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Mexico Travel / Volunteer Travel / Tourism / Voluntourism / Earthquakes / Tsunamis / → All Tags

Mexico Volunteer Travel Now Emphasizing Earthquakes and Tsunami-Preparedness

It goes without saying that Mexico travel has become a bit of a capital-t Thing in the tourism world. For fairly obvious reasons, many travelers have gotten the impression that the country is a Mad Mex dystopia awash with drug lords who fight wars using DIY scrap-metal tanks and submarines.

In response, Mexico's tourism board has waged an aggressive rebranding campaign by dispatching politicians and inventing slogans and leveraging social media and placing stories in media outlets.

Many casual travelers, nonetheless, have remained skeptical. Mexican tourism companies have therefore chosen—quite logically—to target the non-casual travelers. The country is even developing something of a reputation as a volunteer travel destination.

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Volunteer Travel / Celeb Travel / Paul Walker / Tornadoes / Voluntourism / Earthquakes / Tsunamis / Medical Travel / → All Tags

Help Paul Walker Reach Out to Disaster Victims Worldwide and Travel for Free

This week, Fast Five's Paul Walker is headed to Alabama to help victims of the recent tornadoes, and you can help too.

Walker has traveled around the world helping those in need after natural disasters on behalf of the non-profit Reach Out Worldwide. Reach Out Worldwide, which is a network trained volunteers who act as first responders in the United States and abroad, is always looking for volunteers to help out on their next trip.

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Restaurant Weeks / Japan Travel / Disasters / Earthquake Travel / Tsunamis / Food Travel / New York City / New York Restaurants / → All Tags

Get a Great Meal in NYC, Give Greatly to the Red Cross in Japan

There's no reason in trying to disguise our love for New York restaurants or for Japan as we sure talk about both often enough, but rarely is it that these passions come together for anything other than excellent sushi; now, they're combining for charity. According to Crain's, restaurants around New York City have banded together to donate 5% of their total sales from March 23-30 and donate them to the Red Cross' efforts in Japan.

Participating restaurants are of all cuisines; there's the ramen restaurant Ippudo, trendy Mercer Kitchen in Soho, and French Rockefeller Center spot Brasserie Ruhlmann. The latter will be perfect for those who orchestrated this whole thing, because it's NBC Universal that's behind the warm-heartedness of it all. Maybe we'll see Jack Donaghy at the table next to us, hm?

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Dangerous Travel / Earthquakes / Tragedies / Japan Travel / NRT / HND / Travel News / Emergencies / Nuclear Energy / NGO / KIX / Airline News / Tsunamis / Lufthansa / → All Tags

Japan's Nuclear Emergencies Freak Out Germany, Divert Lufthansa Flights

In Japan over the last few days, there's been a massive earthquake, tragic tsunamis and even a volcanic explosion, but the news gripping the world is that of their ongoing emergencies at several nuclear plants. Note the word "ongoing," as the other three big events happened and are done with.

It was reported very early this morning that Lufthansa isn't taking the nuclear crisis and release of radioactivity into the atmosphere sitting down (or rather, flying high as normal). The German airline has begun scanning their planes out of Japan for radioactivity, and though nothing above a normal level has been found, Lufthansa is taking precautions by removing the Airbus A380 from Tokyo routes and putting most Lufthansa flight crew up in South Korea rather than Japan.

In addition, the two daily Tokyo-bound Lufthansa flights from Germany will be diverted to other Japanese airports through this upcoming Sunday. Specifically, Lufthansa Flight 714 from Munich will head to Nagoya and Lufthansa Flight 710 from Frankfurt will land at Osaka-Kansai.

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Volunteer Travel / American Red Cross / Disasters / Earthquakes / Tsunamis / AAdvantage / Japan Travel / American Airlines / Frequent Flyer Miles / → All Tags

Relief From the Sky: What the Airlines are Doing to Help Japan (and How You Can Join In)

They may be standing strong in the wake of both horrible earthquakes and the tsunami, but Japan does need our help, and badly. Think about all the enjoyment you've gotten from Japan—good sushi, awesome video games, breakthrough technology, superior customer service (for example)—and consider donating to relief efforts.

Cash is obviously the easiest way to contribute and it's the most in demand, since then charities can put it towards whatever is most needed. If you like the idea of getting a thanks for your donation, American Airlines, in partnership with the Red Cross, will kick you back AAdvantage miles for your donation:

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Tsunamis / Hawaii Travel / Emergencies / Earthquakes / → All Tags

Japan's Earthquake Tsunami Waves Go Easy on Hawaii and California

This is footage from JAPAN, not of Hawaii or California, by the way.

Hawaii's tsunami warning still has a few more hours to go, but at this point, it appears as though the islands have escaped devastation. The waves that did arrive weren't recorded as cresting more than 6 feet (in Maui), though most seemed between 2 and 4 feet. There was no major damage reported, and today in Hawaii is progressing as normally as possible, even as Japan still still works to gauge the the amount of havoc Mother Nature wreaked on them earlier, following the 8.9 earthquake offshore.

Surprisingly its southern California that's seen the most of the North American results of the earthquake, with boats marinas swamped and small property damages. As a result, evacuation signs are being posted and residents of areas in danger are encouraged to stay tuned to the local news. Waves have been reported to be as high as 7 feet, though Santa Monica—where the surfers are still out—will likely only see around 3 feet.

Our recommendation? Don't stand at the beach and look out to sea, expecting to watch the tsunami waves. IF they're big enough to see, then they're large enough to wash over you pretty shortly after.

[Video: CNN]

Earthquakes / Tragedies / Japan Travel / NRT / HND / SDJ / Travel News / Emergencies / Airports / Airport News / Tsunamis / → All Tags

Japan's 8.9 Earthquake Causes Tsunamis and Destruction, Airport and Train Closures

Last night, or after lunch if you were in Tokyo, a massive 8.9 earthquake hit off the western coast of Japan, causing a rolling of the earth felt though many cities, including Tokyo. The event also produced tsunami waves, which have caused immense destruction in Japan and are currently hitting Hawaii, though no damage has been reported there.

We've glued to our computer, watching tsunami videos as helicopters filmed it live. Watch them here and take a moment to reflect on the fragility of this Earth. We also bet you're on information overload, as are we, so here's what you need to know, straight from the news:

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Weather / Hawaii Travel / Tsunamis / Travel Advertising / Travel Marketing / → All Tags

How the Hawaii Tsunami Watch Will See Only a Wave of Tourists

On Saturday, after the catastrophic earthquake in Chile, places that might be in the path of a resulting tsunami battened down the hatches and awaited the waves. One of these places was Hawaii, which instead of having everyone run inside and pray that the wave would leave then high and dry, sent reporters to the beaches and trained livecams on the surf so that the world could watch for the tsunami, too.

Although a massive wave never arrived in favor of some tidal ebbing and flowing, what Hawaii did get were millions of eyes trained on its gorgeous beaches and water. People were excited; their heartrates went up as they eagerly watched the water rapidly rush out of Hilo Bay, like seen in the livecam capture above, and we couldn't help but think what priceless tourism marketing this is for Hawaii. And we weren't alone:

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Samoa Travel / Tsunamis / Tourist Boards / Island Travel / → All Tags

Samoa Says It's Still Beautiful, So Please Come Back

The pretty islands of Samoa have a had a rough time lately. As if switching from right side to left side driving wasn't enough, the poor Samoans endured a tsunami in late September which killed close to 200 people, some of them tourists, and that meant a bunch of canceled bookings by future travelers. This is all not great news for a country with tourism as 25% of GDP.

But now we've got the good news: Samoa is back on track. Less than two months after the tsunami, the Samoa Tourism Authority says that tourism is recovering. Some of the 33 resorts that were forced to close are on course to start opening early next year, and although tourist numbers are currently down 20% compared to the same time a year ago, the outlook for the future is better. On top of that, the "It's Still Beautiful" marketing campaign has kicked off to convince tourists that Samoa should still be on their wishlist. It's still on ours, but we've got a long, long list.

Related Stories:
· Recovery Begins In Samoa [The Age]
· Samoa Switches Sides Of The Road For Drivers [Jaunted]

[Photo: YXO]

Design Travel / Islands / Tsunamis / Travel Weather / → All Tags

Sci-Fi Travel: Making Islands Invisible to Tsunamis

Scientists in France have come up with a possible way to make islands invisible to tsunamis. This sounds absolutely crazy, but bear with us!

In 2006 researchers got a real cloaking device to work that guided microwaves around a small, flat copper ring as if it wasn't there. Using similar principles, the French scientists have designed a whirlpool-like cloaking device that would channel the destructive waves of a tsunami away from islands, coastlines and oil rigs.

The image above is of a very small-scale version of the protective barrier that would act as the cloaking device. New Scientist has all the technical specs (that we just barely understand), which will hopefully be saving your vacation (and countless lives) in the future.

Related Stories:
· Invisibility Cloaks Could Take Sting out of Tsunamis [New Scientist]
· Islands coverage [Jaunted]