tsunamis

[cellio]

Within the first couple days of the Indonesian quake/tsunami six(ish) years ago, death tolls over 100,000 were being reported (final count was over 200,000).

Within the first couple days of the Japanese quake/tsunami, death tolls in the hundreds were being reported. (Of course, we're not done yet.)

The difference in ability to predict and effectively react between wealthy and poor nations is striking. Three orders of magnitude? Yikes. We in the better-off nations usually send aid after the fact, but it really makes me wonder what we could do before the fact to help less-developed nations build better defenses.

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/merle_/]

Indonesia does have the difficulty of being a bunch of tiny islands (making providing aid more difficult), so has a much more distributed set of local authorities (ditto for communication).

[530nm330hz.livejournal.com]

I believe that after that tsunami there was aid provided for building an alert network in that area.

[siderea]

I think it is premature to attribute the difference in numbers to development.

First, compare the lengths of coastline affected by the Boxing Day tsunami and the length of the coastline affected by this one. I believe you'll find the former much larger the latter.

Second, there has been much speculation in the blogosphere at the low numbers reported by the Japanese media. Some have asked whether it is a cultural difference, that they won't report numbers unconfirmed, because they were reporting "hundreds" when it was already known that entire villages were wiped off the face of the earth. There were probably "hundreds" alone on the four missing trains. It seemed pretty clear even at the beginning that those "hundreds" was a gross understatement. They are now reporting about 10k unaccounted for in Sendai alone.

I think it's reasonable to surmise the comparative wealth of Japan contributed to a reduction of the loss of life they might otherwise have had, it is not at all clear that it accounts for all that much.

[fauxklore]

One might need to also compare the populations of the most affected regions. While Japan is a populous country, the Miyagi Prefecture is fairly far from population centers.

A more interesting comparison involves the earthquake itself and is evidence of the impact of well-enforced building codes. The biggest issue in much of the undeveloped / developing world is not the standards applied to the infrastructure, but the widespread bribery used to get out of following them. (And one might also note that traditional building methods fare well under environmental stress.)

[gardenfey.livejournal.com]

I had read an article which mentioned that Japan's strict building code helped save many lives.

[dragonazure.livejournal.com]

Following the Boxing Day tsunami, wasn't there a bit of hoopla about the concept of building some offshore (moderately) deepwater breakwaters to help alleviate tsunami effects for areas that are high-risk?

Yes but . . .

[osewalrus.livejournal.com]

A few differences. First, the quake that triggered the 2006 Xmas Tsunami was out to sea. There was no warning until the first waves hit. Here, tsunami precautions follow a quake of this magnitude automatically. Second, the Indian Ocean did not have a tsunami alert system because the likelihood of tsunamis in that region is very low, as compared with the part of the Pacific Ocean where Japan lies.

Still, the ability to engineer for disaster and recover from disaster is important, and is an important element of development.