In LEDC’s earthquakes are often more serious than their MEDC counterparts. This is due to many reasons. A major factor is that the housing standards in LEDC’s are often much less than those of MEDC’s, and so they will now withstand the seismic waves as well as those securely built houses of MEDC’s. This means that if more house collapse there will be more casualties as a direct impact of this. The emergency services in LEDC’s are also generally much less developed, and so when a earthquake does strike the rescue services cannot reach the more isolated and remote parts of the countries, so anyone who may need medical assistance, or who is trapped has much less of a chance to survive than somebody in an MEDC for whom help will be almost instant on coming.
The earthquake in India, in 1993 happened on 30th September and caused the death of some 25,000 people with thousands more being unaccounted for. It measured 6.4 on the Richter Scale. It caused 13,000 square kilometres of land in India to be totally devastated, including 50 towns and villages. It occurred during the might when most people were asleep, in their houses, so when the housing that had been built (with no regard for the building regulations) collapsed while their inhabitants slept, many people were crushed to death. This was not helped also by the fact that the area in which the earthquake occurred, the Maharashtra had recently undergone significant population growth, and so many people where living in houses they had constructed themselves out of scrap material, unsupervised and without permission of the authorities. There were often large numbers of people in one house, as well which just added to the problem. The wealthier people who could afford to build their homes from cement and brick and so did, came off worse than the poorer people who could only afford to build their houses from lightweight materials, which did not pose the same threat, if they were to fall down.
The earthquake that occurred on the Los Angeles Ridge on 17th January 1994 measuring 6.6 on the Richter scale, very slightly larger than the one that hit Maharashtra. Yet it caused many fewer deaths than this one – just 57 people were killed, and 1500 seriously injured. It occurred in the early morning, while everybody was in bed, the same as the Maharashtra quake, however it was much very fortunate that it happened then, and not slightly later, when everybody was travelling to work as the roads and rail networks were seriously affected as many of them collapsed under the vibrations caused by the seismic waves. If these had held the rush hour trains, and cars then the death toll would have considerable higher. Not only was the timing fortunate, but also the buildings in LA are now being design to try an withstand the vibrations of earthquakes, by building them to include reinforced lattice work foundations so that their flexibility can be increased, and the amount that they will move be reduced. Some of the newer, more important buildings were also built like this then, so that these buildings did not fall, and so the number of collapsed buildings was significantly less than in the other quake. However, even though the death rate and overall the damage caused was much less in LA it cost the US about $15 in damage as the buildings that were there, and got damaged were much more valuable than those in India, and the jobs that were stopped because people were stuck, and unable to get to work caused the US so much money, far more money than the earthquake in India, just because there is far more money in the US in the first place. The USA also operates a federal emergency Management program, which aims to educate the people about earthquakes so that the impacts of one that may hit, will be much less. This kind of scheme would be almost impossible to implement in a country like India, where the communications are much less evolved, and there is no central way to communicate between people.
The next hazard that I am going to look at is the Tropical Cyclone, or Hurricane, and I am going to look at the specific example of Hurricane Mitch, which blew its way across Honduras, and central America, an area that in general is quite poor, and would be mostly considered as a LEDC.
A major problem with hurricanes, is although you can predict that they are going to hit land, and you can see when they have formed, you cannot predict the path that they are going to take very accurately at all, in fact it is almost impossible, as they can suddenly, without warning change direction for no reason, so that any prediction over 72 hours in advance, and usually less than that is extremely unreliable. However it is not for lack of trying, as America for many years have been trying to use state of the art technology to predict the paths of the many hurricanes that hit them each year. They use information from geostationary satellites, and land based monitoring sensors, and fly surveillance flights in to potential tropical cyclones to try and help them learn more. This technology is simply not available to poorer countries, as they could not possibly afford to finance such things.
Hurricane Mitch began around 28th October in the Southern Caribbean sea, the country of Honduras was on e of the worst hit, with around 6000 people killed, and approximately 19,000 altogether dead, or missing. Up to 1.5 million people were left homeless, with major problems about food, water and medicine supplies, this caused wide spread diseases in the country such as malaria, cholera and dengue, and famine also hit it hard. Many of the people that were killed were never identified so they had to be buried in mass graves throughout the country. Not only did it hit the people hard, but it also shattered the infrastructure and economy of the country, totally paralysing any production that the country may have been doing in this time. Floods did much of the damage, as the hurricane brought extremely drastic floods, and it washed away villages, and roads so that all communications with the capitol were cut off. It was estimated that it cost Honduras alone $4 billion in damage – a very large amount for such a small country. Crop damage caused a lot of this loss, as not only the crops that were standing were damaged but also the warehouses that held store so that it could take several years to recover.
Hurricanes regularly hit America, in 1995, they were hit by 11 hurricanes and tropical storms throughout the year. The fact that they are considered part of life in certain parts of the USA during storm season means that they must make a lot less of an impact in this county. The buildings are so much more stable, that they will stand the high winds and the floodwaters. The people are much more prepared, the media can warn them of forthcoming dangers, and the infrastructure allows them to evacuate the area effectively. They also have the technology to monitor the path and development of hurricanes so that the people have lots of warming and have sufficient time to secure their houses as well as possible. The fact that, un like hurricane Mitch I can only find one major specific example in detail of a hurricane that has hit the USA, just simply backs up that they have much less of an effect on these countries (MEDC’s.) This was Hurricane Andrew in 1992 which blew with winds of 145mph and decimated a 50km stretch of Florida coast, and creating $20billion in damages. We cannot say that they do not have a considerable effect though, as their arrival means that anybody in the area, whether they live there, or they just work there has to evacuate and this can have major effects on the countries economy as it is estimated that to evacuate a 500km stretch of US coastline would cost the country $50 billion at least. This amount is just unheard of in LED countries.
Again the effect of tropical cyclones is worse in LEDC’s, not because they are better examples, or are higher up the scale, and hit harder, but because the countries that they hit are so different the effects that they have are so different.
The final natural disaster that I am going to look at is the Volcano – and the two examples that I am going to look at are Mount St. Helens in America and Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines.
The first, mount St. Helens erupted in 1980 on 18th of May after it hadn’t erupted for 123 years. Some very small earthquakes caused the pressure of lava under the volcano to build up, and eventually the pressure was so immense that it blew. The eruption killed only 62 people most of those had crept to the mountain for a closer look at the bulge on the mountain, evidently thinking they were in no danger. The earthquakes that triggered the volcano also set off landslides, and started lahars from rain and melted snow which also carried magma and rocks from the volcano down the mountain, some in to spirit lake causing waves of up to 200m high and killing everything in the lake, which was a major fishing site for the area. When these flows finally came to rest the material that they carried in some place reached 45m in height. This would have crushed anything and anyone in its path. But one of the major environment damaging factors of the quake was a blast of, and pyroclastic flow that reached temperatures of 300 C an above. This killed any wildlife in its path and burnt an area of 500km around it, flattening many trees to the ground. So although this eruption was quite dramatic the loss of human lives was almost at a minimum, the most damage was done to the wild life, and environment around the volcano, which had to rebuild its self, over the years that followed.
Mount Pinatubo was a volcano that had been thought of to be extinct, but in May 1991 a group of minor earthquakes proved the peoples beliefs to be wrong. In June of that year, the volcano, which hadn’t erupted for 600 years previous, did just that. It blew rock and pumice 19km up in to the sky, and 100km either side of it. Clouds filled with hot smoke, gas and ash rushed down the slopes at terrifying speeds. Then a tropical storm hit the area as well, and flood waters, carried these items even further and created added dangers such as landslides, and mudslides. These wiped out anything in their path they destroyed 50000 hectares of cropland, killing all the crops on them. The area was without electricity for three weeks, and the water supply was undrinkable. Although the many occupants of the area were evacuated – just under 240000 people in total, the death toll was almost 350 most of whom died in the mudflows when their house collapsed or from lack of clean water. The economy was hit drastically with about 60000 people loosing their jobs, costing the country billions in lost profits.
So looking at all of these different example of various natural disasters the effects of them in different countries certainly varies quite widely, even if the effects and death toll are higher in the developing countries the damages caused still often cost more in the developed countries, simply because there was more ‘money’ there to damage in the first place. In each developed country almost every house has several TV’s a stereo and many other, what we consider to be basic household items which will mean that in the event of a natural disaster the amount of insurance and damage for each household is significantly more than that of any house in a less developed country. The technology and communications between people in MEDC’s far outstrips that of other poorer countries, and so the people are infinitely more prepared for crisis like these, and will have warning, often, far before it actually occurs.
All these things add to the reasons why the impact of disasters vary between the two examples of countries, and why some devastate some countries and leave other virtually untouched, even if they have the same characteristics. It is why the death toll in one country can be extortionate for a minor event, while at the other side of the world there can be few casualties for something much more drastic. However it is not the final deciding point and there are other things to consider which can important in deciding how serious it may get, but it is definitely an issue.
