This post is part of a series called Miyamoto in Haiti
Nous avons évalué chaque maison et marqué avec une étiquette verte, jaune ou rouge, et enregistré des informations structurelles et sociales détaillées en utilisant les PDA. Nous avons non seulement procédé à des tâches d’ingénierie, mais nous sommes également devenus des conseillers et des travailleurs sociaux. Les gens ont commencé à retourner dans leurs maisons respectives grace au plan de sécurité etabli, celles étiquetées en vert. La population des camps temporaires a ainsi diminué à 700 000 personnes à la fin de 2010.…
This post is part of a series called Miyamoto in Haiti
Je viens juste de terminer mon discours prononçer à l’Hôtel Kinam de Port-au-Prince, Haïti. Le public m’a chaudement applaudi. Je me suis senti bien, chauffé a blanc. J’avais parlé devant plus de 100 participants, y compris le MTPTC (le Ministère des Travaux publics Transport et Communication Haïtien) des ingénieurs, des directeurs de ministères, des partenaires d’organisation non gouvernementale (ONG) et des médias. Cet événement devait en effet célébrer les réalisations des ingénieurs du MTPTC suite au tremblement de terre de 2010.…
This post is part of a series called Miyamoto in Haiti
The 7.0-magnitude 2010 earthquake that devastated Haiti, killing more than 300,000 and destroying 280,000 buildings, also left many children without schools. Days later, Miyamoto International arrived in Haiti to help, ultimately creating Miyamoto Global Disaster Relief, a nonprofit to provide disaster mitigation and reconstruction following catastrophic disasters where usual funding source doesn’t exist.Miyamoto International trained legions of engineers and masons (pictured) to rebuild and retrofit schools, homes and buildings so they will withstand future earthquakes. As Miyamoto International CEO Dr. Kit Miyamoto points out, “Earthquakes don’t kill people.…
I attended the tsunami-themed Pacem in Maribus Conference in Thailand where I was slated to be one of the keynote speakers. Thailand is especially interested in tsunamis after its Andaman Coast was ravaged by a particularly devastating one in 2004, killing more than 8,000 people on the southern coast. Pacem in Maribus is Latin for Peace in the Ocean. The organization is an international forum on sustainable governance of the oceans with experts from countries all around the world.
During my speech, I discussed Tsunami Disaster Risk Reduction lessons learned from the engineering field as well as government policy and…
I met Jolanta and Artessa for a breakfast meeting at a hotel lounge in Manila’s high-rise business district. They were the World Bank officials from Washington D.C.. Artessa is a Filipino structural engineer who speaks with keen articulation and sense of strategic direction. I knew Jolanta from the Istanbul seismic risk-reduction project. It was considered to be one of the most successful programs organized by the World Bank and we had a small, but key, role in the project building technical capacity within the municipal government of Istanbul. Jolanta was promoted to be in charge of Southeast Asia. Subsequently, we…
This post is part of a series called The 2013 L'Aquila Earthquake
L’AQUILA, Italy–The fire chief was waiting for us at the security gate to the hilltop old town center. He assigned a fireman to drive and escort us through this abandoned city. I found the Italian people to be extremely friendly and helpful even under such extreme conditions. The three of us got into the fireman’s four wheel drive truck and up the hill we went.
I asked him to stop the truck when I saw the destroyed building. It was a nightmare. This was a total collapse of…