Working to Save Lives When a Tsunami Strikes

 

November 5 is United Nations Tsunami¹ Awareness² Day.

Tsunami is a Japanese word for a long, destructive ocean wave caused by an undersea earthquake.

The goal of the observance is to learn from disasters of the past and to prepare for the future.

Two tsunamis³ in the last 15 years have changed the way people around the world think about these destructive events.

On December 26, 2004, a magnitude 9 earthquake near the coast of Indonesia caused tsunami waves that struck the coasts of four countries.

An estimated 230,000 people died and costs were in the billions of dollars.

One school girl from a Pacific island nation described a tsunami this way: “like a monster, it destroys everything.”

The event forced officials to develop a better tsunami warning system.

Bulgaria’s U.N. Ambassador Georgi Velikov Panayotov was on vacation with his wife in Thailand in 2004 and survived the tsunami.

He warned there is nothing you can do to stop a tsunami.

But he said, “What we can do is build early warning systems and, of course, educating the population about the devastating⁴ power of the tsunami wave.”

After the event in Indonesia, many countries believed they were prepared if a tsunami struck.

Devastation⁵ in northeastern Japan

Then, on March 11, 2011, a magnitude 9 earthquake struck northeastern Japan. It was the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in that country.

More than 18,000 people died. The tsunami also caused serious damage to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power center on the island of Honshu. At the time, the nuclear center was Japan’s biggest.

The human cost of the disaster was huge. The tsunami of 2011 also is one of the most costly⁶ disasters in history. Several nuclear reactors⁷ were severely⁸ damaged and leaked radiation. Clean up efforts continue to this day.

Japan’s U.N. Ambassador Koro Bessho said, before the 2011 earthquake, “People thought that we were prepared for it.”

But he said officials had expected an event that “hits every 100 years and the earthquake was of the size of possibly every 500 years or one thousand years.”

Efforts look to early warning, preparation

The two events caused people in the Pacific and Indian Ocean areas to study and improve preparedness for disasters.

This led to the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction in 2015 in Sendai, Japan.

The agreement was a U.N. effort to raise awareness about disaster risks and to urge countries to assess how well they were prepared for them.

Willem Rampangilei is head of the Disaster Management Agency in Indonesia. He said Indonesia passed a law on disaster management after the 2004 tsunami. It led in 2008 to the creation of his agency.

“Our responsibilities include mitigation and preparedness, emergency response, as well as post-disaster rehabilitation⁹ and reconstruction,” he said.

He adds that 150 million Indonesians are at risk from earthquakes, 60 million from floods and four million from tsunamis.

After the 2004 waves, a Tsunami Warning System was put in place. It provides three regional watch centers in India, Indonesia, and Australia. There also are 26 national tsunami information centers throughout the area.

As a result, Banda Aceh received warnings eight minutes after an earthquake in 2012. No deaths were reported.

Preparedness has spread beyond Asia. There are now early warning systems in place for the Caribbean Sea, the Northeast Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean¹⁰ Sea and surrounding areas.

Educating young people early on

This week, the U.N. Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization, or UNESCO, held an early warning exercise involving 15 countries in the northeast Atlantic and Mediterranean. The group is studying local plans to deal with a tsunami emergency.

In countries where there is a risk of a tsunami, officials are aiming to teach children from an early age so they know how to react.

Children are taught to shelter in place until an earthquake passes. Then, they are to go with classmates to higher ground away from coastal¹¹ areas and possibly deadly sea waves.

Japan is sharing its knowledge by assisting with evacuation exercises in schools in 18 countries. Next week, Japan is holding an event for high school students from 25 nations. It is aimed at teaching about tsunami risks and life-saving measures in such an event.

Japan’s Tohoku University joined with Japanese companies to publish a report on the risks of tsunamis around the world. By studying historical records, researchers found big differences between tsunamis. They also found that the height of a wave had little to do with its destructive force.

Improved building codes can save lives

Countries that have been hit by tsunamis have learned that better building requirements can save lives and limit damage.

Chile is a country that has learned this first hand. In February 2010, an 8.8 magnitude earthquake struck the country also causing a powerful tsunami. About 525 people died.

Four years later, another earthquake of 8.4 magnitude, struck. This time, 15 people were killed in the quake, but no one died in the following tsunami.

Diplomat¹² Jorge Iglesias Mori said measures to improve building standards had been carried out in the four years. “Building codes were strengthened,” he said. He added that the country put more resources into early warning systems, education, and exercises.

He also said Chile worked with Japan in sharing knowledge and experience.

I’m Mario Ritter. And I’m Alice Bryant.

Words in This Story

magnitude –n. a measure of the force of an earthquake

devastating –adj. causing great damage

awareness –n. the state of knowing about something

assess –v. to study and make a judgment¹³

mitigation –n. making an effort to reduce the bad effects of something, like a flood or earthquake

rehabilitation –n. a process of recovery, bringing someone or something back to its former state or health

evacuation –n. the act of moving people out of a place because of some emergency

1 tsunami   

n.海啸

参考例句：

• Powerful quake sparks tsunami warning in Japan.大地震触发了日本的海啸预警。
• Coastlines all around the Indian Ocean inundated by a huge tsunami.大海啸把印度洋沿岸地区都淹没了。

2 awareness   

n.意识，觉悟，懂事，明智

参考例句：

• There is a general awareness that smoking is harmful.人们普遍认识到吸烟有害健康。
• Environmental awareness has increased over the years.这些年来人们的环境意识增强了。

3 tsunamis   

n.海啸( tsunami的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Our oceans are alive with earthquakes, volcanoes, and more recently, tsunamis. 海中充满着地震、火山，包括最近发生的海啸。 来自常春藤生活英语杂志-2006年2月号
• Please tell me something more about tsunamis! 请您给我讲讲海啸吧！ 来自辞典例句

4 devastating   

adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的

参考例句：

• It is the most devastating storm in 20 years.这是20年来破坏性最大的风暴。
• Affairs do have a devastating effect on marriages.婚外情确实会对婚姻造成毁灭性的影响。

5 devastation   

n.毁坏；荒废；极度震惊或悲伤

参考例句：

• The bomb caused widespread devastation. 炸弹造成大面积破坏。
• There was devastation on every side. 到处都是破坏的创伤。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

7 reactors   

起反应的人( reactor的名词复数 )； 反应装置； 原子炉； 核反应堆

参考例句：

• The TMI nuclear facility has two reactors. 三哩岛核设施有两个反应堆。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
• The earliest production reactors necessarily used normal uranium as fuel. 最早为生产用的反应堆，必须使用普通铀作为燃料。

8 severely   

adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地

参考例句：

• He was severely criticized and removed from his post.他受到了严厉的批评并且被撤了职。
• He is severely put down for his careless work.他因工作上的粗心大意而受到了严厉的批评。

9 rehabilitation   

n.康复，悔过自新，修复，复兴，复职，复位

参考例句：

• He's booked himself into a rehabilitation clinic.他自己联系了一家康复诊所。
• No one can really make me rehabilitation of injuries.已经没有人可以真正令我的伤康复了。

10 Mediterranean   

adj.地中海的；地中海沿岸的

参考例句：

• The houses are Mediterranean in character.这些房子都属地中海风格。
• Gibraltar is the key to the Mediterranean.直布罗陀是地中海的要冲。

11 coastal   

adj.海岸的，沿海的，沿岸的

参考例句：

• The ocean waves are slowly eating away the coastal rocks.大海的波浪慢慢地侵蚀着岸边的岩石。
• This country will fortify the coastal areas.该国将加强沿海地区的防御。

12 diplomat   

n.外交官，外交家；能交际的人，圆滑的人

参考例句：

• The diplomat threw in a joke, and the tension was instantly relieved.那位外交官插进一个笑话，紧张的气氛顿时缓和下来。
• He served as a diplomat in Russia before the war.战前他在俄罗斯当外交官。

13 judgment   

n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见

参考例句：

• The chairman flatters himself on his judgment of people.主席自认为他审视人比别人高明。
• He's a man of excellent judgment.他眼力过人。