earthquake

When a 5.7-magnitude earthquake hit near the California-Mexico border, Twitter was disrupted by many first-person reports of the quake.

If you live in an area prone to floods, earthquakes or hurricanes, it's always a good idea to be able to grab a backpack and hunker down somewhere until the worst is over. Even if your area isn't inclined to suffer natural disasters, there are always instances of prolonged power outages for one...

Emergency management experts say the time has come for both business and government to place disaster preparedness near the top of their economic and security agendas. But it's a tough sell.

Projected insured losses from the massive 8.8 magnitude earthquake that struck Chile on February 27 range from $2 billion to more than $8 billion. When the total economic damage is tallied, losses from one of the worst quakes ever recorded may exceed $15 billion.

Of the many ironies of last week's earthquake in Haiti, this one is the cruelest: In the months before the disaster, international officials believed the outlook for the Western Hemisphere's poorest country was starting to improve. U.S. and South Korean firms were considering expanding operations there.

After the rescue stage is completed, Haiti will need a Marshall Plan like one implemented in Europe, post-World War II. But this time, there will need to be a large corporate presence to help make the island nation a land of opportunity and hope.

Verizon Wireless on Friday advanced the $2.98 million in mobile donations that its customers have made to the Red Cross. Since the earthquake hit Haiti earlier this week, mobile operators have received $10 million in donations via text messages. Typically, such donations can take up to three months to be delivered.

Jonathan Katz, who had the Haiti beat largely to himself thanks to newsroom cutbacks in international coverage, is no longer alone. Media's biggest names including Diane Sawyer and Anderson Cooper have landed since the earthquake. Katz's house here is in ruins, but he mourns for the rest of the island.

Years before the deadly earthquake, scientists urged Haiti to install seismic monitoring stations. Because that was never done, rebuilding will be far more difficult, as the seismic information would be useful in developing the nation's building codes.

Americans set a single day record for mobile giving Wednesday, as tens of thousands of people used their cell phones to donate $3 million to earthquake-stricken Haiti, according to Verizon Wireless.