LESSONS LEARNED FROM PAST NOTABLE DISASTERS JAPAN PART 1B: TSUNAMIS Walter Hays, Global Alliance for Disaster Reduction, Vienna, Virginia, USA

NATURAL HAZARDS THAT PLACE JAPAN’S COMMUNITIES AT RISK EARTHQUAKES/TSUNAMIS TYPHOONS FLOODS LANDSLIDES VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE ENACT AND IMPLEMENT POLICIES HAVING HIGH BENEFIT/COST FOR COMMUNITY RESILIENCE GOAL: DISASTER RESILIENCE

REGIONAL MAP

THE TOHOKU QUAKE/TSUNAMI: THE RESULT OF PLATE TECTONICS

TSUNAMIS EARTHQUAKES THAT GENERATE TSUNAMIS OCCUR FREQUENTLY IN JAPAN AS A RESULT OF COMPLEX SUBDUCTION OF THE PACIFIC, PHILIPPINE AND EURASIAN PLATES

JAPAN’S COMMUNITIES DATA BASES AND INFORMATION HAZARDS: GROUND SHAKING GROUND FAILURE SURFACE FAULTING TECTONIC DEFORMATION TSUNAMI RUN UP AFTERSHOCKS TSUNAMI HAZARDS PEOPLE AND BLDGS. VULNERABILITY LOCATION TSUNAMI RISK RISK ACCEPTABLE RISK UNACCEPTABLE RISK GOAL: TSUNAMI DISASTER RESILIENCE PREPAREDNESS PROTECTION EARLY WARNING EMERGENCY RESPONSE RECOVERY and RECONSTRUCTION POLICY OPTIONS

INADEQUATE RESISTANCE TO HORIZONTAL GROUND SHAKING EARTHQUAKES SOIL AMPLIFICATION PERMANENT DISPLACEMENT (SURFACE FAULTING & GROUND FAILURE) IRREGULARITIES IN ELEVATION AND PLAN TSUNAMI WAVE RUNUP POOR DETAILING AND WEAK CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS FRAGILITY OF NON-STRUCTURAL ELEMENTS CAUSES OF DAMAGE “DISASTER LABORATORIES”

HIGH VELOCITY IMPACT OF INCOMING WAVES TSUNAMIS INLAND DISTANCE OF WAVE RUNUP VERTICAL HEIGHT OF WAVE RUNUP INADEQUATE RESISTANCE OF BUILDINGS FLOODING INADEQUATE HORIZONTAL AND VERTICAL EVACUATION PROXIMITY TO SOURCE OF TSUNAMI CAUSES OF DAMAGE “DISASTER LABORATORIES”

LESSONS LEARNED ABOUT DISASTER RESILIENCE ALL TSUNAMIS. DISASTER- INTELLIGENT COMMUNITIES USE TIMELY EARLY WARNING BASED ON CRITICAL INFORM- ATION TO EVACUATE PEOPLE AND PREPARE.

THE PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER HAS A VITAL ROLE IN ISSUING TSUNAMI WARNINGS

SOME OF JAPAN’S NOTABLE TSUNAMI EXPERIENCES JUNE 16, 1964 MARCH 11, 2011

THE NIIGATA EARTHQUAKE: JUNE 16, 1964 The M7.5 Niigata earthquake devastated Niigata, located 50 km south of the epicenter, mainly as a result of massive soil failure and tsunami waves. The port of Niigata was completely destroyed by the tsunami waves..

PORT OF NIIGATA

THE TOHOKU DISASTER: JANUARY. 17, 1995 The M9.0 Tohoku earthquake was huge, but its ground shaking did NOT cause the disaster that killed an estimated 21,000 people … The tsunami generated by the earthquake did!

THE TSUNAMI Wave run up reached 40 meters in some locations

THE TSUNAMI—the beginning The tsunami slammed the east coast of Japan, sweeping away boats, cars, homes and people, before racing across the Pacific ---

AN OFFSHORE EPICENTER It only took seconds for the P- and S-waves to reach Sendai, and about 15 minutes for the tsunami waves, but what a difference in damage..

TSUNAMI WAVES:NATON MYIAGI PREFECTURE

TSUNAMI WAVES: COAST OF NORTHERN JAPAN

OARAI INUNDATED BY TSUNAMI

TSUNAMI WAVS: SENDAI AIRPORT

SENDAI AIRPORT: COVERED WITH MUD FROM TSUNAMI

SENDAI AIRPORT: COVERED WITH CARS, MUD, & DEBRIS

TSUNAMI DAMAGE

UNEXPECTED IMPACTS The nuclear power plants in the region shut down automatically; an immediate evacuation of tens of thousands in km radii from the plant followed. Radiation levels at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility were 1,000 times normal levels.

FUKUSHIMA NUCLEAR FACILITY HAD 3 FAILURES

IMMEDIATE SOCIETAL IMPACTS Four and one-half million left without electricity. One and one-half million without water. Metro, trains, and airport shut down.

URGENT SOCIETAL NEEDS Vertical evacuation to escape the tsunami wave run up, the only way to save lives, was not available to most people.

URGENT SOCIETAL NEEDS Mass care and health care needs were urgent because of the high radiation levels. Deaths, as expected reached tens of thousands.

THE TSUNAMI---the end --- The tsunami then raced across the Pacific at kph (500 to 800 mph) to arrive 5-7 hours later in Alaska and Hawaii and other parts of the West Coast of the USA, and 18 hours later along the coast of South America.

THE TSUNAMI TRAVELED ACROSS THE PACIFIC

TSUNAMI WAVE PATH

HAWAII The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center reported that water rushed ashore in Honolulu, swamping the beach in Waikiki and surging over the break wall in the world-famous resort, BUT stopping short of the area's high-rise hotels.

LESSONS LEARNED FOR DISASTER RESILIENCE ALL TSUNAMIS CAPACITY FOR INTELLIGENT EMERGENCY RESPONSE IS ESSENTIAL FOR COMMUNITY RESILIENCE.

EMERGENCY RESPONSE--- A NIGHTMARE! The fires and explosions in the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility and radiation levels that were 1,000 times normal levels created a “nightmare disaster response scenario” for the Government of Japan.

MARCH 12 EVACUATION AND MASS CARE

Immediately after the earthquake and tsunami, the Japanese Government began implementing its post- disaster response plans in a highly-charged, possible “nightmare nuclear disaster” environment.

URGENT NEED FOR SEARCH AND RESCUE Even though, with so many people (about 20,000) missing over a wide area after the tsunami, search and rescue was a moral imperative and an urgent need,--- IT WAS UNUSUALLY DIFFICULT!

EVACUATION Approximately 450,000 people were evacuated by military personnel from areas damaged in the quake and in a 33 km radius around the nuclear facilities

EVACUATION OF CHILDREN

JAPAN’S SEARCH AND RESCUE TEAMS The Japanese urban search and rescue teams, which had been helping in the search for Christchurch, New Zealand earthquake victims for two weeks, headed back to Japan to help with the S and R.

JAPAN’S SEARCH AND RESCUE Approximately 50,000 members of Japan’s Self Defense Forces were mobilized immediately and sent to the hardest hit areas.

JAPAN’S SEARCH AND RESCUE Tokushu Kyuunan Tai, the search and rescue unit of the Japan Coast Guard, was dispatched to accelerate search and rescue operations.

SEARCH AND RESCUE

SEARCH AND RESCUE: RIKUZENTAKADA

SEARCH AND RESCUE: SOMA; FUKUSHIMA PREFECTURE

SEARCH AND RESCUE: MIYAGI PREFECTURE

MARCH COUNTRIES PROMISED HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE, BUT WERE STYMIED BY THE RISK FROM RADIATION, LACK OF GAS, AND WEATHER

Search and rescue operations, evacuations, and humanitarian assistance on local and global scales… All were limited by the possibility of a “nightmare nuclear disaster.”

All actions were conducted with knowledge of the high risk associated with the possibility of a significant radiation release and a nuclear melt down.

MASS CARE Shortages, closed roads, and lack of fuel made it very difficult to meet survivors’ needs for food, water, medicine, and electricity.

LESSONS LEARNED FOR DISASTER RESILIENCE ALL TSUNAMIS CAPACITY FOR RECOVERY AND RECONSTRUCTION IS ESSENTIAL FOR COMMUNITY RESILIENCE.

THE RESULT: A CATASTROPHE Japan’s social, technical, administrative, political, legal, health care, and economic systems were tested to their limits by the socio-economic impacts of the earthquake and tsunami, the radiation, and the harsh weather.

SUMMARY OF THE DISASTER The tsunami wave run up together with the earthquake ground shaking caused major damage to 1.2 million buildings. Simultaneously, wide spread fires burned out of control. Economic losses were estimated at $574 billion.