Inmarsat has played a vital part in disaster relief for more than a decade.
LONDON, U.K. - Inmarsat’s services are used by a wide range of aid agencies, national authorities and international organizations - including the Red Cross / Crescent, the World Health Organisation (WHO), the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and the United Nations (UN) - to reestablish communications and coordinate assistance to victims.
We are especially proud to sponsor the work of French charity Télécoms Sans Frontières (TSF), which sends emergency teams equipped with Inmarsat equipment to restore communications in disaster zones.
TSF sets up telecom centres, equipped with broadband internet and wireless network connections, phone and fax, to help coordinate first responders’ relief efforts - and has just signed a ground-breaking agreement with the UN to provide emergency response communications wherever required.
The charity also enables thousands of survivors to telephone loved ones to say they’re alive.
The following are the recent occasions when TSF and Inmarsat have contributed to saving lives:
August 2006 - Conflict in the Lebanon
More than 1,000 Lebanese and 160 Israelis were killed and an estimated one million people - a quarter of the Lebanese population - had to flee their homes during hostilities between the two countries.
May 2006 - Earthquake kills thousands on Java
An earthquake measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale struck the Island of Java, killing almost 6,000 people and making an estimated 1.5 million homeless.
May 2006 - Floods destroy homes in Surinam
Torrential rains caused several major rivers to flood in southern and central Surinam, South America, making more than 37,000 people homeless.
February 2006 - Mudslides swamp villagers in Philippines
A minor earthquake after prolonged heavy rain caused a series of mudslides in the province of Southern Leyte in the Philippines, killing several hundred people, including almost all the children and staff of a village school.
October 2005 - Earthquake in Pakistan kills 90,000
An earthquake in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, which registered 7.6 on the Richter scale, killed more than 90,000 people - mostly in remote mountainous areas.
September 2005 - Hurricane Rita emulates Katrina
Hurricane Rita killed seven people on the US Gulf Coast - less than a month after the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina - resulting in an estimated US$10 billion of damage.
August 2005 - Hurricane Katrina blasts US southern states
Hurricane Katrina, the sixth-strongest Atlantic hurricane on record, killed more than 1,800 people in the US and Caribbean, causing an estimated US$75 billion of damage - much of it in and around the city of New Orleans.
March 2005 - Second quake strikes Indonesia
Only three months after the Indian Ocean tsunami, another quake, measuring 8.7 on the Richter scale, hit the Indonesian island of Nias, killing at least 1,300 people.
Jan-Dec 2005 - Famine hits Niger
Failed crops and chronic drought triggered a famine in Niger, west Africa, affecting 3.6 million people - a third of the population - throughout 2005.
December 2004 - Under-sea quake triggers Indian Ocean tsunami
An under-sea quake off Sumatra, measuring 9.1 on the Richter scale, triggered a tsunami (giant wave) resulting in the deaths of at least 186,000 people in coastal areas bordering the Indian Ocean.
November 2004 - Deadly landslides hit the Philippines
Typhoons triggered floods and landslides, which killed more than 1,600 people and destroyed 188,000 homes in the north of the Philippines.
September 2004 - Hurricane Ivan sweeps the Caribbean
Hurricane Ivan, the strongest hurricane of the 2004 Atlantic hurricane season, caused destruction across Grenada, the Caribbean and the southern US states. More than 100 people were killed.
June 2004 - Floods make thousands homeless in Nicaragua
Violent tropical storms caused flooding that made thousands homeless in Nicaragua and other countries in Central America and the Caribbean in June and July 2004.
December 2003 - Earthquake kills 26,000 at Bam, Iran
An earthquake measuring 6.6 on the Richter scale hit the ancient city of Bam with devastating effect on December 26, destroying 70 per cent of the city and killing 26,000 people.