Author Archives : H. Kit Miyamoto, Ph.D., S.E.
Dr. Kit Miyamoto is a world-leading disaster resiliency, response, andreconstruction expert. He provides expert engineering and policy consultation to the World Bank, USAID, U.N. agencies, governments, and the private sector. He is a California Seismic Safety Commissioner and Global CEO of Miyamoto International.
Dr. H. Kit Miyamoto, Global CEO of Miyamoto International, built a five-person engineering practice into a worldwide engineering firm that has 30 locations on four continents with one humanitarian purpose: to make the world a better, safer place from a local, five-person engineering practice. Miyamoto International is known for its innovative engineering and disaster response and reconstruction. Its purpose-driven mission and strength-focused culture drive the company’s growth and attract equally passionate and teamwork-focused team members.
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A 6.2 magnitude (Mw) earthquake struck southeastern Afghanistan on June 22, 2022. It was felt over a wide area, most strongly affecting the Paktika and Khost provinces and parts of neighboring Pakistan. According to the USGS, the earthquake had a maximum Modified Mercalli Intensity of VIII (Severe). Over 1,100 people died, and over 6,000 others were injured, making it the country’s deadliest earthquake in over 20 years.
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While Airstrikes Rain Across the City of Kyiv
On October 10, 2022, Russia escalated its war against Ukraine with the largest wave of airstrikes against civilian infrastructure since the invasion began last February. Targets included energy utilities, apartment blocks, and houses. Dr. Kit Miyamoto led a team of global engineering experts working with the U.N. in Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, to assess infrastructure damages caused by the war.
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The Reality Not Covered in the Media
Ponce is a beautiful coastal city that was once the capital of colonial Puerto Rico. Its magnificent houses and historic buildings, often exceeding 10,000 square feet, survived for centuries but were damaged by the January 2020 magnitude-6.4 earthquake. In some locations, ground acceleration exceeded 50 percent of gravity – something we expect in highly seismic regions like the Western U.S. – and many buildings are now red-tagged, labeled too dangerous to enter. The island’s economy has suffered from depopulation for decades, with an estimated one million people leaving in the last decade alone. Hurricane Maria in 2017 accelerated this trend, so many of the buildings impacted by the earthquake were not occupied nor maintained. …