Recent photos from the field

All photos by Ayhan Irfanoglu

Second EERI Reconnaissance Team Travels to Haiti 2/28/10

A multi-disciplinary team of US earthquake researchers and practitioners, organized by the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI), is traveling to Haiti to document scientific, engineering and societal effects resulting from the devastating January 12 earthquake in Haiti. The research team is under the leadership of Reginald DesRoches, Professor and Associate Chair of the School of Civil & Environmental Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology, a native of Haiti and a current EERI Board member, and includes experts in engineering, urban planning, architecture, geography, and community resilience.

The team departs on February 28, 2010 and will spend six days collecting data and documenting observations, paying particular attention to the disaster’s impacts on people, the performance of structures and lifelines, and the enormous societal challenges of relief, recovery and rebuilding. Team members will meet with local Haitian engineers, architects,and planners, as well as Haitian government officials and business leaders that will lead the nation’s reconstruction.

Download a list of team members traveling to Haiti

In addition, the ASCE Technical Council on Lifelines Earthquake Engineering (TCLEE) team, led by EERI member Curt Edwards, will be traveling to Haiti at the same time, and collaborating with the EERI team.  Information on the TCLEE team is available on the ASCE website. The scale of this disaster is so large that many organizations will be working together in conducting reconnaissance. The Learning from Earthquakes team will be joined by representatives from partnering organizations who are all traveling under Professor DesRoches’ leadership.

The enormity of the earthquake presents serious challenges for Haiti’s infrastructure, economy, and society. Estimates suggest more than 212,000 people died, 250,000 were critically injured and over one million Haitians were made homeless. EERI and the US Geological Society organized an advance reconnaissance team that visited Haiti in late January. Their trip report, including findings, is available elsewhere on this website.

GEER Haiti Reconnaissance Report Released

The Geo-engineering Extreme Events Reconnaissance (GEER) Association, with funding from NSF, today released a summary report from their on-the-ground investigation following the January 12, 2010 earthquake in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.  Researchers from numerous organizations worked collaboratively as a GEER team to perform a reconnaissance of the geological, seismological, and geotechnical aspects of the earthquake effects. The GEER team included many EERI members and the team was led by Professor Ellen Rathje, a member of the EERI Board of Directors. The results are summarized in a report recently published on the GEER web site at:

http://www.geerassociation.org/GEER_Post%20EQ%20Reports/Haiti_2010/Cover_Haiti10.html

PEER Preliminary Reconnaissance Report by Eduardo Fierro

Preliminary Reconnaissance Report 12 January 2010 by Eduardo Fierro and Cynthia Perry of BFP Engineers, Inc.

Download report here (2.1 MB PDF)

USGS/EERI January Advance Team Report Now Available

The USGS/EERI advance reconnaissance team that traveled to Haiti in late January has finished their report.  It is available for download here:  USGS_EERI_HAITI_V1.1 (9 MB PDF)

Images from USGS/EERI Team on Google Earth

Download KML file here

You need to have Google Earth Installed on your computer in order to view this file.  To download Google earth, visit http://earth.google.com/

Map photos for iphone

EERI would like to acknowledge Scott Swensen and Gerardo Araya for their work in preparing these photos.

Download photos here (18.6MB zip file)

New UNOSAT damage assessment: Carrefour, Haiti + Database (ESRI and KML format)

UNOSAT has produced a new comprehensive building damage assessment and statistics for Carrefour, Haiti. An additional map on intensity of building damage in downtown Port-au-Prince is also available.

Link for map-downloads:
http://www.unosat.org/asp/prod_free.asp?id=52

Damage assessment database including Carrefour and Port-au-Prince in ESRI Geodatabase format (9.3.1):
http://www.unosat.org/shared/Haiti-HQ-2010/Data/UNDP_UNOSAT_v3.zip (11mb)

and above damage points as KML:
http://www.unosat.org/shared/Haiti-HQ-2010/Data/UNOSAT-EQ-2010-KML_v6.zip (6.5mb)

If using database, please credit: “Damage assessment: UNITAR/UNOSAT”

UNOSAT is together with EC JRC and World Bank currently producing a comprehensive damage assessment atlas over the earthquake affected areas in Haiti in the context of PDNA.

UNOSAT’s involvement related to the Haiti earthquake can be followed on
http://www.unosat.org/asp/UNOSAT-EQ-201001-HTI.asp

One can subscribe to RSS feeds for the latest UNOSAT maps for automatic updates when new maps become available, please see:
http://www.unosat.org/rss/freemaps.asp?n=1

This work is done at the request of UNDP, and in support of the UN-led efforts to assist the Government of Haiti in the aftermath of the 12 January earthquake. Swisstopo and the Remote Sensing Laboratories (RSL) at the University of Zurich provided extensive pre-crisis building data in direct technical support of this UN damage analysis. Initial reference data were received from collaborative centers (European Commission JRC with the support of the Stability Instrument; Sertit/Space Charter) and other supporting entities (World Bank, ITHACA, DLR, OSM). This analysis will be validated in the field during PDNA and recovery activities, for which UNOSAT participates, also in collaboration with EC JRC. Preliminary field validation of our damage assessment has been carried out by UNOSAT staff in Port-au-Prince over the last days. UNOSAT works in close collaboration with the Centre National de l’Information Géo Spatiale (CNIGS) to ensure efficient geo-spatial analysis support to the Government of Haiti.

Some Observations on Typical Housing Construction

California structural engineer Craig Cole is currently (2/15/10) in Haiti, and has offered observations on typical housing construction, and the current housing situation.

Photos of typical housing construction can be viewed by clicking here: Typical Haiti House Construction.pdf

Observations on the housing situation can be viewed here: Haiti Housing Issues some observations.pdf

Report on Remote Sensing & Damage Assessment Mission

EERI members actively participated in a multi-organizational effort (also described in several other posts under EERI activities) to analyze damage using aerial photography. This report, prepared by ImageCat Inc. summarizes this effort.

REPORT

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