When Don Mathias, a self-employed machinist and welder in Christchurch, New Zealand, saw a four-ton lathe leaping across the floor of his workshop, he knew this was no ordinary earthquake. “Everything jumped up in the air,” said the 53-year-old. “It was like being charged by a bull. When I saw that lathe moving I thought, ‘Nowhere’s safe in this building. I’ve got to get out.’” With more debris raining down from the mezzanine floor above, he staggered through the door and ran down an alleyway … and straight into a flight of stairs that weren’t there two minutes ... Read More
Rx for Catastrophe
January 23, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
Three days after Hurricane Katrina plowed into New Orleans, swamping 80 percent of the city, a group of 200 evacuees, most of them African-American, fled the wretched conditions of the Superdome and Convention Center and set out to find food and shelter in Gretna, a nearby white working-class suburb. When the evacuees arrived at the Crescent City Connection, a highway bridge that offered one of the few escape routes out of the flood, they were greeted by a line of white Gretna police officers who fired their shotguns into the air. Gretna, the police told the crowd, was “closed.” This ... Read More
Making Seed Aid Blossom
November 18, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
The summer floods continue to leave Pakistanis struggling to survive. Some areas are reporting 100 percent crop losses and tens of thousands of livestock deaths, making Pakistan’s agricultural future uncertain at best. Around 17 million acres of crops are under water or destroyed, and many of the animals that have survived have nothing to eat. With the wheat-planting season already under way, experts fear that crops for the next two years could be affected if farmers are unable to plant by this November. The Pakistan Emergency Response Fund, set up by the United Nations, has thus far ... Read More
