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HAITI - CHILE / RECONSTRUCTION SURVEY
WORLD BANK
STORY: HAITI - CHILE / RECONSTRUCTION SURVEY
TRT: 2.06
SOURCE: WORLD BANK
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 11 MARCH 2010, WASHINGTON, DC
1. Wide shot, situation room
2. Med shot, dude with computer
3. Med shot, World Bank situation room sign
4. Med shot, situation room worker
5. Med shot, computers
6. Wide shot, room
7. Close-up, computer screen
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Galen Burr Evans, Mapping Expert, World Bank:
“It allows targeting of assistance much more effectively so that we know where the most affected areas are, so that you can, for the reconstruction can happen more quickly so that you can rebuild the houses more quickly and rebuild everything at a much more rapid pace.”
9. Close-up, computer screen
10. Med shot, people at map
11. Close-up, map
12. Close-up, computer screen
13. Wide shot, room
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Francis Ghesquiere, Disaster Expert, World Bank:
“The event in Chile is much larger, even though there were not as many fatalities, is much larger than the one in Port au Prince and the use of this research of volunteers is going to be extremely useful to be able to remap and re-assess the damage in just a few weeks.”
15. Med shot, room
16. Close-up, hands typing
17. SOUNDBITE (English) Florence Danancourt, Employee, World Bank:
“As far as I’m concerned I wanted to be involved in the work that is being done because it just touches my heart, and to know that I’m actually making a difference in what’s happening - I’d love to do more.”
18. Med shot, person at screen
19. Close-up, screen
Using aerial photographs and sophisticated maps, a group of dedicated volunteers led by disaster specialists are making it easier for Chile and Haiti to begin to rebuild.
Tucked away in a non descript office building in Washington D.C. sits the World Bank’s situation room where mapping and disaster experts examine post-earthquake damage.
These are pictures of Port au Prince, Haiti. Using photographs and Internet technology that didn’t exist five years ago, the people working here, and others, have re-mapped 280,000 buildings in Haiti in two weeks. And the new maps are far more precise than pre-earthquake ones.
SOUNDBITE (English) Galen Burr Evans, Mapping Expert, World Bank:
“It allows targeting of assistance much more effectively so that we know where the most affected areas are, so that you can, for the reconstruction can happen more quickly so that you can rebuild the houses more quickly and rebuild everything at a much more rapid pace.”
The idea is simple - once the government, aid organizations, and engineers know the extent and detail of the damage, they can get to work repairing it.
The small group here in the situation room collects information from Chile and Haiti and then passes it along to a group of volunteer engineers, who assess it - rapidly. What used to take weeks now takes hours.
SOUNDBITE (English) Francis Ghesquiere, Disaster Expert, World Bank:
“The event in Chile is much larger, even though there were not as many fatalities, is much larger than the one in Port au Prince and the use of this research of volunteers is going to be extremely useful to be able to remap and re-assess the damage in just a few weeks.”
This is a round the clock operation, broad in scope and in the level of cooperation and information sharing.
SOUNDBITE (English) Florence Danancourt, Employee, World Bank:
“As far as I’m concerned I wanted to be involved in the work that is being done because it just touches my heart, and to know that I’m actually making a difference in what’s happening—I’d love to do more.”
This new aerial damage assessment has many potential uses, in natural disasters, conflict areas, and mapping climate change. Right now the technology is precise enough so that experts can identify objects as small as 15 centimeters in size.
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