Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/46658
S amaritan's Purse prides itself in being the first organization on scene for many disasters, providing immediate, no-red-tape responses to the physical and spiritual needs of individuals in crisis and disas- ter situations. As a growing nonprofit organization, Samaritan's Purse works in more than 20 countries worldwide. In the last three years, it has increased its capacity to respond to large natural disasters and humanitar- ian crises by creating an internal structure where jobs and responsibilities are well defined before a disaster occurs. This structure helps facilitate a quick and effective response, getting feet and aid on the ground more rapidly than most organizations. GIS plays a major part in aiding the organization's emergency deployments by providing support for teams heading to the field and the team managing the response at headquarters. Use of GIS technology continues past the initial disaster into the response's recovery and long-term relief stages. It's being integrated throughout projects and departments as standard practice at Samaritan's Purse. "GIS has become an integral tool in the work of inter- national relief and development," notes Matt Ellingson, director of Samaritan's Purse's Program Development Department. "It has increased the ability of donors to see and understand the impacts of their contributions as well as growing the ability of [responding] agencies to describe the needs. The industry will continue to benefit by using it as a conduit of fast-moving informa- tion, which will help organizations make more-informed strategic decisions … helping victims of disasters and calamity faster and with more accuracy." Haiti Earthquake On Jan. 12, 2010, a catastrophic earthquake rattled Haiti, devastating a country that already was des- perately poor. Within minutes of the 7.0+ magnitude quake, a team at Samaritan's Purse was assembled to manage the disaster response. Known as the incident-management team (IMT), this group includes the GIS department. Within hours of the disaster, a Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) was dispatched on a flight to Haiti, carrying with them shelter material, water-filtration units, food, maps and GPS units with data preloaded. The information prepared for the IMT included earthquake-location maps, Port au Prince city maps with roads and unclassified government maps. City elevation and drainage maps also were created to help with the placement of the water-filtration units. Maps and data are essential when the DART hits the ground, because they provide knowledge about the environ- ment they're walking into. As was widely reported, the day after the devastat- ing quake, the Haitian Government closed the Port au Prince International Airport, leaving DART personnel with a bird's eye view of the disaster while circling in a plane above it. Not being able to get aid to the people in need was frustrating, but GIS was at work during that time. Using imagery being released at what seemed to be every hour by DigitalGlobe and GeoEye, the locations of lImagery shows "before and after" areas with shelter kits set up just days after the earthquake in Port au Prince. Opposite page: Samaritan's Purse used GIS to aid in shelter-community site selection and shelter construction in the months following the devastating earthquake. OCT O BER 2O11 / WWW . GEOPLA CE . C OM 19