Crisis Management in Tsunami Incidences in New South Wales - Case Study Example

Name : xxxxxxxxxxx Institution : xxxxxxxxxxx Title : Crisis management in tsunami incidences Tutor : xxxxxxxxxxx Course : xxxxxxxxxxx @2010 Crisis management in tsunami incidences Introduction A tsunami is a series of ocean waves emerging from an abrupt displacement of huge volumes of water. In the course of the waters returning to equilibrium waves are created which spread outwards from the starting place. They may also result from the vertical movements of the sea floor due to great earth quakes, undersea or coastal volcanic explosion, meteor effects and coastal landslides both land based and submarine. Earthquakes have been known to produce majority of tsunami though not all earthquakes result to tsunami. For a tsunami to be generated, the earthquake must begin at a fault located beneath or near the sea and result to perpendicular movement of the ocean floor in a large surface. Most of the devastating tsunami results from shallow focus earthquakes along subdued areas. The people of South Asia were unexpectedly hit by Tsunami in 2004. The results were devastating. There were tremendous destructions in most parts of the continent. Sri Lanka was however, the most hit area. The tsunami led to the death of 31,187 people and 4280 were reported missing. 23,189 were seriously injured and about 500,000 people were displaced. The natural disaster had also an immediate psychological impact to the people who had been exposed to it. It was discovered that three to four weeks after the occurrence of tsunami, about 39% of the children had PTSD. Tsunami moves form the interior towards the exterior in all directions from the starting point. The severity or energy of movement of the tsunami is however not necessarily equal in every direction. Tsunami speed is determined by the depth of the water. In very deep waters and open seas, tsunami can attain a speed of 800 kilometers per hour. The speed of tsunami reduces as the shallow waters are approached (Dominey-Howes, 2007). Several tsunami management systems have been put in place to manage tsunami crisis. New South Wales has created a tsunami emergency plan that describes the preparedness for, response to and launching of recovery in the course of a tsunami incident. Tsunami Risk Assessment In general it is difficult to evaluate the hazard magnitude of a tsunami due to scarcity of information concerning the matter. The hazard severity for tsunami that poses a risk to NSW is hard to evaluate due to lack of appropriate research. As a result of the scarcity of research findings concerning tsunami hazard evaluation assessment of the danger posed by tsunamis becomes a difficult task. The common nature of data presently available describes the history of tsunami but lacks important details concerning methods of assessing magnitude-frequency description of tsunami. State Emergency Service and the NSW Department of Environment and Climate Change in collaboration with Geoscience Australia have responded to this lack of information by studying the coastal line in an effort to conduct a tsunami risk assessment. Natural Disaster Mitigation Program assisted in funding the successful study (Bryant & Nott, 2001). The risk assessment study consisted of the following: • Recognition of tsunami sources, including an evaluation of their comparative tsunamigenicity • Outline of NSW tsunami history, together with paleotsunami analysis • Evaluation of travel times for every convincing tsunami source • Assessment of wave heights along the whole NSW coast to 50m depth for local and remote tsunami sources • Extensive evaluation of coastal susceptibility • Evaluation of the impact of distinctive coastal classifications on tsunami magnitude • Appraisal and collation of accessible topographic and bathymetric information to assist modeling of tsunami outpouring • Estimation of outpouring and risk modeling necessities The findings of the study will offer a universal evaluation of tsunami risk and offer some bases for the prioritization of the people for further tsunami inundation modeling and also the inputs necessary to conduct the modeling. The provision of more comprehensive risk evaluation information will facilitate the creation of a more specific education program for the community. Emergency Planning For Tsunami – NSW Tsunami Emergency Sub Plan The establishment of the NSW Tsunami emergency sub program started in the early 2004 before the Asian tsunami struck on 26th December. Research and planning on tsunami was given a deserved attention due to results of the plan. The program was recommended by the State Emergency management Committee on December 2005. This was followed by extensive research and consultation by the planning team of the SES with all stakeholders listed in the plan. In specific, it was necessary that the designers of the plan have adequate and reliable understanding of the nature of tsunami and the existing abilities and challenges of tsunami detection and forewarning devices. It was in the procedure of carrying out the necessary research that it was found that important knowledge concerning tsunami and the consequence of tsunami was still alien to the planners. There exists a diverse opinion within the scientific field concerning past tsunami strikes and the possibility and severity of future tsunami episodes. The most challenging part of the planning team was to get any information referring to the methods of determining the real time of tsunami strikes and the consequences of the strikes. The Tsunami Emergency sub program has full details in regard to preparedness, response and the launching of recovery (Bryant & Nott, 2001). The plan has details for all likely tsunami speeds and severity and the accompanying mechanisms. The program is strategic in form and creates a structure and standards for the emergency management of tsunami strikes. Every agency involved in the plan has is duties and roles clearly indicated therein. Just like other NSW emergency management programs, the programs operates from the assumption that agency duties should emphasizes on the duties that can best be performed depending on their area of specialization. This implies that fire & HAZMAT is handled by fire & HAZMAT specialists, rescue is handled by rescue experts, health is handled by health experts, and warning and evacuation is experts by warning and evacuation specialists. To ensure that major players of the program clearly understand its context, the program has been piloted and several meetings have been held to train the emergency managers on the strategies put down by the plan. The meetings were coordinated by the Emergency Management Australia and took place in eight different places along the NSW coast. Some of the issues discussed in the meetings included the science of tsunami, tsunami warning schemes, Tsunami Emergency Sub program, tsunami risk evaluation and future planning ideas (Felton & Crook, 2003). The meetings were attended by more than 800 emergency mangers which indicated the emerging interest in the emergency management of tsunami attacks. The plan has been availed to the public through the NSW and SES websites. Concept of Operations The concept of operation of the program acknowledges that any tsunami reaction mechanism will need a harmonized multi agency initiative under the entire management of the SES. The program divides tsunami reaction system into three stages: pre-impact (warning), impact and post impact. The pre-impact stage is described as the period prior to tsunami strike and entails a precautionary procedure aimed at safe guarding life and property like warning and evacuation, operational preparedness, offering of accommodation and wellbeing of the displaced persons, safe guarding and pre-deployment of resources and the limitation to the access of the areas prone to tsunami attacks. The ability to implement the laid plans relies on the warning time given. The impact stage is described by the impact of a sequence of diverse waves over a long duration of time. It will be challenging to perform several activities directly within at-risk sections as a result of the threat posed by the impact of persistent waves. Therefore, activities within this stage will emphasize on warning, reconnaissance, wellbeing of evacuees and preparation for response procedures in the impact stage (Dominey-Howes, 2007). The post-impact stage starts after confirmation that the destructive prospect of a tsunami has faded and that it is safe for emergency services to transverse the affected sections. The scale of post impact stage activities will rely on the magnitude of the event that has taken place. Some duties conducted during this stage may involve reconnaissance, search and rescue, medications for the injured, wellbeing provision, identification of the victims, response to fire and hazmat accident and offering of advice to the society (Felton & Crook, 2003). The preparation of the Tsunami Emergency Sub program revealed that features that depended on both marine and land are prone to tsunami. There is a possibility that considerable tsunami, which which is noticeable, will have an impact on risk groups depending on marine. The risk groups are prone to the impact of unusual currents as well as the changing water levels, whereas huge tsunami has a possibility of destroying features found on the surrounding land. It is thus necessary to differentiate between the two categories of tsunami within the idea of operation and to decide on the appropriate actions to undertake at each stage of the crisis management program (Felton & Crook, 2003). Tsunami Warning Systems Bureau of Meteorology department being part of the Australian Tsunami warning system offers advice about the likelihood of a tsunami strike. The information is still available to the public from the bureau of meteorology website. The NSW Bureau of Meteorology Regional Forecasting Centre has the duty of issuing the NSW Tsunami Warnings. Initial broadcast distribution has the role of directly issuing the tsunami warning through narrowcast methods at regional and local stages. According to the program, the warnings are issued through broadcast media, door to door campaign, fixed and mobile public address schemes, marine radio, variable message symbols and the internet. The SES has carried out further research into other probable dissemination methods and is at the moment considering the accomplishment of more techniques. The available appropriate warning time will differ on the basis of the distances of the coastline from the tsunami starting point. In the plan, should a tsunami be generated directly offshore of the coast, scarce or no details will be provided at the point of initial impact position. The information available concerns the likely environmental caution indicators like the recession of the ocean before a tsunami impact (Dominey-Howes, 2007). The appropriate warning approach for local tsunami is public education to ascertain that the society is aware of the surrounding cues and the necessary actions to undertake when they are noted. Australian Tsunami Warning System After the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004, the Australian Government set aside $68.9 million in its budget to enhance and improve the Australian Tsunami Alert System (ATAS) to become an equipped early warning system described as Australian Tsunami Warning System (ATWS). The ATWS scheme was run by Geoscience Australia in collaboration with the Bureau of Meteorology and the Attorney-General's Department (Felton & Crook, 2003). The funds allocate for the project were used to: create the common Australian Tsunami Warning Centre capable of detecting tsunami threats at all times advance and develop sea-level and seismic supervision systems around Australia apply national tsunami instruction and training approaches help the inter-governmental Oceanographic Commission to extend the present Pacific Tsunami Warning program and create the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning program Offer technical aid to assist in creation of innovation in scientists, technicians, and emergency managers concerned with emergency operation. The Department was directed to create capacity and increase community alertness within the concerned industry through approaches such as volunteering, community education and the community wellbeing through sectors like community participation and training. The Department conducted an extensive consultation and study to assess and evaluate the existing practice, find out areas that require improvement and create and implement an appropriate community alertness and capacity enhancement schemes. The Department also had a role in conducting all activities related to tsunami all over the Australian States and Territories (Felton & Crook, 2003). Accomplishments funding and organization of a state exercise to examine the ATWS and Australia’s tsunami warning expansion of a group of four tsunami awareness flyers, together with information for entertaining marine users and entertaining boaters Improvement of an instructive interactive instrument on tsunami for Surf Life for the Australian workers as well as volunteers. improvement and delivery of a number of running tsunami instruction workshops and demonstrations for emergency managers which have been carried out in the whole of Australian States and Territories improvement of a group of tsunami instructive instruments and plans intended to ethnically and linguistically separate the foreigners from indigenous communities conduct the tsunami society flexibility research collaboration with Questacon, the National Science and Technology Centre located in Canberra, that entails accomplishment of a Tsunami alertness program for the youths and the society at large, the creation of an connected Tsunami alertness Presentation DVD, creation of an interactive tsunami instruction sport and improvement of the collection of youths’ tsunami instruction activity page Collaboration with Australian States and neighborhoods to offer tsunami alertness and ability building programs in the whole country. Recommendations for governments and local communities From the discussion of the Australian Tsunami Warning System and NSW Tsunami Emergency Sub Plan, it is clear that governments especially those of the nations found tsunami prone areas need to invest more on studies related to consequences of tsunami incidences. This will establish the consequences of tsunami and provide more data to use in the creation of risk assessment programs. The relevant governments and the state agencies in specific workers new to participation in tsunami incidences need in-service instructive programs. These will train them on the hazards posed by tsunami and the related tsunami warning systems. A further analysis of tsunami warning systems should be conducted in regard to length, subject, and reference to periods, arrangement of order of initial waves, the indicated locations and detecting new information in consequent bulletins. The assessment procedures for a tsunami incident should be checked and reviewed on regular bases by the government concerned. The Australian Government agent should be trained further on tsunami warnings, tsunami statements and the government’s stance on tsunami incidences. Future assessment of the ATWS should involve a media constituent, evaluation of offshore territories and society alertness of tsunami incidences. The tsunami issued list of the stakeholders should be revised regularly by all agencies in order to have the appropriate players in the lists (Synolakis & Fryer, 2001). There is need for building of equipments that can be used in counter-measuring tsunami. This can be done through building of the tsunami seawalls, breakwaters and increasing the river dike height. Risk management system should also be established as a way of ensuring that the resultant effects are minimized. Conclusion Earthquakes pose a great threat to mankind. This is because all the tsunamis that occur are a consequence of the earthquakes. Improved facts about geophysical connections and enhanced architectural technology and enhanced management algorithms have made the modern community less vulnerable to earthquakes (Wisner, 2004). Governments should thus emphasize in investing in studies and research work concerning the hazards posed by tsunami as this has been found to be very effective in the Australian context. The 2nd April tsunami incident which was the initial real test for the NSW Tsunami Emergency Sub program is also a proof of the effectiveness of risk management programs. The principal focus of the existing tsunami management efforts is to expand the ability of the emergency services to control tsunami. This is specifically in relation to improvement of the capacity to warn and evacuate individuals vulnerable to the consequences of the tsunami. These tasks will not be manageable and will also be difficult to implement without comprehensive risk assessment information and criteria. The 2nd April tsunami clearly indicated this. Future efforts will emphasize upon society education, a comprehensive emergency scheme and improved warning systems (Synolakis & Fryer, 2001). Community instructive programs should be intended at establishing an understanding of the threats that tsunami poses to the society members and equipping the members with adequate skills to combat tsunami and its consequences should it occurs. These accomplishments can only be realized with the adoption of a tsunami risk evaluation program. Bibliography Bryant, E. & Nott, J. 2001, Geological Indicators of Large Tsunami in Australia. Natural Hazards 21, 231-249. Dominey-Howes, D. 2007, Geological and historical records of tsunami in Australia. Marine Geology. 239 (2007), 99–123. Felton, E. A. & Crook, K.A.W., 2003, Evaluating the impacts of huge waves on rocky shorelines: an essay review of the book ‘Tsunami – The Underrated Hazard’ Marine Geology 3304, 1-12. Synolakis, C.E., & Fryer, G.J. 2001. Book Review: Tsunami: the underrated hazard byEdward Bryant, Eos, Trans. Am. Geophys. Union, 82, 588 Wisner, B., et al., 2004. At Risk - Natural hazards, people’s vulnerability and disasters. Wiltshire: Routledge Read More