By Dr. Kit Miyamoto I am just now leaving the disaster site on the Syrian border, headed to Istanbul on an 11-hour overnight bus ride. It is rugged. The bus is packed to the brim, above the hubbub is the sound of little kids crying. Those who aren’t, are playing with my laptop, a welcome distraction from the disaster they’ve experienced. They are being evacuated from the general disaster area. I must say, this disaster in Turkey is one of the worst I have seen in the last 20 years of working in disasters. Yesterday, I was carefully walking through…

February 15th Ancient city of Antioch (Hatay) Today, I am walking carefully through the downtown area of Hatay on a small trail of twisted metal, broken concrete, and bricks. It is a somber sight to see that around 90% of buildings have been wrecked. I can only imagine what this place used to be like, with its narrow downtown streets bustling with commerce, restaurants, and apartments. All that is gone now; it disappeared in an early morning tremor a few days ago. Surprisingly, this town is far from the ruptured fault line, approximately a few hundred kilometers away. However, it…

This post is part of a series called Miyamoto in Afghanistan By Dr. Kit Miyamoto n the aftermath of the devastating 6.0 earthquake that struck Afghanistan in the summer of 2022, the region’s beautiful high mountains have become a site of destruction as over 100,000 people are homeless due to damaged housing. Nestled on the eastern border with Pakistan, this area is in dire need of assistance and support. It’s a beautiful region ranging from 5,000 to 7,000 feet in elevation. We are conducting a repair assessment for damaged houses in the region, focusing on the 14,000 families affected. International…

This post is part of a series called Miyamoto in Ukraine     Even as Russian missiles rain in, Ukraine kickstarts its reconstruction. Structural engineering expert, Dr. Kit Miyamoto has kept a journal recounting his observations during the October 10th Russian strikes that devastate Kyiv and other cities in Ukraine. Oct 10, 2022 8:22 AM I just heard a large air blast as I was making my morning coffee. It was a sonic-like blast followed by a line of collapsing buildings, the sound of which I have heard often in the past during earthquakes. We have all been extremely nervous…

This post is part of a series called Miyamoto in Afghanistan July 21th 2022 5:30 AM -Kabul Airport- Our team is on board a 1970s-era Soviet-made cargo helicopter provided by the UN. Besides us, Laila and Amir from the IOM/UN have joined us for this mission. Also, Zadran, our Afghanistan program manager to whom we have introduced a couple of days ago through our contact in the US, is with us. The last few days have been hectic at the UN base where we live inside steel containers. We have met engineers who had just come back from the field.…

This post is part of a series called Miyamoto in Afghanistan July 18th 2022 3:30 AM Dubai I am on a bus at 3:30 AM on my way to a flight to Kabul. The bus is crowded with Afghanistan families and businessmen and a few aid workers like us. I can hear Afghanistan kids speaking with American accents. Interesting… I never thought this would be the case. This midnight flight from Dubai is the only available commercial flight to this embargoed country. Taking off from LA, I have been flying for over 30 hours. I am getting exhausted.    …