Thousands of lives have been saved thanks to an Indian state’s effective disaster-relief planning.
U.S. President Donald Trump is seen visiting the California town of Paradise that was devastated by forest fires. Trump has threatened to use funds allocated for disaster relief to pay for his border wall.
(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Donald Trump has threatened to use funds allocated for disaster relief to fund his border wall. It’s time to rethink how we frame disasters to stop politicians from using them for political gain.
Loading new furniture donated to Hurricane Irma survivors in Chokoloskee, Fla.
AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee
The billions of dollars worth of aid dispatched every year to alleviate the suffering and damage after earthquakes and hurricanes would do more good if it didn’t get clumped up.
Buildings damaged by Hurricane Maria are seen in Lares, Puerto Rico, October 2017.
REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
Morten Wendelbo, American University School of Public Affairs
Thousands died after Hurricane Maria, but it did not have to be that way. Early evidence should have led the government to a much stronger response.
Roberto Clemente State Park employees in New York, with donated bottled water bottles bound for Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria.
AP Photo/Julie Jacobson
Warning Syrians of approaching airstrikes via social media is helping save lives.
Ivan Rodriguez and Juan Ortiz are still searching for relatives who disappeared in San Miguel Los Lotes during Guatemala’s June 3 Fuego volcano eruption. The government’s rescue mission has now ended.
AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd
Walter E. Little, University at Albany, State University of New York
Guatemala has ended its Fuego volcano rescue mission and declared 110 dead. But people in the hot, ash-covered eruption zone say that the real death tally is much higher and that they’ll keep digging.
Hurricane Irma demolished Sint Maarten in the Dutch Antilles, in September 2017. The island has yet to recover.
AP Photo/Carlos Giusti
Corruption has made hurricane Caribbean countries’ recovery less efficient and more expensive, new research shows. Misuse of funds may also trigger more disaster-related deaths.
Hurricane Irma passes Cuba and approaches southern Florida on Sunday, Sept. 10, 2017, with Hurricane Jose at lower right.
NASA
The 2018 hurricane season starts on June 1, with some communities still recovering from 2017 storms. Scholars offer insights about where the risks lie and who is most vulnerable during and after hurricanes.
Australian forces will need to be prepared for natural disaster relief missions.
Damian Pawlenko/Dept of Defence
Australia faces many security issues driven by climate change, including more international migration and an increase in defence personnel being sent on disaster relief missions, a Senate inquiry has found.
Cyclone Ava caused hundreds of millions of dollars worth of damage in Madagascar.
deruneinholbare/Flickr
Madagascar gets hit by an average of four cyclones each year but their full impact is still being tracked.
Some 17,000 U.S. troops aided in the Caribbean relief effort after hurricanes Irma and Maria. That’s roughly equivalent to the U.S. military’s humanitarian mission in the Philippines after Typhoon Hiyan in 2013.
U.S. Department of Agriculture
Compared to its foreign disaster missions, the US military mobilized slowly after Maria. But in numbers, capacity and logistics coordination, its work in Puerto Rico was on par with other aid efforts.
Children in disaster zones are often highly vulnerable.
EPA/Jean Jacques Augustin
Evidence shows that US taxpayers are less willing to support extensive disaster relief when the victims are not white. Could that explain the Trump administration’s lackluster support for Puerto Rico?
The Military Sealift Command hospital ship USNS Comfort traveled to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria.
Ernest R. Scott/U.S. Air Force/Handout via Reuters