From the United States Geological Service:
30 Years Saving Lives from Volcanoes
On June 15, 1991, Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines erupted in a massive explosion. Science and international cooperation enabled officials to evacuate more than 75,000 people through advance notification.
In the fall of 2010, Indonesia’s Mt. Merapi had its largest eruption in over 100 years. More than 70,000 people were able to get to safety before flows of hot rocks, ash and volcanic gas rushed down the mountain toward their villages.
There are approximately 1,550 potentially active volcanoes around the world, but only one international volcano crisis response team that can rapidly deploy experts, donate and install monitoring equipment and work with counterparts to prevent eruptions from becoming disasters: the Volcano Disaster Assistance Program (VDAP).
This is a joint program between the USGS and U.S. Agency for International Development’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (USAID/OFDA).
August 6th marks the 30-year anniversary for VDAP. To recognize this milestone, we are highlighting some of the major responses, showing how the program has helped save countless lives.
And quite the track record in those thirty years:
The USGS provides scientific and technical expertise for volcano monitoring, eruption forecasting and response. USAID/OFDA is responsible for leading the U.S. government’s response to disasters overseas and has provided more than $33 million in support for VDAP since it was established.
VDAP works to support in-country scientists and agencies at the invitation of a host country. Since the program began, teams have deployed in response to 30 major crises, assisted counterparts with hundreds of additional volcanic events and strengthened monitoring and response capacity in 12 countries.
Very cool use of technology and manpower - saving lives around the world.
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