MHE503 Survey of Emergency and Disaster Mgt Module 1 Case - Essay Example

Tsunamis are undersea-bed earthquakes that create a great effect on the water above the surface. However, in the case of the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004, there were no specific indications that something was already happening in the seabed. This is the reason why it was not that easy for the resort goers to immediately flee from the area towards a safer place. They were all caught in surprise when the water waves began splashing huge amounts of water to the sea shore killing hundreds of people who were just sitting and resting around the area.

The waves were big and disastrous along with the mixed heavy winds that it comes along with. The complete disaster was even forcefully controlled by the unwillingness of some to flee away from their houses near the sea area believing that this was just a simple sea wave change. Little did these people know that this was a huge tragedy that waits to devastate their lives. Besides the natural reaction of the earth from heating up, the human works of denuding the forests made it harder for nature to control the situation itself.

Apparently, the reduction of such trees limited the possibility and the capability of the warmed up earth to cool itself down. Besides this, the lack of signs from the actual behaviour of the sea from where the tsunamis are already happening below its sea bed made it hard for the people to tell that something wrong was going to happen. The bubbling or frothing of the sea at the top portion which is seen by the people has not happened and was not able to signal the people around. Basically, caused by the imbalance in nature, even this warning was not undergone properly by the process that was supposed to give a cue as to what was going to happen next.

The incapability of the people to tell made the disaster even more tragic for the human population living within the areas affected. As seen from the television news, some of the tourists were even enjoying the cool breeze of the air when the waves suddenly turned gigantic eating them out from the seashore towards the sea's center turbulent area. Without the capability of the earth to support the need of limiting such disasters from happening, the earthquake lasted for at least several minutes that were enough to kill thousands within Thailand, Indonesia and Sri Lanka.

This disaster reminds people at present that apparently, too much development may cause devastation on the capability of the earth to heal itself. No matter how prepared people could be, no matter how knowledgeable they may seem about the occurrence of such devastating events in the natural environment, it could not be denied that the imbalance of the earth's temperature and composition makes all these efforts of being prepared worthless. This is the reason why the Hokkaido incident was less damaging compared to the properties lost and the lives that were taken from that of the occurrence of the Indian Ocean earthquake of 2004.

What mitigation and/or