DISASTER MANAGEMENT

Assignment 2
Report on national and international disaste occurred in past and their
interference

Submitted By
Rhythm Satya
Ishan Institute of Architecture and Planning
6th Semester
2018 Kerala floods
From 8 August 2018, severe floods affected the south Indian state of Kerala,
due to unusually high rainfall during the monsoon season. It was the worst
flood in Kerala in nearly a century. Over 483 people died, and 14 are
missing. About a million people were evacuated, mainly
from Chengannur, Pandanad, Edanad, Aranmula, Kozhencherry, Ayiroor, Rani,
Pandalam, Kuttanad, Malappuram, Aluva, Chalakudy, Thiruvalla, Eraviperoor,
Vallamkulam, N.Paravur, Vypin Island band Palakkad. All 14 districts of the
state were placed on red alert. According to the Kerala government, one-sixth
of the total population of Kerala had been directly affected by the floods and
related incidents. The Indian government had declared it a Level 3 Calamity, or
"calamity of a severe nature". It is the worst flood in Kerala after the great flood
of 99that took place in 1924.
Causes
Kerala received heavy monsoon rainfall, which was about 75% more than the
usual rain fall in Kerala, on the mid-evening of August 8, resulting
in dams filling to capacity; in the first 24 hours of rainfall the state received
310 mm (12 in) of rain. Almost all dams had been opened since the water level
had risen close to overflow level due to heavy rainfall, flooding local low-lying
areas. For the first time in the state's history, 35 of its 54 dams had been opened.
The deluge has been considered an impact of the global warming.
The Government of Kerala argued in the Supreme Court that the very sudden
release of water from the Mullaperiyar Dam by the Tamil Nadu government was
one of the reasons for the devastating flood in Kerala. The Tamil Nadu
government rejected the argument, saying that Kerala suffered the deluge due to
the discharge of excess water from 80 reservoirs across Kerala, spurred by heavy
rains from within the state; It also argued that the flood surplus from the Idukki
dam is mainly due to the flows generated from its own independent catchment
due to unprecedented heavy rainfall, while the discharge from Mullaperiyar dam
was significantly less. Though it is difficult to attribute any single event
to climate change, its possible role in causing the heavy rainfall event over
Kerala cannot be ruled out.
Impact
A state official told AFP that 370 people have died, while The Economic
Times has reported that 33,000 people have been rescued. The Kerala State
Disaster Management Authority has placed the state in a red alert as a result of
the intense flooding. A number of water treatment plants were forced to cease
pumping water, resulting in poor access to clean water, especially in northern
districts of the state. Over 3,274 relief camp have been opened at various
locations to accommodate the flood victims. It is estimated that 1,247,496
people have found shelter in such camps. The flooding has affected hundreds of
villages, destroyed an estimated 10,000 km (6,200 mi) of roads and thousands of
homes have been damaged or destroyed. The Government
cancelled Onam celebrations, whose allocated funds have been reallocated to
relief efforts. On August 12,Cochin International Airport, India's fourth busiest
in terms of international traffic, and the busiest in the state suspended all
operations until 29 August, following runway flooding. Many schools
throughout the state have been closed, and tourists have been dissuaded or
banned from some districts due to safety concerns. Kochi Metro was closed
briefly on August 16, and later offered free service to aid those affected by the
flooding. Due to heavy rain and rising water levels the southern railway had
suspended train services on the Thiruvananthapuram-Kottayam-Ernakulam and
Ernakulam-Shoranur-Palakkad sections.

2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami

The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake occurred at 00:58:53 UTC on 26
December, with an epicentre off the west coast of northern Sumatra. It was
an undersea mega thrust earthquake that registered a magnitude of 9.1–9.3 Mw,
reaching a Mercalli intensity up to IX in certain areas. The earthquake was
caused by a rupture along the fault between the Burma Plate and the Indian
Plate.
A series of large tsunamis up to 30 metres (100 ft) high were created by the
underwater seismic activity that became known collectively as the Boxing Day
tsunamis. Communities along the surrounding coasts of the Indian Ocean were
seriously affected, and the tsunamis killed an estimated 227,898 people in 14
countries. The Indonesian city of Banda Aceh reported the largest number of
victims. The earthquake was one of the deadliest natural disasters in recorded
history. The direct results caused major disruptions to living conditions and
commerce particularly in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, and Thailand.
Causes
This earthquake occurred along a thrust fault in the subduction zone where the
Indian tectonic plate is going below the overriding Burmese plate. As a result,
the ocean floor broke and there was a vertical displacement of about 15 to 20
meters along the fault causing large scale displacement of water and thus,
generating tsunami waves.
This kind of large vertical displacement happened because the magnitude of the
earthquake was greater than 9 and it occurred at a shallow depth of less than
30km below the ocean. Since 1900, only five earthquakes, worldwide have
exceeded magnitude 9.0 and all of them occurred in subduction zones at
shallow depths and broke the ocean floor with displacement of the order of
greater than 10 metres generating gigantic tsunami waves.
These earthquakes which are referred to as “Megathrust” earthquakes were 1952
Kamchatka, Russia, 1960 Chile (the world’s greatest so far with M 9.5), 1964
Prince William Sound, Alaska, 2004 Sumatra and 2011 Tohoku, Japan. Tsunami
waves are also known to have been generated by earthquakes of greater than 8.5
magnitudes but with lesser intensities.
The rupture of the M 9.3 Sumatra earthquake in 2004 began on a NW-SE
trending thrust fault off the coast of Sumatra and then propagated in North-
South direction along the Nicobar and Andaman islands to a length of 1200 km.
Since, a large amount of tsunami energy propagates normal to the trend of the
fault direction, the tsunami wave propagated in south-west and westerly
direction in the Indian Ocean reaching Indian coast, Srilanka, Maldives and
reaching up to eastern African coast lines.
Since the tsunami waves are long period waves with wave lengths of 200-250
kilometres, their height in the open sea ranges between few centimetres to a
metre and cannot be distinguished by people travelling on a ship in an open sea.
The speed of a tsunami wave is related to the depth of the ocean, greater the
water depth higher the speed.
Typically, for an average ocean depth of 4 km, like in the Indian Ocean/Bay of
Bengal region, the speed of the tsunami waves can go up to 720 km/h or about
the speed of a jet airliner. As the tsunami waves approach the shore, the water
depth becomes shallower, waves slow down, wavelength becomes shorter and
the waves gain larger amplitude or heights and become destructive.
The average distance from Banda Aceh to the Indian eastern coast ranges
between 1,800 and 2,000 km and hence, the travel time taken by the tsunami
waves was about 150 minutes. The earthquake occurred at 06:28(IST) and the
first waves were observed around 09:00 (IST) on the eastern Indian coast.
More than 16,000 people perished in the Andaman and Nicobar islands and
along the eastern coast of India. Although the occurrence of tsunami across the
world is well known, it was the first experience for the people of India. Earlier,
there are records of tsunami waves touching the Indian shores in the West in
1945 and in the East in 1941.
But these waves were insignificant and less than 1 metre in height. But in the
case of 2004 tsunami, the maximum run-up height of more than 5 metres was
observed along the Nagapattinam region in Tamil Nadu and lateral inundation
being up to 1 km at some places. Most of the loss of life and damage to
property was within 500 metres of the shore and the local coastal topography
played an important role in the inundation process.
The varying tsunami wave heights along the east coast from 2.5 metres at
Devanaampatnam to 5.2 at Nagapattinam were due to the bathymetry of the
coastline. The 2004 tsunami was also a wakeup call for the Indian earth
scientists’ community to take up research on this new coastal hazard. The
Indian scientists made great strides since then, by setting up a Tsunami Early
Warning System at INCOIS, Hyderabad in 2007.
Since, then several successful warnings were given by the Centre whenever there
was an undersea earthquake of any significance in the Indian Ocean. In terms of
tsunami research several models were developed in which scenarios were
created which will help in predicting the time of tsunami wave arrivals, their
heights and inundation along the east and west coast of India in case of
earthquakes occurrence in the two subduction zones in Markran, south of
Pakistan in the west and Andaman and Nicobar and Sumatra in the east,
identified to be sources of tsunami generation.
Impact
According to the U.S. Geological Survey a total of 227,898 people
died. Measured in lives lost, this is one of the ten worst earthquakes in recorded
history, as well as the single worst tsunami in history. Indonesia was the worst
affected area, with most death toll estimates at around 170,000. In an initial
report by Siti Fadilah Supari, the Indonesian Minister of Health at the time,
estimated the death total to be as high as 220,000 in Indonesia alone, giving a
total of 280,000 fatalities. However, the estimated number of dead and missing
in Indonesia were later reduced by over 50,000. In their report, the Tsunami
Evaluation Coalition stated, "It should be remembered that all such data are
subject to error, as data on missing persons especially are not always as good as
one might wish". A much higher number of deaths has been suggested for
Myanmar based on reports from Thailand.
The tsunami caused serious damage and deaths as far as the east coast of Africa,
with the furthest recorded fatality directly attributed to the tsunami at Rooi-Els,
close to Cape Town, 8,000 km (5,000 mi) from the epicentre. In total, eight
people in South Africa died due to high sea levels and waves.
Relief agencies reported that one-third of the dead appeared to be children. This
was a result of the high proportion of children in the populations of many of
the affected regions and because children were the least able to resist being
overcome by the surging waters. Oxfam went on to report that as many as four
times more women than men were killed in some regions because they were
waiting on the beach for the fishermen to return and looking after their children
in the houses.
States of emergency were declared in Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and the Maldives.
The United Nations estimated at the outset that the relief operation would be
the costliest in human history. Then-UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan stated
that reconstruction would probably take between five and ten years.
Governments and non-governmental organizations feared that the final death
toll might double as a result of diseases, prompting a massive humanitarian
response.
In addition to a large number of local residents, up to 9,000 foreign tourists
(mostly Europeans) enjoying the peak holiday travel season were among the
dead or missing, especially people from the Nordic countries.[citation
needed] The European nation hardest hit was Sweden, with a death toll of 543.
Germany was close behind with 539 identified victims.

2010 Haiti earthquake

The 2010 Haiti earthquake was a catastrophic magnitude 7.0 Mw earthquake,
with an epicentre near the town of Léogâne (Ouest) and approximately 25
kilometres (16 mi) west of Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital. The earthquake
occurred at 16:53 local time (21:53 UTC) on Tuesday, 12 January 2010.
By 24 January, at least 52 aftershocks measuring 4.5 or greater had been
recorded. An estimated three million people were affected by the quake. Death
toll estimates range from 100,000 to about 160,000 to Haitian government
figures from 220,000 to 316,000; these have been widely characterized as
deliberately inflated by the Haitian government. The government of Haiti
estimated that 250,000 residences and 30,000 commercial buildings had
collapsed or were severely damaged. The nation's history of national debt,
prejudicial trade policies by other countries, and foreign intervention into
national affairs, contributed to the existing poverty and poor housing conditions
that increased the death toll from the disaster.

Cause of Earthquake
Haiti sits above two tectonic plates, the Caribbean plate and the North
American plate. These plates are rigid parts of the Earth's crust that slide
separately on the planet’s molten core. They were sliding past each other. When
the two jagged edges catch, they hold at first. The mounting pressure eventually
forces them to grind past each other. That's what causes an earthquake.

The 7.0 quake that struck Haiti was the same strength as the Loma Prieta
earthquake that struck San Francisco during the 1989 World Series. But Haiti's
quake was 6.2 miles below the surface. It was also just 10 miles from the capital
of Port-au-Prince. The quake's closeness made its impact much stronger

April 2015 Nepal earthquake

The April 2015 Nepal earthquake (also known as the Gorkha
earthquake)[5][8] killed nearly 9,000 people and injured nearly 22,000. It
occurred at on 25 April 2015, with a magnitude of 7.8Mw[1] or 8.1Ms[9] and a
maximum Mercalli Intensity of VIII (Severe). Its epicentre was east of Gorkha
District at Barpak, Gorkha, and its hypocenter was at a depth of approximately
8.2 km (5.1 mi).[1] It was the worst natural disaster to strike Nepal since
the 1934 Nepal–Bihar earthquake. The ground motion recorded in the capital of
Nepal was of low frequency which, along with its occurrence at an hour where
many people in rural areas were working outdoors, decreased the loss of
property and human lives.
The earthquake triggered an avalanche on Mount Everest, killing 21, making 25
April 2015 the deadliest day on the mountain in history. The earthquake
triggered another huge avalanche in the Langtang valley, where 250 people were
reported missing.
Causes
• Two tectonic plates meet beneath the Himalayas along a fault line. The
India plate is moving north at around 45mm a year and pushing under the
Eurasian plate. Over time that is how the Himalayas were created.
• Dr Brian Baptie, head of seismology at the British Geological Survey in
Edinburgh, explains the potential after-effects of the quake.
• Saturday's catastrophic earthquake in Nepal occurred because of two
converging tectonic plates: the India plate and the overriding Eurasia plate
to the north, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
• Tectonic plates are the large, thin, relatively rigid plates that move relative
to one another on the outer surface of the Earth.
Plates are always slowly moving, but they get stuck at their edges due to
friction. When the stress on the edge overcomes the friction, there is an
earthquake that releases energy in waves that travel through the Earth's
crust and cause the shaking that we feel.
• At the location of Saturday's earthquake, about 50 miles to the northeast
of the Nepalese capital of Kathmandu, the India plate is converging with
Eurasia at a rate of about 2 inches per year toward the north-northeast,
driving the uplift of the Himalayan mountain range.
• The quake had a depth of only 7 miles, which is considered shallow in
geological terms, the Associated Press reported. The shallower the quake,
the more destructive power it carries.
• The earthquake was felt as far away as Lahore in Pakistan, which is more
than 700 miles away. It was also felt 380 miles away in Lhasa in Tibet, and
400 miles away in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
• Although a major plate boundary with a history of large- to great-sized
earthquakes, large quakes in this area are rare in the documented historical
era, the U.S. Geological Survey reports. Over the past century, just four
events of magnitude-6.0 or larger have occurred within about 150 miles of
Saturday's earthquake.
• One, a magnitude-6.9 earthquake in August 1988 about 150 miles to the
southeast of Saturday's quake, caused nearly 1,500 fatalities, USGS said.
• The largest event, a magnitude-8.0 quake known as the 1934 Nepal-Bihar
earthquake, occurred in a similar location to the 1988 quake. It severely
damaged Kathmandu, and is thought to have caused around 10,600
deaths.
Impact
The havoc caused by an earthquake a year back hasn’t been properly sized up
yet. Victims are still lying under the temporary shades. The fear of the
earthquake tremors haven’t left the heart of many Nepalese. After-tremors
haven’t stopped. None have forgotten the pain caused by earthquake.
Hundreds were injured. Among them, at least 100 are regularly visiting hospital
for check-up. Earthquake of Baisakh 12 caused many unborn children to lose
their fathers while many wives their newly-wed husbands. Many have lost their
hands while many more still have iron rods within their legs. Many have taken
to beds after the spinal cord ceased to support them.
After many deaths of foreign nationals in the earthquake, new tourists planning
to visit cancelled their tickets. Besides, after those residing in the country
shortened their stay, tourism industry began suffering. Even though, earthquake
didn’t directly hit Pokhara, tourism industry of Pokhara was greatly hampered.
In the world statistics, Nepal ranks as the 11th most dangerous country in terms
of earthquake hazard. Nepalese geological structures are considered to be very
weak. Regular small scale earthquakes continue to weaken Nepal’s geo-structure.
Not only Nepalese citizens, but foreign nationals also lost their lives in this
earthquake. The government statistics show that tourist flow decreased by over
72% after the 2015 Earthquake. Tourist flow that was beginning to grow after
the earthquake of Baisakh 12, 13 & 29 began receding once again after the
Indian blockade and Terai-Madhesh revolution.
According to the bureau’s statistics, weak rock structures in the area have
increased the chances of earthquake hazards. 1990’s earthquake of 8.3 Riechter
Scale had its centre at Sankhuwashabha. At that moment, 8519 persons were
killed while 200 Km area was destroyed. Great numbers of lives and properties
were destroyed.
Terai-Madhesh revolution that began after the new constitution was drafted and
the petroleum shortage due to the Indian Economic Blockade caused a great
damage to the tourism industry. Ordinary folks haven’t been able to cook their
food or use mass-transportation while the nation’s major income source tourism
industry has been hurt badly.
Earthquake of 1987 killed 721 people. On April 25, 2015, 7.6 Rt. Scale
earthquake hit with epicentre at Gorkha. 9000 folks died, according to PDN
report created by National Planning Commission.
Despite the fact that government declared 14 districts as highly affected areas,
no arrangements of residence have been made for them even after a year.
Victims of earthquake have had to live a very difficult life because of the delay
in renovation work.
Many of Nepal’s tourist towns are vacant these days. There’s a negative
impression upon many tourists because of the impact of earthquake upon
Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Patan area. Despite the fact that Nepal obtained
tremendous support from the international community for the rebuilding
process, it hasn’t been able to channel it towards constructive ends. What can
one expect from an incompetent government like this?
The Earthquake has wrought a major havoc throughout Nepal thus also
creating an extra-ordinary opportunity to recreate and rebuild infrastructures.
Most of the old architectures have today vanished, which represented the
ancient age and dynasties. Now is a time to recreate and rebuild by utilizing all
the sciences Nepalese people have acquired from Europe, Australia and
America. Government of Nepal has a great opportunity to enrich itself by
creating an environment where all the talented Nepalese across the world can go
back and invest themselves in their country of birth.

Impact
The earthquake caused major damage in Port-au-Prince, Jacmel and other cities
in the region. Notable landmark buildings were significantly damaged or
destroyed, including the Presidential Palace, the National Assembly building,
the Port-au-Prince Cathedral, and the main jail. Among those killed
were Archbishop of Port-au-Prince Joseph Serge Miot, and opposition
leader Micha Gaillard. The headquarters of the United Nations Stabilization
Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), located in the capital, collapsed, killing many,
including the Mission's Chief, Hédi Annabi.
Many countries responded to appeals for humanitarian aid, pledging funds and
dispatching rescue and medical teams, engineers and support personnel.
Communication systems, air, land, and sea transport facilities, hospitals, and
electrical networks had been damaged by the earthquake, which hampered
rescue and aid efforts; confusion over who was in charge, air traffic congestion,
and problems with prioritising flights further complicated early relief work.
Port-au-Prince's morgues were overwhelmed with tens of thousands of bodies.
These had to be buried in mass graves.
As rescues tailed off, supplies, medical care and sanitation became priorities.
Delays in aid distribution led to angry appeals from aid workers and survivors,
and looting and sporadic violence were observed. On 22 January, the United
Nations noted that the emergency phase of the relief operation was drawing to a
close, and on the following day, the Haitian government officially called off the
search for survivors.