October 3, 2014

OAS Convenes First Stakeholder Meeting on Natural Disaster Mitigation

A special stakeholder meeting convened this week by the Organization of American States (OAS) in Washington, DC, agreed on the need for increased support and focus on natural disaster mitigation and climate change issues.

The Group of Friends on Natural Disaster Mitigation brought together, for the first time, representatives of countries across the Hemisphere, OAS Permanent Observer countries, representatives of several key inter-American institutions, and others to collaborate and co-ordinate mitigation efforts and potential projects, on a regular basis... Read more (Leer más)

What happened this week?

Honduras: Drought. The impact of the drought in the southern part of the country is becoming worse. The severity of the crisis is increasing and, according to latest official figures, the drought has affected 186,311 families. These families are distributed throughout the dry corridor, which includes the departments of Valle, Choluteca, the southern area of the departments of Francisco Morazán, El Paraíso and most of the departments of La Paz, Lempira, Intibucá and Copan... Read More

Peru: 5.1 Earthquake. The earthquake left eight people dead, 575 people affected and 115 houses destroyed or uninhabitable. Different national entities have been providing food, supplies, medicines, and health care for the victims. The National Emergency Operations Center continues to monitor the emergency... Read More

4.3 earthquake in Arequipa. The epicenter was 17 kilometers south of Caraveli city, and had a depth of 97 kilometers... Read More

Heavy Rain to Continue in Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay. A series of low pressure systems will traverse central South America bringing locally flooding rainfall to southeastern Brazil, northeastern Argentina and eastern Paraguay... Read More

Interesting Facts

Landslide prediction tool uses fibre-optic sensors. Sensors embedded in soil detect small movements over wide areas... Read More

What's new in Disaster Risk Reduction?

Ministries of health seek to strengthen coordination of humanitarian assistance in emergencies and disasters. Representatives of ministries of health in the Americas adopted a plan of action to improve coordination of international humanitarian assistance during emergencies and disasters, in order to facilitate a timely, effective response and save lives... Read More

Peru: 5.1 Earthquake. Cusco’s Regional Health Authority (Diresa) mobilized two health brigades to Paruro Province; in addition a health care tent was installed in the village of Miska and ambulances were mobilized to area affected by the earthquake of 27 September. The brigades include doctors, psychologists, nurses and technicians, and they brought tents and medicine to the affected area to provide health care and psycosocial support to the population. Also, monitoring of environmental risk will be conducted... Read More