Philippines : Groundtruthing Open Street Map Building Damage Assessment

As we mark the one-year anniversary of the two devastating earthquakes that hit Southern Türkiye and Northern Syria on 6 February 2023, affected communities in Northwest Syria are still grappling with the profound challenges left in the aftermath of the disaster – deepening a thirteen-year long humanitarian crisis in the area.  The two earthquakes, which […]

A 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck the western region of Afghanistan on 7 October 2023, affecting an estimated 12,000 people across five districts of Herat province. In the following week, two other major earthquakes and numerous aftershocks hit the region, each of them exacerbating pre-existing vulnerabilities. As multiple organizations prepared to conduct market assessments to inform […]

On February 6th, two major earthquakes hit southern Türkiye, close to the Syrian border. While these are not the first earthquakes in this area, both were stronger than any previously recorded in the region and over 50,000 people are estimated to have died. It has now been four months, but the effects are still being […]

As of the 14 of March 2023, this thread has been archived. To see future updates on Syria, see our latest news section and for more information products, check out our REACH Syria page   Two powerful earthquakes struck south-eastern Türkiye within a span of 12 hours on the 6th of February. The first, with a […]

Displacement associated with disasters and the effects of climate change is one of today’s most serious humanitarian and development issue. In the first half of 2020 alone, disasters triggered 9.8 million new displacements, and most were linked to weather-related hazards such as storms, floods and droughts. In northwest Syria, extreme flooding events are devastating families already reeling from ten years of violence conflict, displacement, economic ruin, and the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In late 2019, a destructive flood event that occurred in the months of October and November in the Central African Republic (CAR) occasioned the displacement of over 100,000 individuals and causing considerable damage. Through remote-sensing, REACH conducted a flood susceptibility analysis to classify areas within CAR that are more likely to flood, in an effort to inform enhanced preparedness.

Living in a country where a quarter of the land lives barely above sea-level, the people of Bangladesh are especially vulnerable to the effects of climate change and the havoc wrought by natural hazards. REACH focuses on improving the preparedness and informing the needs of vulnerable host and refugee populations along the coastlines in Cox’s Bazar.

The wind and rain had gone on for days, and they kept rising. By the 14th of March, winds had reached a speed of 195 kilometres per hour. The eye of the storm turned inland and over the coastal city of Beira. A city home to half a million people. This is the story of Cyclone Idai and REACH’s response to it.