Results tagged “disaster”

Dozens of children have died in Haiti after a school collapsed near Port-au-Prince, the nation's capital. The death toll is now reported to be over 80 and rapidly approaching 100 . The collapse took place around 10 a.m. yesterday morning in a school with more than 700 students of ages ranging from 10 to 20. A journalist with the Haiti Press Network reported that more than 200 students were still trapped in the rubble as of midnight last night and another 200 have been treated by medical staff in the area. However two of the three nearby hospitals have been shut down due to worker strikes.

With the death toll over 13,000 and still tens of thousands missing or buried under debris, plus aftershocks near the epicenter today, the 7.9 magnitude earthquake that devastated the Sichuan province of China has prompted New York City's Chinese community to react. Many groups have received donations and City Councilman John Liu said:

"As always in the past, anytime there has been a tragedy of this kind of proportion anywhere in the world, New Yorkers have always stepped up to the plate. And they've already flooded my offices with offers of help and assistance. We truly thank all of New York and all of America for their offers of assistance."

Mayor Bloomberg and the New York City Office of Emergency Management have announced 10 winners in the contest to design temporary housing for the thousands of New Yorkers who might be displaced in the event of a catastrophe, like a direct hit from a Category 3 hurricane. The 117 submissions from 30 countries had to create quickly assembled housing for 38,000 families from Prospect Shore, a fictional neighborhood set along a mile of the New York City coastline.