Steve Aoki Shelter Box Opportunity

Hello all,

This is a huge ShelterBox opportunity that will take each of you less than a minute to do and could result in a MAJOR impact on our organization towards the close of this year. A DJ named Steve Aoki is turning 35 this year and is matching up to $35,000 of proceeds from his concert sales, auction items and other means to give to one of five charities that receive the most votes on his website – up to $70,000 total.

I’m asking for your help!

1. Just click this link http://www.steveaokifund.com, select ShelterBox on the box on the right hand side and place your email address into the box. It will send you a link to your email to verify that you are a real person and not a computer program and you are almost done.

2. Now tell your friends about it. Send emails, copy and paste the below notes into Twitter and Facebook. Do all three if you can.

a. FaceBook: Help me raise up to $70,000 for ShelterBox USA, an organization I volunteer for. All you need to do is vote for ShelterBox on http://www.steveaokifund.com/ and tell your friends about it. We could make a difference for seventy families who lost everything after a disaster get a new start.

b. Twitter: Want to help @steveaoki raise up to $70k for @ShelterBoxUS? Just click http://bit.ly/TEcLzq and vote for ShelterBox.

ShelterBox responds to Hurricane Sandy      6 November 2012

Photograph by NASA - NASA’s Earth Observatory

Hurricane Sandy ripped through Cuba and Haiti last week before it reached the United States, destroying livelihoods and infrastructure with its high winds, heavy rains and flooding. ShelterBox has been identifying emergency shelter needs in the three affected countries for the thousands of impacted families.

Sandy made landfall in southeast Cuba on Oct. 25 with winds of about 110 miles per hour, only 1 mile per hour below the status of a major category 3 hurricane. It damaged around 200,000 houses, including 50,000 that lost their roofs, and destroyed over 15,000 homes, affecting about 1.1 million people, according to the latest United Nations estimations. At least 11 lives were also lost.

Cuba is frequently mentioned by the UN as being one of the best prepared countries in terms of natural disasters: it’s highly developed meteorological service, early warning system and regularly practiced drills have saved thousands of lives. However, buildings that were in poor repair before the storm due to lack of funds and materials were vulnerable to damage.

Lack of electricity and poor communications have hindered efforts to get reliable information about the full extent of the damage in the Caribbean country. A ShelterBox Response Team (SRT) has arrived in country to assess the need for emergency aid.

Like a bomb site

SRT member, Mark Stephenson (UK) is part of the two-person team:

“We are beginning our efforts in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba's second largest city, which President Raul Castro described as looking like a bomb site. We will then look in areas of mountainous terrain, as there has been strong potential for flash floods and mudslides.”

Haiti was struck before Cuba on Oct. 24, where Sandy poured down more than 20 inches of rain over three days, causing flooding and mudslides and leaving more than 50 people dead.

Low-lying communities in western Haiti that were still recovering from damage caused by Tropical Storm Isaac in August are the worst affected areas, according to various reports.

Cholera

Some villages have been destroyed in the floods and there is a threat of cholera spreading due to unsanitary conditions.

ShelterBox’s Operations department has been in contact with Haiti's government as well as other operational partners to assess the need for emergency shelter. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is storing prepositioned ShelterBoxes in country for ShelterBox in case they are needed.

Each ShelterBox not only contains a disaster relief tent but also a LifeStraw, which is an easy-to-use portable water filter that effectively removes all bacteria and parasites responsible for causing common diarrhea diseases, including cholera.

If a need does arise, an SRT will be deployed immediately to make assessments.

United States bore full force

The United States bore the full force of Hurricane Sandy, where it expanded into a huge storm with winds covering a distance of about 1,000 miles.

“You just don’t see this kind of stuff,” Keith Blackwell, a meteorologist at the University of South Alabama’s Coastal Weather Research Center in Mobile, told National Geographic News. “It’s so strong and so large.”

On the evening of Oct. 29, Sandy's winds, rains and flooding battered New Jersey and New York throughout the night, before inflicting punishment on the Northeast of the country. It weakened as it moved inland over Pennsylvania the following day.

An SRT is being deployed to the affected areas to assess if there are unmet emergency shelter needs that can be addressed by the ShelterBox solution.