I volunteered for the Red Cross for many years and I agree they are a bit too top heavy when it comes to management. I will defend them though in regard to setting aside funds for future emergencies. Consider that when a disaster strikes the Red Cross is one of the first groups to mobilize and where do you think the money comes from for the immediate response? It comes from funds that were set aside for future emergencies. If the Red Cross didn't set aside a large amount of money for "future" disasters there is no way they would be able to immediately respond to disasters.
I agree with your premise. We're just arguing over the amount of money that needs to be held in reserve. I think they do too much.
Interesting article on the earthquake and aftershock ______ Geologists Explain the Haitian Earthquake The 6.1-magnitude earthquake that hit Haiti this morning was indeed a strong aftershock associated with last week's major temblor, even though it occurred eight days after the main event that devastated the island nation. "Aftershocks are earthquakes," said Carrieann Bedwell, geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC). "When there's a large earthquake some like to say aftershocks occur because of a readjusting of the fault itself; it continually readjusts because it did have such a large energy release," Bedwell said. With many major earthquakes, aftershocks are often felt primarily in the first 24 to 48 hours. But that's not always the case, and they can occur weeks or longer after the main earthquake. Two main clues pointed to this morning's ground-shaking as an aftershock. "The aftershock refers to an earthquake that is close to the epicenter or within the rupture zone of a large earthquake, in this case the Haiti region where the 7.0 earthquake happened last week," Bedwell said. Scientists define the rupture zone as the area in which energy was released from a major earthquake. And this 6.1-magnitude earthquake did occur within the rupture zone of last week's quake. To tease out whether the shaking is considered an aftershock or a new quake, scientists also look at the depth where the new shaking started. And both quakes were shallow, occurring just below the surface. "This one is shallow and that's another parameter we look at when we are determining whether this is an aftershock to a large earthquake or not," Bedwell said. However, while earthquake analysts know it was a shallow quake, they don't know exactly how shallow. For the purposes of calculating other variables, the default is 10 kilometers, or 6.2 miles, below the surface. That's why this depth is reported for both the major earthquake and this aftershock. "Depth is the hardest thing to actually determine on shallow earthquakes," said Don Blakeman, a geophysicist at the USGS and NEIC. "We have seismometer stations all over the world, but they are basically at the surface. We don't have any that are at depth. Most of the seismometers are no deeper than 200 or 300 feet." He added, "It's a big deal to drill 10 kilometers," in order to insert a seismometer. "We can look at the recording of each of the waves at each station and even though we can't come up with an exact number we can see by the character of the waves that it's a shallow quake," Blakeman said. A shallow quake also means energy gets released very close to the surface, which can cause violent ground-shaking. Even though aftershocks are expected, with a cluster of aftershocks having occurred within this rupture zone, they can still take scientists and survivors by surprise. "Even aftershocks are unpredictable," Bedwell told LiveScience. "We can predict that they are going to happen, but in terms of getting time and magnitude, that is unpredictable." "This 6.1 earthquake was fairly widely felt, maybe not with the intensity or the shaking amount as the 7.0 earthquake," Bedwell said, adding the USGS has reports of the shaking being felt as far away as Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. "A really rough ballpark is that the 7.0 earthquake that occurred last week is about 10 times stronger than this 6.1," Bedwell said. That's about 10 times more perceived shaking, she said. link
props to major, et al. for putting on a very successful fundraiser at his coffee shop dominican joe in austin yesterday.
Major as in our Major in D&D? Is that his coffee shop? I had no idea. Drove past the place today and almost went in. I was seriously jonesin' for a good cup of java.
major as in our major. i love it, wish i could go more often. and the travel mug i bought over christmas has been like my security blanket ever since...i don't go anywhere without it! his co-owner is in the dr (i think she lives there) and her non-profit has been doing a lot in haiti ever since last tuesday.
Pretty generous of Palestineans. It's sad that many blessed and fortunate folks living the good life can't donate but the poor victims or terror find a way to donate. http://www.euronews.net/2010/01/18/earthquake-in-haiti-palestinians-in-gaza-donate-to-haiti/
Some big news about the demolished port of Port-au-Prince. It can't open soon enough: The U.S. military, trying to open other aid routes into Haiti, says it has obtained landing rights at the Dominican Republic's air base at San Isidro, about 150 miles east of Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince. In addition, the Pentagon is dispatching a ship equipped with cranes that could get the port of Port-au-Prince back into operation "within a week or two, perhaps," Defense Secretary Robert Gates says. http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/01/20/haiti.updates.wednesday/?hpt=T1
I just saw a headline on MSNBC that said a 69 year old woman has been pulled alive from the rubble. This is after no one was found alive yesterday and rescue crews are starting to pull back.
