"The historic quarter of Bam has been completely destroyed and many of our countrymen are underneath the ruins," said Mohammad Ali Karimi, the governor of Kerman province. Given the level of destruction it is probably safe to assume that the earthquake occurred close to the surface. Buildings collapsed. Roofs and ceilings tend to be made of many layers of bricks to keep the house cool in summer. These collapsed immediately burying tens of thousands of people under tons of rubble.
These poorly built structures crumbled easily with the force of the earthquake, many buildings or houses were poorly constructed due to lack of finance and so fell to the ground with little resistance. This is obviously a main cause of deaths and injuries, as there were little escaping roofs and buildings collapsing in onto you. 60% of buildings in Bam collapsed during the earthquake emphasizing the poor building quality in these areas.
It is clear to see that a lot of the earthquakes destruction was almost brought on by the people, due to very densely populated areas, poor warning systems and poor erected houses. This ultimately led to a huge death toll and much destruction across the area.
In comparison to Bam I will be looking at California, in which an earthquake of similar magnitude on the same day as the Bam disaster.
“A large earthquake hit California at 19:15:56 UTC (11:16 am local time) on Monday, December 22, 2003. It was centered north of the coastal town of Cambria. Cambria is in San Luis Obispo County, about 300 kilometers northwest of Los Angeles. The county has a population of around 250,000. Two people have been reported killed.”
As we well know the United States is a MEDC country, this has allowed the United States to extensively research earthquakes allowing them to have earthquake strategies and warning systems. The united states have been able do to there economic status, to ensure earthquake proof buildings. These buildings are designed to rock within their foundations allowing the building to stay up and not collapse. Due to this, the cost of the earthquake only amounted to somewhere in the region of 1,000,000 dollars. If these buildings however had not been earthquake safe, then the damage would have been far greater, with a lot more deaths as buildings like in Bam collapsed onto the people inside them.
People had had prior warning as to what to do in an earthquake situation, i.e. get low and in a place were objects are unlikely to fall. Simple warning like these would have been invulnerable in situations like this and the knowledge that the Americans had far out did the people of Iran who had little idea of what to do in such an emergency.
Even though the American government knew the death toll was not high emergency services and NGO’s were immediately on hand to help with any injuries sustained.
Overall there were very few deaths in California due to prior preparation. This meant that everybody knew what they were doing. Buildings were stable and earthquake proof allowing people to be protected and not risk serious injury. Prior warning to the event ensured that people were ready for the disaster, although they did not know when the earthquake was going to hit, they knew that it might be around that time. In bam however people were not ready for an earthquake and many people lost there lives as there houses fell around them.
I will now begin to look at the volcano mount saint Helens and its eruption in 1980, killing 57 people. This case study is an example of how even MEDC countries do not always predict the correct outcomes or even natural hazards at all. Mount Saint Helens is a large volcano in southwestern Washington. The volcano had been quiet for many years bur reawakened on the 20th march 1980.
As the volcano erupted, it triggered mass movement and an avalanche was formed which descended into a nearby valley, sending water over the hillside on to a small village close to the earthquake. Many roads houses and other buildings were destroyed, meaning that an unaccounted number of people lost there lives. The blast cloud from the volcano surrounded the area burning many tourists and campers in the region. Most of whom died. Lumber jacks were busy working in the forest at the time of the explosion and according to survivors complained of burnt throats and finding it hard to breath. Only 3 of the 7 lumberjacks survived.
This example of a MEDC failing to predict or counter a natural hazard shows that in some cases economic welfare does not necessarily mean that people will not be killed and property lost to natural disasters.
I will now look at another LEDC and the volcano of Nyiragongo. 45 people lost there lives as lava flows and strong emissions of co2 gas poured from the volcano. More then 4500 houses and buildings were or buried by lava flow in the near by city of Goma.
There were many social impacts due to the eruption of the volcano. Firstly the entire population of Goma (400,000) people, were evacuated for 3 days. 14 villages were damaged or covered by the extensive lava flows. This in turn made 12,000 families homeless, with no shelter provided by the government.
Highly poisonous lava flowed into a river many people used for drinking water. This couldn’t be stopped as there was no money or resources available to divert the flow. Aid officials now feared an outbreak of cholera, wit the cities sanitation wiped out. An estimated 300,000 refugees had no option but to camp in the freezing cold Rwandan highlands, causing death and illness to many of them.
This case study clearly shows the inability of LEDC to counter or predict natural disasters. With little money or resources available to them they relay on NGO’S to help them overcome there problems as they do not have the economic resources available to help their people.
In November 2000, a mudslide occurred which killed 53 people in purworejo, a hill district in Indonesia. Torrential monsoon rains ( as a result of the tropical climate) had been occurring in the area. They could not infiltrate the parched, arid land and water eventually mixed with the soil to cause a massive mud flow, this picked up more and more land and soil which hurtled down the hillside, destroying everything in its path. This hillside was home to 14 villages, this extra development would increase the weight on the unstable soil, making land slides more likely.
Because the area is poor and located in a LEDC, there isn’t much sufficient money for decent building materials or suitable risk assessment that is usually carried on when building on slopes. Local trees were cut down by the villagers for room for the houses and buildings and also for fuel. This deforestation meant that the land was even more unstable due to tree roots not being present holding the soil together.
It is clear from this case study, that if the area was a MEDC or had better economic resource then risk assessment could have taken place, this simple but costly task would have saved the lives of the villagers. As the area is an LEDC people are not aware of the dangers of cutting down trees, which was a main benefactor into why the landslide occurred. In this example the LEDC government ad no way of predicting the landslide but could have made people aware of the dangers and the increased likelihood of landslides if trees are cut down in tropical weather systems.
In conclusion I believe that MEDC countries such as the United States deal with hazards on a whole very well, from prediction to after the event. This is without doubt because of the vast amounts of money and resource being thrown at prediction and natural disaster “action plans”. Because of the huge funds available, proper research is produced enhancing prediction, meaning that the gap between the technology between MEDC and LEDC is getting bigger.
I feel that I now have evidence that nine out of 10 times economic variation can affect hazards a great deal. I feel that economic variation has meant that difference between life and death as we have seen in the case studies. However I feel that on occasion such as hurricane Katrina or Mount Saint Helens, no amount of research or economic resource can prepare you for such disasters. However damage can be minimized by financial backing ultimately meaning that the frequency of huge death tolls and huge amounts of damage in MEDC is dramatically decreased.
