Huxley assistant professor Scott Miles and research associate Rebekah Green recently returned from an eight-day trip to Haiti.

The two conducted impact assessment and offered disaster mitigation and recovery with members of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute.

According to their mission statement, the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute’s objective is to assess the impact of natural disasters by advancing engineering and educating people on possible deadly earthquakes.

Green and Miles will report their findings at 7 p.m. March 17 in Bellingham’s City Council chambers as part of an event looking at disaster risk reduction in Haiti and Whatcom County.

Scott and Green sat down with The Western Front to share some of their experiences in Haiti.

How were you able to apply your expertise?

Green: One of our efforts involved explaining and promoting disaster-resistant building practices – building structures that are safe based on the site of location, how the house is laid out and construction practices. It’s important to create a culture of safety by making people aware about safe construction practices. Scott and I are unique as social scientists in that we’re also engineers. We were able to help Haitians assess whether or not their damaged homes were sound or repairable. 

Will Huxley College and the Resilience Institute continue their involvement with Haitian disaster recovery?

Green:  During spring quarter, my disaster risk reduction planning studio class will focus on Haiti’s recovery and development. Scott and I have submitted a National Science Foundation grant proposal to go back to Haiti to investigate impacts and recovery in hillside settlements. We are concerned about what’s going to happen during the upcoming rain and hurricane seasons. Specifically, we’ll look at the social and economic impacts that different landslide types have, whether triggered from the earthquakes or rainfall. The Resilience Institute is also hoping to find funds to have student interns do work on the Haiti disaster in Bellingham. 

What did you work on in Haiti?

Miles: We didn’t have a specific assignment. Our team was told to assess the social impacts of the disaster. Amongst the four of us on the social impacts team, we brought our expertise and interest to develop a framework for what we were going to do. We were also interested in gaining insight into the recovery process related to those same things. To accomplish this, we spoke with citizens, church members and Haitian officials, in addition to directly surveying conditions in the Port-au-Prince metro area.

How did both of you come to conduct disaster research in Haiti?

Miles: Disaster risk reduction is why Rebekah and I were hired and what we do. I am currently the director of Huxley’s Resilience Institute, which conducts disaster research. Rebekah is also involved with the Resilience Institute as the associate director.
On the day of the earthquake in Haiti, I e-mailed the team leader from the Earthquake Engineering Institute and told him that Rebekah and I work well together and have done work with OxFam in Guatemala for earthquake and landslide risk reduction. That was enough to earn us an invite to join their team. 

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