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    Safety Talk for the Hotel Industry in Thailand

    July 4, 2013 Thailand - The “Safety Talk for the Hotel Industry” was held at the Asia Hotel. Many hotel owners were in attendance to understand the risks to the community they service and their investment. The event was organized and sponsored by the Association of Natural Disaster Prevention Industry (ANDPI).

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    Exploring Myanmar Heritage

    We flew from Bangkok to Yangon, Myanmar on Monday morning. Once there we were greeted by Twe Twe and Nang. They took us to lunch before visiting the Myanmar Engineering Society. We stopped at a local place, they let me sample the goat brains to see if I would like it as my main course. It seemed

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    L’Aquila Earthquake Journal Entry #1

    While most were sleeping, a magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck the Abruzzo region of central Italy. The epicenter is located approximately 7 km northwest of L'Aquila, approximately 85 km northeast of Rome. L'Aquila is comprised primarily of Baroque and Renaissance era architecture and sits upon a hillside in a narrow valley.

  • The Hotel Montana: Once an iconic, four-star meeting place for Haitians, foreigners, spies and tourists, the locally owned hotel was utterly leveled by the Jan 12 earthquake. All that is left is broken concrete, twisted metal and the stench of decaying bodies.

    A Morning and Afternoon of Hopeful Rebuilding

    The Hotel Montana: Once an iconic, four-star meeting place for Haitians, foreigners, spies and tourists, the locally owned hotel was utterly leveled by the Jan 12 earthquake. All that is left is broken concrete, twisted metal and the stench of decaying bodies.

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    Thirty Months in Haiti – Part 3

    We selected 16 contractors and trained them in technology and business. We specified materials from local suppliers—Haitian-made. Contractors hired masons from the pool that we had trained.

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Reporting from Tokyo, Day 3 After the Earthquake

March 14, 2011 - No Comments

Tokyo, Japan (March 14, 2011) - Dr. Kit Miyamoto, the CEO of Miyamoto International, a global earthquake and structural engineering firm, reports on his experience on

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Tōhoku, Japan Earthquake 2011

March 11, 2011 - No Comments

Tokyo, Japan (March 11, 2011) – Dr. Kit Miyamoto reports, “I was in the train near Ikebukuro station when the train suddenly stopped with a loud creaking noise at 2:55 pm today. Japan’s state-of-the-art earthquake system at work….

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Celebrating the first full rollout of our Haitian damage assessment team.

Well oiled relief machine rolling through Haiti

March 17, 2010 - No Comments

Today was a big day. It was the first full rollout of the 150 Haitian engineers and 50 social workers for damage assessment. We arrived at the Public Works building at the 8 a.m. We had been struggling with the availability of equipment and transportation, but today was different. We had 20 vans ready and waiting for us.

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Japanese Embassy is located in Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Japanese Embassy in Haiti: Damage Assessment

March 7, 2010 - No Comments

Today the Japanese Ambassador asked us to do a damage assessment on their eight-story embassy in Port au Prince. Dominic, our engineer, and I met

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The Presidential Palace: A Fractured Haitian Icon

January 23, 2010 - No Comments

Early this morning, we got a call from the World Bank officer. He requested us to investigate the National Palace. Our team is excited about

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Searching for victims in concrete rubble with little or no tools.

2010 Haiti Earthquake Journal Entry 2

January 20, 2010 - No Comments

At 2 am I wake up to the sound of a shot gun blast outside of the house I am staying in. Well, this is the first time in my life I have ever been woken up by the sound of gunshot. I slowly spy from the back yard window to investigate. It is strange and silent.

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