The following is from Winnie Romeril who is on the ground in Peru.

One year ago today a massive earthquake struck just off the coast of Peru; many people were killed and more than 700,000 people lost their homes. The American Red Cross responded immediately and has been there ever since. We’ve given nearly 2,000 families temporary shelters while they rebuild their homes and are helping people recover emotionally and be more prepared for future disasters. To help tell people about what we are doing there, we sent Winnie Romeril, a volunteer from upstate New York down to Peru.

The place where the American Red Cross is working in Peru was among the most devastated areas after the earthquake. The entire area is the size of New Jersey, and she says there are places called “red zones” that the government won’t allow people to rebuild in because it is too dangerous. She says in those places all the destruction is still there and it looks like the earthquake happened yesterday. In other areas, families are finally starting to rebuild their permanent homes.

AUDIO

• >> August 15 Commemoration

The earthquake hit at 6:55 in the evening local time one year ago today. Winnie talks about what kinds of events are going on today to commerate this event.

• >> August 15 Children’s Photo Exhibit

Boards, hammers and nails cannot fix all the damage from the earthquake; for some, the effect of seeing their home and community destroyed runs much deeper. To help heal the psychological impact, the American Red Cross supports community activities like singing, dancing and arts and crafts. For children this is especially important. Winnie talks about a program the Red Cross created to help young people recover emotionally.

• >> August 15 Shelters in Peru

In the coastal communities here in Chincha Province, nearly 60% of the population was affected by the disaster. The American Red Cross partnered with the Peruvian Red Cross to help deliver transitional houses. In the past year, the American Red Cross gave materials and trained nearly 2,000 families to build temporary wooden houses until their new permanent homes could be built. Winnie describes what these houses are like.

• >> August 15 Volunteers in Peru

Winnie spent Thursday out in the community meeting with some of the people the American Red Cross has helped over the past year. I asked her of the people she met, was there one who stands out the most?

The American Red Cross project office is a busy place today. There’s all sorts of people around for this class about how to help communities recognize the risks they have around them and plan what to do about it. Most of them are volunteers that joined the Red Cross after this big earthquake a year ago. Kinda reminds me of the ones we call the “Katrina volunteers” – the massive wave of volunteers who were so moved by all the images on TV and looked around for a place to plug into the relief effort and the Red Cross just made sense. So here in the coastal city of Chincha, Peru today, this bunch of earthquake joiners are now getting more training so they can do this next phase of the recovery work.

The course title when you say it in Spanish sounds like “the ABC’s of Risk” but in Spanish b and v sound the same and it’s the latter. So in this case it stands for Analysis, Vulnerabilities and Capacities. This is a standard community tool used by organizations everywhere and it’s really helpful and simple so it works nicely we’ve found.

The American Red Cross’ next phase of our work here- which goes through June 09- is this part of strengthening communities to respond to the next disaster without so much impact on the people. The disasters are going to keep on happening. Peru gets a major earthquake every six years I read someplace. So, it’s not a matter of if, but when. If they’re prepared- with really simple things like a go-kit with bottled water and canned food, candles and matches (easier here than flashlights with batteries because the salt air corrodes batteries so fast), rope and a tarp for a makeshift shelter, etc. Then they would have something to make it through until the roads get unblocked and relief starts.

If they had a where-do-we-meet-up plan, many people wouldn’t have spent frantic hours and days searching for family members. Stuff like that.

Maybe there are even things they can prevent- not earthquakes themselves but just realizing what other dangers are out there. My favorite example was in Sri Lanka where they had poisonous snakes that would enter the school and bite/kill kids. So they worked on a plan to keep the snakes out, eliminate their favorite hiding places, and also how to deal with them when they found them. So kids were safer, less snake bites, more happy (and alive) kids.

They have to find the Peruvian risks, maybe not snakes. Here on the Pacific Coast, it’s really sandy- reminds me of some parts of California. They have this phenomenon they call “puquios” where the water bubbles up from the earth. If the houses are built there, on what looks like solid earth, they might suddenly half sink into the ground if the puquio bubbles up. Remember, we’re dealing with a combo of nearby ocean and shifting plate tectonics. I don’t get the science exactly, but I’ve seen it- it’s all swampy and putrid smelling from the mold that climbs up the house. So the government declared huge areas “red zones” after the quake where no one can rebuild. In this one town, Tambo de Mora, really close to where the quake epicenter was, it affects half the town. Half the place looks like the earthquake happened yesterday. They didn’t clear away any of the rubble. Just abandoned– as if it were Georgia and the refugees just left. And then you cross a street and everyone is rebuilding and there’s this great buzz and hope and people are smiling.

Can you imagine how bizarre that is? These people have nowhere else to go. The government has to find them a place. It takes a long time. The affected area is the size of New Jersey. What if we had to relocate half the people in some beach community in New Jersey? What if they were fisherman and we moved them 10 miles inland?

One guy I met is in a wheelchair. He’s in the red zone, but he’s not going anywhere. He got a wooden Red Cross temporary shelter (which he can ask his son to disassemble and take with him when he gets relocated) and it’s doubling as his house and the office of the newly formed association for the disabled. There’s a yellow plastic sheet hanging from a cord near the tin ceiling that divides his bed and the area with couches and chairs. They have 52 members- the youngest is a little girl with a spinal defect who will probably never walk- and they have organized to make sure the needs of handicapped people are considered in all the relief and development plans. He said he’s got to stay there to help all his friends.

Friday is the big one-year anniversary mark for the earthquake. At ten things will start in the Plaza de Armas and it will go all day. At 6:44 P.M. there will be a moment of silence. That’s the time the earthquake hit last August killing over 500 people and leaving 700,000 without a roof over their heads. It’s a long recovery. Always is after a catastrophic disaster. In the Red Cross, we say it takes about 5 years under the best of circumstances (think of the Katrina affected areas….)

So it will be a pretty emotional day. Some folks are afraid another earthquake will hit. Others are excited about the newly built brick walls that mean they will soon have a house. Others are just giving thanks they are alive. In the Red Cross office, there’s always something going on- like part 2 of the “ABC’s of Risk.”

Filed under: Disaster Response, Flickr, International, Utterz