Makeshift Shelters in Haiti No Match for Hurricanes

The official start to the Atlantic hurricane season is about a month and a half away and many researchers are already predicting above average activity this year.

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 Colorado State University’s Philip Klotzbach and William Gray have forecasted 15 named storms and eight hurricanes and meteorologists at AccuWeather.com are calling for 15 named storms and five hurricanes. A typical season sees 10 or 11 named storms.

While an uptick in hurricane and tropical storm activity is never a good thing, it is especially worrisome for residents of Haiti.

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Four months after January’s earthquake, some 1.

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5 million people remain homeless in the country. The folks over at Slate have posted a must-see slide show that demonstrates how many Haitians are trying to make do with makeshift tents made out of bedsheets, sticks and scrap metal that seem unlikely to stand up to a modest breeze, let along hurricane-force winds. It is a stark reminder of how far Haiti still has to go in its recovery and another reason to hope that the country can be spared from another tragedy this summer.

Haiti shelter

Photo via Slate.

FEMA & the Media Cooperate for Better Preparedness

Earlier this month at the 2010 National Hurricane Conference, FEMA got together with media members from CNN, the Weather Channel and various other outlets for a panel session aimed at improving public awareness of preparedness principles.

As most risk managers know, the core tenants of disaster planning are not rocket science. Sure, there are some very high-level endeavors going on with in fields including catastrophe modeling, GPS mapping and geoengineering, but the greatest benefits of preparedness can generally be attained just by following its literal definition: be prepared.

To that end, the administrators and journalists discussed how they can collaborate better and help educate the public — particularly the youth. Here a video with some on-site insight from some of the people who were there. (video via FEMA)

UPDATE: Here’s another FEMA video on preparedness, this one featuring Lt. Gonzalo Gerardo of the Calexico Police Department on scene after the 7.2 quake that recently rocked the California/Mexico border region. (h/t @TheFireTracker2)