Haiti Earthquake of January 12, 20101. Several EERI members, including Executive Director Jay Berger, participated in a workshop convened by the U.S. National Science and Technology Council's Subcommittee on Disaster Reduction (SDR), focusing on the role of science and engineering in Haiti's reconstruction. The key findings from this workshop are now available here.
2. Following up on this workshop EERI wrote a letter to the SDR, suggesting three principles related to the design and construction of safe residential housing, public and commercial buildings and critical infrastructure. These are:
U.S. funding for reconstruction efforts in Haiti should only go to rebuilding projects that, when completed, are earthquake- and hurricane-resistant. We believe the U.S. recovery investment should fund buildings that provide life safety protection in disasters.
Promotion of a strategy calling for disaster-resistant building so that the broader Haitian community understands the principles of safe construction and demands it.
The reconstruction agenda and practices of the Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) are closely aligned with standards recommended by the Subcommittee on Disaster Reduction.
The complete letter is available here (PDF)
3. The first Newsletter insert on Haiti will be available for download early next week--this insert summarizes the longer report prepared by the advance team of Eberhard, Baldridge, Marshall, Mooney and Rix, and contains a section on search and rescue operations.
Chile Earthquake of February 27, 20101. The Learning from Earthquakes Chile reconnaissance team has returned, with the exception of a bridge team that is in Chile the week of April 3. The first in a series of briefings was organized by EERI, PEER and GEER and held at UC Berkeley on March 30. This briefing can be viewed online here.
2. Team members are also posting up some of their most important or relevant images at a map on the clearinghouse website, available here.
Additional information for both earthquakes will be shared in upcoming newsletters, at the clearinghouse websites, and through these blast emails.
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