Preliminary results on historical data on homelessness and post-earthquake disaster emergency shelter

The paper presents the results of a literature review of the historical data of people being homeless as a consequence of earthquakes of magnitude > 5. The results of the analysis presented here cover from 1976–2013. The literature review was conducted by using electronic databases such as 'USGS, 'Scopus, and ‘Google’. Some of the key findings are summarised as follows: a). There has been about 20 million people being left homeless because of 105 earthquakes; b). The results also indicate that the most devastating earthquakes in terms of people being displaced have been those that occurred in Guatemala (1976), Indonesia (2004, 2006), China (2008), and Haiti (2010). These countries have accounted for 56.46%; c) The Asia region has been the most affected in terms of people being left homeless by earthquakes (71%), followed by North America countries (18%); d) Oceania has been the least affected by earthquakes with only 0.07%. It is hoped that by conducting such analyses lessons could be learnt, so that communities and key decision makers could be better prepared in the aftermath of an earthquake.