2010 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: THE YEAR OF “RECORD AND NEAR-RECORD” NATURAL DISASTERS

2010 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

THE YEAR OF “RECORD AND NEAR-RECORD” NATURAL

DISASTERS

Walter Hays, Global Alliance for Disaster Reduction, University of

North Carolina, USA

2010Earthquakes, Floods, Volcanic Eruptions, Severe Windstorms,

Tsunamis, Landslides, Droughts, and Blizzards

WAVE AFTER WAVE OF NATURAL DISASTERS THAT KILLED OVER 260,000

AND CAUSED DIRECT ECONOMIC LOSSES OF AT LEAST $222 BILLION

2010… And the Impacts of a Record Environmental

Disaster in the Gulf of Mexico and Global Climate Change

DIRECT ECONOMIC LOSSES ESTIMATED AT $50 BILLION

and INDIRECT LOSSES AT ??

THE DEADLIEST DISASTERS OF 2010

• M7.0 Haiti Earthquake that killed 230,000, largely because of the inadequacy of the building code, leaving survivors stuck in tent cities battling a cholera outbreak and health-care problems for the rest of the year – January 12th

DEATH TOLL REACHED AN ESTIMATED 230,OOO+

THE DEADLIEST DISASTERS OF 2010

• Heat Wave that destroyed one-third of Russia’s wheat crop and a week of Wildfires that came close to the radioactive waste land –July 29

RUSSIA: 600 WILDFIRES BURNING IN 7 REGIONS

THE DEADLIEST DISASTERS OF 2010

• Floods that inundated one-fifth of Pakistan –July 29

ONE-FIFTH OF PAKISTAN AFFECTED

Floods and wildfires that wipe out crops in Russia and Pakistan (and other nations like Peru) drive up

food prices for the poorest nations, spend more than 75 percent of household income on imported

grains.

PARALYZING DISASTERS OF 2010

• A rare volcanic eruption in Iceland that paralyzed air traffic in Europe for days.

Eyjafjallajökull: UNDER A GLACIER; MARCH 27, 2010

ASH CLOUD FROM APRIL 14 ERIPTION

PARALYZING DISASTERS OF 2010

• A blanket of snow and a Nor’easter that paralyzed the Washington, D.C. area and eastern seaboard.

ONE OF THE HARDEST HIT NATIONS IN 2010 -- INDONESIA

•

•In a 24-hour period in October, Indonesia suffered a deadly magnitude 7.7 earthquake, a tsunami that killed more than 500 people and a volcanic eruption that caused more than 390,000 people to leave habitats and livestock and flee to evacuation centers that had inadequate health care facilities.

A M7.7 EARTHQUAKE, A 3 M-TSUNAMI-WAVE RUN UP, AND A LONG

ERUPTION OF MOUNT MERAPI CAUSED LOSSES IN THE TENS OF

MILLIONS, DISPLACED OVER 340,000, KILLING NEARLY 1,000 , AND

POTENTIALLY AFFECTING THE HEALTH AND QUALITY OF LIFE FOR

THOUSANDS,

The M7.7 earthquake generated a near-source tsunami with 3 m (10 ft) waves that struck within 5 minutes

after the quake---so quickly that the regional tsunami warning system

that was improved after the December 26, 2004 tsunami disaster, was ineffective..

TSUNAMI WAVE RUN UP IN MENTAWAI ISLAND

MOUNT MERAPI AKA “FIRE MOUNTAIN”

• Mount Merapi has a history of starting full scale eruptions with a heat, or pyroclastic cloud, and a lava flow.

70,000 EVACUATED AS ERUPTION CONTINUES: NOV 2

ERUPTIONS CONTINUES : NOV 6

MERAPI’S ERUPTIONS CONTINUE : NOV 10

ATLANTIC BASIN HURRICANE SEASON

• Three active hurricanes in motion at the same time.• With nineteen named storms, 2010 is now tied with 1995 as the second most active season in history.

HURRICANE TOMAS WAS THE LAST STORM OF THE 2010 SEASON

Tomas, as a CAT 2 storm, was the “the worst in Saint. Lucian history,” causing the loss of its

entire banana crop, which along with tourism, is extremely

important to Saint Lucia’s economy.

.

TOMAS: IMPACTS SAINT LUCIA

Hurricane Tomas, which intensified overnight on Thursday (Nov. 4) to CAT 1, is bearing down on Haiti, a country with a triple disaster: 1) the January 12, 2010 earthquake, 2) cholera affecting at least 6,700 people, and 3) more than 1 million people still living in tents.

.

A TREELESS, LANDSLIDE-PRONE HAITI FACING TOMAS, A RAINMAKER

HAITIAN’S POOREST OF THE POOR WITH NO PLACE TO GO

LEONGANE: COPING WITH OLD AND NEW DISASTERS, NOV 5

RECORD OIL SPILL (LEAK) IN GULF OF MEXICO

• The explosion of British Petroleum’s Deep Water Horizon oil rig set into motion an environmental disaster and a huge cleanup operation costing billions of dollars.

DEEP WATER HORIZON: APRIL 22

CLIMATE CHANGE CONTINUES TO BE BLAMED AS AN EXACERBATING FACTOR

•Climate change creates “blocking episodes,” physical conditions that prevent humidity or heat from dispersing naturally, thereby creating long-lasting snow or rain storms, or prolonged hot, dry spells---United Nations.

REALITY CHECK:We're now in La Nina (a period of ocean cooling), so we should be

getting ready for a very cold winter in 2010 and 2011.

THE REALITY CHECK OF 2010

Unless we devise and implement a realistic, new, dynamic strategy of capacity building, the next disaster may be upon us much faster than we can recover from the last one and we will all share in an unnecessary reduction in our quality of life.