Topic 1 Case Study

Question 1

Category, Place and Date of Hurricane Katrina:

Answer 1

Category: Category 3 at landfall (reached up to Category 5)

Place: South-East USA

Date: 29th August 2005

Question 2

Positives and Negatives of Hurricane Katrina Forecasting

Answer 2

Positives:

• The USA has a sophisticated monitoring system to predict if and where a hurricane will hit.
• The National Hurricane Centre (NHC) in Florida tracks and predicts hurricanes using satellite images end planes that collect weather data on approaching storms.

Negatives:
-They were not able to tell where the Hurricane would go, or what it would do once it reached land, making it more unpredictable.

Question 3

Positives and Negatives of Hurricane Katrina Warning & Evacuation

Answer 3

Positives:

• The NHC issued a hurricane warning on 26th August for Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. It continued to track the hurricane, updating the government on where and when it would hit.
• Mississippi and Louisiana declared states of emergency and 70-80% of New Orleans residents were evacuated before the hurricane reached land. This reduced the number of people killed because lots of people had left the areas where the hurricane hit.

Negatives:

• Some evacuation routes got cut off by the sheer amount of traffic due to people trying to leave these areas, resulting in some not getting out in time
• This resulted in people dying, which could’ve been avoided if they left sooner (however, the evacuation scheme saved a lot more lives than ones that were lost)

Question 4

Positives and Negatives of Hurricane Katrina Defences

Answer 4

Positives:

• There were flood defence systems, sea wall and e.c.t in place, which mostly done their job of stopping most flooding
• There were sufficient warnings issues in advance of these events.

Negatives:

• The city of New Orleans was very badly damaged - flood defences e.g. embankments) that were supposed to protect the city failed.
• This caused widespread flooding (over 80% of the city was underwater).
• The Levees of New Orleans had not been maintained and the pumping stations didn’t work, meaning clean water was not available.

Question 5

Positives and Negatives of Cyclone Nargis Forecasting

Answer 5

Positives:
-They relied on Indian Weather agencies to tell them about any Forecasting to do with cyclones, meaning they had some kind of prediction, but a very ineffective one

Negatives:

• Myanmar doesn’t have a dedioeted monitoring centre for tropical cyclones.
• Myanmar doean’t have a radar network that can predict the height of storm surges and waves caused by cyclones.

Question 6

Positives and Negatives of Cyclone Nargis Warning & Evacuation

Answer 6

Positives:

• Indian weather agencies warned the government of Myanmar that Cyclone Nargis was likely to hit the country 48 hours before it did.
• Warnings were issued on the TV and radio

Negatives:

• Warnings were issued on the TV and radio, but they didn’t reach people In poor rural communities. This meant more people were killed because they didn’t know what to do or where to evacuate to.
• There were no emergency preparation plans, no evacuation plans and the country didn’t have an early warning system.

Question 7

Positives and Negatives of Cyclone Nargis Defences

Answer 7

Positives:
-There were a few mangroves that were left in place which protected the coast from floods a little

Negatives:

• Mangrove forests protect the coast from flooding, but loads had been chopped down in the decade before Nargla hit, reducing the natural protection.
• Houses were made out of weak materials (wood)
• Aid agencies were refused access to Myanmar for a week after the disaster due to the lack of transparency in the Government.

Question 8

Japan Tohoku Earthquake
(-Time/Date
-Magnitude
-Place
-Focus
-Epicentre)

Answer 8

Time/Date: 2:47pm 11th March 2011

Magnitude: Magnitude 9 Earthquake

Place: North-East Japan, Pacific Plate subducted under Eurasian Plate at the Japanese Trench, triggering a Tsunami

Focus: Focus around 30km below the seabed

Epicentre: Epicentre 130km East of Sendai the coast

Question 9

Haiti Earthquake
(-Time/Date
-Magnitude
-Place
-Focus
-Epicentre)

Answer 9

Time/Date: 4:53pm 12th January 2010

Magnitude: Magnitude 7 Earthquake in Haiti

Place: Conservative plate boundary between the North American Plate and Caribbean plate

Focus: A shallow Focus of only 13km deep

Epicentre: Epicentre 25km South-West of the capital Port-Au-Prince

Question 10

Japan Earthquake Primary Impacts:

Answer 10

• 1 Dam Collapsed, along with 2 nuclear power stations being fractured.
• US $235 billion worth of damage was caused by this, making it the costliest disaster in history
• Between 667 and 1479 death occurred directly from the Earthquake
• The motorway was badly damaged and the airport had to shut.
• It caused liquefaction which turned the ground to sludge, therefore sinking buildings

Question 11

Japan Earthquake Secondary Impacts:

Answer 11

• Hundreds of thousands of buildings were completely destroyed, leaving 230,000 homeless.
• The tsunami cut off power supplies to Fukushima nuclear power plant plant, creating a meltdown.
• 93% of deaths were caused by drowning
• Road and rail networks suffered severe damage, e.g 325km of rail washed away.
• Homelessness, disrupted schooling, unemployment and increased fincancial stress/pressure lasted for years to cope with the damage, while there was no tourism to bring in money.

Question 12

Haiti Earthquake Primary Impacts:

Answer 12

• Around 316,000 people died with more than 300,000 also left injured by it.
• Many houses instantly collapsed, making around 1.5 million homeless (180,000 homes destroyed).
• All 8 hospitals in the area either collapsed or were badly damaged, with another 5,000 schools left destroyed and damaged too
• The port, communication links and major roads were damaged beyond repair with rubble from collapsed buildings, meaning roads were blocked alongside rail links

Question 13

Haiti Earthquake Secondary Impacts:

Answer 13

• The water supply system was destroyed - a cholera outbreak killed over 8,000 people in the following months
• Aid was harder to get in because, because the poet was destroyed too.
• Haiti’s important clothing factories were damaged, (They provided 60% of Haiti’s exports) meaning 1 out of every 5 people lost their jobs.
• By 2015 most people displaced by the earthquake had been re-housed.
• Looting and crime increased as the government and police forces crumbled.

Question 14

Japan Earthquake Short Term Relief:

Answer 14

• Japanese aid and search and rescue teams were bought in.
• Rescue workers and soldiers were sent in to help deal with the aftermath
• Power supplies were restored in a few weeks after the earthquake
• Transport and communication links were to be restored after a few weeks
• Broken sea walls, flood defences and other defence systems that were destroyed by the earthquake and Tsunami were fixed.

Question 15

Japan Earthquake Long Term Relief:

Answer 15

• International aid and support came in and were mobilised and brought into action.
• Countries sent teams over to help with the re-build and to get life back to normal as swiftly as possible
• Tens of thousands of pre-fabricated temporary houses were set up.
• A further 140,000 people were evacuated round a 20km radius of the Fukushima Power Plant

Question 16

Japan Earthquake Preparation:

Answer 16

• Not a single building in Tokyo collapsed thanks to the special building designs.
• Children in Schools were put through earthquake drills and training in what to do in the event of an earthquake.
• On transport like bullet trains, nobody died because of the automatic breaking system installed into them.
• Sufficient warnings were given in advance, allowing as many people to evacuate as possible

Question 17

Japan Earthquake Prediction:

Answer 17

• They have advanced predicting and tracking systems on the power of Earthquakes along with the scale of a possible incoming Tsunami.
• Large Sea walls were built to protect the lower coastal zones.
• Warnings were quickly given to neighbouring countries

Question 18

Haiti Earthquake Short Term Relief:

Answer 18

• With the government buildings destroyed, emergency aid was initially slow.
• Any of the police forces that were available would’ve provided as much aid as possible, with help coming from the neighbouring Dominican Republic.
• Food, water, medical supplies, and temporary shelters were supplied by the USA as quick as possible.
• There were a few water supplies and a few medical supplies
• Most people had to put up with the situation, and just stay alive for as long as possible until real rescue came.

Question 19

Haiti Earthquake Long Term Relief:

Answer 19

• International aid and search and rescue teams were flown in to help trapped people.
• The UK’s disaster commission raised more than £100 million of supply and emergency aid.
• American engineers and divers cleared the port, so that waiting ships could unload aid and troops into the land to restore law and order
• Huge camps were made as the government moved around 235,000 out of Port-Au-Prince into less damaged areas, but finding land that was owned by the government was difficult, as not all land was officially registered
• Over time, around 3/4 of the damaged buildings were inspected and repaired.
• Some 200,000 people were paid or received food for public work, like clearing away rubble.

Question 20

Haiti Earthquake Prediction:

Answer 20

• They had a few seismologists, but no actual seismic network
• There was not many building codes, meant buildings were poorly made
• There was little overall preparation for an earthquake at all, from a very vulnerable and corrupt country

Question 21

Haiti Earthquake Preparation:

Answer 21

• The prediction was very poor, with there being no seismic network, meaning they were relying on other countries to track and forecast for them
• They did not have many, or any defence systems in place to reduce the impacts of an earthquake
• Their already corrupt government prioritised other things over preparation for natural disasters.
• They now have a more organised system and emergency aid ready, incase this happens again, with the US and Canada, ensure that they have some kind of prediction system in place too

Question 22

Methods for Predicting Earthquakes

Answer 22

1. Earthquakes cannot be reliabily predicted, but scientists can still monitor certain signs that could indicate than an earthquake is likely.
2. Lasers can be used to detect the movement of tectonic plates before an earthquak
3. Vibrations in the Earth’s crust can be monitored using seismometers. If vibrations increase, it could mean there’s going to be an earthquake.
4. Scientists can measure gases (e.g radon) just before an earthquake.
5. Rocks will crack and expand because of the increased pressure just before an earthquake.

Question 23

Methods for Predicting Volcanoes

Answer 23

1. Volcanic eruptions can be predicted if the volcano is well monitored to look for the tell-tale signs that come before a volcanic eruption.
2. Things such as tiny earthquake and changes in the shape of the volcano (e.g bulges in the land where magma has built up under it) all mean an eruption is likely
3. Thermal imaging cameras can be used to detect changes in temperature around the volcano. Temperatures increase before an eruption.
4. Scientists can analyse the gases escaping from a volcano. Volcanoes emit lots of sulfurous gases before an eruption.

Question 24

Tropical cyclones in developed country: USA Hurricane Katrina Stats

Answer 24

• 1,833 deaths
• Damage = $108bn
• Levees burst = flood Delay in emergency response

Question 25

Tropical cyclones in developing country: Myanmar Cyclone Nargis 2008 Stats

Answer 25

- 140,000 deaths - Mangroves destroyed - Lack of warning & safe shelters in rural areas. - Rice paddies destroyed

Question 26

Tectonic hazard in developed country: Japan 2011 Stats

Answer 26

9.0 magnitude | $235bn damages 230,000 homeless 15,900 deaths Fukushima nuclear meltdown (↑econ↓Soc)

Question 27

Tectonic hazard in developing country: Haiti 2010 Stats

Answer 27

- 7.0 magnitude - $14bn damages - 1 million homeless 1 in 5 jobs lost - 316,000 deaths - Cholera outbreak (↓econ↑Soc)