CBC's The Current featured the documentary :

With flood waters wreaking havoc across communities in Canada and the U.S., the immediate concern is to make sure people are safe and to limit damage. Communities typically know how to respond quickly to the physical clean-up, but are unprepared for the consequences. The toll the destruction takes on mental health includes spikes in depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide.

Gulliver, who studies disaster resiliency and recovery in the Faculty of Environmental Studies, volunteers in New Orleans providing mental health support to volunteers and victims of Hurricane Katrina and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster.

You can listen to the documentary on . Gulliver's comments begin at the 16:39 mark.

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer, with files courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Hyndman was in Sri Lanka within months of the 2004 tsunami. She saw first-hand not only the devastation wrought by the tsunami, but the complications of delivering humanitarian aid in areas of Sri Lanka and Indonesia that were already conflict-riddled and impoverished. She also witnessed how the natural and man-made disasters intersected to change the political dynamics of both countries – a peace accord in Indonesia and the end of war in Sri Lanka between the government and the Tamils.

Her experiences led to the recently released book, and companion videos by Hyndman and geographer and humanitarian aid worker Arno Waizenegger,  and . To watch the first video, enter the password, "Lhokse". Waizenegger also co-wrote one of the book's chapters with Hyndman.

The earthquake-triggered tsunami is estimated to have killed or displaced more than one million people – three women for every man – and billions in donations flowed in for relief efforts. Dual Disasters addresses pre- and post-humanitarian aid concerns and offers suggestions that are still relevant today.

“I examine two war zones that were then hit by the 2004 tsunami and trace how the conflict and the environmental disaster shaped one another in terms of outcomes,” says Hyndman of 91��ɫ's Department of Social Sciences in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, who has studied humanitarian emergencies, conflict-related human disaster and displacement for more than a decade. For the book, she focused specifically on Sri Lanka and Aceh, Indonesia.

Left: Jennifer Hyndman

The book examines the inequitable delivery of humanitarian aid, but also looks at how the cultural and political situation in both countries played into that. If more aid was given to the coastal areas of Sri Lanka, because of their tourist appeal, than to the people in the hinterland, who are hardest hit by war, that imbalance created a “potential and real threat to peace.” Similarly in Aceh, Indonesia, international tsunami aid was earmarked exclusively for tsunami survivors and not for civilians who had lost their homes and livelihoods in the decades old conflict. This became the cause of tensions and threats recorded in the book by Hyndman and her research assistants.

The problem was that aid agencies had little latitude to spend donated money. As it's often designated for specific things, some agencies collected more money than they could ethically spend, she says. That led to the hiring of sub-contractors who not only didn’t necessarily do the best job, but it also made it more difficult to monitor the funds. This could be remedied if donors gave aid agencies more leverage to spend their donations where needed, says Hyndman, associate director of the .

In addition, aid workers can unintentionally become wrapped up in the politics. “You need to pay very close attention to the political climate, otherwise you can become a political player in what you think is a humanitarian operation.” That can play out in as simple an act as talking to people living on one side of a road. What the aid workers may not realize is that the people on one side of the road are enemies with those on the opposite side, and the workers are seen as allies to one side only. “The unintended result is that humanitarian aid can actually fuel a conflict or create tensions."

Or, as in the case of the water pumps, what seemed like an easy and fast solution – provide villages with water pumps so they no longer had to dig wells – turned out to be not so simple in an area of Sri Lanka where tensions were already high between various factions. Bringing in water pumps heightened conflicting interests, instead of making life easier. “So unintentionally, a benign water project can fuel a war.”

It is just as important for aid workers to be aware of a country's cultural practices. One aid agency built much-needed, but culturally inappropriate housing. The new houses only had one room, when two were required to keep the women separate from the men. Hyndman says many of these issues could be avoided by providing regional cultural and political sensitivity orientation and training to humanitarian aid workers.

Competition between aid agencies for donor dollars was another issue raised by the book, but it has, at least in Canada, been addressed to some extent. Care Canada, Oxfam Canada, Oxfam Quebec and Save the Children formed a coalition after the 2004 tsunami to work together.

“It’s an excellent step in the right direction,” says Hyndman.

For more information, visit the .

By Sandra McLean, YFile writer

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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That’s because Hibernia – one of the world’s largest drilling platforms, weighing over a million tonnes – is located in one of the most inhospitable environments on the planet, rife with high waves, fog and violent storms. The disaster would push cleanup crews to the absolute limit; plugging the leak might be nearly impossible.

Are we prepared? Hardly. Most Canadians still don’t see Canada as an oil-producing nation, even though this country is the seventh-largest producer of crude oil in the world: We produce 2.8 million barrels a day, a number that is expected to grow to 4.3 million barrels a day by 2025.

As a result of this perception, many are clueless about the risky oil exploration and production activities occurring here every day. And without the drama of a catastrophe or heartbreaking images of oil-covered birds, it’s all too easy for Canadians to remain blissfully unaware.

I know this because until recently, I was one of those Canadians. I consider myself an environmentalist, but also a realist. I recycle and turn off lights, and I drive a car and eat processed food. I understand that we can’t live without oil – at least not right now. Furthermore, as a researcher studying disasters, vulnerability and risk at 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Environmental Studies, I thought I was fairly informed about the risks stemming from offshore drilling.

But travelling around New Orleans after last year’s Deepwater Horizon explosion exposed me to the impact that spills can have on land, people and wildlife. It wasn’t pretty, and it inspired me to dig deeper into the dangers back home. What I discovered scared me.

Between 1999 and 2009 there were 156 oil spills (totalling over 2,600 barrels) off the coast of Newfoundland. The Terra Nova platform, 350 kilometres southeast of St. John’s, was responsible for 36 of them, including an incidence of equipment malfunction in 2004 that led to Canada’s worst offshore oil spill to date—1,000 barrels of oil gushed into the Atlantic Ocean, with high waves and bad weather impeding cleanup.

. . .

Let’s be frank. Clean energy solutions that would reduce our dependence on oil are still a ways away. But being realistic means recognizing that short of imposing a moratorium on offshore drilling (not a bad idea), we need to ensure that our technologies, teams and training are tough enough to prevent a Deepwater Horizon-style spill from happening in Canada.

And at the moment, they’re not.

Gulliver's complete article is available on .

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer, with files courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Official estimates suggest 10,000 people have died, although the police chief of the hard-hit Miyagi prefecture said this week he expects the toll to exceed that in his region alone. Official numbers released Wednesday confirm 4,314 deaths and 8,606 still missing. The National Post’s Aileen Donnelly asked , professor in 91��ɫ’s Disaster & Emergency Management Program, how death tolls are estimated and recorded after a catastrophe and why the figures vary.

Q: How are death toll estimates determined?

A: Estimates come through computer models, or through expert judgment. In Japan they have a system called the National Disaster Information System that has all the information about population and infrastructure in different parts of the country. As soon as something happens, they can run the model and figure out how much damage and how many potential losses they might have…. As time goes on, the model could become better by receiving actual or real information, for example, the exact magnitude of the earthquake. When [computer modelling] is not available, like in developing countries, what they do is they rely on expert judgment, [which] is not as accurate.

Q: How do experts estimate deaths without a computer model?

A: Rapid assessment is usually based on several factors: the population in the area that has been impacted and the damage or loss ratio for different earthquake magnitudes. This is a ratio they use for the number of casualties per different [earthquake] magnitudes in different physical environments. In Japan, another factor they often use is a ratio of number of fatalities to number of injured people. [The ratio there] is about 45, which means for every 45 injured people, you will have about one dead person…. These are the factors experts use. These are based on past experience, the existing population number and the building type and structure they have in the area. [Experts] might not need to go into the field to figure out how many people have been killed. They usually use the knowledge that they have about the area. But, by going there, it helps to make the estimate closer to the actual number.

Q: Why do you think the Japanese government has avoided releasing estimates?

A: Having an accurate estimation of dead people is not going to do a lot at this point. And that is probably why [the government is sticking] with the actual [count of] bodies. From an emergency management point of view, we look for the survivors and find out what their needs are and how we can help them…. I think people are cautious about providing numbers [now] because it’s not only an earthquake, it’s not only a tsunami, it’s a combination of different hazards hitting the country at the same time. Plus, we have the evacuation going on for the nuclear issues.

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer, with files courtesy of YFile – 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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At the Oil: Slick Suits and Sinister Scenarios symposium tomorrow, leading researchers in risk, disaster management, ethics and the environment will provide insights into the murky world of oil and the need to prepare for a potential disaster.

The symposium will take place, from noon to 2pm, in the Crowe Room, 109 Atkinson Building, Keele campus. Everyone is welcome.

91��ɫ law, governance and ethics Professor Mark Schwartz (right) will discuss the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, which caused the largest off shore spill in the history of the United States. Schwartz will present an ethical critique of BP and speak about the importance of ethical crisis management and the lessons for Canadian oil producers.

Environmental studies Professor Gail Fraser (left) will compare the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico and its estimated impacts on marine birds to that of a much smaller spill in offshore Newfoundland. She will argue that cumulatively smaller, more frequent oil spills off the coast of Newfoundland have likely resulted in higher seabird mortalities compared to the very large single spill in the Gulf of Mexico, because oil breaks down more slowly in cold water and the species composition is different.

Fraser underscores the importance of having baseline data to estimate the impact of oil spills and discusses current challenges in NL regarding access to information relevant to oil spills.

Emergency management Professor Ali Asgary will examine the Canadian emergency preparedness and response capacities and gaps in dealing with large-scale oil spills. He is co-investigator of a recently completed project, “Real-time Detection of Oil Spills”, funded by the Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council of Canada, which developed an expert system for rapid risk assessment of pipeline based oil and gas spills to be used by emergency response teams.

Right: Ali Asgary

Asgary's areas of research include disaster and emergency response, business continuity, development and applications of geographic information systems and agent-based modelling in disaster and emergency management.

Fraser’s research focuses on issues around the ecology and management of avian wildlife, and the environmental management of the extractive industries of oil and gas.

Schwartz is co-author of the textbook Business Ethics: Readings and Cases in Corporate Morality (McGraw Hill, 2000) and the author of Corporate Social Responsibility: An Ethical Approach (Broadview Press, 2011).

Joanne Jones, a professor of audit and management information systems in 91��ɫ’s School of Administrative Studies, will moderate the discussion.

The event is presented by the School of Administrative Studies in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies.

For more information, call ext. 20091 or e-mail tarawlo@yorku.ca. To register online, visit 91��ɫ’s School of Administrative Studies website.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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The seminar, being held one year after the earthquake, will take place Monday, Jan. 10, from 9am to 5pm, in the Harry Crowe Room, 109 Atkinson Building, Keele campus. It is hosted by 91��ɫ’s School of Administrative Studies Disaster & Emergency Management Program in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies in collaboration with .

Right: The earthquake in Haiti caused widespread damage. Photo by Marco Dormino of the United Nations

It will look at what lessons can be learned from the Haiti earthquake and how societal resilience, humanitarian response and the handling of similar future events can be improved. The Haiti earthquake presented a special challenge for first-response practitioners, emergency managers, researchers, educators and those responsible for capacity building because of its setting, the scale of the initial event and its impact on a particularly vulnerable urbanized area of a fragile state.

Michael Morton of Emergency Management Ontario and Jeff Noel, a logistical officer with the Salvation Army, will discuss first response, search and rescue, emergency operations coordination, mobilization and logistical issues as part of the first panel.

In the second panel, Jean Claude Louis of Panos Canada and the Caribbean will join Heather Leson of Crisis Camp Toronto and Ken Kidd of the Toronto Star in looking at the “Role of the Local, National and International Media; Communication Challenges; Reality, Myths and Perception Issues”.

John Coo of Green Cross Canada will discuss the topic of “Environmental, Critical Services, Health and Sanitation Issues, Urban Management and Built Environment Challenges” in the third panel.

In the fourth panel, the topic of “Managing the Transition and Recovery, Coping with the Displaced/Refugees, Rehabilitation and Recovery Issues” will be tackled Mike Weickert of World Vision Canada and Stephen Evans, associate chair of the University of Waterloo’s Earth & Environmental Sciences.

For more information or to register, visit seminar website or e-mail haiti@yorku.ca.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin

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With any kind of catastrophe, such as the recent earthquake in Haiti, helping victims cope and figuring out what to do differently in the future can take years. This is something 91��ɫ social work Professor knows a thing or two about.

Following the 2008 of China, Wong has been working with students at in one of the hardest hit counties of the country. She is part of an art-based participatory action research project focusing on healing and cultural restoration, which could lead to changes in the way China responds to disasters.

Over 70,000 people in Sichuan province died in the earthquake. Beichuan Middle School, which teaches students from Grade 7 to 12, was at the centre of the disaster. It is the only complete high school in Beichuan, which is the only autonomous county of the Qiang ethnic minority. For parents in the area who want their children to go to college or university, this is the school they send them to, and most of the students live there as their homes are too far to travel from daily.

Left: A workshop run by Renita Wong with Grade 12 students at Beichuan Middle School in China

More than half of the Beichuan Middle School’s approximately 3,000 students and teachers were killed in the quake. Most survivors lost loved ones. “Seventy per cent of the Grade 10 students died and quite a lot of the teachers,” says Wong. “This is an ethnic minority area, so it is not only the loss of life, but a cultural loss as well.”

The high number of casualties at the school has drawn national attention, including about seven visits from Premier Wen Jiabao of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) over the past year. The school has received some 600 computers, athletic shoes, shirts, stationery and more, but there has also been a lot of pressure on the students and teachers to perform. It was the first school to start classes after the earthquake, and the nation was watching to see their recovery defined in terms of their academic performance in the university entrance public exam.

Right: Beichuan immediately after the earthquake

Wong has been part of the Post-Earthquake Community Rebuilding and Cultural Restoration Project in Sichuan, China in collaboration with Long Di and her team from the Institute of Psychology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Timothy Leung and his team from the Department of Social Work of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. “We wondered, 'How can the culture continue and be sustained with the loss of the younger generation?',” says Wong.

When the earthquake happened, Wong was already in Asia and was on her way to Beijing regarding another research project. Long Di asked Wong to come to Beichuan – a four-to-five hour trip by plane and ground transportation from Beijing. At that time she stayed a week. “Everything was quite chaotic,” says Wong. The quake affected the urban areas as well as the rural areas in the mountains. “Tens of thousands of people were all relocated to different sites.”

Left: Renita Wong

Many of the students were not able to go home immediately to see their families. Some whole villages were buried, some were later flooded. The students were anxious for news. Finally, the younger junior-high students were allowed back home, and when they returned to the school site “they were much calmer,” says Wong. “We wanted to reconnect them with their families at a deeper level and reconnect them with their cultural roots and the land because the whole land shook. As a rural area, they are close to the land.”

Wong and her fellow collaborators wanted the participants involved as active partners in the design of the research. “The purpose and the result of the research has to be directly tangible to them,” says Wong. “It has to have a direct implication and relevance for them.” The research also needed to be a form of healing.

It was decided that it would be an oral history action research project involving photographs and art for Grade 11 and 12 students (who were in Grade 10 and 11 at the time of the quake). The students would talk to an elder in their family or their village, listen to their life stories, ask how they coped with difficulties in their lives and identify their indigenous cultural resources. “With creative art media, the students will weave together a collective narrative in the latter part of the project, representing the cultural strengths and the healing journey of individuals, families and communities,” says Wong. That way the students could own their history and gain strength from the weaving together of a collective story of resilience.

Right: The temporary site of Beichuan Middle School

Wong returned again last summer for over a month, working with the students and figuring out where they were now, one year later. About 30 students went home and interviewed an elder and/or took photographs of significance to them. The students will put the stories together with the photos. “It is a story of healing, a story of resilience and of finding different forms to represent this,” says Wong. “It actually helped them to know their families and know the history of their village way more than they did before. They feel a lot more grounded.”

Left: Beichuan after the earthquake

The teachers at the school have said this group of students is able to concentrate better and have better relationships with their peers, and that their sense of hope for the future has increased.

What this project shows, says Wong, is there are ways to approach traumatized teenagers that involve them in the process rather than assuming expert knowledge in providing psychological or trauma counselling. Wong and the team felt the systemic and community determinants of healing were being ignored.

Based on the results of their research, the team plans to make recommendations to the State Council of the People’s Republic of China on the national post-disaster psychosocial healing and education policies in China.

Wong is a faculty associate in the 91��ɫ Centre for Asian Research and professor in Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies' School of Social Work.

By Sandra McLean, YFile writer

Republished courtesy of YFile – 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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