Impediments to Disaster Prevention in Major Cities
Reporting to the Japanese Cabinet, a panel researching on potential disasters reported the potential of 30-35 meters high disaster hitting Tokyo and other regions in future. The over-reliance on nuclear energy in some of these regions also poses a major threat whenever such disasters strike. The Southwestern Ohi Nuclear power plant was restarted amidst protests from the public. This shows some degree of awareness on the public’s side. Indeed, previous disasters have played a vital role in educating the public on ways of preventing and mitigating further losses in future. On one hand, educating alone may not yield the expected results in terms of disaster prevention. On the other hand, educating the public has been vital in disaster mitigation (Earthquake Engineering Research Group, 2008).
Over the past years, the government has not taken the front row in embracing warning and the persuasion to plan for disasters. This has contributed to the serious effects of disasters despite having being issued with warnings. When tsunamis or earthquakes hit large cities, different nations fail to process the disaster due to lack of resources. The significant losses incurred during such disasters do not necessarily mean that these nations are never prepared. Along the coastal lines, many countries first constructed dikes to curb tsunamis. However, they have since become too expensive and impractical due to the length of the coastline.
When an 9.0 magnitude earthquake rocked Japan on March 11th, 2011, it was the first of a series of horrific events that Japan would be forced to endure. Many homes, families, properties, and belongings were lost on that day. And when the tsunami rolled over the island, many believed that it was over for them. Not only had people’s lives been put in disarray and desolation, but there had not even been simple necessities available. Food. Water. Communications. And electricity. When the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant had been hit by the earthquake and tsunami, the reactors were shut down and so was the electricity. Over the course of months the reactors suffered, extreme heat, fires, hydrogen explosions, and radiation exposures. At the time,
Natural Hazards and the Interaction of Physical and Human Processes The earth has been producing hazards for millennia these include earthquakes and volcanoes caused by the movement of tectonic plates, and also wind and water elated disasters such as tornadoes and tsunamis, these can be varied by a countries location such as suffering drought due to be land locked or an island, also the relief on the land can contribute greatly to the hazards it faces.. All of these cause great destruction and can involves lots of energy, these events do not become disasters unless there are human factors involved, when people live on a fault line they are risking suffering from an earthquake, this combination of
Nuclear explosions are always a tragedy for the people and for the environment of the Earth. The consequences of the nuclear accident might stay for a long time harming the environment if the actions taken were wrong. Unfortunately, some accidents connected with nuclear power happened in the world and in some cases the consequences are remaining until this time. To find out which government’s reaction was the rightest, I will compare accidents like Fukushima, Chernobyl and Three Mile Island. I will see which government took the actions, which helped reduce the danger of the accidents. By comparing the amount of deaths and victims, I will understand which government protected the people better. The reaction time is also important, depending
On March 11, 2011, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and 100-foot high tsunami hit the northeastern shoreline of Japan. At least 28,000 people were killed or went missing and more than 400,000 homes and buildings were destroyed. Recovery and rescue efforts were difficult as a result of the cold weather and because of disrupted transportation routes. Making matters worse, the waves of the tsunami damaged the Fukushima nuclear power plant, causing radioactive leaks. in addition to devastating Japan’s economy in many ways, this natural disaster also had negative effects on the United States’ economy and construction industry, though not to the same extent.
Earthquakes and their resulting effects have been a constant threat to life and livelihoods of the human race. These seismic events can have disastrous effects on a population and its infrastructure which in turn affect its economic resilience and ability to respond to future events. The way in which these events are managed has a direct impact on the wellbeing of an affected community and its socio-economic status is usually an indicator of how well these events are managed. Understanding how past events have been managed will aid in managing strategies to mitigate the effects of future events.
On Friday March 11th 2011 at 2:46 pm, Japan’s Eastern coast was hit with an earthquake of a 9.0 magnitude. Following the quake, an 18 foot tsunami was triggered causing the pre existing damage to be even more sever. The tsunami caused the AC power to disable in 3 of the plants, which kept the cooling system from working. As a result, hydrogen in the exploded in the fuel rods which stated the release of the large amounts of radioactive material into the surrounding area.The quake and tsunami alone caused 15,893 people to lose their lives. Not only did this devastate the country when it happened, but the disaster is still affecting not only Japan, but surrounding areas, such as the Pacific ocean and parts of the U.S.
There was the extremely severe nuclear disaster which was triggered by the Great East Japan Earthquake on 11 March 2011, a level 7 disaster was declared by the International Nuclear Event Scale because of its extensive and devastating effects. As analysing the effect of Fukushima disaster, the radioactive fallout has effects on the human health, the environment, the agriculture and fisheries, even has the implications for the future of nuclear power worldwide (Burnie, 2012). According to the facts, Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant Disaster cannot be regarded as a natural disaster, it was a profoundly manmade disaster that could and should have been foreseen and prevented (BBC, 2012).
Early in the morning of December 26, 2004, an earthquake rocked the floor of the Indian Ocean. The 9.1-9.3 magnitude earthquake subsequently caused a series of catastrophic tsunamis to hit the coasts of Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and South Africa. The destruction was devastating, causing just under $10 billion in damage and an estimated $7 billion more in humanitarian aid. Although so much aid was sent to the affected areas, ten years later some of the areas are still suffering from the devastation. Looking back, the main cause of the devastation was the lack of warning systems in place. Although some places like Indonesia may not have had time to evacuate, many other affected areas had plenty of time but were completely uninformed, being taken by surprise. Following the tsunami the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System was created and put into place. A lot can be learned from the lack of warning and preparedness from this disaster in order to better prepare for the future (History.com, Rodgers).
The Fukushima Daiichi incident (March 11, 2011) is not the first nuclear meltdown incident. It is also not the first time that nuclear companies promise to give proper maintenance to their reactors. However, even if they do, sometimes Mother Nature strikes us and Disasters like this annihilate entire countries for never-ending years. In this particular case plutonium contaminated the water, air, and the soil. While the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plants asserts that they did their best to be prepared for incidents like this, the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami proved them wrong. As a consequence, one can infer that there is not a 100% measure that can protects us, when incidents like this happen.
In the wake of the 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake and resulting tsunami, over 4000 scientists, government officials, NGOs and UN representatives met in Kobe, Japan to address one of the most important tests the world has to face: disaster risk reduction (DRR). The product of the conference was the 10 year Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015. Endorsed by 168 countries, the document promotes 3 main aims: the integration of DRR into viable development policies and planning, building resilience to hazards and incorporating risk reduction methodologies into the implementation of emergency preparedness, response and recovery programmes (GNDR, 2014). In order to achieve these goals, the framework states 5 priorities of action:
“The combined total of confirmed deaths and missing is more than 22,000.” These were the horrific words read by millions by the time March 11, 2011 had passed. The devastation started with a 9.0 magnitude earthquake which not only killed and injured at least 500 people, it triggered a tsunami which swept across the coastal plains of Japan. These waves knocked the Fukushima Daiichi’s power out, causing the core to overheat and explode which let out harmful radiation into the air, “contaminating a wide area that still forces nearly 100,000 thousand residents to live as evacuees.”
On March 11, 2011, an earthquake large enough to cause the earth axis to shift by several inches (p. 3) sent a massive tsunami rushing towards a forested stretch of the Japanese coast south of Sendai where the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power reactors stood vulnerable (p. 4). Over the ensuing weeks, the world watched in horror as a natural disaster transformed into a man-made catastrophe: fail-safes failed, cooling systems shut down, nuclear rods melted, communications broke down, hazardous radioactive exposures and contamination occurred, and masses of people were displaced. Safety of nuclear power plants is a very important topic that has significant local and global implication for environmental health. This book was chosen to help
There have been dangerous tsunamis in the past decade that have caused serious injuries because of the lack of tsunami alert systems in their area. For instance, around an hour after an earthquake hit in Japan, there was a tsunami wave that hit the Sendai port measuring 55 inches in height, causing around 160,000 people to flee the area with a death toll of around 50 people reported (Rich 1). A tsunami of this magnitude is capable of causing
Natural Disasters have an enormously devastating effect on the world and the population. Hurricanes flood houses, rip proper-ties apart, and devastate families. Tornadoes have drastic wind speeds, these winds are so strong they can lift heavy ob-jects and cause them to soar towards structures and injure ci-vilians. Volcanoes are one of the most beautiful marvels cre-ated by nature; however, they are extremely catastrophic, they cause global warming and completely conceal houses in ash and lava. Earthquakes are the movement of tectonic plates, which release their energy into the Earth’s crust; this causes shak-ing, which can pummel houses to the ground and kill or wound helpless people.