Tag Archives: earthquake

Crisis Camps: Computer Techies Helping Response for Haiti

by Editor

Computer programmers and other technical people are building valuable tools for helping the people of Haiti after the devastating earthquake on January 12. Crisis Camps have been set up for volunteers to develop applications that help with damage assessment, mapping, locating of survivors, locating first aid stations, translation, radio communications, food and water deliveries, free phone services, and many more.  At the root of the effort is the basic understanding that good data must be given to and easily shared between all of the aid organizations, both public and private, helping with aid and rescue in Haiti. Some of the earliest volunteers for Crisis Camp came from Google, NASA, the United Nations, the American Red Cross and the Los Angeles City Fire Department.

Google developed an online tool to help people locate missing persons in Haiti.  The technical effort has a Wiki page at Crisis Commons Wiki, that gathers resources, updates on projects, and calls for volunteers in specific areas.

The Crisis Camp volunteer approach is building something very powerful that will have a huge impact on disaster response in the future.  This is the internet and tech world at its very best.

Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines Docks Ship for Fun and Sun in Stricken Haiti

by Editor | 6 Comments

Perhaps the most disgusting company on the face of the planet has made itself known today: Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines has docked the cruise ship Independence of the Seas at a private beach in Haiti which is fenced off from the rest of the stricken nation, for some fun and sun along the beach.  The resort beach is about sixty miles from the devastation of Haiti’s earthquake zone and is surrounded by tall fences and armed guards.

Apparently, the cruise line company has excused its shocking act by saying that it delivered some pallets of relief supplies.  So, with millions of people injured, two hundred thousand dead, everything lying in heaps of rubble, this Royal Caribbean company thinks it can dock its ship for fun and NOT pick up survivors or provide beds and rooms for survivors or transportation for survivors.  What Royal Caribbean should be doing is running its ships back and forth to ferry people to hospitals on other islands.  That’s what a responsible company with real sailors in its employ would be doing.  How could a ship’s captain or crew live with itself after behaving in such a monstrous fashion?  How could the passengers not mutiny?  What are the names of the people on board this ship?  Let’s find out and post them on the web.

Ship photo from Bernt Rostad

Google App to Help Find Information on People Missing in Haiti

by Editor

This is an application from Google that tries to locate information about missing persons in Haiti. I don’t know how well it works, but I think Google is trying pretty hard with its considerable resources to find any data that might help.

Update (1-17-2010): News organizations that have set up sites to help locate people are apparently opening their systems and sharing their data with the Google people-finder application.  The MIT Center for Future Civic Media is calling on all people-finder data collectors to pool their data in one place.  This is very smart and will drastically increase the effectiveness of the Google people-finder app.  Here’s more about the call for shared data.

No Water In Haiti After Earthquake

by Editor | 1 Comment

There’s no water in Haiti.  With approximately 6,000,000 people looking for water this is a truly horrific situation.  Many thousands more people are going to die within several days if enormous amounts of water are not somehow delivered to them.  With a single jammed airport in Port-au-Prince, it seems like a nearly impossible task.

You can donate to the Red Cross International Response Fund.  Also, giving blood is always one of the very best things you can do because it fills the blood banks and can be used almost anywhere.

You can also donate to Doctors Without Borders, which is putting medical personnel on the ground in Haiti to assist in saving lives.

Haiti Earthquake Help is Slow to Arrive

by Editor

Here’s CNN footage of survivors trying to help people trapped in collapsed buildings. Medical help is not significantly present in Haiti at the moment. It is a shame that in the western hemisphere, so close to the richest nation on earth, it takes days to get a little medical assistance into a crisis zone. We think more about war and terrorists than we do about real threats that kill hundreds of thousands of people. Shameful.

YouTube‘s CitizenTube Channel is maintaining an updating playlist of videos taken on the ground in Haiti just after the earthquake and during rescue attempts.

You can donate to the Red Cross International Response Fund.  Also, giving blood is always one of the very best things you can do because it fills the blood banks and can be used almost anywhere.

You can also donate to Doctors Without Borders, which is putting medical personnel on the ground in Haiti to assist in saving lives.

More footage from Associated Press: