Editorial: Preparedness for disaster reduction and recovery
Editorial
With the devastating earthquake in in Yingjiang, China, on March 10, and the earthquake and tsunami in Sendai, Japan, on March 11, what we saw from the news is that the entire towns and cities were wiped out within minutes. We human beings and the structures and infrastructure that we build are too tiny to against the forces of mother nature. In order for ourselves and our future generations to sustain upon such strikes and being able to quickly come back to rebuild our homes and communities soon after the strikes, we cannot wait & do nothing about it. We in California need to get prepared for the unpredictable "Big One", and we individuals need to work with our local and state governments to make our communities become resilient to disasters.
As a member of General Plan Advisory Committee, City of Arcadia [California, USA], I'm glad we have a safety element in place the recently updated Arcadia General Plan to address earthquake & other types of hazards. I'm calling our city leaders to quickly take steps to implement those goals & policies. For Arcadians & our neighbors, please mobilize yourself, familes, relatives and friends to:
1. Pledge in support of the One Million Safe Schools and Hospitals Campaign
2. Support the United Nations' World Disaster Reduction Campaign 2010-2011, themed: Making Cities Resilient: My City is Getting Ready!
3. Participate in the UN's International Day for Disaster Reduction on 12 October 2011.
4. Participate the Great California ShakeOut at 10:20 am, 20 October 2011.
To facilitate public awareness of the above-mentioned important events and actions to participate in them, CIEDM will hold a workshop on the subject matter on Wednesday 12 October 2011, the International day of Disaster Reduction. CIEDM will serve as a voluntary local partner to outreach the event for UNISDR to San Gabriel Valley in Los Angeles, an earthquake country. In the event, Dr. Edward Huang 黄铁屿 will speak on the subject of making resilient buildings and communities, and provide tips for property inspection and installation of seismic reinforcement applications. He will then lead an inspection and showcase of opportunities for seismic improvements around Arcadia EcoHome that Dr. Huang designed and built.