Saturday, January 30, 2010

News from Viet Nam

VietNamNet Bridge – The A/H5N1 virus is reportedly spreading among flocks in the central province of Ha Tinh and the southern province of Ca Mau.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Diep Kinh Tan said every effort must be made to stop the epidemic, otherwise it would surely spread to other provinces in the Mekong Delta, especially since this is a time of migration.

So far, more than 3,300 poultry birds in Ca Mau province and nearly 700 in Ha Tinh province have been incinerated. Dam Xuan Thanh, Deputy Head of the MARD’s Animal Health Department, said that most of the infected poultry had not received vaccinations.

Tan said the department should cooperate with local authorities to find a way to stamp out the virus.

Meanwhile, Ha Tinh’s vice chairman Tran Minh Ky said that the province has set up check-points to prevent the transportation and slaughtering of poultry flocks in areas hit by bird flu.

Ky said that the province’s poultry flocks would continue to be vaccinated. However, households need to cooperate with authorities and inform them about their poultry so that they can receive timely vaccinations.

Trinh Van Thuan, who owns the largest bird-flu contaminated duck flock in Thanh Quy commune, Ha Tinh province, said his birds also tested positive for the virus.

Nguyen Van Nuoi, head of the Contagious Disease Department at Ha Tinh General Hospital, said that just after the outbreak of avian flu in the province, health officers had started identifying people who had had direct contact with flu-infected birds, so that they could receive testing and treatment.

VietNamNet Bridge – The biggest casino in the country to date opened in the central city of Da Nang on Tuesday.

The casino is part of a major international resort in the coastal city.

The European-style casino occupies 15,000 square meters in the Silver Shores Da Nang resort, which has 548 5-star hotel rooms, 52 high-end villas facing the sea and a 20-hectare international conference center that can host 1,000 people.

It targets tourists from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Silver Shores is a joint venture that invested US$160 million in the resort at Khe My Ward in Ngu Hanh Son District.

Construction at the resort started in 2006.

China South Airlines has arranged two flights every Wednesday and Saturday to bring people from Guangzhou to the resort.

Silver Shores also plans to open an airline from Shanghai to Da Nang three months later.

Only people with foreign visas are allowed to enter casinos in Vietnam, including expats and overseas Vietnamese.

Friday, January 29, 2010

China sea levels reach record high

The sea level in China late last year hit a record high for the past three decades, threatening the safety of thousands of people in the coastal areas, the national ocean agency said yesterday.

The average rise in sea level for the past three decades occurred at a rate of 2.6 mm a year, much higher than the average rate of 1.7 mm annually across the world, a report on the sea-level rise in China for 2009 released by the State Oceanic Administration (SOA) showed.

“Last year, the sea level was 8 mm higher than 2008 with the rise in sea level in Hainan Province reaching 113 mm, the highest across the country,” Lin Shanqing, director of forecast and disaster relief department of the SOA, said yesterday.

Extreme weather like high temperatures and monsoons play an important role in the rise in sea level, Lin said.

In mid August last year, high temperatures hit most parts of southern China, causing the sea level in September to become about 180 mm higher than the previous year and pushing the oceanic temperature to 28.5 C, the second highest record in the past three decades, the report showed.

Experts estimate that the sea level, along the country’s coastal areas, will keep rising and a maximum of 130 mm a year is very possible in the next three decades.

In order to avoid the possible damage caused by the rise in sea level such as storm tides, coastal erosion, seawater encroachment and soil salinization, officials from the SOA suggested authorities of coastal cities improve sea level monitoring systems and take the impact of the rise in sea level into account when making plans for economic development.

“The Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta, the Yellow River Delta and coastal areas of Tianjin are the country’s most economically developed regions and are potential areas that could suffer from the impact of the rise in sea level,” Xu Sheng, director of the National Marine Data and Information Service, told China Daily.

“Local authorities of the coastal areas should build higher dams and take environmental protection measures to slow down the rise of the sea level,” Xu said.

For island countries such as the Maldives, a sea-level rise of only 1 m is a matter of life and death.

More than 70 percent of the world’s population live on coastal plains and 11 of the world’s 15 largest cities are on the coast or estuaries.

Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said in Copenhagen on Dec 7 last year that the goal of keeping global temperature increases below 2 C this century would lead to a sea-level rise of 0.4 to 1.4 m. Add on the effect of melting of snow and ice and several small island states and Bangladesh will be submerged.

A number of experts at Oxford University also predicted that a rise of at least 2m in the world’s sea level is now almost unstoppable due to man-made greenhouse gas emission, unless the planet is cooled.

Sea ice scourge to melt in March

The worst sea ice in three decades on China’s eastern coast is expected to melt in March, a senior official from the national ocean agency said yesterday.

“So far, about 35 percent of the water in the Bohai Sea has been covered with ice, about 16 percent less than the peak in mid-January,” said Lin Shanqing, director of the forecast and disaster relief department of the State Oceanic Administration (SOA).

But transportation departments should pay extreme attention to security during the ice-melting season in late February and early March, during which floating ice will endanger passing ships, he said.

The thick ice has been threatening shipping and the livelihoods of fishermen on the country’s eastern coast since late last year and the SOA issued warnings for sea ice on January 13 to avoid any further damage caused by it.

The worst sea ice in 40 years in the Bohai and Yellow seas in early January could cause more than 2.2 billion yuan (US$323 million) of economic losses in Shandong province. Oil giant Sinopec has also closed six of its eight drilling rigs in the Shengli oilfield due to the thick ice, Xinhua reported.

Wang Hui, deputy-director of the National Marine Environmental Forecasting Center, told China Daily that the sea ice this winter occurred about one month earlier and has influenced most ocean areas.

But exact economic losses caused by the sea ice are still being studied, Wang said.

Marine disasters in China last year left 95 people dead or missing with a direct economic loss of more than 10 billion yuan, a report on marine disasters last year released by the SOA yesterday showed.

Disasters such as storm surges, extreme waves, sea ice and red tides occurred 132 times, and the number was lower than the past, said Li Haiqing, spokesperson for the SOA.

Guangdong province was also hit by a storm surge eight times last year, with a direct economic loss of nearly 4 billion yuan, the report showed.

Climate Justice Now ! - Call for “sytem change, not climate change”

Call for “system change not climate change” unites global movement
Corrupt Copenhagen ‘accord’ exposes gulf between peoples demands and elite interests

The highly anticipated UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen ended with a fraudulent agreement, engineered by the United States and dropped into the conference at the last moment. The “agreement” was not adopted. Instead, it was “noted” in an absurd parliamentary invention designed to accommodate the United States and permit Ban Ki-moon to utter the ridiculous pronouncement “We have a deal.”

The UN conference was unable to deliver solutions to the climate crisis, or even minimal progress toward them. Instead, the talks were a complete betrayal of impoverished nations and island states, producing embarrassment for the United Nations and the Danish government. In a conference designed to limit greenhouse gas emissions there was very little talk of emission reductions. Rich, developed countries continued to delay any talk of deep and binding cuts, instead shifting the burden to less developed countries and showing no willingness to make reparations for the damage they have caused.

The Climate Justice Now! coalition, alongside other networks, was united here at COP15 in the call for System Change, Not Climate Change. In contrast, the Copenhagen climate conference itself demonstrated that real solutions, as opposed to false, market-based solutions, will not be adopted until we overcome the existing unjust political and economic system.

Government and corporate elites here in Copenhagen made no attempt to satisfy the expectations of the world. False solutions and corporations completely co-opted the United Nations process. The global elite would like to privatize the atmosphere through carbon markets; carve up the remaining forests, bush and grasslands of the world through the violation of Indigenous Peoples’ rights and land-grabbing; promote high-risk technologies to restructure the climate; convert real forests into monoculture tree plantations and agricultural soils into carbon sinks; and complete the enclosure and privatisation of the commons. Virtually every proposal discussed in Copenhagen was based on a desire to create opportunities for profit rather than to reduce emissions, and even the small amounts of financing promised could end up paying for the transfer of risky technologies.

The only discussions of real solutions in Copenhagen took place in social movements. Climate Justice Now!, Climate Justice Action and Klimaforum09 articulated many creative ideas and attempted to deliver those ideas to the UN Climate Change Conference through the Klimaforum09 People’s Declaration and the Reclaim Power People’s Assembly. Among nations, the ALBA countries, many African nations and AOSIS often echoed the messages of the climate justice movement, speaking of the need to repay climate debt, create mitigation and adaptation funds outside of neoliberal institutions such as the World Bank and IMF, and keep global temperature increase below 1.5 degrees.

The UN and the Danish government served the interests of the rich, industrialized countries, excluding our voices and the voices of the least powerful throughout the world, and attempting to silence our demands to talk about real solutions. Nevertheless, our voices grew stronger and more united day by day during the two-week conference. As we grew stronger, the mechanisms implemented by the UN and the Danish authorities for the participation of civil society grew more dysfunctional, repressive and undemocratic, very much like the WTO and Davos.

Social movement participation was limited throughout the conference, drastically curtailed in week two, and several civil society organizations even had their admission credentials revoked midway through the second week. At the same time, corporations continued lobbying inside the Bella Center.

Outside the conference,the Danish police extended the repressive framework, launching a massive clampdown on the right to free expression and arresting and beating thousands, including civil society delegates to the climate conference. Our movement overcame this repression to raise our voices in protest over and over again. Our demonstrations, organised together with Danish trade unions, movements and NGOs, mobilized more than 100,000 people in Denmark to press for climate justice, while social movements around the world mobilized hundreds of thousands more in local climate justice demonstrations. In spite of repression by the Danish government and exclusion by the United Nations, the movement for system change not climate change is now stronger than when we arrived in Denmark.

While Copenhagen has been a disaster for just and equitable climate solutions, it has been an inspiring watershed moment in the battle for climate justice. The governments of the elite have no solutions to offer, but the climate justice movement has provided strong vision and clear alternatives. Copenhagen will be remembered as an historic event for global social movements. It will be remembered, along with Seattle and Cancun, as a critical moment when the diverse agendas of many social movements coalesced and became stronger, asking in one voice for system change, not climate change.

The Climate Justice Now! coalition calls for social movements around the world to mobilize in support of climate justice.

We will take our struggle forward not just in climate talks, but on the ground and in the streets, to promote genuine solutions that include:

- leaving fossil fuels in the ground and investing instead in appropriate energy-efficiency and safe, clean and community-led renewable energy
- radically reducing wasteful consumption, first and foremost in the North, but also by Southern elites
- huge financial transfers from North to South, based on reparations for climate debts and subject to democratic control. The costs of adaptation and mitigation should be paid for by redirecting military budgets, progressive and innovative taxes, and debt cancellation
- rights-based resource conservation that enforces Indigenous land rights and promotes peoples’ sovereignty over energy, forests, land and water
- sustainable family farming and fishing, and peoples’ food sovereignty.

We are committed to building a diverse movement – locally and globally – for a better world.

Climate Justice Now!
Copenhagen,19 December 2009
www.climate-justice-now.org

Reconstruction in Thua Thien Hue after Ketsana Cyclone

The programme funded by “Action Humanitaire France” and CARE has been lauched in Phu An Commune (District Phu Vang, Province Thua THien Hue) on the 28th January 2010
Contents : Reconstruction - reinforcement of 50 houses in 2 Communes; construction of a dyke to protect one village from the lagoon; support to 250 families for livelihood recovery.

MYANMAR: Slow funding hits Nargis recovery

YANGON, 28 January 2010 (IRIN) - Poor funding support for recovery efforts after Cyclone Nargis has left hundreds of thousands in Myanmar vulnerable, many without durable shelters to withstand further disasters, the UN says.
The category four storm struck Myanmar’s Yangon and Ayeyarwady divisions in May 2008, killing at least 140,000 and affecting 2.4 million people.
It prompted an appeal for US$691 million for the Post Nargis Recovery and Preparedness Plan (PONREPP) from 2009 to 2011.
Bishow Parajuli, the UN Resident Representative and Humanitarian Coordinator in Myanmar, said funding for initial relief efforts from donors had been generous, but painted a different picture for recovery activities.
“The international support for the recovery has been low, or lower than expected,” Parajuli told IRIN in an interview.
“I wish there was much more of a response. The flow has not been as we had been hoping for,” he added.
In November last year, donors pledged more than $88 million after an appeal for $103 million to cover critical recovery needs. To date, more than $90.4 million has been committed and some additional commitments by donors are expected.
The appeal was part of the original $691 million amount for the PONREPP released in December 2008.
Parajuli praised donors for their commitment to recovery efforts, but noted that some of the pledges in November were reconfirmations of previous support, rather than new pledges.
Read more
Funding shortfall hits Nargis survivors
Rats gnaw at cyclone recovery hopes
Daw Aye Kwe, “I have been fishing since I was seven”
Cyclone-affected fishermen still need help
What if another Cyclone Nargis comes?
“Some of it has already been delivered and used, some [funds] are coming now and others are due to come. So it is really difficult, frankly, to pin down, to say how much has actually been delivered. But in any case, the amount only covers the most critical needs.”
In total, $215 million has been committed since the appeal was released, which is now trickling down to the population in the Nargis-affected areas. 
Adding to the challenge is Myanmar’s domestic political situation, which makes it among the lowest recipients in the world of overseas development assistance.
“The number of donors supporting Myanmar is limited,” said Parajuli.
Shelter least funded
Nearly 800,000 homes were destroyed or damaged by Cyclone Nargis, leaving only 16,000 houses or 2 percent intact, according to the PONREPP.
UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) data shows that as of mid-January 2010, nearly 160,000 households had yet to receive shelter assistance of any sort, and were living in makeshift shelter such as tents.
Parajuli said good progress had been made in funding for health and education, but shelter was the least supported, making it the area “of largest concern for the humanitarian community”.
Out of $88 million pledged, only $500,000 is allocated for shelter.
Many Nargis survivors rebuilt their homes after the devastation with temporary material, so they are not sturdy enough even to survive smaller storms, he said.
“People are vulnerable. And as much as there are various preventative measures done by building cyclone shelters, or cyclone shelters cum schools and all these things, at the end of the day every human being needs shelter,” said Parajuli.

Photo: Contributor/IRIN
At least 140,000 lost their lives in the May 2008 disaster
Low investment

According to Srinivasa Popuri, head of UN-HABITAT in Myanmar, between $4,000 and $5,000 had been spent on each home rebuilt in the 2004 Asian tsunami-affected countries such as Indonesia and Sri Lanka, using bricks and concrete.
By contrast, in Myanmar, donors provided an average $400 to rebuild a house.
To date, only 30,938 houses have been rebuilt by the UN and NGOs, and another 30,000 have been built by the government at a cost of $1,200-$1,500, according to UN-HABITAT.
“Obviously the level invested in shelter has been much lower, so obviously, you expect a similar level of outcome and results,” said Popuri.
Parajuli said more funding was also needed for livelihood assistance as Nargis damaged or destroyed paddy crops, fishing gear and commercial enterprises.
“[People] need income opportunities. They need jobs, they need employment, they need boats and fishing nets,” he said.
“The agricultural sector is extremely short of cash [and] credit and the farmers don’t have money to employ people as they used to. In the absence of that, they can’t give jobs to those who used to look for employment.”

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Integrated river basin management for effective flood risk reduction - Thua Thien Hue Viet Nam

The main author Phong V Tran starts working with DWF in Hue in 2000-2003, before studying abroad (Haway & Japan) for Master & Ph.d. Now consultant for UN ISDR.

This book describes innovative findings of integrated river basin management with specific emphasis on flood risk reduction. It also presents the method and application of the participatory GIS and remote sensing for disaster risk assessment, which is one of the pioneering approaches in the field of flood risk and river basin management. An integrated model for flood risk reduction developed in this book can be applicable to other regions with similar context.

This book’s original research tackles the issue of how people at community level deal with severely increased disaster impacts, and how the larger macro political economy encounters this dilemma phenomenon, and the options for amelioration within the context of developing countries.

The book has three main topics: (i) it examines the disaster and environment linkages at local context, (ii) it analyzes the common perceptions and scientific evidences of those linkages; and (iii) it assesses the impact of the disaster on environment and socio-economy and recommend the solutions to sustainably reduce the adverse disaster impacts.

It is intended for researchers, undergraduate and postgraduate students in both developed and developing countries, practitioners, policy makers, particularly in the fields of natural resource management and disaster risk reduction, NGOs, professionals, practitioners and the local governments.

Table of contents:

Chapter 1. Introduction
Chapter 2. Disaster risk management literature review
Chapter 3. Disaster, environment and development linkages
Chapter 4. Context of disaster risk management in Viet Nam
Chapter 5. Context of Thua Thien Hue province
Chapter 6. DRR operation assessment
Chapter 7. Forest cover and catastrophic flood linkages
Chapter 8. Annual flood impact: issue in coastal areas
Chapter 9. Participatory flood risk mapping
Chapter 10. Discussion and conclusion

Visit publisher for more information [ext. link] http://www.rpsonline.com.sg/books/irbm_cont.html
View flyer [PDF 881.53 KB] http://www.preventionweb.net/files/12410_IRBMbookflyer1.pdf

Haiti: IOM and partners deal with emergency shelter whilst looking to longer term solutions

Source: International Organization for Migration (IOM)

Date: 27 Jan 2010

IOM and its partners working on providing emergency shelter assistance to victims of Haiti’s earthquake are rushing to distribute their stocks of tarpaulins and plastic sheeting until sufficient numbers of family-sized tents can be brought into the country.

An estimated 900,000 to 1.1 million people are believed to be in acute need of emergency shelter assistance in Haiti, according to assessment data compiled by IOM and its partners, the vast majority of them in the capital, Port-au-Prince.

In an effort to tackle the complex challenge of immediately assisting such large numbers of people whilst ensuring adequate shelter protection is available in the coming months when the rainy and hurricane seasons arrive, IOM and its partners in Haiti are focusing on distributing tens of thousands of tarpaulins and plastic sheets to improve shelter conditions for those made homeless until more tents arrive in the country.

These tents would be used to shelter homeless families at new settlement sites and to improve living conditions at hundreds of makeshift settlements that have mushroomed in Port-au-Prince and in urban areas in other affected towns and villages in the country.

“Tents are a three-five month option in the midst of the dry season. But emergency and transitional shelter solutions sufficiently durable to last at least two years need to be found before the heavy rains arrive in a few months,” said Vincent Houver, IOM Chief of Mission in Haiti.

This would allow some time for reconstruction and recovery efforts to be put in place.

A shelter strategy devised by IOM and partners comprising 55 organizations including the UN and local and international non-governmental organizations and donors and shared with the donor community in Haiti, is stressing the need, however, to minimize displacement away from existing homes where it is safe to do so.

A major challenge is, nevertheless, how to allow people to remain close to their former homes and communities when the scale of the need is such that it will be necessary to create a limited number of temporary settlements outside of Port-au-Prince, although this is recognized as a last resort.

Past crises have shown that although the pressure to act quickly to provide safe shelter is high, the creation of large temporary settlements away from communities and livelihood opportunities have proved to create dependencies, social problems, insecurity and inhibit long-term recovery.

Another challenge facing the government and the humanitarian community is in finding safe and sufficiently open spaces to establish transitional settlements in dense urban areas and in providing security at makeshift sites.

However, organized transitional settlements not exceeding 10,000 people would allow for government ministries and humanitarian partners to design and deliver comprehensive and coordinated services such as water and sanitation, health, food, education and protection.

Meanwhile, IOM is working with the French NGO ACTED to prepare a settlement site at Tabarre in Port-au-Prince for a maximum of 3,500 people with the support of engineers from another NGO, Engineering Ministries International (EMI), and in coordination with the Haitian Prime Minister’s Office.

Yesterday, 25 boy and girl scouts of Tabarre volunteered to help put up the first tents, while pits for latrines and water evacuation were being dug. Today, trucks of gravel will be brought in and latrine tanks will be installed. IOM and ACTED are aiming to finish the site by the end of the week.

Islamic Relief UK has also been working to improve living conditions for 864 people at a makeshift site at St Claire in the Delmas 33 neighbourhood. People now have tents and access to water and sanitation with the British NGO also providing medical check-ups and other non-food assistance to every family.

IOM and partners are seeking to reach about 200,000 families (one million people) with shelter and non-food assistance.

In response to an initial appeal launched on 15 January and which will be shortly revised to better reflect the scale of needs in the country, the Organization had asked for US$ 30 million to provide emergency shelter and non-food assistance and to establish a cash-for-work programme that would include rubble removal.

IOM has so far received pledges totalling USD 19.6 million from the US government (OFDA/USAID), Sweden, Canada, France, Finland, Korea, the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), the Clinton Foundation and Argos Cement Company of Colombia to support ongoing relief operations and future rebuilding efforts.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

‘Bloodied’ Haiti and donors look at recovery plans

* Relocation of quake survivors could start this week

* PM says Haiti will need 5-10 years of world help

* Foreign donors plan aid pledging conference in March (Updates with food disturbance, Clinton on pledges, IMF spokeswoman, port status)

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Jan 25 (Reuters) - Haiti could start relocating homeless earthquake survivors from its ruined capital this week, but it will need at least five to 10 years of international help to rebuild from the catastrophe, the government said on Monday.

Appealing for long-term support from foreign donors meeting in Montreal, Canada, Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive told them his people had been “bloodied, martyred and ruined” by the Jan. 12 quake that killed up to 200,000 and left hundreds of thousands more Haitians injured and homeless.

Bellerive thanked the world community for its help so far, but said “more and more and more” was needed to rebuild a fragile Caribbean state that even before the quake was the poorest in the Western Hemisphere.

“What we’re looking for is a long-term commitment ... At least five to 10 years,” he said.

As the huge relief operation for Haiti turned from rescue to recovery, authorities were trying to relocate at least 400,000 survivors—now sheltering in more than 400 sprawling makeshift camps across Port-au-Prince—in temporary tent villages outside the wrecked city.

“We have to evacuate the streets and relocate the people,” Communications Minister Marie Laurence Jocelyn Lassegue said. “We hope we will be able to start at the end of the week.”

Health Minister Alex Larsen said 1 million Haitians had been displaced from their homes in the Port-au-Prince area. The government had tents for 400,000 to be used in the new, temporary settlements, but would need more.

Bellerive said President Rene Preval had called him to ask donors for an additional 200,000 tents. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and representatives of 10 other countries attended the Montreal donors’ meeting.

The group decided to hold an international pledging conference at U.N. headquarters in New York in March.

“We actually think it’s a novel idea to do the needs assessment first, and then the planning, and then the pledging,” Clinton said at a closing news conference.

REBUILDING RAVAGED CAPITAL

Almost daily aftershocks have shaken Port-au-Prince since the quake, raising the possibility the city might have to be rebuilt on a safer location, away from geological fault lines.

“In 30 seconds, Haiti lost 60 percent of its GDP,” Bellerive said, referring to the concentration of commerce and people in the capital. “So we must decentralize.”

Nearly two weeks after the magnitude-7.0 quake demolished swaths of Port-au-Prince and other cities, the huge U.S.-led international relief operation is struggling to feed, house and care for hundreds of thousands of hungry, homeless survivors, many of them injured.

Facing persistent complaints by desperate survivors that tons of aid flown in was not reaching them on the ground, U.S. troops, U.N. peacekeepers and aid workers have widened and intensified the distribution of food and water.

Some of the food handouts in the capital have turned unruly, forcing U.N. peacekeepers and Haitian police to fire shots in the air to restore order. [ID:nN25143068]

At a tent camp outside the wrecked presidential palace on Monday, desperate Haitians pushed through a cordon of Uruguayan U.N. peacekeepers to grab at sacks of beans on a truck.

The U.N. troops fired riot-control shotguns into the air and sprayed Mace from canisters before they eventually dumped the sacks on the ground and let the Haitians jostle for them.

In the debris-strewn streets of Port-au-Prince, U.S. Army troops traveling in Humvees fanned out carrying doctors, food and water to some of the survivors’ camps.

At the Saint Louis high school, where refugees camped out in makeshift tents and huts, U.S. medics attended long lines of injured Haitians, many of them children.

“We’re driving around, letting people know we’re here to help. We’ve treated 200 people today,” said Lieutenant Larry West of the U.S. 82nd Airborne.

At Titayen, on a plain about six miles (10 km) north of the capital, trucks were still arriving daily bringing bodies for burial in a mass grave.

MOVING PORT-AU-PRINCE?

Canadian Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon told the Montreal meeting that donors stood ready to help, but basic questions about the recovery strategy first needed be thrashed out.

“There’s the question, for example, of whether we’ll rebuild on the present site of Port-au-Prince,” Cannon told CBC television, citing the threat of future quakes.

Haitian authorities said last week they initially planned to move, with the aid of foreign partners, a first wave of 100,000 survivors to tent villages of 10,000 each at Croix Des Bouquets, just northeast of Port-au-Prince.

An International Monetary Fund official said in Montreal restarting business and encouraging lending was a priority.

Haiti’s trade minister said the quake had eliminated one in five jobs in the country.

Essential for both delivery of aid and resumption of commerce is reopening the port of Port-au-Prince. Authorities working to reopen the port said it would be able to handle as many as 700 containers a day by mid-February.

Before the quake hit, the IMF, the World Bank and several lending nations had already forgiven a great deal of Haiti’s debt, simply on the grounds of need.

The IMF chief has proposed a Marshall Plan-type reconstruction effort for Haiti.

“We should seize this opportunity to build the foundation and infrastructure of the country better and stronger than it was before,” IMF official Caroline Atkinson said in Montreal.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Cyclones in 2009 - North West Pacific

Saturday, January 23, 2010

HAITI: After emergency funding - recovery

DAKAR, 22 January 2010 (IRIN) - Donor governments, individuals and corporations have responded swiftly and generously to the Haiti earthquake, but funding experts are concerned donors will pour resources into emergency relief at the expense of recovery.

So far donors have funded 35 percent of the UN’s US$562-million flash appeal, although $952 million has been pledged. But the early recovery sector of the appeal still has no contributions.

Too often donors channel their contributions to immediate relief operations without due consideration to medium- and long-term recovery and rehabilitation, Ben Ramalingam, head of research and development at NGO accountability network ALNAP, told IRIN.

Recovery efforts such as building medium-term shelters and re-establishing people’s livelihoods must start during the relief phase, Ramalingam said.

Over the longer term, aid agencies and governments must aim to “build back better”, said Brendan Gormley, head of the UK NGO fundraising network, the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC). This involves revising building codes and improving building standards, requiring a lot of resources over a long time, he said.

Head of external relations at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in New York, Shoko Arakaki, reflected the views of most people IRIN spoke to when she said existing financing mechanisms failed to meet such needs. 

“Recovery-wise, we are too far behind… Coordination mechanisms are not in place to be able to respond properly on an effective, timely basis,” she said.

“Everyone knows this and everyone talks about it, but there is no concrete idea to change the system.” 

A shift?

But donors increasingly debate how to improve recovery funding mechanisms after crises, said the UN’s Robert Smith, head of the consolidated appeals section in OCHA.

The revised UN flash appeal for Haiti, due out in one month, is likely to focus more heavily on recovery funds, he said. Meanwhile the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have each committed $100 million in grants for both the emergency and reconstruction phases, and the IMF is working towards external debt relief for Haiti.

In addition, DEC trustees are to meet soon to decide whether the current funding period for using DEC funds – roughly a third within the first six months, the rest within two years – should be extended to a post-earthquake scenario, where rebuilding can take years, according to Gormley.

“Leaving communities more secure and more able to cope with future shocks is the guidance we give,” he said. “But it is up to members to decide how they channel their funds.”

Relief funding “improved”

Emergency relief fundraising for Haiti is going relatively well so far. “In each crisis we have seen improvements,” Arakaki told IRIN. “Relief funding is much improved since the 2004 tsunami and 2005 Pakistan earthquake.”

Within three days of the Haiti quake, the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) had allocated $25 million, CERF secretariat head Steve O’Malley told IRIN.

Private donors and individuals reportedly contributed 18 percent of the overall committed funds. 

But there is no room for complacency. “Donors now need to be fast to convert their pledges to specific commitments to the organizations that have come together in the flash appeal,” said Smith.

“Agencies are spending as though money is no object but they don’t have deep pockets of reserves, and it will become an [issue] soon.”

See also :

alnap-provention-lessons-urban.pdf

UNISDR calls for long-term measures to rebuild a safer Haiti

It has now been more than a week since two catastrophic earthquakes struck Haiti, leaving much of the Capital city Port-au-Prince and surroundings totally devastated. Haiti had no chance and could not have been prepared for a disaster of this magnitude.

Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world with a nominal GDP of 7.018 billion USD in 2009, which represents a per capita GDP of only 790 USD annually or about $2 per person per day. The illiteracy rate stands at 50%, and just 40% of Haiti’s population has access to basic health care according to the United Nations Human Development Index (2006).

Years of conflicts, political instability and recurrent disasters such as cyclones, floods and mudslides have weakened Haiti’s already low capacity to invest in the long-term safety of its citizens.

The entire international community, including the UN are doing their utmost to assist the Haitian Government and the millions of people who have been affected by the tragedy, and are helping to push forward the relief and recovery process.

The United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) will pursue the work it started earlier this year with Bill Clinton, the UN Special Envoy for Haiti, to make the country more resilient to future disasters. The disaster risk reduction tools developed over the years, such as the Hyogo Framework for Action, adopted by 168 governments in Japan in 2005 to reduce disaster risks, are ready for action in the coming reconstruction phase.

“We shall continue working with the Haitian Government and other partners to help rebuild a safer Haiti. Hopefully, no new hospital, school or public structure will be built without integrating disaster risk reduction principles into its design and construction. Disaster risk reduction is the best investment that nations and communities can make to reduce future disaster impacts and protect their people and assets,” said Margareta Wahlström, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction.

From 2006-2009, the UNISDR ran campaigns on safer hospitals and schools to raise awareness about these important issues. When a hospital collapses it creates a double disaster. Schools and hospitals must be resilient to earthquakes and storms in order to protect people and allow medical services to operate in the time of greatest need when disasters strike.

Poverty and weak institutional capacities were identified as major drivers of disaster risk by the Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction, released last year in Bahrain. “Haiti is a prime example of how these two factors can convert a natural hazard into a major disaster,” said Margareta Wahlström.

The principal causes of destruction and death in Haiti were construction on unstable land and collapsing buildings. The problems with building construction were not just a lack of seismic building standards but the inadequate standards of construction to resist the risks that are common in Haiti such as hurricanes, floods and mudslides.

Haiti’s burden is heavy, but there is also a new opportunity today to engage with the international community that is genuinely supportive, to plan a determined reconstruction effort that will ensure its long-term safety and stability. The UNISDR will promote and contribute to the recovery process using its expertise and networks to ensure an effective risk reduction approach.

http://www.unisdr.org

Monday, January 18, 2010

Le Vietnam contre les sites Web d’opposants

Une série de procès de militants pour la démocratie est prévue la semaine prochaine au Vietnam communiste, où la communauté occidentale dénonce un tour de vis politique. Sur le banc des accusés doivent se retrouver un informaticien-blogueur formé en France, Nguyen Tien Trung, et un avocat, Le Cong Dinh, connu pour sa défense de confrères militants des droits de l’homme, ainsi que deux autres militants, Le Thang Long et Tran Huynh Duy Thuc.

Tous sont accusés de “tentative de subversion du régime”, un crime passible de la peine de mort, et de liens avec une organisation illégale, le Parti démocratique du Vietnam. Un autre activiste, Tran Anh Kim, arrêté en même temps qu’eux, a déjà été condamné à cinq ans et demi de prison. Les cinq militants avaient à l’origine été appréhendés pour “propagande” contre le régime, charge uniquement passible de prison.

A partir de lundi, doivent aussi se tenir les procès en appel de neuf autres militants condamnés en première instance à des peines de deux à six ans de prison pour “propagande” contre le régime. Ces militants sont accusés d’avoir déployé des banderoles pro-démocratie, dénonçant parfois les ambitions territoriales régionales chinoises, et pour certains d’avoir distribué des tracts et diffusé leurs opinions sur Internet.

HARCÈLEMENT DES AUTEURS DE SITES CRITIQUES

Si la répression contre les militants des droits de l’homme s’est durcie ces derniers mois au Vietnam, à l’approche du prochain congrès du Parti communiste prévu l’an prochain, c’est plus particulièrement le Web qui semble être dans le collimateur des autorités. Alors que la presse est étroitement contrôlée par le gouvernement, Internet reste l’un des seuls canaux où peuvent circuler les critiques contre le régime et contre son allié idéologique, la Chine.

Cette semaine encore, ont été entendus par la police à Hanoï les fondateurs d’un site Internet en pointe dans la critique de grands projets de mines de bauxite dans les hauts plateaux du centre, qui impliquent aussi la Chine, via des technologies ou investissements. Le chercheur Nguyen Hue Chi, rédacteur en chef du site Bauxite Vietnam, a été convoqué à trois reprises et son ordinateur saisi, selon son collègue Pham Toan, également interrogé. “Leur intention est de fermer notre site”, estime-t-il.

Les fondateurs du site sont à l’origine d’une pétition contre les projets de mines, signée par nombre d’intellectuels. Les risques dénoncés portent sur l’environnement mais aussi sur la sécurité nationale : dans un pays où le souvenir du millénaire d’occupation chinoise reste vif, certains craignent une mainmise de Pékin sur une région-clé.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Viet Nam: Storm-hit residents face uphill battle

Vietnam’s central region suffers annually from a torrent of violent weather but despite gallant efforts to rebuild lives, it seems there is always another disaster just around the corner. When natural disasters strike, the country mourns together and works to rebuild communities. But sadly, the heroic efforts are often short-lived.

Ten years has passed since the historic floods of November 1999 that killed more than 1,000 central region residents and caused VND5.4 trillion (US$292 million) in damages.

Nguyen Ty Nien, former head of the Department for Dyke Management and Flood and Storm Control said that within one month, two severe floods wiped out 52,000 homes in the province of Quang Nam that year.

Residents say that even after a decade, they are still shocked by the devastation.

A 74-year-old woman named Nguyen Thi Na said it was the most terrible flooding she had ever seen. Rain fell for days on end and her village was completely inundated by water.

At twilight one evening, the villagers heard a loud roaring from the riverbanks. It was the sound of landslides thundering down the banks, destroying everything in their path. Residents fled to the hilltops where they watched helplessly as rushing water wiped out their village of 300 homes.

The same month, a deluge also eliminated Hoa Duan Village behind Hai Van Mountain Pass in Thua Thien-Hue Province. In one night, 64 houses and 14 people were swept away.

Resident Tran Van Thu’s family suffered a loss of 12 members. It was noon on November 2, 1999, he recalls, and water had begun to flood into his village. Concerned for his wife and three children, he brought them to his parents’ home, which he believed to be safer.

After dropping them off, he returned home to keep watch on the house.

Later that afternoon, the water began to rise faster and soon flashfloods had overwhelmed the entire village. He managed to row a boat to his parents’ house, but it had been completely submerged. He was forced to swim and hang on to an electric cable to stay afloat.

It wasn’t until midnight that border army officials were able to rescue the exhausted man.

He says he lost consciousness after subsequently learning that 12 of his family members, including his parents, wife, children and brothers, had been swept away.

Ten years later on November 3, 2009, another flood destroyed a well-off hamlet called Truong on the bank of the Ky Lo River in Phu Yen Province.

The floods killed 18 people with four of them from Vo Ra’s family. The hamlet is being rebuilt in a new location, but residents will never forget the pain and trauma of the disaster.

A year to build, a day to destroy

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, over the last 50 years severe storms have battered every province in the central region. Serious floods usually follow the storms causing further destruction.

Over the past decade, natural disasters have caused an average loss of 1.5 percent a year to the country’s GDP.

Ngo Yen Thi, former secretary of the Thua Thien-Hue Province Party Committee said the floods of 1999 caused the province VND1.8 trillion in damages and killed 352 people. After 24 years of developing the province, it was nearly devastated.

When lives are lost and homes are destroyed, the country mourns together and works to rebuild communities. But sadly, the heroic efforts are often short-lived

Mr. Thi says he’ll never forget people in the mountainous district of Nam Dong picking rubber-tree branches in tears in 2006, because after 10 years of cultivating over 700 hectares of the trees, Typhoon Xangsane had turned them into nothing more than firewood.

The typhoon caused a staggering VND18.5 trillion (US$1 billion) in losses. The eye of the storm hit Danang city and within an hour, nearly VND5.3 trillion (US$286 million) worth of damage had been caused. It was almost equal to the total amount of the city’s GDP for the entire year.

This year in the impoverished neighboring province of Quang Nam, hardworking citizens had achieved a GDP of VND4.1 trillion (US$222 million) in the first six months. However, the storms and floods of September have now swallowed nearly VND3.5 trillion.

During a trip to provide relief to residents in Quang Nam, Danang, and Thua Thien-Hue, where Typhoon Ketsana hit in late September this year, Sai Gon Giai Phong reporters said hundreds of lives had been devastated.

Many families were forced to hang the coffins of dead relatives using rope for up to a week because there was nowhere to bury them in the deluge.

Subsequent landslides led to starvation and thirst for many living in remote areas as supply vehicles were unable to residents for nearly a month.

In the wake of the destruction, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Duc Phat said he did not know when the central region would make a full recovery.

Citizens work hard the entire year but can lose everything in a day after just one storm, said Mr. Phat.

According to experts, the central region will suffer even worse natural disasters in the future as global climate changes together with human activity intensify the storms’ devastating effects.

By staff writers � Translated by Hai Mien

Friday, January 15, 2010

Reconstruction dans la Province de Thua Thien Hué

I/ Présentation – Impact du Cyclone Ketsana

Le cyclone Ketsana (Cyclone N°9) est d’abord passé sur la partie nord des Philippines, causant des dommages massifs, en particulier dans la ville de Manille. Après s’être renforcé sur la Mer de Chine, le cyclone a atteint les cotes du centre Viet Nam le 29 septembre, avec le centre du cyclone à la frontière entre les provinces de Quang Nam et Quang Ngai.
Grâce à une alerte précoce dans la majeure partie des provinces touchées et au déplacement d’environ 200 000 personnes des zones les plus vulnérables vers des abris plus surs, le nombre de victimes directes a pu être réduit (mais s’élevant néanmoins à près de 180 personnes).
Le cyclone a créé des précipitations extrêmement importantes depuis deux jours avant l’impact direct, qui ont causé des inondations sévères sur une large zone s’étendant sur 5 provinces côtières et une province des hauts plateaux (population de 6 000 000 personnes).

Ce cyclone est considéré comme l’un des plus dévastateurs des dernières années au Viet Nam (Vent force 13 de 130 à 150 km/h un peu plus intense que le cyclone Xangsane à la même époque en 2006 ; et des inondations par endroit plus graves que l’inondation dévastatrice de 1999 dans cette région).
L’impact du cyclone est très fort tant sur la vie des habitants, leur habitat, leurs biens/réserves et leurs capacités productives, que pour les infrastructures collectives et économiques.
Le montant des dommages est estimé à 510 Millions €, ce qui représente un lourd tribut pour le Viet Nam (soit environ 1,2% du PNB).

Dans la province de Thua Thien Hué, les dommages estimés à 13 Millions €, comprenant   :

Victimes :
- 15 décès

Dégâts aux constructions :
- 375 maisons détruites
- 11 350 maisons endommagées
- 109 000 maisons inondées
- 201 bâtiments publics endommagés.

Dégâts aux moyens de production/survie :
- Champs avec boues, et/ou intrusion d’eau de mer
- Étangs de piscicultures
- Volailles et cochons tués – ressource économique primordiale pour beaucoup de familles
- Réserves de riz / germées non utilisables pour prochaine récolte (plantation en décembre - janvier)
- Filets de pêches installés dans la lagune.

Dégâts aux infrastructures :
- Routes et canaux d’irrigation

II/ Situation après le cyclone

Secours immédiats
Dans la période immédiate après le cyclone, et malgré des situations parfois difficiles (inondations, routes coupées, réseau électrique endommagé pendant plus d’une semaine), les autorités vietnamiennes et la Croix Rouge, avec le concours d’organisations internationales de secours (comme la Croix Rouge Française), ont pu faire face aux besoins immédiats, principalement en nourriture, eau propre, et déplacement dans des maisons non endommagées. Des enquêtes détaillées ont été conduites pour évaluer les dommages et les besoins des populations les plus affectées. Des envois massifs ont pu être réalisés, couvrant ainsi les besoins immédiats.

Réhabilitation des maisons
Au niveau de l’habitat, l’appui à la reconstruction par les autorités pour les maisons endommagées dépend des dégâts, mais se limite à 11 Millions VN Dongs pour une maison détruite, un montant inadéquat pour réhabiliter la maison, sans parler de la rendre plus résistante contre la prochaine catastrophe .
Les familles avec une maison très endommagée ou détruite sont en général relogées chez des voisins ou relations. Pour une maison avec une toiture abimée, des réparations sommaires ou provisoires ont été faites.

Appui pour l’activité économique
Pour la plupart des familles rurales, les pertes ou destructions - détérioration de la maison et des instruments de productions (filets de pêches, étangs/réservoirs pour l’aquaculture, champs salinisés, volaille…) nécessite un réinvestissement important, mais sans ressources disponibles, il leur faudra emprunter dans le système formel ou informel.
Il y a certes un peu d’appui officiel (par exemple fourniture de semence ou report des emprunts bancaires) mais limité.
La phase de réhabilitation sera longue dans beaucoup de cas (6 mois, ou plus dans le cas de pertes d’investissement productif).
Le retour dans une phase de pauvreté est la conséquence directe de la vulnérabilité des familles aux catastrophes naturelles – si habituelles dans la région.

Conclusion
Après la phase d’urgence, la phase actuelle est de reconstruire le potentiel de vie, d’habiter, et de travailler des familles affectées par le cyclone Ketsana. Cette phase suppose un investissement dont beaucoup de familles ne disposent pas.
Il est proposé d’aider 250 familles, particulièrement éprouvées, et leur permettre de reprendre des activités productives normales, et 50 familles pour les aider à reconstruire un habitat sécurisé.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Tái xây dựng sau bão Ketsana ở tỉnh Thừa Thiên Huế

I/ Phần giới thiệu – Tác động của bão Ketsana

Bão Ketsana (Bão Số 9) bắt đầu đổ bộ vào miền Bắc của Philippines gây thiệt hại nặng nề, đặc biệt ở thành phố Manila. Ngày 29/09/2009, sau khi gia tăng cường độ trên biển Trung quốc bão đã đổ bộ vào bờ biển miền trung Việt Nam với tâm bão nằm ở các tỉnh Quảng Nam và Quảng Ngãi.
Nhờ vào việc cảnh báo sớm ở hầu hết các tỉnh chịu tác động trực tiếp của bão, và nhờ việc sơ tán khoảng 200 000 người khỏi khu vực xung yếu nhất đến nơi trú ẩn an toàn, mà số nạn nhân bị thiệt hại trực tiếp đã giảm hẳn (tuy nhiên con số thiệt hại về nhân mạng cũng lên đến gần 180 người).
Cơn bão đã gây ra mưa nhiều trong hai ngày trước khi tác động trực tiếp và gây lụt nghiêm trọng trên diện rộng đến 5 tỉnh vùng biển và một tỉnh cao nguyên (số dân bị ảnh hưởng là 6 000 000 người).

Đây là một trong những cơn bão được xem là có sức tàn phá lớn nhất kể từ những năm gần đây ở Việt Nam (sức gió cấp 13 từ 130 đến 150km/giờ, yếu hơn cơn bão Xangsane cùng kỳ năm 2006; lụt cục bộ lớn hơn trận lụt lớn năm 1999 ở tỉnh Thừa Thiên Huế.
Tác động của cơn bão này là rất lớn cả về tính mạng, nhà ở, tài sản/ lương thực dự trữ và khả năng sản xuất cũng như đối với cơ sở hạ tầng công cộng và kinh tế.
Tổng thiệt hại ước tính lên đến 510 triệu €, tương đương với phần ngân sách đóng góp đối với Việt Nam (khoảng 1,2% tổng thu nhập quốc dân).

Tại tỉnh Thừa Thiên Huế, tổng thiệt hại ước tính lên đến 13 triệu €, bao gồm   :

Các nạn nhân :
- 15 người chết

Các thiệt hại về công trình xây dựng :
- 375 nhà sập đổ
- 11 350 nhà bị hư hại
- 109 000 nhà bị ngập lụt
- 201 công trình công cộng bị hư hại

Các thiệt hại về phương tiện sản xuất/ điều kiện sinh nhai
- Ruộng ngập bùn hoặc bị nước biển xâm nhập
- Hồ cá
- Gia cầm và lợn chết – nguồn kinh tế quan trọng đối với nhiều hộ gia đình
- Lúa dự trữ lên mầm không thể sử dụng cho vụ tới (thường gieo cấy vào tháng 12-tháng 1)
- Lưới đánh bắt cá ở đầm phá

Các thiệt hại về cơ sở hạ tầng :
- Đường giao thông và kênh mương

II/ Tình hình sau bão

Ứng cứu khẩn cấp
Trong thời điểm khẩn cấp sau bão, mặc dù tình hình hết sức khó khăn (lụt, tắt đường, hệ thống điện hư hại trong hơn một tuần lễ), chính quyền các cấp của Việt Nam và Hội chữ thập đỏ, đã cùng với sự hỗ trợ của các tổ chức cứu trợ quốc tế (như Hội chữ thập đỏ Pháp), để đối phó các nhu cầu khẩn cấp, chủ yếu về lương thực, nước sạch và sơ tán dân đến các nhà không bị hư hại. Đã có rất nhiều điều tra chi tiết được thực hiện nhằm đánh giá các thiệt hại và nhu cầu của các bộ phận người dân bị ảnh tác động nhiều nhất. Rất nhiều ứng cứu cũng được thực hiện hầu hết là nhu yếu phẩm.

Tái thiết nhà ở
Về nhà ở, hỗ trợ cho việc tái xây dựng từ chính quyền đối với các nhà bị hư hại, tùy mức độ thiệt hại, giới hạn đến 11 triệu đồng đối với nhà sập đổ. Đây là số tiền không đủ để tái xây dựng, chưa kể đến việc gia cố thêm cho ngôi nhà để chống chọi với thiên tai trong tương lai .
Nhìn chung, các hộ gia đình có nhà hư hại nặng hoặc sập được dọn đến ở nhà hàng xóm hoặc bằng quan hệ khác. Đối với nhà có mái bị hư hỏng, nhiều sửa chữa tạm thời cũng được thực hiện.

Hỗ trợ các hoạt động kinh tế
Đối với đa số các hộ gia đình nông thôn, sự mất mát hoặc sập đổ-hư hại nhà cửa và dụng cụ sản xuất (lưới, hồ cá, ruộng nhiễm mặn, gia cầm…) cần thiết phải tái đầu tư lớn. Tuy nhiên, thiếu các nguồn lực tại chỗ, họ cần phải vay mượn theo chính sách nhà nước hoặc từ bên ngoài.
Thực tế, có ít sự hỗ trợ chính thức (ví dụ: cung cấp giống hoặc giản nợ vay ngân hàng) song vẫn còn hạn chế.
Giai đoạn tái thiết sẽ dài hơn đối với nhiều trường hợp (6 tháng hoặc thời gian dài hơn đối với trường hợp mất trắng đầu tư sản xuất ban đầu).
Trở lại giai đoạn nghèo là hậu quả trực tiếp của các gia đình dễ bị tổn thương trong thiên tai-nếu thường xuyên xảy ra trong vùng.
Kết luận
Sau giai đoạn khẩn cấp, giai đoạn hiện nay là tái xây dựng tiềm lực, điều kiện ở và làm việc của các hộ gia đình bị thiệt tại trong cơn bão Ketsana. Giai đoạn này đòi hỏi phải có sự đầu tư mà rất nhiều hộ gia đình chưa có khả năng.
Hiện có 250 hộ gia đình đặc biệt bị thiệt hại nghiêm trọng cần được giúp đỡ để có thể trở lại hoạt động sản xuất bình thường, và 50 hộ khác cần được giúp đỡ để xây dựng lại nhà ở an toàn. 

III/ Đề xuất hỗ trợ các hộ gia đình để tái xây dựng ở tỉnh Thừa Thiên Huế

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Big Haiti quake topples buildings, many casualties

Source: Reuters

* Many buildings, homes collapse in capital Port-au-Prince

* Hundreds, possibly thousands, buried in rubble

* Obama says United States ready to help (Adds details, U.S. Coast Guard sending cutters, planes)

By Joseph Guyler Delva

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Jan 12 (Reuters) - A major earthquake struck the capital of impoverished Haiti on Tuesday, toppling many buildings and burying hundreds, possibly thousands, of people under the rubble, witnesses said.

The magnitude 7.0 quake, whose epicenter was inland and only 10 miles (16 km) from Port-au-Prince, sent panic-stricken people into the streets as clouds of dust and smoke from falling buildings rose into the sky.

As offices, hotels, houses and shops collapsed, people were screaming “Jesus, Jesus” and running in all directions. The gleaming white presidential palace lay in ruins, its domes fallen on top of flattened walls.

Bloodied and dazed survivors gathered in the open and corpses were pinned by debris. Numerous powerful aftershocks rattled Port-au-Prince into the night.

The United Nations said a large number of its personnel in Haiti were unaccounted for after a five-story building at the headquarters of the U.N. mission collapsed.

“The whole city is in darkness. You have thousands of people sitting in the streets with nowhere to go,” said Rachmani Domersant, an operations manager with the Food for the Poor charity. “There are people running, crying, screaming.”

In the hillside neighborhood of Petionville, Domersant said he saw no police or rescue vehicles.

“People are trying to dig victims out with flashlights,” he said. “I think hundreds of casualties would be a serious understatement.”

Witnesses said they saw homes and shanties built on hillsides come tumbling down as the earth shook.

“The car was bouncing off the ground,” Domersant said.

U.N. officials said normal communications had been cut off and the only way to talk with people on the ground was via satellite phone. Roads were blocked by rubble.

Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and has a history of destructive natural disasters. Some 9,000 U.N. police and troops are stationed there to maintain order.

The quake prompted a tsunami watch for parts of the Caribbean but this was later canceled.

U.S. PROMISES HELP

U.S. President Barack Obama said his “thoughts and prayers” were with the people of Haiti and pledged immediate aid.

The United States would provide military and civilian disaster assistance to the Caribbean country, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in Hawaii.

The U.S. Coast Guard in Miami said it had mobilized cutters and aircraft to positions close to Haiti to give humanitarian assistance as needed.

Clinton’s husband, former U.S. President Bill Clinton, who is the U.N. special envoy for Haiti, also pledged assistance. The Inter-American Development Bank said it would provide $200,000 in immediate emergency aid.

The World Bank, which said its local offices were destroyed but that most staff were accounted for, plans to send a team to help Haiti assess damage and plan a recovery.

U.N. peacekeeping chief Alain Le Roy said the main U.N. building in Port-au-Prince had collapsed. “We don’t know how many people were in the building,” he told reporters.

Le Roy’s deputy Edmond Mulet said 200 to 250 people work in the building during normal hours. Since the earthquake struck after 5 p.m. local time—after working hours—it was not clear how many people would have been inside.

There were more houses destroyed than standing in Delmas Road, a major thoroughfare in Port-au-Prince, another Food for the Poor employee said. The Hotel Montana, where many foreigners stay, was also damaged.

“Within a minute of the quake ... soil, dust and smoke rose up over the city, a blanket that completely covered the city and obscured it for about 12 minutes,” Mike Godfrey, who works for USAID, told CNN.

Experts said the quake’s epicenter was very shallow at a depth of only 6.2 miles (10 km), which was likely to have magnified the destruction.

Dale Grant, a U.S. Geological Survey geophysicist in Golden, Colorado, told Reuters there had been no quakes this large in Haiti for more than 200 years.

“There were two major quakes there in 1751 and 1770 but, since then, there has not been a quake of this magnitude,” Grant said.

CUBA ALSO RATTLED

Speaking to CNN from Port-au-Prince, Ian Rogers of the charity Save the Children said he could hear cries of anguish and mourning rising up from around the city in the darkness.

A group of 12 U.S. students from Lynn University in Florida were visiting Haiti with Food for the Poor and some were able to send text messages to say they were fine, said the charity’s spokeswoman Kathy Skipper.

The powerful quake was felt in southeastern Cuba, about 160 miles (257 km) from the epicenter. Cuban authorities evacuated coastal residents because of the initial tsunami threat.

Sailors at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay in eastern Cuba felt the quake but there was no damage to the base or the detention camp where the United States holds 198 foreign terrorism suspects, said Chief Petty Officer Bill Mesta.

“It just shook a number of the buildings,” Mesta said.