Tsunamis: causes & consequences

Charity Event for the Victims of the Indian Ocean Tsunami

Organised by Robert Draper MBE

Sunday, 16 January 2005

As a response to the tragic consequences of the Tsunami that struck South East Asia just after Christmas in 2004, a fund-raising afternoon of lectures was held on various aspects of the event. It was possible to arrange at very short notice as most of the speakers had previously spoken at BRLSI on topics relevant to the disaster. As well as the academic talks, survivors (who lived near Bath in Freshford, but had been on holiday in the affected region at the time) told of the actuality of the event. The talks were introduced by the Mayor of Bath, Councillor Roger Symonds. In his introduction he suggested that some liason, similar to twinning of towns, might be a useful response after the tragedy.

Plate Tectonics

Elizabeth Devon

Earth Science tutor, Depart.of Education, University of Bath, Former Secretary, Bath Geological Society

Elizabeth Devon related how the seemingly rigid outer surface of the Earth in fact consisted of a number of irregular blocks known as tectonic plates. These plates were constantly moving, pulling apart, pushing together and grinding past each other. Whenever they moved they created earthquakes and if these happened beneath the sea, giant waves or tsunamis occured. This talk gave a brief outline of the movement of the tectonic plates and what happened where one plate met another, as happened in this case. This was a magnitude 9 event and happened at 07.58-53 local time on December 26^th 2004. It occurred at a depth of 30km, 155 miles SSE of Banda Aceh. It had a strength equivalent of 9500 Hiroshima atomic bombs. Sumatra and nearby islands rose by 30cm. It was caused by two converging oceanic plates, the Indain Plate subducting (pushing its way down under) the Burma plate. This whole boundary between the plates is marked by the Indonesian island arc. In this case 1200km of plates slipped.

Tsunamis

Dr Philippe Blondel

Physics Department, University of Bath

Dr Phillippe Blondel told how Tsunamis could have various causes, including earthquakes and large-scale landslides. Science had allowed better understanding of how they worked, and international collaborations from the last decades have yielded tremendous advances in Tsunami research. Drawing on examples from around the world, and on the research of his group on tsunamigenic areas in Europe, he summed up tsunami propagation and detection, current efforts in identifying areas at risk, and current and future monitoring initiatives. The warning systems available could give warnings within a few seconds to a few minutes. Checking water levels could also be done on the same time scale. Most problems occur with the ‘last mile’ failure of communications.

The secret is: Preparation – Education - Organisation

Medical Consequences of Disasters

Dr Bharat Pankhania

Consultant, Communicable Disease Control

Berkshire Health Protection Unit

The main diseases causing problems after disaster were related to poor quality water supply and people eating food they would not normally eat. People became ill as a result of consuming contaminated water and also as a result of person to person contact with ill people, people who, by definition could not undertake adequate hand washing, and the problem was further magnified as sewer water was invariably mixed with drinking water. Loss of shelter was also a factor. Diseases carried by mosquitoes and animals are problematic, Malaria, Dengue Fever and Japanese Encephalitis. Plague (spread by oriental rat fleas) and rabies (dogs) can also occur. Polluted water is a continuing problem – plenty of stagnant soup for mosquitoes!Sourcing medical supplies was not usually a problem. Usually there was an abundance of medical supplies, usually useless! Well meaning people, and maybe pharmaceutical companies too, off-loaded their ‘surplus’ stocks.Actually, very few categories of important drugs and medical supplies were required, however, a huge diverse supply of drugs often arrived and one needed a sound knowledge of drugs to sort them all out. This took up time and storage space. Medical expertise could usually be found. There were many able and willing doctors around. In the west it was a question of giving up their work (income) and going abroad to assist. In the local areas, there was much less enthusiasm from the local doctors to get seriously involved, In India the Government issued a directive to doctors to assist, however, they hate it and thus do a poor job. Medical facilities can be set up quite quickly after a disaster. Dr Pankhania’s personal experience in Gujarat following the earthquake found a mobile hospital set up on the same day in the cricket ground of the local town.As for long term consequences, it would never be the same again for the affected people and community, they simply moved on or moved off the main stream economic ladder / engagement with bigger community. They were forgotten!There is plenty of evidence from Bhopal, Gujarat and

Chernobyl that, after initial help, most people either find their own new station in life or they just melt away into obscurity. Mental health issues were never addressed in a systematic way as it was not ‘sexy’ enough. Surgery for wound trauma was sexy, the follow up of depressed / anxious people was not.

Effective Use of Aid

Professor Geoff Wood

Centre for International Development, University of Bath

Professor Wood related that, though aid was important and necessary in such situations, there were important qualifications. It is necessary to distinguish between different stages of response from immediate relief, through rehabilitation and reconstruction to sustainable development. Clearly if the precise event was to be avoided in future, there was an ongoing issue of coastal sustainability in both physical and human terms. There were concerns about the appropriateness of aid and assistance through all of these stages, especially in terms of focus and dumping. Without being unrealistic, the sooner partnerships with remnants of local communities were established the better, as local ownership of rehabilitation was key in establishing both sectoral priorities as well as social targeting. Sustaining the flow of resources and expertise would be required for several years, and this had to entail a package of support for social and institutional as well as physical infrastructure. The reconstruction of markets and services was as much a social and political process as a physical one. The psychological and emotional trauma also needed to be addressed. Basically, the crisis reflected people's overarching need for some sense of security. Finally, in that context, aid had an experienced role in direct forms of disaster preparedness, which was clearly absent in these affected areas.

Survivors

Nick Hart-Williams introduced a group of Tsunami survivors from the Freshford region. They had all been vacationing in Sri Lanka when the Tsunami struck. 16 were staying in Merissa, and 4 in Gall. While there they met 2 from Bath and 4 from Frome in the same hotel. Pip Burrows, Candy Harrison and Maggie Lyons all described the harrowing events, their methods of escape and how the experience had affected them. It was 9.15am, Boxing Day morning when it struck. Had is been much earlier they doubted they would have survived. They did not experience an enormous wave but more a case of the ocean continuously rising. Initially they thought it was a high lunar tide. They were on ground floor rooms and the water rose practically to the ceiling. Fortunately they were able to force their way out. They were to some extent lucky in their choice of bay and beach. Conditions were much worse elsewhere. They all took refuge in a temple afterwards and were overwhelmed with generosity. At the time they had a strong sense of what it was like to be refugees. Everything they had was lost to the sea. After the event their luck turned, they were able to get out the next day, courtesy of a van that had come to pick up a monk, and ended up with nine other passengers! There was praise for the British High Commission who managed to rustle up some paperwork with enough rubber stamps on to open every door encountered

Postscript

The funds raised over the afternoon were distributed between three charities covering different aspects of the disaster: The Disasters Emergency Committee, the national body that co-ordinates various charitable bodies in emergency situations; and, following both Dr Pankhania’s and Professor Woods comments on mental health being often overlooked, an enquiry was made to the British Council in Jakarta who suggested the Pulih Foundation (for Trauma Intervention and Psychosocial Recovery). This Foundation had already been involved in dealing with trauma in the area, helping with the mental consequences of armed conflict. This area was then hit by the Tsunami. Some thoughts were expressed on the desirability of being able to follow the results of money donated, so some of the funds were donated to ‘Wherever the Need’, which is based locally but operated in the affected region.

Bob Draper