Main Body
The county of Yorkshire belongs to the UK, which is an MEDC country. In the year 2000 much of the county was flooded due to very heavy rainfall. The insurance claims brought about by the floods were upwards of £20 million. Most of the impacts were damaged ground floors of homes and written off cars. As the UK is an MEDC the responses to the floods were controlled and effective. When the environment agency realised that flooding was inevitable, they rang all they houses that they believed would be affected by the water. This is an example of a successful management, which prepared the inhabitants for the floods. Any elderly and infirm people were evacuated from their homes and taken to a building that was deemed to be safer. After the floods had subsided, the damage could be surveyed. Most houses in the area needed new furnishings for ground floor areas. As the UK is an MEDC, the people involved in the flooding were fully compensated for their lost possessions.
A continued response that is possible due to the UK’s position as an MEDC is to manage the problem. This has included a recent government decision to build flood defences along sections of river where homes and business’ area at risk. The decision where to build flood defences is done by the development of hazard maps which indicate areas most at risk by the natural event, this is then offset against cost and cost of property at risk in the area. If the area is an industrial area with a large population, that area is more likely to be defended than a high risk area with little or no population where the ‘do nothing approach is preferred’.
The flooding that hit Sumatra was the worst in living memory. With 107 people confirmed dead and over 100 missing, presumed dead the social impacts were severe. The responses to the floods were limited due to Sumatra’s position as an LEDC. Although flooding is an annual event in Sumatra, the magnitude of the floods surprised everyone and the governments limited responses were ineffective due to lack of planning and management, and the surprise in the magnitude. Many of the short term responses to the floods such as sheltering the homeless and providing food and water was left to international aid agencies such as the red cross. This led to resentment amongst the population against the government due to their lack of planning and management, which led to many people believing more lives were lost than could have been as the government was slow to react. Because the governments responses were limited for this event, the impacts of the flooding will be felt for many years to come. The communication infrastructure that had only been recently installed on the Island and damage to roads has been extensive. As the stature of Sumatra is an LEDC, the government has very little money to respond to the damage caused to the island. This will mean that long term development of Sumatra’s economy in areas such as Tourism and rubber plantations will be stagnant as both these industries are heavily reliant on roads and communication networks.
Hurricane Isabel hit the East Coast of the USA in 2003. It was the direct cause of 17 deaths and upwards of $10 billion damage. The responses were due to the USA stature as an MEDC. This area of the US suffers from hurricanes regularly and because of this and the USA’s stature as an MEDC, responses are well practised and developed. The hurricane itself had been tracked across the Atlantic and it was known when it would hit the East Coast. This allowed the authorities to organise response to the hurricane once it had hit. The National Guard was mobilised immediately after the hurricane had hit and set about clearing roads and highways of wreckage. In the USA, the main impact of a hurricane is economical rather than social as all people have a hurricane shelter or somewhere safe to go, as the US is an MEDC, one of its responses to the threat of hurricanes is to educate people about them. Through education people can understand the danger caused by them and take the warnings that are given by the authorities seriously. Because of greater impacts on the economy, the authorities organise their responses to reduce the economic damage caused. Clearing wreckage from the road is one way to help business return to normality. Another response is to make sure teams of engineers are on hand to restore power and telecommunications once the hurricane has passed. Like the UK, the USA draws up hazard maps to see which areas are most at risk and concentrate their relief efforts in these areas.
The Hurricane that struck Bermuda in 2002 was the worst in over 50 years causing 25,000 homes to lose power and almost 100 deaths. Although NASA predicted the hurricanes path correctly, Bermuda’s position as an LEDC meant that although the authorities were warned about the hurricane, the population was not. This is the first response that the government of Bermuda did not carry out. As soon as their was a foreseen risk everyone on the island should have been warned, but due to lack of communication most of the population was not warned. Many of the population live on remote subsistence farms, and when the hurricane hit, many of the crops were destroyed. As these farmers only produce just enough to eat the loss of crops could mean starvation. As is the case in many LEDCs when a disaster hits and food supplies are lost, the country relies on food aid which is given to the population by MEDCs. In this case, both the UK and US contributed aid. Another reason why the hurricanes impacts were so intense in Bermuda was lack of organisation for the hurricane. The government’s stature as an LEDC means that it does not have enough money to make hazard maps of the area. Therefore after the hurricane had passed and the damage had been caused, the government had no plans on what to do and which areas were most likely to be the hardest hit. Therefore the plans had to be rushed and some areas which were hardest hit were last to be reached which increased the death toll.
Conclusion
The four case studies examined in this report have shown how responses to hazards are affected by the economic resources available. In the two LEDC studies of Sumatra and Bermuda. Although the government knew the risks posed by flooding and hurricanes respectively, due to the countries having a low income the responses were limited to just clearing up after the hazard had impacted. In Sumatra, the responses were even further limited as the authorities were low on resources they relied on aid agencies to do much of the clear up work and deal with short term impacts such as water and food shortages. Long term impacts were also felt more strongly as authorities have little money to compensate people, so Sumatra’s developing tourist industry has been knocked back at least 10 years which will mean that the islands economy will remain stagnant meaning more people will be trapped in the poverty cycle. The contrast between LEDC responses and MEDC impacts could not be more clearly defined. As was seen in the case studies of both the USA and UK, hazard management is an effective way of responding to the hazard. This was shown by the case study of hurricane Isabel as after the hurricane had struck the authorities could predict which areas would be most badly damaged and therefore concentrate relief efforts there. Planning for the hazard is in fact a more effective response than clearing up well after the hazard. This was shown in the case study of Yorkshire where flood defences had been built only in areas deemed at risk and with a population to defend. Although the effects of flooding was still bad, due to accurate risk assessment, the most economically important areas of Yorkshire were saved from the worst of the flooding due to a co-ordinated response to the risk of flooding by the building of flood defences. Another difference between MEDC and LEDC countries in their responses is the ability of an MEDC to compensate people for damage caused to their property. Because of this, an MEDC (Which usually only suffers damage to its economy) can compensate business’ and have them working as they were prior to the event. This reduces the overall impacts as was seen in the USA when much of the responses post hurricane were targeted to keeping business’ trading, with responses such as replacing all damaged power and telecommunication lines.
