Assignment On

Tsunami at Port Blair

Subject: Integrated Disaster Management

Submitted by: Bhushan D. Wadher PRN 110 MBA-I, 2010-12, B-Batch

Tsunami:

A tsunami (pronounced su-nah-me) is a wave train, or series of waves, generated in a body of water by an impulsive disturbance that vertically displaces the water column. Earthquakes, landslides, volcanic eruptions, explosions, and even the impact of cosmic bodies, such as meteorites, can generate tsunamis. Tsunamis can savagely attack coastlines, causing devastating property damage and loss of life. Tsunami is a Japanese word with the English translation, "harbor wave." Represented by two characters, the top character, "tsu," means harbor, while the bottom character, "nami," means "wave." In the past, tsunamis were sometimes referred to as "tidal waves" by the general public, and as "seismic sea waves" by the scientific community. The term "tidal wave" is a misnomer; although a tsunami's impact upon a coastline is dependent upon the tidal level at the time a tsunami strikes, tsunamis are unrelated to the tides. Tides result from the imbalanced, extraterrestrial, gravitational influences of the moon, sun, and planets. The term "seismic sea wave" is also misleading. "Seismic" implies an earthquake-related generation mechanism, but a tsunami can also be caused by a non-seismic event, such as a landslide or meteorite impact. How do Tsunamis differ from other water waves? Tsunamis are unlike wind-generated waves, which many of us may have observed on a local lake or at a coastal beach, in that they are characterized as shallow-water waves, with long periods and wave lengths. The wind-generated swell one sees at a California beach, for example, spawned by a storm out in the Pacific and rhythmically rolling in, one wave after another, might have a period of about 10 seconds and a wave length of 150 m. A tsunami, on the other hand, can have a wavelength in excess of 100 km and period on the order of one hour. As a result of their long wave lengths, tsunamis behave as shallow-water waves. A wave becomes a shallow-water wave when the ratio between the water depth and its wave length gets very small. Shallow-water waves move at a speed that is equal to the square root of the product of the acceleration of gravity (9.8 m/s/s) and the water depth. Let's see what this implies: In the Pacific Ocean, where the typical water depth is about 4000 m, a tsunami travels at about 200 m/s, or over 700 km/hr. Because the rate at which a wave loses its energy is inversely related to its wave length, tsunamis not only propagate at high speeds, they can also travel great, transoceanic distances with limited energy losses. The earthquake-generated 1960 Chilean tsunami, for instance, travelled across over 17,000 km across the Pacific to hit Japan. The wave crests bend as the tsunami travels - this is called refraction. Wave refraction is caused by segments of the wave moving at different speeds as the water depth along the crest varies. How do earthquakes generate Tsunamis? Tsunamis can be generated when the sea floor abruptly deforms and vertically displaces the overlying water. Tectonic earthquakes are a particular kind of earthquake that are associated with the earth's crustal deformation; when these earthquakes occur beneath the sea, the water above the deformed area is displaced from its equilibrium position. Waves are formed as the displaced water mass, which

acts under the influence of gravity, attempts to regain its equilibrium. When large areas of the sea floor elevate or subside, a tsunami can be created. Large vertical movements of the earth's crust can occur at plate boundaries. Plates interact along these boundaries called faults. Around the margins of the Pacific Ocean, for example, denser oceanic plates slip under continental plates in a process known as subduction. Subduction earthquakes are particularly effective in generating tsunamis. How do landslides, volcanic eruptions, and cosmic collisions generate Tsunamis? A tsunami can be generated by any disturbance that displaces a large water mass from its equilibrium position. In the case of earthquake-generated tsunamis, the water column is disturbed by the uplift or subsidence of the sea floor. Submarine landslides, which often accompany large earthquakes, as well as collapses of volcanic edifices, can also disturb the overlying water column as sediment and rock slump downslope and are redistributed across the sea floor. Similarly, a violent submarine volcanic eruption can create an impulsive force that uplifts the water column and generates a tsunami. Conversely, supermarine landslides and cosmic-body impacts disturb the water from above, as momentum from falling debris is transferred to the water into which the debris falls. Generally speaking, tsunamis generated from these mechanisms, unlike the Pacific-wide tsunamis caused by some earthquakes, dissipate quickly and rarely affect coastlines distant from the source area. What happens to a tsunami as it approaches land? As a tsunami leaves the deep water of the open ocean and travels into the shallower water near the coast, it transforms. If you read the "How do tsunamis differ from other water waves?" section, you discovered that a tsunami travels at a speed that is related to the water depth hence, as the water depth decreases, the tsunami slows. The tsunami's energy flux, which is dependent on both its wave speed and wave height, remains nearly constant. Consequently, as the tsunami's speed diminishes as it travels into shallower water, its height grows. Because of this shoaling effect, a tsunami, imperceptible at sea, may grow to be several meters or more in height near the coast. When it finally reaches the coast, a tsunami may appear as a rapidly rising or falling tide, a series of breaking waves, or even a bore. What happens when a Tsunami encounters land? As a tsunami approaches shore, we've learned in the "What happens to a tsunami as it approaches land?" section that it begins to slow and grow in height. Just like other water waves, tsunamis begin to lose energy as they rush onshore part of the wave energy is reflected offshore, while the shoreward-propagating wave energy is dissipated through bottom friction and turbulence. Despite these losses, tsunamis still reach the coast with tremendous amounts of energy. Tsunamis have great erosional potential, stripping beaches of sand that may have taken years to accumulate and undermining trees and other coastal vegetation. Capable of inundating, or flooding, hundreds of meters inland past the typical high-water level, the fast-moving water associated with the inundating tsunami can crush homes and other coastal structures.

Tsunamis may reach a maximum vertical height onshore above sea level, often called a run-up height, of 10, 20, and even 30 meters. Impact of Great December 26, 2004 Sumatra Earthquake and Tsunami on Structures in Port Blair: The shaking intensity in Port Blair during the 2004 earthquake was only about VII on the MSK scale. On the other hand, structures built in regions covered under Indian seismic zone V are required to withstand an earthquake shaking corresponding to intensity of IX and above. Considering this, the performance of structures in Port Blair during the 2004 earthquake was really poor, which is consistent with similar observations made after the September 14, 2002, Diglipur earthquake of magnitude 6.5_Rai and Murty 2005. Harbors are the most widely used transportation systems in the Andaman and Nicobar islands. Boats and ships are most frequently used to travel not only between different islands in the region, but also between ChennaiPort Blair and Kolkata PortBlair _Chennai and Kolkata are two major port cities in mainlandIndia_. Therefore, better performance of harbor structures in PortBlair, which is also one of the biggest ports in the Andaman and Nicobar islands, was expected. Unfortunately, harbors in PortBlair were the most affected structures during the 2004 earthquake and tsunami, which severely hampered the search and rescue operations and relief work on the different islands. Mostly, jetties were affected because of their nonuniform configuration, and wharfs were less affected. Although about 50% of the boundary of Indian territory is along coastline, there is still no seismic code for proper earthquakeresistant design of harbor structures in India and an urgent need remain for development of seismic codes for such structures in India. Several RC buildings in Port Blair constructed in recent years suffered severe damage, and some 2- to 3-story RC buildings in and around Port Blair collapsed completely because of moderate ground shaking. Several other buildings suffered variable damage depending on the quality of design and construction. Poor quality control and nonadherence to the basic earthquake resistant features available in the Indian codes were some of the major reasons for unexpectedly poor performance of RC buildings. Insufficient gaps between adjacent buildings resulted in pounding damages in RC buildings during ground shaking. Several masonry infill walls in RC buildings suffered out-of-plane failure, and at several locations, settlement of RC buildings was observed, possibly because of liquefaction or erosion of soil due to inundation of the area by the tsunami waves. On the other hand, traditional timber and old masonry buildings buildings performed extremely well during the shaking. In fact, there were no reports of any significant damage to the traditionally constructed timber buildings due to ground shaking. Interestingly, a very effective retrofitting scheme was observed in a masonry mosque structure constructed about 90 years back in Port Blair. The retrofitting strengthened the masonry domes and arches of the structure, and by virtue of this retrofitting the mosque has successfully withstood at least three earthquakes in its lifetime. Elevated water tanks and seaport control structures in Port Blair suffered repairable damages due to earthquake shaking and were under restricted use. Several other important structures, such as dams, hangars, and culverts, performed reasonably well and were continuously operating. Damage observed in RC buildings at Port Blair indicates

serious deficiency in design and construction expertise for RC buildings on the islands at all levels. Basic earthquake-resistant design and construction features such as ductile detailing in columns are generally not followed. This is evident from the disastrous performance of several privately built RC buildings in Port Blair where engineers were not involved, and also from extensive damage and\partial collapse suffered by several government buildings constructed by the government departments using consultants. RC-framed buildings require considerable sophistication in the design, detailing, and construction phases in addition to strict quality assurance and engineering inputs. When government organizations are themselves not able to cope up with the required standards in construction of RC buildings, it would be unfair to expect this from people who construct1- to 2-story buildings with the help of masons. The situation will not change unless philosophical modifications are made in construction of buildings in higher seismic zones in India. Instead of low-quality RC frame buildings, alternate typologies need to be encouraged that are better suited to the local environment and perform well in earthquakes without requiring much engineering input.

Some snapshots of Disaster-Tsunami on structure in Port Blair.

Social and economic infrastructure in these islands were severely damaged. 68 schools were fully damaged, 40 anganwadi centres became non-operational. Most of the health sub-centres were washed away. A total of 84 fair shops and 13 storage godowns were also lost to the surging waves. The power supply system in all the islands were badly damaged. The 2400 KVA capacity main power house at Malacca, Car Nicobar was washed away. 85 kms transmission line and 12 distribution transformers were lost. Extensive damage was caused to the power houses, DG sets, T&D systems, transmission towers, power distribution transformers, building etc. in most of the islands.

24 jetties were severely damaged. In Car Nicobar, the approach to the Mus wharf was partly damaged while the Malacca jetty was totally destroyed. In Campbell Bay the approach to the jetty collapsed completely. The jetties at Chowra, Teressa, Katchal were submerged in water and washed away. Cracks developed in jetties at Kamorta and Nancowry. Seven shipping vessels were damaged and two vessels sunk in the sweeps of tidal waves. Propellers, hulls, shaft, superstructure etc. were damaged in the above vessels. 38 boats were lost. A forty ton diesel storage tank was uprooted in Car Nicobar. Road network in most of the affected islands was badly damaged. In some places, the road were washed out while in other cracks developed. The ring road which passes through the entire island of Car Nicobar was completely sunk in and are irretrievable. In Great Nicobar, the main trunk road connecting Indira Point became unserviceable thereby disconnecting all villages which were situated across it. There was extensive damage in the water supply network. Wells in the flat lands were flooded with seawater. IAF wells which were catering around 1700 people got saline. All most whole water supply network became non-operational barring the area near the administrative headquarters in Car Nicobar. As a result of the killer tsunami, the economy of these islands were severely affected. The Business community suffered losses by way of damages to stock, loss of revenue, and losses to property and infrastructure particularly in Great Nicobars. The whole market at Campbell Bay was flooded with water. The whole shopping complex in IAF station was gutted down. Malacca in Car Nicobar was the main commercial area. However, it has been minimized to nothing more than a ghost town after the tsunami. Small shopkeepers were worst hit. Though this was not an industrialized area, some 65 small scale industries were registered here. Out of which, 42 were completely damaged and 5 were partially damaged aggregating total capital loss of around 50 lakhs. About 3950 hectares of paddy and 6660 hectares of plantation crop area have been affected by the ingress of sea water due to tsunami. More damaging than immediate loss was the increased salinity of soil. As per Central Soil Salinity Research Institute, Karnal major problems caused by tsunami water are: inu8ndation causing anoxia, increase in soil salinity, enhanced dissolution of iron, manganese and aluminum. Large tract of land is permanently submerged and large areas are water logged due to subduction of land. The fishermen have suffered enormously due to loss of boats, fishing nets and loss of live. It is estimated that 938 boats have been fully damaged while 765 partially damaged in tsunami. Total loss of livestock has been estimated to be 157577. More than numbers what was more important is the economic potential which these livestock possessed. Besides, central tribal co-operative societies, which are the backbone of the local economy suffered badly. EHL of Car Nicobar alone suffered by around Rs. 6 crores.

The earthquake and the resulting tsunami had a severe impact on houses in the islands. The southern islands of the archipelago, mainly Chowra, Teressa, Bompooka, Katchal, Kamorta, Nancowrie and Trinket (Nancowrie group of islands), Campbell Bay were the worst affected. About 10,000 families lost their houses. Total number of 16,603 houses were damaged. These 10,000 households could not return to the site of their original dwellings as they were in low lying areas and certain areas inundated in water on permanent basis. Original sites being on coastal belt became potentially risky from high tide or high winds hazards. Geological activity was so intense that these islands have shifted horizontally as well as vertically. As per CESS, Trivandrum the Car Nicobar islands got whipped by 6.25 mtrs south west and Great Nicobar by 4.63 mtrs in same direction. Most of islands have gone down vertically by varying degrees. This can be seen visually as high tide line has got inland roughly by 100-150 mtrs. Intense geological activity completely broke down the underground drainage pattern. As per report of Central Ground Water Board, Eastern Region, the equilibrium boundary between saline and fresh water was broken at many place. This has increased the drinking water vulnerability of these islands. Studies to assess the loss of flora and fauna are still on. However, Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, Dehradun has reported that comparisons of IRS-1C LISS III data of January 4, 2005 with old information of the year 1999 reveals that there hs been a considerable loss to coastal lands and a vast chunk of mangroves and the littoral forests have been submerged in water and at places coastal sands have been developed. Out of the total area of Nancowry group of islands, 15.64% of the area has undergone major changes. Nearly 6.8% of the area is submerged and 8.9% of area has been damaged. Maximum change (more than 42%) has been observed in Trinket Island. More than 23% of Katchal and 9% Kamorta & Nancowry and Teressa group have gone in to major change. While analyzing the loss it was observed that 94.34% of Mangroves in Katchal Island and 51.49% in Trinket island, 42.88% in Kamorta & Nancowry islands have been submerged in to deep water. In adition to Mangroves more than 62% of littoral forests in Katchal Island have been submerged in to deep water (27.11%) or converted into sandy area (35.42%). It is also observed that 12.92% of evergreen forest in Trinket, 5.36% in Teressa/ Chowra groups, 3% In Tillangchong have suffered severe to moderate damage,. Unprecedented level of human loss had and would continue to have strong bearing on psychological well being of survivors. Broken families have increased the vulnerability of survivors particularly children and women. In this regard, the non-tribal population is more at edge as they do not have a strong traditional social security net like tribal society. Disaster Management: Disaster Management Information System must be built in every district of the country linked with each other, available on the web and also in public libraries. We should know where the inventories are available of critical equipments, skills; resources and information and how can one access them on voluntary or payment

basis. The database of various services and infrastructure in private, public and voluntary sectors should be updated regularly. Every college should take responsibility for collecting and updating information about certain categories of services or equipments. Simple information such as about ham radio operators can be put on the web without fail. Just as we have national services scheme, we must now think of national disaster management volunteers who would receive training and be empowered to organize themselves as effective teams for helping local communities around them. No amount of state help can substitute for community based structures for self help. Supreme Court had passed judgments and given advice for starting courses on disaster management in various educational institutions. Have we ever monitored how many such courses exist and what quality of preparedness has been achieved? The major tragedy will begin when the media will get interested in new issues, fight among some other politicians or corporate games. Resources would be required for repairing and building the primary school buildings, primary health centres, livestock, clinics, tree climbing devices for palm workers, herbal and other medicines, mat making machines, and machines which can use materials from damaged trees and bio waste, old bamboo scrap, processing machine for various edible and non-edible oilseeds, etc. A proper rehabilitation plan will have to be built for each village affected by the disaster with proper accountability structure. The accounts of every investment must be made public and people should be able to know how much funds were mobilized by which NGO or government agency and how were they used for the purpose. In cases where fishing communities or island based indigenous / tribal communities have been affected very severely, long term rehabilitation plans have to be initiated. These plans must learn from the mistakes made in earlier rehabilitation projects. There is very important need to document the experience of the damage caused and ensuing suffering along with the coping strategies of local communities and administration. Some novel lessons would emerge. One of the major problems in relief is that what is needed where is often not known to the people who want to provide support. The result is that lot of materials get wasted or misdirected. We need to put a spreadsheet immediately on the web pointing out village wise needs, contact persons names and addresses so that civil society efforts can be targeted more efficiently. We had tried to put an inventory management system in place after Gujarat earthquake with the help of our students and faculty. The students had stacked the relief material received from all over the country in Kutchh and given assorted sheets to the Relief Commissioner. Where we failed was to link this system with GIS so that one could track the deliveries, collect the response and also avoid pilferages. It will be useful if some of the IT firms in Chennai would volunteer to create such a GIS so that people can update the demand and supply information and every unit of material is optimally utilized. The psychological rehabilitation is no less important. The children affected the by the shock and tragedy are particularly vulnerable. The arrangements for adoption of orphan children with proper community care have to be put in place. It is very disheartening to hear that in large number of cases of dead people, the Public Health authorities have been reportedly hesitant in maintaining proper records. It might save the state and central governments some money from the compensation

fund but it would certainly inflict damage on the social conscience of the society. If the rehabilitation funds reach late, they are as good as not given. Unless central government ensures delivery of compensation through community control systems within next 24 hours, the fairness in the system will become more and more difficult to achieve with every passing day. While we still need immediate help, the long term rehabilitation must be simultaneously planned.