The Pakistan flooding situation is a natural disaster of epic proportions, with an estimated 900,000 homes damaged/destroyed and up to 20 million people affected.
The focus Of HODR is to aid in the recovery of a post natural disaster environment by empowering volunteers. In order to achieve that we must be able to provide a level of safety for those volunteers.
Thus, we have decided to NOT send a HODR assessment team to Pakistan, because we do not feel that we could provide sufficient security for a volunteer disaster
response effort.
We are fully engaged in Project Leogane, Haiti and it is placing strong demands on both our
management and financial resources.
On Tuesday, January 12, 2010, a massive 7.0 earthquake and dozen aftershocks struck Haiti, near the capital of Port-au-Prince. Initial reports are of overwhelming damage in the capital city, affecting an estimated 3 million people.
HODR has launched an assessment team to determine how and where we can be most effective in the recovery efforts. Search and rescue will be critical over the next weeks, and then the work of helping the country recover will begin. Our team arrived in Haiti January 21. We have been and will continue to network with contacts from our 2008-2009 Haiti hurricane response (Project Gonaives) as well as other responding agencies, and meeting with local officials, visiting affected areas and evaluating the recovery needs in order to determine further involvement and the potential for volunteer projects.
We will update www.HODR.org as more information becomes available. You can also follow us on Twitter @HODRops for daily updates and progress.
View our 1/23/10 “Notes from the Field” by clicking here.
For media inquiries, please contact Beca Howard – 781.570.9412, Beca@HODR.org
For donation information, please contact Andrew Kerr – 919.830.3573, Andrew@HODR.org
Thank you for your interest in supporting HODR and the people of Haiti in their time of need.
After a two-week assessment in American Samoa, HODR will not be deploying a project. Residents are proactively clearing debris from the tsunami and the clean up phase will be over shortly. In the interim, residents are utilizing a combination of the shell of their homes, community spaces, temporary structures and tents to live in. The island seems focused on moving straight into the rebuild phase, however that process will not start for months due to the challenges of residents waiting for funding, and building materials and supplies being brought on-island. While there was significant damage in some villages, the community is on the road to recovery and there is not a strong need at this time for volunteer support.
We’re heading out of American Samoa but HODR’s work doesn’t end there. Continue to follow our Operations Teams on Twitter: @HODRops
For more information on our active volunteer response project in Indonesia, click here.
Thanks for your support and for following our efforts and work in the South Pacific.
We’ve been on the ground in American Samoa for one week and it’s been a busy one…
We’ve traveled to the affected villages and talked with village chiefs, mayors and residents. The highest concentration of damage from the tsunami is in the Village of Amanave (check out video) with around 75 homes destroyed or majorly damaged.
Given the pace of debris removal and clean up we believe that these phases will be completed in the coming weeks through local efforts. Then demolition of damaged but standing structures will begin after new permanent homes are built. Many are using the shell of their damaged homes in the interim as their primary dwelling until they can build a new home.
We’ve met with CRWRC, Mennonite Disaster Services, World Vision, Catholic Charities USA, American Samoa VOAD, and the American Red Cross to share information and talk about the recovery efforts underway and those in the planning stages. We spent a couple of hours Friday helping Catholic Charities and the American Red Cross distribute food and water in Amanave. Distribution sites strategically placed throughout the island have also aided in the collection of needs and data on the affected population.
There may be a need here for both short term and long term case management and project/workflow management, meaning tracking and managing rebuilds and helping individual households.
We’re also exploring the costs and logistics that would be involved with hiring skilled labor with the thinking that we could potentially hire some locals to act as construction managers for unskilled volunteers to be utilized in rebuild effort. The unknown at this point is exactly when the rebuild phase will begin.
We toured a potential volunteer housing site that the Mennonites and CRWRC may get off the ground, and could be open to others like HODR if we set up a project.
Lots going on, lots to keep figuring out. Keep following us on Twitter (HODRopsUSA) and www.HODR.org as we continue in the assessment.
In the meantime you can support our efforts in the Samoan Islands & our recently announced volunteer project in Indonesia in response to the recent earthquakes. If you’re interested in volunteering with us in Indonesia or a potential project in the Samoan Islands, email Tom at info@HODR.org and you can support our work with a donation to our South Pacific Disaster Recovery Fund.
This video was shot on 10/14/09 by the HODR assessment team in American Samoa, as Bill & Jeremey learn about the situation and needs of people affected by the 9/29/09 tsunami. This video shows an example of how some people are living post tsunami, now that they have lost just about everything.
More on our Samoan Islands Tsunami Assessment: Photos Video More info
See daily updates from our assessment team on the ground on Twitter @HODRopsUSA
The Village of Amanave on the island of American Samoa was struck by a tsunami on 9/29/09. This video was taken by the HODR assessment team on 10/14/09. Approximately 75 families were affected in Amanave.
More on our Samoan Islands Tsunami Assessment: Photos Video More info
See daily updates from our assessment team on the ground on Twitter @HODRopsUSA
On September 30, 2009, a 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck Sumatra, Indonesia. In addition to severe damage in the cities of Padang and Pariaman City and surrounding areas, heavy rains and landslides that followed the earthquake resulted in additional damage and displacement. The government of Indonesia reports over 200,000 homes damaged; the majority of earthquake survivors have remained at their homes, struggling to remove rubble and erect shelter as the rainy season quickly approaches.
HODR is sending a team to Indonesia to assess whether we can establish a volunteer response project. International operations director Marc Young and project director Stefanie Chang will arrive in Jakarta on Sunday, October 11, 2009 and continue on to Padang.
If you’re interested in volunteering at a potential Indonesia response project, we encourage you to email Tom at info@hodr.org. If you have Indonesia contacts that you’re able to share, please send them to stef@hodr.org.
Thank you for your support. In addition to watching this space for updates, you can also follow the assessment team on Twitter: @HODRops. HODR is also accepting donations for our South Pacific Disaster Recovery Fund here.
Over the past couple of weeks the destruction that has hit the South Pacific has drawn worldwide attention. This string of disasters has devastated the Samoan Islands, the Philippines, and Indonesia with typhoons, earthquakes, and a tsunami.
In response to these events HODR has a team on the ground in the Philippines that is also monitoring the situation in Indonesia, and are now also heading to the Samoan Islands. On September 29 a powerful 8.0 earthquake created a series of tsunami waves that struck American Samoa and Western Samoa. Some of the waves are estimated to have been as high as 6 meters (more than 19 feet) high, and initial estimates show that as many as 15,000 people have been affected. Bill and Jeremey are en route and will arrive in American Samoa late on Sunday, October 11 to start the assessment.
HODR is launching an “assessment,” which to us is a fact-finding mission: What is the scope of damage on the ground? What are the needs of the community? Do the needs overwhelm the local ability to respond? Are there gaps in the response efforts that we can help meet through volunteer efforts or coordination services? Where can we be most effective? Answering these questions helps us figure out if, how and where we are needed most.
Check back to www.HODR.org for updates and if you’re new to our site, take a look around at photos, videos and updates from past projects to get a true sense of the power of volunteers in disaster response.
Get Involved
If you’re interested in volunteering on a potential project, please email Tom at info@HODR.org.
You can also support these efforts by donating to our South Pacific Disaster Recovery Fund.
After a one-week assessment in the Philippines, we have decided not to launch a HODR volunteer project in response to tropical storm/typhoon Ketsana. (Local name: Ondoy).
During the course of our assessment, we visited the most critical areas in terms of people affected and homes damaged/destroyed. (Local term: ocular inspection.) In the National Capital Region (NCR), Rizal, and Laguna provinces we observed wide swaths of area that were flooded, but once the water receded there was little structural damage. Government and the local population quickly moved forward with the short-term cleanup. Some neighborhoods are still flooded and are expected to remain so through the end of the year. These areas may need rehabilitation work in the months to come, but at present they are inaccessible, susceptible to further flooding, and the extent of damage is unknown. Riverside communities clearly suffered the most devastation. The rivers, swollen by heavy rains, jumped their banks and powered through whatever stood in their path. Sadly, these areas are primarily inhabited by “informal settlers,” non-landowners who have made their homes in flood-prone areas. Instead of supporting rebuilding in the same place, the government and NGO community seek to relocate these families to safer areas. The issue of exactly how to go about this procedure of relocation is complex, long term, and beyond the scope of traditional HODR programs.
When HODR looks to establish a project, we try to identify opportunities that leverage our unique strength – you, our volunteers. As a result, our programs produce tangible recovery benefits for affected communities and rewarding work experiences for volunteers. There has been suffering and damage here and there is even an ongoing need. However, the remaining needs are not in an area that HODR is well-suited to address.
We’d like to thank all of our friends and partners on the ground in the Philippines. Your valuable time and generous assistance allowed us to conduct this assessment quickly and effectively.
Next up is our “on the ground” assessment of the Sumatra earthquake in Indonesia. We hope that you will continue to follow our progress there.