed to escape.

 

The teen is among dozens of rape victims who have sought help from KOFAVIV, a group of Haitian women who survived political rapes in 2004. Their offices were destroyed in the quake and they now operate from a tent.

 

They brought the victims to American volunteer lawyers who came to Port-au-Prince a week ago to identify Haitians who may qualify for humanitarian parole to live in the United States.

 

"I've been here five days and have spoken to 30 (rape) survivors including a dozen under 18. Their stories are horrific. I would be catatonic," said San Francisco lawyer Jayne Fleming.

 

Few rapes are reported because women often face humiliating scrutiny from police officers who suggest they invited the attacks and even nurses who contend young girls were "too hot" in their dress style, according to Delva Marie Eramithe, a KOFAVIV leader.

 

Her own 18-year-old daughter was saved from an attacker who dragged the girl into a dark alley between tents at the downtown camp sprawling across Champs de Mars plaza. The assailant did not see the teen's three sisters, who had been walking behind her, and all four of them managed to beat him and run him off.

 

Soon after, he returned to their tent with three other men and a gun, Eramithe said.

 

While a male neighbor argued with the men, Eramithe and her daughters went to a nearby police station to report the attempted rape.

 

"We told them the man who attacked her was right there at our tent, just two blocks away," Eramithe said. "But one policeman said they had received reports of nothing but raping, thefts and domestic beatings all day and there's nothing they can do. The other police officer said the only person who can do anything is President (Rene) Preval."

 

When she insisted, they gave her the license plate of a police van patrolling the camp perimeter. Eventually she found the patrol car but that officer "told us to go and get the attacker and bring him to them."

 

Police spokesman Gary Desrosiers said only 24 rapes have been reported to Haitian authorities this year. Several suspects were detained, but many escaped when prisons collapsed in the quake, he said.

 

Police Chief Mario Andresol blamed the attacks on the more than 7,000 prisoners who escaped. "Bandits are taking advantage to harass and rape women and young girls under the tents," he told reporters two weeks after the quake.

 

"We are aware of problem ... but it's not a priority," Information Minister Marie-Laurence Jocelyn Lassegue said last month.

 

Haitian police officers with stations minutes from some of the largest camps do not patrol — a fact that spokesman Desrosiers blames on the loss of dozens of officers killed in the quake, as well as scores who remain missing and more than 250 who were injured.

 

Still, that leaves some 9,600 Haitian police officers and 2,000 U.N. police officers.

 

The first signs of action came when U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon arrived Sunday, and a contingent of female U.N. and Haitian police officers set up a tent at the camp.

 

Ban promised the camps will be "safe and secure."

 

He praised the security offered by Haitian and U.N. police and told the women officers: "We must protect these women and girls. ... If they are sexually abused and attacked and raped, that is totally unacceptable and intolerable, and we must stop it."

 

On Monday, a man with a bullhorn was at the camp during a food distribution, saying "We don't want men raping women, do we?"

 

No, the women waiting in line yelled back.

 

Still, the fear was palpable among the most vulnerable. The 18-year-old orphaned rape victim was nervous about the time, even though it was only mid-afternoon.

 

"I have to find somewhere to sleep, near some people who might help me if there's trouble," she said.

 

"It scares me, the way the men look at me, and they know I'm all alone".

- AP

[nancyk58]

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI AND ON FIJI ON 18 MARCH 2010

 

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 18 MARCH 2010

 

Danish DR1 Text: HAITIAN CHILDREN ARE NOT ORPHANS

 

10 US missionaries attempted to transport 33 children believed to be orphans out of Haiti in the aftermath of the massive earthquake in Haiti in January. It has turned out that all these children have living parents. The organization SOS Children's Villages is convinced that in most cases it is best for a child to be taken care of and protected by its own family, says the relief organization which was in charge of the children.

 

Laura Silsby and 9 other baptists were arrested on 29 January 2010 when the group tried to take the children into the Dominican Republic.

 

 

Danish TV2 Text and German ZDF Text: HAITI: THE CHILDREN "KIDNAPPED" BY US BAPTISTS ALL HAVE FAMILIES

The Haitian children that US baptists would take out of Haiti after the massive earthquake on 12 January 2010 all have families. None of the children is an orphan, said a spokeswoman of SOS Children's Villages.

 

The children aged 2 months up to 14 years were returned to their parents. The families received financial support of more than 360 EURO.

 

10 baptists were arrested when trying to cross the border to the Dominican Republic with the children.

 

 

Swedish SVT Text: NONE OF THE HAITIAN CHILDREN WAS AN ORPHAN

 

All 33 Haitian children that US baptists attempted to smuggle out of Haiti after the earthquake have been reunited with their parents.

 

10 US missionaries were arrested when trying to bring the children into neighbouring country, the Dominican Republic. The missionaries did not have the necessary documents and it turned out that the children were not orphans.

 

Several parents later testitied that they gave up their children voluntarily because they could not take care of them.

 

9 of the missionaries have been released, but the leader will be charged with child trafficking.

 

 

Swedish SVT Text: HAITI: CAN GET 4 BILLION DOLLARS

 

A preliminary committee before the donors conference on 31 March 2010 suggests that HAITI shall receive 4 billion dollars for rebuilding and state budget after the devastating earthquake on 12 January 2010.

 

Wednesday, donor countries and international organizations approved of the HAITI government being given $3.8 billion in 1.5 years, said the Dominican Republic's Minister of Economic Affairs, Montás.

 

Additional $350 million is scheduled for the country's state budget, Montás said.

 

28 countries participate in the donors conference in the United Nations in New York.

 

 

FIJI CYCLONE DAMAGE OVERWHELMING, LEADER SAYS

 

(03/18/2010 | 08:34 AM - GMA News.TV)

 

SUVA, Fiji — A powerful cyclone destroyed more than half the houses in many villages in northern Fiji, but only one death has been reported, officials said Thursday.

 

The full extent of the damage from Cyclone Tomas has yet to be determined because communications to the hardest-hit areas remain cut off and may not be restored before the weekend.

 

The South Pacific island nation has sent naval patrol boats laden with supplies to the northern islands that bore the full brunt of the storm, while Australian and New Zealand air force planes airlifted emergency supplies and began a second day of surveillance of the area.

 

A nationwide curfew was lifted Wednesday, but a state of emergency will remain in effect for 30 days in the country's northern and eastern divisions, where aid agencies say up to 130,000 people were affected by the storm.

 

"It is evident that wherever Tomas has struck, the damage has been overwhelming," Commodore Frank Bainimarama, Fiji's prime minister and military chief, said Wednesday as the first reports began to roll in.

 

The storm, packing winds of up to 130 miles (205 kilometers) per hour and gusts of up to 175 mph (280 kph), first hit Fiji late Friday. It blasted through the northern Lau and Lomaiviti island groups and the northern coast of the second biggest island, Vanua Levu, before losing strength as it moved out to sea Wednesday, the nation's weather office said.

 

"One village on the island of Taveuni lost all its houses, but there was no loss of life," Disaster Management Office senior official Pajiliai Dobui told The Associated Press.

 

While Fiji's north suffered overwhelming damage from the powerful winds and sea surges, Dobui said preparations for the storm meant "peoples' lives were not put at risk." Only one death was reported.

 

Dobui said some villages in the Lau island group lost up to 60 percent of their houses, especially near the coast where powerful waves surged inland.

 

"The impact of the storm surges was quite devastating," made worse by high tides at the time the storm passed over the islands, he said.

 

On the northern island of Koro, seven of the 14 villages were badly damaged, said Julian Hennings, a spokesman for the island's Dere Bay Resort.

 

"Some of the houses have blown away. A lot of trees have been uprooted, some of the roads have been blocked off because the waves have picked up rocks and coral and have dumped it on the road," he said. One of four landing jetties was also severely damaged.

 

Tiny Cikobia Island, home to about 400 people, suffered more than three days of hammering from the cyclone, which smashed houses, uprooted trees, washed away all local boats, and scattered debris across the island.

 

But Dobui said "many very strong homes" built on Cikobia after earlier cyclones "withstood Cyclone Tomas and protected the lives of our villagers."

 

Power, water, sewage and communications were still disrupted in many northern areas, but a key airport at Labasa in northern Vanua Levu reopened for emergency supply flights.

 

Troops have been deployed to provide relief, including food, water and basic supplies.

 

A New Zealand air force Hercules airplane that surveyed some northern areas found that "quite a few villages look like they have been hit pretty hard," squadron leader Kavae Tamariki told New Zealand's Stuff news Web site.

 

Many homes lost their roofs and some houses were destroyed, he said, adding that not many people were seen. "We think they have fled to safety inland," he said. - AP

[nancyk58]

Updates of the situation in HAITI and CHILE on 19 March 2010

 

UPDATES AND NEWS ARTICLES ON THE SITUATION IN HAITI ON 19 MARCH 2010

 

URBAN (free Danish paper) on 19.3.10: KIDNAPPED CHILDREN RETURNED TO PARENTS IN HAITI

 

33 "orphans" - attempted brought out of Haiti by American missionaries after the earthquake - turned out to have parents.

 

33 children whose parents were presumed killed in the earthquake in Haiti in January and who were attempted brought out of Haiti by American missionaries are now being reunited with their parents.

 

All 33 children have at least one living parent according to the relief organisation "SOS Children's Villages" which was in charge of the children since the American missionaries tried to get them to the United States.

 

The youngest child was only a few months old when the earthquake occurred and she was parted from her parents. She has now been returned to the parents after having spent the last couple of months with a foster-mother selected by the "SOS Children's Villages".

 

A spokeswoman of "SOS Children's Villages" in Haiti, Line Wolf Nielsen says that most parents have visited the children the last couple of weeks before they had their children back this week.

 

A total of 22 families have claimed the 33 children.

 

TEN AMERICAN MISSIONARIES ARRESTED

 

The reunion takes place after weeks' work with registering and finding the children's parents and making sure that the parents were in a position to handle the return of the children.

 

The case of the 33 children attracted international attention when ten American missionaries were arrested on 29 January trying to bring the children out of Haiti and into the neighbouring country The Dominican Republic. The transport was stopped because the missionaries did not have the necessary documents for the children.

 

All missionaries were arrested, but they denied - during a trial - that they would kidnap the children. They claimed that they would help the children to a better life in the USA after the earthquake on 12 January.

 

Several parents testitied in court that they gave up their children voluntarily because they could no longer provide for them after the quake.

 

9 of the ten missionaries have been released from the prison in HAITI and have returned to the USA. One of them is still in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince where she is charged with child trafficking. Ritzau (news agency)

 

 

HAITI AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE

 

As many as 230,000 people were killed due to the earthquake that hit Haiti on 12 January 2010

 

More than one million have become homeless

 

Haiti is the poorest country in Latin America, and life expectancy is 61 years

 

80 out of 1,000 children die before they are 5 years old

 

More than half the population has less than one dollar per day to live on.

 

-------------------------------------

 

Danish TV1 TTV: HAITI: PROMPT HELP TO FORGOTTEN VICTIMS IN HAITI

 

When DR's special correspondent visited the camp "Camaran Deux" on a stony and barren mountainside outside of Port-au-Prince a few days ago, the camp had not been visited by one single relief organization since the earthquake on 12 January.

 

But when the terrible situation there was described to a centrally placed person, she immediately organized a massive help effort for the people in the camp who were close to death due to hunger and thirst without anybody noticing, DR News' Thomas Ubbesen reports from HAITI.

 

Besides water and food, relief workers have promised to deliver / supply kitchens, huts and medical help to the camp.

 

 

Danish DR1 TTV: HAITI's DEBT RELIEVED

 

Countries behind the Inter-American Development Bank are close to a deal that will relieve Haiti of its debt of the equivalent of almost 2.5 billion Danish Kroner (more than $0.3 billion) according to sources from the US Treasury Department. After the devastating earthquake in January, US treasury secretary Timothy Geithner has worked for relief of Haiti's debt to i.a. the Development Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.

 

UN experts estimate that HAITI will need the equivalent of DKK 62 billion (more than $8 billion) to rebuild the country.

 

 

Swedish SVT Text: "SECOND HAITI DISASTER INEVITABLE"

 

A second disaster in HAITI is probably inevitable despite of pledged billions and a help effort so big as never seen before.

 

These are the words of Sam Worthington, coordinator of US Aid.

 

The threat comes from the upcoming rainy and hurricane seasons. The tents and tarpaulings erected as temporary shelter after the earthquake provide no protection against the upcoming heavy rain and hurricanes.

 

- "We are in a race against time and even though a large number of people have been removed, then with sadness, I think that many are staying in dangerous places", says Worthington.

 

---------------------

 

UPDATES / NEWS ARTICLE ON THE SITUATION IN CHILE ON 19 MARCH 2010

 

German ARD Text: AFTERSHOCKS IN CHILE LIKELY

 

Chileans must expect strong aftershocks for at least one year after the gigantic earthquake on 27 February 2010.

 

In the next couple of months 25 to 45 tremors will occur with a magnitude of 5.0 and higher according to a US earthquake expert of US Geological Survey in the Chilean capital, Santiago.

 

There is a likelihood of 1 to 3 that even a tremor of magnitude 7.0 will be included in the series of aftershocks to be expected.

 

The earthquake and the tsunami cost 700 human lives on 27 February and caused substantial damage at the value of $30 billion.

[nancyk58]

Updates of the situation on 21 March 2010 in CHILE, HAITI, Australia and Iceland

 

UPDATES OF THE SITUATION ON 21 MARCH IN CHILE, HAITI, AUSTRALIA AND ICELAND

 

German ARD Text: CHILE: UPDATED DEATH TOLL AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE

3 weeks after the devastating earthquake in Chile the authorities have corrected the death toll. While almost immediately after the quake it was reported that more than 800 were killed, the Ministry of the Interior now says that 342 people were killed in the earthquake and the ensuing tsunami. In 62 other cases the death circumstances are being examined. The magnitude-8.8 earthquake on 27 February 2010 was one of the strongest qaukes ever recorded. 2 million homes were damaged and 500,000 hereof were severely damaged.

 

Danish newspaper BT: HAITI: MENTALLY ILL LIVING UNDER BAD CONDITIONS

Mental patients are lying naked on the cold concrete floor in Haitian hospitals. When confronted with this the answer was: Mentally ill never had a high priority in HAITI!

 

German ARD Text: AUSTRALIA: DAMAGES DUE TO CYCLONE, "ULUI"

With wind gusts of up to 200 km per hour a tropic cyclone in Northeastern Australia caused severe damage. About 60,000 households were without power. There are no reports of casualties due to this cyclone - a category 3 storm.

Queensland can expect some wet days as the cyclone continues across land carrying enormous amounts of rain with it.

 

Danish text TV: Magnitude 5.6 EARTHQUAKE IN CUBA IN THE AREA OF THE US GUANTANAMO CAMP

 

German ARD Text and BBC World News: VOLCANO ERUPTS IN SOUTH ICELAND

A state of emergency has been declared for the southern part of Iceland. 500 people were evacuated. The volcano was dormant for 200 years and began to erupt just after midnight sending lava 100 m high.

There was fear of flooding from enormous amounts of melting water from the Eyjafjallajoekull glacier under which the first eruptions occurred. It took place about 120 km or 75 miles east of the capital, Reykjavik.

 

VOLCANO ERUPTS NEAR EYJAFJALLAJOEKULL IN SOUTH ICELAND

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8578576.stm

Page last updated at 12:23 GMT, Sunday, 21 March 2010

 

An Icelandic volcano, dormant for 200 years, has erupted, ripping a 1km-long fissure in a field of ice.

 

The volcano near Eyjafjallajoekull glacier began to erupt just after midnight, sending lava a hundred metres high.

Icelandic airspace has been closed, flights diverted and roads closed. The eruption was about 120km (75 miles) east of the capital, Reykjavik.

 

About 500 people were moved from the area, a civil protection officer said.

"We estimate that no-one is in danger in the area, but we have started an evacuation plan and between 500 and 600 people are being evacuated," Sigurgeir Gudmundsson of the Icelandic civil protections department told the Agence France-Presse news agency.

 

The area is sparsely populated, but the knock-on effects from the eruption have been considerable.

 

A state of emergency is in force in southern Iceland and transport connections have been severely disrupted, including the main east-west road.

 

"Ash has already begun to fall in Fljotshlid and people in the surrounding area have reported seeing bright lights emanating from the glacier," RUV public radio said on its website.

 

It was a bit scary, but still amazing to see," Katrin Moller Eiriksdottir, who lives in Fljotshlid, told the BBC News website.

 

"The ash had started falling and we couldn't leave the car."

 

Three Icelandair flights, bound for Reykjavik from the United States, were ordered to return to Boston, RUV radio reported.

 

Domestic flights were suspended indefinitely, but some international flights were scheduled to depart on Sunday.

 

There had initially been fears that the volcano could cause flooding, as it causes ice to melt on the glacier above it, but that scenario appears to have been avoided.

 

However, it could cause more activity nearby, scientists say.

 

"This was a rather small and peaceful eruption but we are concerned that it could trigger an eruption at the nearby Katla volcano, a vicious volcano that could cause both local and global damage," said Pall Einarsson, a geophysicist at the University of Iceland's Institute of Earth Science, Associated Press news agency reported.

 

As the eruption is taking place in an area that is relatively ice free, there is little chance of a destructive glacier burst like the one that washed away part of the east-west highway four years ago, after an eruption under the vast Vattnajoekull glacier.

 

Iceland lies on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the highly volatile boundary between the Eurasian and North American continental plates, with quakes and eruptions.

 

The last volcanic eruption in the Eyjafjallajoekull area occurred in 1821.

[nancyk58]

Updates of the situation in HAITI and the Philippines on 22.3.10

 

UPDATE OF THE SITUATION IN HAITI AND THE PHILIPPINES ON 22 MARCH 2010

 

3 DIE IN QUAKE COLLAPSE IN NORTHERN HAITI — UN

 

(03/22/2010 | 08:21 AM - GMA News.TV)

 

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — A small earthquake struck northern Haiti early Sunday, collapsing an apartment building and killing at least three people, a UN spokesman said.

 

Residents said the tremor struck Haiti's second-largest city of Cap-Haitien shortly after midnight, collapsing the four-story building. Some nearby structures were damaged by the collapse but no other quake effects were reported.

 

Three survivors were pulled out of the rubble and taken to a hospital, UN spokesman Louicius Euguene said.

 

Haitian police, civil protection authorities and UN peacekeepers from Chile and Nepal found the body of another person killed inside.

 

Cap-Haitien lies along the fault line that produced THREE MODERATE EARTHQUAKES in nearby CUBA on Saturday. It was not affected by the Jan. 12 earthquake that devastated Port-au-Prince, some 80 miles (130 kilometers) to the south.

 

Witnesses said it had been raining, which could have weakened the ground under the structure.

 

US Geological Survey scientists were studying data Sunday for signs of the temblor but had no confirmation of the earthquake. A small, 3.7-magnitude aftershock was felt in Port-au-Prince late Saturday night.

 

"We don't really see anything that is jumping out of the records but ... we're looking at this," geophysicist Rafael Abreu said.

 

But residents of the northern port city said they were frightened by the shaking.

 

Last month three children were killed in Cap-Haitien when a school collapsed after a late-night tremor and heavy rains.

 

There have been several panics in Cap-Haitien since the Port-au-Prince disaster, including two triggered by evangelical churches that convinced thousands that earthquakes and tsunamis were coming on dates that have since passed. - AP

 

 

RP EXPECTS FIRST CYCLONE OF THE YEAR ON THURSDAY

 

(03/22/2010 | 11:23 PM - GMA News.TV)

 

State weather forecasters on Monday spotted a brewing weather disturbance off Mindanao, which could become the first cyclone to enter the country for the year.

 

A report over GMA News’ “24 Oras" said “Agaton" is expected to enter the Philippine area of responsibility on Thursday.

 

The Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) said the cyclone may not make a landfall, but would induce rains that could increase water levels of the dams that have reached critical lows because of the El Niño dry spell.

 

In its 5 p.m. update, PAGASA said the wind convergence currently affecting Mindanao and Eastern Visayas would bring scattered rain showers and thunderstorms in the said areas.

 

“The rest of the country will have partly cloudy to cloudy skies with isolated rain showers or thunderstorms," PAGASA said on its Web site.

 

“Moderate to strong winds blowing from the Northeast to Southeast will prevail over the Eastern section of Northern and Central Luzon and coming from the Northeast and East over the rest of the Eastern section of the country and the coastal waters along these areas will be moderate to rough," it added.

 

Elsewhere, winds will be light to moderate blowing from the Northeast to East with slight to moderate seas.

 

The country is experiencing up to 36-degree Celsius weather due to the El Niño phenomenon, which is wrecking havoc on many farmlands particularly in the Visayas and Mindanao.

 

The government said damage to agriculture caused by the dry spells has gone up to P8.588 billion, even as the number of people affected continues to grow.

 

In a March 19 report posted on its Web site, the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) said the damage was recorded in Bicol, Davao del Sur, Davao del Norte, Davao City, South Cotabato and Maguindanao.

 

The NDCC said the damage now involves 576,607.61 tons in production loss in 749,467.94 hectares in Luzon, Western and Central Visayas, Regions 9 to 12, and Cordillera.

 

At least 301,135 farmers and their families had been affected because of the dry spells – 124,515 of them in Central Visayas and 117,844 in Southwestern Mindanao.

 

Last year, THREE STRONG TYPHOONS wrecked havoc in Luzon, resulting to HUNDREDS OF DEATHS and millions of pesos worth in agriculture and infrastructure damages.

 

– Aie Balagtas See/KBK, GMANews.TV