Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
eastern seaboard and much of the Gulf Coast of the
United States, record construction has taken place with
dwellings being built either at the back of the beach, or
just landward of ephemeral dunes. Studies have shown
that there is a general lack of awareness of cyclone
danger and evacuation procedures. This is despite
wide publicity, as the hurricane season approaches,
about the dangers of cyclones. Publicity includes tele-
vision specials, distribution of free literature, and
warnings on supermarket bags and parking tickets.
These warnings are meeting with resistance because,
in the absence of any storm, municipalities view the
publicity as bad for the tourist trade and damaging to
property investment.
The realities of evacuation, and the poor public per-
ception of the ferocity of hurricanes in the United
States, implies that - as far as the cyclone hazard is
concerned - many people are sitting on a time bomb.
When a large tropical cyclone strikes the United States
east coast, evacuation procedures may fail and the
resulting loss of life may reach unprecedented levels.
Hurricane Andrew also exposed flaws in the federal
government's capability to respond to a large disaster.
When the response to a disaster requires resources
beyond the capability of a state government, the
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
can assist. FEMA failed its mandate during Hurricane
Andrew. While FEMA has been overhauled since
1992, the prospect still looms that two large hurricanes
may occur so close together that they will overwhelm
the capacity of any of the United States' resources to
respond to the disaster in the short term.
Calcutta's October 1737 cyclone was caused by a surge,
13 m high, racing up the Hooghly River. In 1876, a
storm surge near the mouth of the Meghna River killed
100 000 people, while another 100 000 died in the sub-
sequent famine. Small cyclone-related surges drowned
3000 people on the Ganges River in October 1960 and
another 15 000 people in May 1965. The Chars, the
deltaic islands in the mouth of the Ganges, were first
viewed as potentially arable in the nineteenth century
(Figure 3.10). Since 1959, 5500 km of dykes and
embankments have been built to protect low-lying salt-
water marshland from flooding, with the World Bank
financing the scheme. The reclaimed land, however,
was not protected against storm surge. Settlement,
mainly by illiterate farmers, was permitted and encour-
aged to relieve overcrowding in the country. By the
end of the twentieth century, over four million people
lived in areas at high risk from storm surge. Many itin-
erant workers searching for temporary employment
flock into the Chars at the time of harvesting and fish
processing, swelling the population by 30 per cent.
The 13 November 1970 cyclone was detected by
satellite three days in advance, but a warning was not
issued by the Pakistani Meteorological Bureau until
the evening that the cyclone struck. Even then, the
message was given to the sole radio station after it had
shut down for the day at 11:00 pm. If the warning
had been broadcast, the majority of the population,
being asleep, would not have heard it. Much of the
Chars' reclaimed land had inadequate transport links
across channels to higher ground, such that effective
evacuation was impossible. Recent migrants had no
knowledge of the storm surge hazard and were not
prepared, or organized, for evacuation. In the middle
of the night a storm surge, 15 m high, struck the
southern Chars, obliterating 25 islands, swamping a
further 2000 and drowning approximately 500 000
people. Over 400 000 hectares of rice paddies were
inundated with salt water and 1 000 000 head of live-
stock killed. Over 50 million people were affected by
the storm surge, flooding, and winds.
The pressure for land in Bangladesh is so great that
the deltaic land was resettled rapidly after the 1970
event. Nothing had really changed by 1985 and, in May
of that year, a similar cyclone caused the same sort of
destruction. Again, while there was adequate satellite
warning of the approaching cyclone, evacuation was
impossible. Many illiterate, itinerant workers knew
nothing of the hazard, the method of escape, or the
Bangladesh (East Pakistan)
(Burton et al., 1978; Blong & Johnson, 1986; Milne, 1986)
Third World countries suffer exorbitantly from tropical
cyclones because of depressed economic conditions
and the lack of an effective domestic response capabil-
ity. In 2000, cyclones Eline and Hudah devastated
Mozambique, which has one of the lowest living stan-
dards in the world. In 2003, Cyclone Zoe swept the
outer islands of Tikopia, Anuta, and Fatutaka in the
Solomon Islands. As the government was bankrupt and
wracked by lawlessness, the inhabitants were forced to
fend for themselves. But nowhere has the plight of
impoverished countries been exemplified more than in
Bangladesh. The Bay of Bengal has a history of
destructive storm surges. The 300 000 death toll from
