ISDR: Highlights It also contains a concise summary of information on tsunamis and links to other ISDR Highlights is a monthly email update on current news in disaster http://www.unisdr.org/eng/public_aware/highlights/2005/April2005-eng.htm
Extractions: All official WCDR documents are now available on the website in a user-friendly format, allowing for easier navigation. Participants who have documentation and additional information (including reports from the Thematic Segment and Public Forum) are requested to contact the ISDR webmaster at isdrwebmaster@un.org
Our Programs The tsunamis polluted ground water, changed the contours of land and rivers and ERD is providing disaster relief in India and is also developing a http://www.er-d.org/programs_57185_ENG_Print.html
Extractions: In December 2004, an earthquake off the coast of Indonesia triggered a series of massive tidal waves that left at least 10,776 Indians dead and 5,640 missing. Over 112,000 people have been displaced. The hardest hit areas were the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and the southern state of Tamil Nadu. The tsunamis polluted ground water, changed the contours of land and rivers and rendered much farm land useless. Vast expanses of once-green rice fields have turned brown from sea water carried far inland. Villagers and fishermen have lost loved ones, homes, possessions, and the means to live their fishing boats, nets, and other equipment. In addition, hundreds of rural villages were severely affected by the devastating earthquake that struck in January 2001 in the Diocese of Gujarat, North India. There was extensive damage to life and property: 20,000 died, another 100,000 were injured, and damages to homes and infrastructure totaled in the hundreds of millions of dollars. ERD is providing disaster relief in India and is also developing a long-term rebuilding plan for areas affected by the 2004 tsunami and the 2001 earthquake. Visit our
Our Programs The tsunamis polluted ground water, changed the contours of land and rivers and As a result of the disaster, around 400000 require income support. http://www.er-d.org/programs_39565_ENG_HTM.htm
Extractions: Sri Lanka is a lower middle-income country with a largely literate adult population, high enrollment in education, and a life expectancy of 72 years. Nevertheless, poverty is high in many parts of the country. Whereas on average only 6.6% of the population live on less than one dollar a day, in some districts more than half of the population is living below the poverty line. Some of the progress achieved since independence in meeting the basic needs of its people has been reversed in the recent decade, especially as a result of internal conflict. In December 2004, an earthquake off the coast of Indonesia triggered a series of massive tidal waves that claimed at least 30,974 Sri Lankan lives. Another 4,698 are missing. Over 553,000 have been displaced, and the spread of disease is threatening thousands more. By some estimates, almost two-thirds of Sri Lanka's coastal region was destroyed, including hundreds of thousands of homes. The tsunamis polluted ground water, changed the contours of land and rivers and rendered much farm land useless. Vast expanses of once-green rice fields have turned brown from sea water carried far inland. Thirty percent of Sri Lanka's population once earned its income from agriculture. As a result of the disaster, around 400,000 require income support. The deadly and destructive waves caused nearly US$ 3.5 billion in physical damage to the island nation.
Extractions: The Psychological Symptoms Profile of the Palestinian: Exposure to Political and Environmental Trauma-Related Stressors By: Dr. Khaleel Isa, Clinical Psychologist Palestinian Counseling Center (November 2003) Illegal Occupation has been the experience of the Palestinian people for over 55 years. As the economic and social devastating hardships increase so have the heightened vacuum of psychological problems. The traumatic related stressors which are inflicted on the Palestinian people have developed into a diverse spectrum of inter-related psychological symptoms. However, trying to understand and identify the Palestinian symptoms which are related to their trauma can be very difficult if one does not examine the severity and persistence of these related stressors. This is why it is very crucial that before deepening oneself into what are trauma related symptoms of the Palestinian people, West Bank mental health professionals must first define the meaning of trauma. According to trauma expert, Dr. Horrowitz, 1996, describes trauma as: a) The fluctuating nature of acute and/or grief reactions that can lead to complex characterlogical adaptations.
Nature And Human Made Tsunamis By Ali Al-Hail Nature and Human Made tsunamis. By Ali AlHail. Al-Jazeerah, January 6, 2005 Sirilanka and India, the hardest hit countries by the disaster has, http://www.aljazeerah.info/Opinion editorials/2005 Opinion Editorials/January/6
Extractions: Opinion Editorials, January 2005, To see today's opinion articles, click here: www.aljazeerah.info Al-Jazeerah.Home News Archive ... Cities, localities, and tourist attractions Nature and Human Made Tsunamis By Ali Al-Hail Al-Jazeerah, January 6, 2005 The whole entire human World has been since the Boxing Day on December 26 deeply, saddened and distressed by the TSunami that has severely, devastated South East Asia. The human anxiety is not specifically, concerned with reconstruction and restoration of properties washed off by the TSunami as much as it is anxious about how to handle the psychological scars the catastrophe has left people with. The buildings would take bricks and cements to have them reinstalled while it would take a life time to have people recovered from the shock. It is this alarming aspect of the TSunami which has in particular, awakened a variety of international NGOS to concentrate on touching lives, bridging distances, healing rifts and building bonds. The outpouring of compassionate aid from almost every country on earth into Indonesia, Sirilanka and India, the hardest hit countries by the disaster has, united the human World under one single umbrella i.e., Humanity.
Veg.ca: Shrimp And Tsunamis, Toronto Vegetarian Association The recent tsunami disaster that occurred in the Indian Ocean is beyond comprehension Earthquakes and tsunamis are unavoidable, but the severity of this http://www.veg.ca/issues/shrimp.html
Extractions: Health Animals Fish Environment ... Leather Shrimp and tsunamis Updated: Jan 24, 2005 Industrial shrimp aquaculture is one of the main reasons for the destruction of coastal mangrove forests. These wilderness areas act as a natural buffer against stormy weather. Areas with intact mangrove zones suffered fewer human deaths due to the recent tsunamis. Like other supposedly "natural" disasters – mudslides after torrential rains or drought and desertification in Africa – there's a human-made element, according to Meyer Brownstone, former chair of Oxfam Canada and Oxfam International (as reported by NOW Magazine, Jan. 13, 2005). Brownstone used to manage a project on Sulawesi Island off the coast of Indonesia. Sulawesi was one of the places devastated by the recent tsunamis. During the 1990s, coastal mangrove forests still served as a windbreak that protected coral reefs, and cushioned the force of battering storm waves. Those mangrove forests, habitat over millennia for fish and other wildlife, have since all been dynamited and bulldozed to make way for shrimp farms.
Extractions: Last Updated 9PM, January 7, 2005 CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE ARCHIVE OF OLD ACTIVIST UPDATES "People the world over are giving for disaster relief, and they should. They do it because it’s easy to see that the victims are not at fault, that it’s not their own laziness or lack of enterprise that is the cause. Those same people find it far more difficult to see that endemic poverty generated by a history of imperialism, or World Bank and IMF structural adjustment programs are human-made disasters that are almost as difficult for many of their victims to oppose as the natural kind, and that those victims are just as little at fault as the victims of the tsunami." Rahul Mahajan ~ (www.empirenotes.org) recently Jan. 3, 05 Radio Commentary
Extractions: In the previous Modules, the discussion about disasters and emergencies resulting from natural and human-made hazards has been developed in general terms. However, each hazard has its own characteristics. To understand the significance and implications of a particular type of disaster we must have a basic understanding about the nature, causes and effects of each hazard type. The list of hazard types is very long. Many occur infrequently or impact a very small population. Other hazards, such as severe snowstorms, often occur in areas that are prepared to deal with them. However, from the perspective of a disaster victim, it is not particularly useful to distinguish between minor and major disasters. Some disasters are now of limited interest to the international community. These include avalanches, fog, frost, hail, lightning, snowstorms, and tornadoes. The international interest is less for these hazards because their impacts affect relatively few people and the countries in which they normally occur have sufficient resources and systems in place to respond without external assistance. There are several hazard types for which there is widespread concern. They can be categorized as follows:
The Real Cause Of The Tsunami - Brock Press - Opinion Natural disasters are indiscriminate in their choice of victims. in the caseof human made disasters, it diminishes the responsibility of the http://www.brockpress.com/news/2005/01/11/Opinion/The-Real.Cause.Of.The.Tsunami-
Extractions: document.write(''+''); Brock Press Extras: Student Resources Scholarships Movies Travel ... Log In showNetworkBanner(1); var story_id = 831775; Home Opinion By Andre Brasson Published: Tuesday, January 11, 2005 In the same week that Canadians were watching their junior hockey team trounce one opponent after the other, almost 150,000 people on the other side of the planet were killed in a disaster so devastating in its power and extent that it almost defies language. Josef Stalin is reputed to have said, "The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic." Thank heavens we are not brutal and cold-blooded dictators. The overwhelming response to the crisis from all over the world still proves that most of us would rather agree with the words of John Donne that "any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind." The scientific reasons for the catastrophe are clear. Newspapers and TV news channels were quick to offer graphic and detailed descriptions of the whole chain of events that caused it. The fact that it was a freak accident, the direct result of what geophysicists call a vertical lift earthquake, satisfies our quest for rational explanations. In pre-modern times, people believed that natural disasters had supernatural origins. An earthquake was usually interpreted as a sign that the gods were angry. The only appropriate response was to discover the cause of their anger and to appease it.
Services in crisis most impacted by natural and/or human made disasters, Update onTsunamis Disaster in Asia. Dec. 30, 2004 The Primate s Fund has http://www.standrews-cowichan.org/pwrdf.html
The Socialist, No. 3, Feb. 2005 - Socialist Youth Reports We explained that tsunamis can be predicted if proper equipment was in Only this time it is a human made disaster that is destroying life on earth. http://www.geocities.com/socialistparty/Socialist/0502SY.htm
Extractions: Education boards in Northern Ireland have overspent on their budgets due to government cut backs and an increase in oil prices. Fortunately many children with special needs are moving increasingly into mainstream education, so surely the government should increase budgets for education boards to be able to cope with the needs of all their students.
Untitled Just before the disaster struck, they headed for higher ground some breaking After the magnitude 9.2 Good Friday Earthquake, tsunamis up to 6 m tall http://eedi.org.ua/eem/1-tsunami_eng.html
Extractions: Reports of animals' ''sixth sense'' in detecting hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions long before the earth starts shaking date back to centuries. After the Dec. 26 tsunami, a Danish man staying in Ao Sane Beach, north of Phuket, wrote on a Danish Web site: ``Dogs are smarter than all of us. . . . [They] started running away up to the hilltops long before we even realized what was coming.'' Some animals may have heard the tsunami coming from the moment the quake erupted under the ocean. Species of birds, dogs, elephants, tigers and other animals can detect ''infrasound'' frequencies in the range of 1-3 hertz, compared with humans' 100-200-hertz range. It's sensitivity to such a low frequency range that most people wouldn't call it sound. Desmond Morris, animal behavioralist and author of The Naked Ape says cats and dogs are sensitive to sudden electromagnetic changes like those that precede an earthquake which is why ``many dogs shiver and become scared when a thunderstorm is approaching.''
Tsunami Workshop tsunamis are very rare events, which makes determining their behavior and including human behavior; disaster planning and economics (land use, http://tsunami.orst.edu/workshop/
Extractions: San Francisco Airport, CA Sponsored by National Science Foundation CMS û 0321889 Background Tsunamis are very rare events, which makes determining their behavior and characteristics extremely difficult. The effects of tsunamis are not predictable based on our experience from normal storm-wave phenomena. Unlike direct seismic effects, where ground shaking is practically concurrent with fault rupture, there is usually a short lead-time for predicting tsunami attack after receiving a seismic signal, which makes effective warning and evacuation possible. This lead-time can range from a few minutes for a local source to ten or more hours for a distant source. Tsunami warning lead-times are much shorter than those of many other natural hazards (e.g. volcanic eruptions, hurricanes, and floods); however, adequate and effective evacuation can minimize loss of life from these very rare natural hazards. A scenario simulation is a case study, in either a real or hypothetical background setup, where tsunami phenomena and effects are simulated for given geographical, seismological, geological, and societal conditions. Simulations must be comprehensive and integrate not only tsunami generation, propagation, runup motion (flow velocities and inundation), and flow-structure interactions, but also other types of simulations such as warning transmission to the public, evacuation, environmental impacts, rescue tactics, and short-term and long-term recovery strategies. The simulation exercises should include physical models, numerical models, informatics, human behavior, communication simulations, and other exercises that will integrate the tsunami source with its eventual effects on communities and the environment. Clearly, this activity is by nature a multi-community and multi-disciplinary effort.
History News Network The intellectual work of making sense of that disasterwhy did this happen, The Lisbon and Indian Ocean tsunamis were triggered by earthquakes. http://hnn.us/blogs/entries/9970.html
Extractions: @import url("/css/style.css"); Search HNN: HNN Articles Hot Topics Books Features ... Rob MacDougall The earthquake that caused the tsunami of December 26 2004 will keep generating waves for some time. Not the waves of water that killed more than 280,000 people, but other sorts of aftershocks and consequences. Waves of disease like typhoid and cholera remain a danger, though the United Nations now seems hopeful that widespread famine can be averted . More happily, the tsunami generated waves of sympathy around the world and, after a bit of a slow start, waves of generosity as well. Somewhere between plague and human kindness in terms of desirability are the great waves of comment and punditry that the tsunami also produced, as we all feebly attempt to make sense of a human tragedy on this inhuman scale. The eighteenth century used the word Lisbon much as we use the word Auschwitz today. How much weight can a brute reference carry? It takes no more than the name of a place to mean: the collapse of the most basic trust in the world, the grounds that make civilization possible. Learning this, modern readers may feel wistful: lucky the age to which an earthquake can do so much damage. [
Calendar Of Conferences, Workshops And Courses Organizied by the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC) From the first of Disaster, Disaster information, -Tele and local tsunamis (generation, http://www.shoa.cl/oceano/itic/conferences.html
Report Of Debates: Thursday 27 January 2005 At 3 P.m. - Addendum 1 The recent disaster in southeast Asia, resulting in thousands dead and An effective early vigilance system against tsunamis is thus necessary and http://assembly.coe.int/Documents/Records/2005-1/E/0501271500EADI.htm
Extractions: Seventh sitting Thursday 27 January 2005 at 3 p.m. ADDENDUM 1 Europe and the Tsunami disaster The following texts were submitted for inclusion in the official report by members who were present in the Chamber but were prevented by lack of time from delivering them. Ms PERICLEOUS PAPADOPOULOS (Cyprus) . I congratulate the rapporteur and all the useful contributors on this urgent debate and endorse the proposed recommendations. The recent disaster in south-east Asia, resulting in thousands dead and millions displaced, was a tragedy. Immense sorrow and deep pain worldwide led to impressive generosity by the international community, and especially civil society. All have donated generously. States have pledged large sums of money and agreed to wipe out or to place moratoria on debts. The big question is whether these pledges will be fully met and honoured. I hope they will. In the history of mankind, this disaster is not alone. We recall the explosion of the volcano in Santorini, in Greece, around 1659 BC which destroyed the island and caused huge tides that destroyed the Minoan civilisation in Crete. Recent big catastrophic tornados in the bay of Bengal in India in 1970 and the earthquake of Tangstham in China in 1976 caused millions of deaths. I fully support the proposal to examine in greater depth Europes response and responsibility to humanitarian disasters both within and outside Europe. Natural disasters are uncontrolled to a large extent. Human beings cannot prevent them. This does not imply, however, that humanity will remain bare handed.
