Portfolio Category: Disaster Relief

Cyclone Sidr tore through Southeast Bangladesh in November 2007, lashing affected areas with winds of up to 155 mph. More than 3,000 people were killed and 871 went missing. About 8.9 million people were affected by the Category 4 storm, Bangladesh’s second natural disaster in a year. Reports of the immense devastation prompted Richard Hotes...

Hurricane Dean smashed into Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula in August 2007, pummeling the region with 165 mph winds and dumping torrential rain. The storm caused massive flooding, leaving 70 percent of the state of Tabasco under water. Richard Hotes and the Hotes Foundation immediately launched into action, assisting thousands of flood victims. More than 30 volunteers...

Hotes Foundation volunteers traveled to Peru in 2007 when a magnitude 8.0 earthquake killed more than 500 people, injured almost 1,100 and demolished about 35,000 homes. Thousands more were left homeless after fleeing their residences out of fear of deadly aftershocks. Richard Hotes and his team bridged the gap between victims and government response in...

Pakistanis living in the remote northern mountains of Kashmir were trapped without food, water, or shelter after a devastating 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck in October 2005. The quake killed more than 100,000 people, injured 138,000 and displaced 3.5 million people from their homes as a brutal winter loomed. Much of Kashmir’s infrastructure was destroyed, and...