Seismic St. Louis
Emily SekineI'm interested in better understanding the ongoing geological processes that shape St. Louis and the Mississippi Valley region. So far, I've been looking into the history of seismicity in the region, focusing on the fascinating but little known history of the New Madrid earthquakes of 1811 and 1812 -- the most devastating earthquakes to have hit the US east of the Rockies. I've also been exploring how St. Louis and surrounding areas are dealing with the possibility of another earthquake occurring in the future. According to one article I read, one of the biggest uncertainties is what would happen to the heavily engineered Mississippi River in the case of another major tremblor. The shaking could break the levees, flooding wide areas along the river and creating cascading effects. The flow of the river might also reverse completely, as occurred during the New Madrid earthquakes.
On these possibilities and the lack of scientific consensus surrounding intraplate seismicity in this zone, see this article in The Atlantic.
On current efforts to create earthquake hazard maps in St. Louis, see this overview on the US Geological Survey site.
For a deeper dive into the history of the New Madrid earthquakes, see this book by historian of science Conevery Bolton Valencius.
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tamar.rogoszinski"The Fukushima Effect: A New Geopolitan Terrain", edited by Richard A. Hindmarsh, Rebecca Priestley.
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tamar.rogoszinskiThe author is Byron Good, Ph.D. He is an American anthropologist and teaches medical anthropology at Harvard Medical School. His main focus is mental illness and the cultural meanings of it. He also explores patient narratives and the perspectives of non-Western medical knowledge and compareds different mental health systems. He has done research in Iran, Indonesia, and the US. He has several publications including papers, books, and editted volumes.
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tamar.rogoszinskiBrian Concannon, executive director of the Insitute of Justice and Democracy in Haiti, a nonprofit in Boston. Fights for human rights on the island of Haiti.
Carrie Kahn, NPR. National Public Radio, news source.
President Michel Martelly, Haitain president.
United Nations
Nepalese soldiers - brought with them cholera to Haiti. Sent from UN.
Ban Ki-moon - U.N. Secretary-General - led plan to eradicate cholera.
Haitain Ministries of Health and Environment - not trusted by the world to control a trust fund
Jake Johnson - Center for Economic Policy and Research - Washington
US Government Accountability Office - pricing the cost of building new housing too high
Mission of Hope - NGO helping build houses
US Congressmen - demaing UN Secretary-General take responsibility for outbreak
US District Court Judge J. Paul Oetken - rejected class-action lawsuit that saught to compel the UN to compensate victims and fund cholera eradication
Beatrice Lindstrom - lawter at the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti
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tamar.rogoszinskiThe bibliography shows that the author did extensive research and even cited herself a few times. She uses MSF reports and essays, information from the United Nations, WHO, and other experts.
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tamar.rogoszinskiEmergency responders are portrayed in the film as being understaffed and overwhelmed by the outbreak. They show hospitals having to turn patients away due to being overwhelmed. They also show how Liberians were frustrated with this lack of communication between doctors and the patients. Nurses started dying from the disease, forcing hospitals to close. Responders had to deal with the community's denial of the disease, the lack of education, the rapid spread, and the number of patients.
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tamar.rogoszinskiI thought every aspect of the film served a purpose and helped shape the documentary.
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tamar.rogoszinskiI looked up bioterrorism agents and cases in which they were used. I looked on the CDCs website where they discuss preparation and planning to review their protocol for bioterrorism. On the same website, I also looked at the information for first responders to bioterrorism.
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tamar.rogoszinskiEmergency response is not really discussed in this article, since the focus is the investigation carried out after disasters have been cleared. He does mention responders at the Hague Street Explosion and the fire departments role in both that, the Iroquois Fire, and 9/11. He also mentions that had there been better fire response, the outcomes could have been different.