Disaster Relief

On January 24, 2010, Haiti was hit with a devastating earthquake, with an epicenter near the town of Léogâne and approximately 25 km (16 mi) west of Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital. This earthquake had a magnitude of 7.0. Reports estimated that approximately 3 million people were affected by the earthquake in some way. Aftershocks measuring 5.9 and 6.0 and Tsunami waves in six major communities all added to this epic disaster. According to official estimates, 222,570 people were killed, and another 300,000 were injured. Vital infrastructure was destroyed including all hospitals in the capital, transport facilities, and communication systems. Also, this

On August 5, 2018, a destructive earthquake with a magnitude of 6.9 struck the island of Lombok, Indonesia. The fault rupture spread to the north and reached the sea, which caused a tsunami. Severe shaking was reported throughout the entire island, and widespread damage was reported in Lombok and in Bali. Officials reported that over 80 percent of structures in North Lombok were either damaged or destroyed. According to reports, during the aftermath of the sequence of earthquakes in August, a total of 563 people were confirmed killed while more than 1,000 were confirmed injured. More than 417,000 people were

Volcán de Fuego, which is Spanish for “Volcano of Fire”, is one of the most active volcanoes in the world and is located about 27 miles (47 km) from Guatemala City. On June 3, 2018, Volcán de Fuego erupted, which included lahars, pyroclastic flows, and clouds of volcanic ash, which left almost no evacuation time and caused the death of nearly two hundred people. Lahars are violent mud and debris flows and pyroclastic flows consisting of hot gas and volcanic matter. These flows are fast moving currents, which can reach a speed of up to 700km/h (450mph) and are considered

In 2017, Puerto Rico was hit with a deadly category 5 hurricane, named Hurricane Maria. hurricane Maria is regarded as the deadliest Atlantic hurricane since Jeanne in 2004. Prior to both hurricane Irma and hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico was already struggling with access to sustainable and reliable power and water. The island’s water system is already vulnerable and the Natural Resource Defense Council reported that approximately 70 percent of the island had water that did not meet the standards of the 1974 Safe Drinking Water Act. Puerto Rico was just starting to recover after Irma that happened two weeks prior

In 2017, the Dominican Republic was hit with a deadly category 5 hurricane, named Hurricane Maria. Hurricane Maria is regarded as the deadliest Atlantic hurricane since Jeanne in 2004. Before Maria hit, the Domincan Republic experienced heavy rainfall causing several landslides in Dominica, as water levels across the island began to rise by the afternoon of September 18. On September 19, Maria hit Dominica with maximum sustained winds of 165 mph (270 km/h). These winds were the most extreme to have ever impacted the island, causing damage to thousands of homes. Maria destroyed all cellular, radio, and internet services, which

On December 20, 2016 the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DRC) president, Joseph Kabila, announced that he would not leave office despite the end of his constitutional term. Protests subsequently broke out across the country. It was reported that more than 3,000 people have been killed and at least 1.7 million were forced to flee their homes in Kasai since the start of the insurrection by the Kamuina Nsapu militia. The Militia fighting that broke out in Congo’s central Kasai region had left 3.2 million people without enough to eat because the conflict drove farmers from their land and disrupted

Hurricane Otto was the first tropical cyclone since Hurricane Cesar-Douglas (1996) to crossover from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. Hurricane Otto quickly intensified on November 23-24, 2016 to a category 3 major hurricane. Otto hit Nicaragua at the peak of its intensity on November 24. Otto weakened rapidly as it moved across southern Nicaragua on Thursday after making landfall on that country’s Caribbean coast as a dangerous Category 2 storm. It was the southernmost hurricane on record to hit Central America.Otto left torrential rainfall across the affected regions with some areas receiving up to a month’s worth of

After almost five years of conflict, Syria remains the most complex humanitarian emergency in the world. Since the conflict began over 250,000 people have been killed and 1.25 million have been injured. The violence has forced the displacement of 6.5 million people internally and 4.18 million people have sought refuge in neighboring countries. Roughly one million people have fled their homes this year alone, some of them for the second or third time. Humanitarian needs within Syria have reached extraordinary levels with 13.5 million people in need of humanitarian assistance. The health system has been devastated by the conflict with

In 2015, Ethiopia experienced its worst drought in over 30 years. Households in regions hit particularly hard, including the eastern highlands and pastoralist areas, are expected to suffer especially severe crop and livestock losses. According to UN estimates, about 10.1 million people, approximately 10 percent of Ethiopia’s population, are in need of food assistance. From the mid-1990s through 2010, the Ethiopian government under the late President Meles Zenawi followed an Agricultural Development-Led Industrialization (ADLI) strategy, where the government invested heavily in agriculture production and rural infrastructure, such as roads. This focus on agriculture and rural investments quickly paid off. According

In April 2015, a devastating earthquake called the Gorkha earthquake struck Nepal. This earthquake reportedly killed over 9,000 people and injured nearly 22,000. The Gorkha earthquake had a magnitude between 7.8 – 8.1. This was the worst natural disaster that struck Nepal since the 1934 Bihar earthquake. Gorka also triggered an avalanche on Mount Everest, killing 21 people. It also triggered another huge avalanche in the Langtang valley where 250 people were reported missing. Hundreds of thousands of Nepalese were made homeless due to their entire villages being flattened and destroyed across many districts of the country. This earthquake caused

Typhoon Haiyan, also known in the Philippines as Super Typhoon Yolanda, was one of the most powerful tropical cyclones ever recorded. When Haiyan made landfall, it devastated proportions of Southeast Asia, and more specifically the Philippines. Typhoon Haiyan was reported to be one of the deadliest Philippine typhoons, killing at least 6,300 people in the Philippines alone. This tropical storm was named Haiyan on November 4, 2013 when it started to intensify. By November 6, 2013 the Joint Typhoon Warning Center assessed the system as a Category 5-equivalent super typhoon. Typhoon Haiyan continued to intensify in the next few days

The first Libyan Civil War was an armed conflict in 2011. This civil conflict erupted with the Libyan Revolution, also known as the 17 February Revolution. On March 2, 2011 the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that approximately 2,000 were killed. Other sources are reporting that over 6,500 people have died. The numbers continued to grow as months went on, but regardless there was a huge public health and humanitarian situation as a result of this civil conflict. By the end of February (2011), supplies such as medicine, fuel, and food were dangerously low in Libya’s urban centers. Many people

On February 27, 2010, an earthquake occurred off of the coast of Chile having a magnitude of 8.8. It was felt strongly in six Chilean regions that together, make up about 80 percent of the country’s population. The earthquake triggered a tsunami, which severely impacted several costals towns in south-central Chile and damaged the port of Talcahuano. Chile also suffered a power outage that affected 93 percent of the Chilean population, and the blackout went on for several days in some areas. This earthquake combined with the tsunami killed over 500 people and affected more than 1.8 million people. View

An extremely severe cyclonic storm called Nargis struck Myanmar in 2008. Cyclone Nargis was a devastating, destructive, and deadly tropical cyclone that caused the worst natural disaster in recorded history in Myanmar. The almost 12 foot wall of water and wind speed of over 200 km/hr killed tens of thousands of people and left hundreds of thousands homeless and vulnerable to injury and disease. The United Nations estimated that out of the 7.35 million living in the affected townships of Labutta, Bogale, Pyinsa, Yangon, and many more, approximately 2.4 million were affected. Reports estimate that approximately 53,836 were missing and

In 2004, an Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, which is also known as Boxing Day Tsunami or the Sumatra-Andaman Earthquake, struck Indonesia on December 26. The Sumatra-Andaman earthquake was an undersea megathrust earthquake with a magnitude of 9.1-9.3. A series of massive tsunami waves grew up to 30 meters (100ft). Coastline communities were severely affected, and it is estimated that this tsunami killed over 227,000 people in 14 different countries. This makes it one of the most devastating and deadliest natural disasters in recorded history. The direct results caused major disruptions to living conditions and impacting communities overall well-being and