2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami

The massive earthquake and tsunami that occurred on December 26, 2004 off the coast of Indonesia was one of the most damaging disasters in recorded history. It caused at least 230,000 deaths and billions of dollars in damages in countries bordering the Indian Ocean. Despite substantial exposure to this severe hazard event, damages were unevenly distributed throughout the affected regions. Variations in sensitivity were one of the major factors, driven by variability in economic resources and demographic factors.

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Figure 10.25: Animation of Indian Ocean Tsunami Wave Propagation.
Credit: NOAA: Indian Ocean Tsunami<a class="external text" href="http://nctr.pmel.noaa.gov/" rel="nofollow">NOAA Center for Tsunami Research (NCTR)</a> produced the animation.

One heavily affected country was Sri Lanka, where 0.17% of the entire national population was killed and 2.5% were displaced. The Sri Lankan scholar Mohan Munasinghe observed that houses belonging to poorer individuals that were in the path of the tsunami were more likely to be destroyed due to low quality of construction, suggesting a higher sensitivity of the physical property of poorer people. One clear way of reducing sensitivity to tsunami in Sri Lanka would be stricter housing construction requirements at the coast. However, Sri Lanka is a poor country with limited economic resources, which could make implementing and enforcing such requirements difficult.

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Figure 10.26: Devastation in Sri Lanka Following the 2004 Tsunami.
Credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:TsunamiSriLanka.jpg [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

One advantage poorer populations have is their access to traditional family and community networks that provide informal mutual help following a disaster, like the tsunami. In the case of Sri Lanka, Munasinghe noted that these networks improved survivors' ability to cope with and recover from the disaster compared to wealthier groups. Therefore, in this instance, informal social ties reduced community sensitivity to the hazard event. This is an example of adaptive capacity, which will be described in a subsequent section.

Activate Your Learning

Question - Multiple Choice

How might you assess poorer individuals' access to informal social networks in emergency planning prior to a hazard event? What are the policy implications of these networks for hazard planning and response, if any?

A. Meet with community organizers and religious leaders
B. Conduct a door-to-door survey of a sample of households in these areas
C. Conduct outreach activities at large community gatherings or community centers
D. Reach out via email and social media

Click for answer

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