Nature : Natural Disasters

These are some examples of the practical advice and recommendations offered in the Guide for Effective Aid. It provides strong evidence that humanitarian assistance can considerably benefit a country ravaged by disaster if it responds with real needs. Likewise, when responding with unsolicited donations, or when donors have a misguided view of those needs, it can also become a burden. This new Guide combines and updates several publications that PAHO has published in the last 15 years. We hope their recommendations and principles will help donors and beneficiaries in making their decisions to maximize the benefits in the short and long terms for the countries affected by natural and complex disasters. more...

Price: $12.00

Este libro, ilustrado con múltiples ejemplos de investigaciones de campo, resume la información más pertinentes y útil del impacto de los desastres en la salud pública. Está dividido en cuatro secciones que tratan asuntos generales, eventos geofísicos, problemas relacionados con el clima y desastres generados por el hombre. La discusión se inicia con una exposición breve de los conceptos y del papel de la vigilancia y de la epidemiología, resaltando aspectos de salud ambiental, control de enfermedades transmisibles, relaciones efectivas con los medios y el impacto psicológico de los desastres. Los otros capítulos, basados en una variedad de experiencias y literatura tanto de países industrializados como en vías de desarrollo, cubren tipos específicos de riesgos naturales y tecnológicos, abordando su historia, origen, naturaleza, observación y control. Dado el profundo impacto en la salud pública de las crísis conocidas como complejas, el libro dedica un capítulo especial a este tema, incluyendo poblaciones de desplazados y situaciones de refugiados. more...

Price: $30.00

A riveting history of how the cataclysmic Lisbon earthquake shook the religious and intellectual foundations of Enlightenment Europe. Along with the volcanic destruction of Pompeii and the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the Lisbon quake of 1755 is one of the most destructive natural disasters ever recorded. After being jolted by a massive quake, Lisbon was then pounded by a succession of tidal waves, and finally reduced to ash by a fire that raged for five straight days. In The Last Day, Nicholas Shrady provides not only a vivid account of this horrific disaster but also a stimulating survey of the many shock waves it sent throughout Western civilization. When news of the quake spread, it inspired both a lurid fascination in the popular imagination of Europe and an intellectual debate about the natural world and God’s place in human affairs. Voltaire, Alexander Pope, Immanuel Kant, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, among other eminent figures, took up the disaster as a sort of cause célèbre and a vehicle to express Enlightenment ideas. More practically, the Lisbon quake led to the first concerted effort at disaster control, modern urban planning, and the birth of seismology. The Last Day is popular history writing at its best and will appeal to readers of Simon Winchester’s Krakatoa and A Crack in the Edge of the World. more...

Price: $25.95

This Field Manual for First Responders presents simple recommendations for non-specialists to manage the recovery, basic identification, storage and disposal of dead bodies following disasters. It also makes suggestions about providing support to family members and communicating with the public and the media. This manual will be useful during the immediate response to a disaster and where forensic response is unavailable. Furthermore, it will be useful for those preparing mass fatality disaster plans. The recommendations are relevant for local, regional and national authorities as well as for non-governmental organizations. more...

Price: $16.00

In summer 2006, the Commission on Recovery, Rebuilding, and Renewal asked the RAND Gulf States Policy Institute to describe the state of the pre-Hurricane Katrina housing markets in Mississippi's three coastal counties, to estimate the damage the storm di more...

Price: $25.00