美国国家公共电台 NPR What The Pileup Of U.S. Disasters Means For The World

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Fires in California, hurricanes and flooding in Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico - a devastating¹ season of natural disasters for the U.S. And it comes just as a series of other catastrophes² have threatened millions of people around the world. That complicates³ the response by U.S.-based charities and government agencies. NPR's Nurith Aizenman reports.

NURITH AIZENMAN, BYLINE⁴: When a disaster hits, one of the first things an aid charity does is to put out a call for cash. They need it to get on the ground fast with emergency supplies. World Vision International is one of the major aid groups across the globe. So when the first in this series of U.S. emergencies, Hurricane Harvey, struck Texas in August, they revved⁵ up their fundraising big time. Drew Clark is a senior director in the charity's U.S. office.

DREW CLARK: We've raised about just under $4 million in cash donations.

AIZENMAN: Two weeks later, Hurricane Irma roared through the Caribbean and Florida. This time, World Vision raised $900,000.

CLARK: Even though, you know, the number of casualties was higher in Irma, our cash fundraising was about a quarter of what it was from Harvey.

AIZENMAN: Then came the big earthquake in Mexico. That fundraising appeal netted $150,000. And for Hurricane Maria, which has left millions of people in Puerto Rico still without power and water, World Vision's call-out only raised $100,000.

CLARK: There is clearly evidence of donor⁶ fatigue⁷. There's just a limit to the amount of responses that we can successfully fundraise for.

AIZENMAN: It's one of many ways that organizations and U.S. government agencies that handle disasters are feeling the pressure of a unique pileup of devastating events. It's not just that the U.S. has been clobbered⁸ with multiple disasters in a row. Since August, on top of the Mexico earthquake, there's been a massive landslide⁹ in Sierra Leone, then Muslim Rohingya refugees pouring from Myanmar into Bangladesh, hundreds of thousands of them.

LEISEL TALLEY: I would say it is somewhat unprecedented¹⁰.

AIZENMAN: Leisel Talley is with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at a branch that handles the health consequences of overseas emergencies.

TALLEY: You know, this year has been particularly challenging.

AIZENMAN: The world was already grappling with some of the largest humanitarian¹¹ crises since World War II. Twenty million people are at risk of dying from starvation and disease due to conflicts and drought in Yemen, South Sudan, Nigeria, Somalia. So within the U.S. government, it's not just all hands on deck at exclusively domestic agencies like FEMA right now. At the CDC...

TALLEY: We have staff, really, around the world responding.

AIZENMAN: Similarly, at USAID, the agency that delivers U.S. assistance to poor countries, they have six separate disaster response teams deployed¹², including ones to help displaced people from Syria and Iraq. Alex Mahoney is a top official with that agency.

ALEX MAHONEY: This is only the second time that we've had six teams mobilize at once. So, yes, it's unusual.

AIZENMAN: Both Talley and Mahoney say their respective agencies are equipped to handle this multipronged challenge. But Paul Spiegel, who directs the Center for Humanitarian Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health - he has his doubts.

PAUL SPIEGEL: There was already insufficient¹³ humanitarian workers to respond, given the amount of emergencies.

AIZENMAN: He notes that for several years now, the total amount donated by governments, including the U.S., for international humanitarian assistance has fallen way short of what the United Nations said was needed - a 40 percent shortfall last year. And President Trump's proposed budget for fiscal¹⁴ year 2018 would slash¹⁵ U.S. overseas disaster assistance by a third. Now, Congress has seemed on track to restore those cuts.

SPIEGEL: But these are not normal political times.

AIZENMAN: And with the cost of rebuilding on U.S. territory mounting, Spiegel worries support for spending on disaster relief overseas could be one more casualty. Nurith Aizenman, NPR News.

1 devastating   

adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的

参考例句：

• It is the most devastating storm in 20 years.这是20年来破坏性最大的风暴。
• Affairs do have a devastating effect on marriages.婚外情确实会对婚姻造成毁灭性的影响。

2 catastrophes   

n.灾祸( catastrophe的名词复数 )；灾难；不幸事件；困难

参考例句：

• Two of history's worst natural catastrophes occurred in 1970. 1970年发生了历史上最严重两次自然灾害。 来自辞典例句
• The Swiss deposits contain evidence of such catastrophes. 瑞士的遗址里还有这种灾难的证据。 来自辞典例句

3 complicates   

使复杂化( complicate的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• What complicates the issue is the burden of history. 历史的重负使问题复杂化了。
• Russia as a great and ambitious power gravely complicates the situation. 俄国作为一个强大而有野心的国家，使得局势异常复杂。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 revved   

v.（使）加速( rev的过去式和过去分词 )；（数量、活动等）激增；（使发动机）快速旋转；（使）活跃起来

参考例句：

• The taxi driver revved up his engine. 出租车司机把发动机发动起来。
• The car revved up and roared away. 汽车发动起来，然后轰鸣着开走了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 donor   

n.捐献者；赠送人；(组织、器官等的)供体

参考例句：

• In these cases,the recipient usually takes care of the donor afterwards.在这类情况下，接受捐献者以后通常会照顾捐赠者。
• The Doctor transplanted the donor's heart to Mike's chest cavity.医生将捐赠者的心脏移植进麦克的胸腔。

7 fatigue   

n.疲劳，劳累

参考例句：

• The old lady can't bear the fatigue of a long journey.这位老妇人不能忍受长途旅行的疲劳。
• I have got over my weakness and fatigue.我已从虚弱和疲劳中恢复过来了。

8 clobbered   

v.狠揍， （不停）猛打( clobber的过去式和过去分词 )；彻底击败

参考例句：

• The paper got clobbered with libel damages of half a million pounds. 这家报纸被罚以五十万英镑的诽谤损害赔偿金。
• The robbers clobbered the shopkeeper to make him open the safe. 强盗们殴打店主迫使他打开保险箱。 来自辞典例句

9 landslide   

n.(竞选中)压倒多数的选票；一面倒的胜利

参考例句：

• Our candidate is predicated to win by a landslide.我们的候选人被预言将以绝对优势取胜。
• An electoral landslide put the Labour Party into power in 1945.1945年工党以压倒多数的胜利当选执政。

10 unprecedented   

adj.无前例的，新奇的

参考例句：

• The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
• A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。

11 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

12 deployed   

（尤指军事行动）使展开( deploy的过去式和过去分词 )； 施展； 部署； 有效地利用

参考例句：

• Tanks have been deployed all along the front line. 沿整个前线已部署了坦克。
• The artillery was deployed to bear on the fort. 火炮是对着那个碉堡部署的。

13 insufficient   

adj.(for，of)不足的，不够的

参考例句：

• There was insufficient evidence to convict him.没有足够证据给他定罪。
• In their day scientific knowledge was insufficient to settle the matter.在他们的时代，科学知识还不能足以解决这些问题。

14 fiscal   

adj.财政的，会计的，国库的，国库岁入的

参考例句：

• The increase of taxation is an important fiscal policy.增税是一项重要的财政政策。
• The government has two basic strategies of fiscal policy available.政府有两个可行的财政政策基本战略。

15 slash   

vi.大幅度削减；vt.猛砍，尖锐抨击，大幅减少；n.猛砍，斜线，长切口，衣衩

参考例句：

• The shop plans to slash fur prices after Spring Festival.该店计划在春节之后把皮货降价。
• Don't slash your horse in that cruel way.不要那样残忍地鞭打你的马。