of the Dominican Republic, Cuba, and Puerto Rico. It destroyed the land, the

Transcription

1 Natural Disaster: Haiti Earthquake (2010) On January 12th, 2010, one of the biggest earthquakes recorded in history hit Haiti. The initial shock was determined to be a magnitude of 7.0 and was also felt in parts of the Dominican Republic, Cuba, and Puerto Rico. It destroyed the land, the buildings, the country s resources, and the people. There was more than one shock and although there was disagreement over the exact numbers, the final death toll was said to be over 220,000 people and it affected close to 3 million people in some way. 1. Mitigation: An early warning system is important in order to prepare as much as possible for these unavoidable natural events. However, this earthquake was not mitigated in Haiti since they lacked these proper early warning systems because of economic and political conditions in the country. The officials were well aware of the risk in the country since there is a history of hurricanes and smaller earthquakes, but they did not do much to prepare and the intensity of this one took everyone by surprise. 2. Preparedness: Since this earthquake was not expected, the people of Haiti had not taken much action to prepare for it. Even though there is a history in the country of hurricanes and smaller earthquakes, they were not able to put in the money and work it would take to rebuild the buildings in a better way in order to

2 withstand these storms. Haiti is not a wealthy country and there is a lot of things that need attention so natural disaster preparation was not made a priority. 3. Response: Many international organizations and citizens came to the aid of Haiti with medical assistance, food, and water. People around the world donated tents, blankets, clothes, and other items to help those who lost everything. Since everything was destroyed including hospitals, these things were limited and the distribution was difficult because of how many were in need. There was a panic over the town as people were left homeless and survivors began looking for their missing relatives. The Haitian government tried to use relocation programs to get people away from the horrible conditions and took action to communicate with others such as the United States to set up adoptions for the children who were left orphans. 4. Recovery: Despite the immense effort and donations by the international community, Haiti has been slow to recover due to their government corruption. Buildings haven t been rebuilt and there is a lot of speculation about where all of the international aid ended

3 up. Haiti owed a lot of money that it couldn t provide with its economy in shambles. Today, while walking through Haiti you can still see buildings on the floor and extreme poverty spread throughout the entire country. Moreover, Haiti is still the poorest country in the western hemisphere. Concept Map:

4 Human Disaster: Kuwait Oil Fires (1991) 1. Mitigation: Back in 1990 Saddam Hussein, Iraq s former president, invaded the state of Kuwait. He believed that Kuwait is a part of Iraq s territories, thus, for this reason Saddam (Saddam s perspective) invaded Kuwait on the 2 nd of August 1990 around 2AM, where most men and women were a sleep; however the true reason behind Saddam s invasion is that he wanted to take over Kuwait s oil wells and reservoirs. To do so Saddam decided to assassinate Kuwait s emir (what Kuwaitis call their president) and burn all Kuwait s oil fields and wells. In this way Kuwait would no longer be a rich, successful and developed country. 2. Preparedness: None of the GCC countries ever thought that Saddam would invade Kuwait nor Saudi Arabia, as they re all a part of one treaty, the GCC peaceful treaty, which resembles a one nation. In other words, no one was prepared for this catastrophic human disaster. Saddam sent most of his military troops to AlAhmadi, a place in Kuwait where most of the oil wells are drilled and produced. Moreover, these military troops started to burn more than 650 of Kuwait s oil wells for than four months, approximately burning $3.8 billion each day. Leaving AlAhmadi full of ashes, smoke and fire. Even after the invasion was over the oil s ashes was covering Kuwait

5 and parts of Saudi Arabia for 7 months, leaving a huge impact on Kuwait. It was said that these ashes spread all over Hawaii for 2 days and parts of East Asia. 3. Response: The impact was very intense to Kuwait s nation, they never thought that one of the GCC countries would ever attack them, especially Iraq. Kuwait was stunned by this brutal invasion from Saddam s army, media calls it the Persian war but the Kuwaiti nation call it the Iraqi invasion, this shows that Kuwait wanted peace and never thought of going on war with any of the GCC countries. Hence Kuwait s response was very little since they were not prepared and ready for this catastrophic human act. However, most Kuwaiti men, women and children fought for their country, although Iraq dominated Kuwait entirely leaving no hope for Kuwait s nation. In addition the best response came from Kuwait s Emir (president of Kuwait) when he spoke for Kuwait s need and urgency in the UN major conference where all nations were present, seeking help and assistance to Kuwaiti people. 4. Recovery: Kuwait had a hard time recovering from all the fire burning, non-stopping oil burning and destroyed highways. It felt like Kuwait is no longer Kuwait, it felt like there is no more of Kuwait. However, Kuwait was slowly recovering until the United States of America showed up where it helped Kuwait to

6 recover tremendously within 4 months after the war. USA managed to rebuild the buildings and highways again. In others words most of the assistance and recovery came from the United States of America. Process Flow Chart: Gulf War 1990 Destroyed Kuwait s Economy Iraq invaded Kuwait on the 2 nd of Aug Killed Kuwait s Prince Burned 700 oil wells Kuwait needs help from foreign nations Killed a lot of civilians Smoke and Ashes covered Kuwait USA Saudi Arabia UAE Civilians left Kuwait to Saudi Arabia and UAE Kuwait declared Liberation on the 26 th of Feb 1991