> **Session No. 1**

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**Course Title: Coastal Hazards Management**

**Session Title: Course Introduction: The Indian Ocean Tsunami
Disaster**

**Author: Katherine Eschelbach, University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill**

**Time: 120 minutes**

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**Objectives**

1.  Understand the basic natural processes that contributed to the
    Indian Ocean tsunami

2.  Discuss the extent of the human loss and property damage resulting
    from the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster

3.  Understand the economic and socio-political background of the Indian
    Ocean Basin

4.  Discuss the continuing recovery efforts and reconstruction in the
    region

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**Scope**

This session discusses a recent occurrence of a coastal natural hazard:
the tsunami disaster of December 26, 2004. This disaster is one of the
worst natural disasters in recent history and its effects are still
being discovered as this session is being written. It is the purpose of
this session to introduce the students to the reality of coastal
disasters and dire need for coastal management by focusing on this
recent and tragic event.

Assuming many of the students do not have an extensive background in the
earth and physical sciences, the material is very basic. Most students
without a background in natural hazards will not be familiar with basic
physical science terms and geological processes behind this natural
hazard. The lecture, therefore, focuses on conveying general principles
and key features of this natural hazard as well as its resulting impact
on coastal communities in order to provide an eye-opening example of the
devastating destructive possibilities of coastal hazards.

This session will assist in setting the stage for the remainder of the
course. The information presented in Sessions Six, Seven, Eight, and
Nine will contribute further to the students' general understanding of
the natural hazards of the coastal zone. This background information is
essential to a broader understanding of the role of human beings in
managing the coastal zone, and in particular, the natural hazards that
are unique to the coastal zone, as discussed throughout the remainder of
the course. There is a wealth of information contained in this session.
The Instructor should not feel compelled to present it all; rather, it
is at the discretion of the Instructor to select the most interesting
material to discuss according to the interests of the students in the
course.

As a foundation class, Session One will present case study information
in a predominantly lecture format, supported by illustrative PowerPoint
slides. This session discusses the natural processes that contributed to
the Indian Ocean tsunami, where this disaster occurred, the impacts this
tsunami had on both the human and the natural environments, and what
measures are being taken for recovery and reconstruction.

Later sessions will discuss case studies of other coastal hazards in
more detail.

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**Readings:**

*Required Instructor and Student Reading:*

Watch the PBS video, "Wave That Shook the World", which aired on March
29, 2005 and/or visit the website:
[www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/tsunami](http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/tsunami) to
read the transcript, find links and book references, and more tsunami
information.

National Science Foundation. 2005. A Special Report: After the Tsunami.

<http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/tsunami>

*Additional Background Reading:*

Abbott, P.L. 1996. *Natural Disasters*. Dubuque, IA: Wm. C. Brown
Publishers, pp. 339-348.

Alexander, Grant. 1993. *Natural Disasters*. New York, NY: Chapman &
Hall, Inc., pp. 80-90

BAPPENAS. 2005. Indonesia: Preliminary Damage and Loss Assessment The
December 26, 2004

Natural Disaster.
<http://www.adb.org/Documents/Reports/Tsunami/damage-assessment.pdf>

Bolt, B.A., W.L. Horn, G.A. Macdonald, and R.F. Scott. 1977. *Geological
Hazards:*

> *Earthquakes -- Tsunamis -- Volcanoes -- Avalanches -- Landslides --
> Floods, 2^nd^ ed.* NY, NY: Springer-Verlag, Chapter 3, pp. 132-147:
> "Hazards from Tsunamis;" Chapter 7.

Liu, P., P. Lynett, B. Jaffe, R. Morton, H. Fritz, B. Higman, J. Goff,
and C. Synolakis. June 10, 2005. "Observations by the International
Tsunami Survey Team in Sri Lanka.". Science. 308 (1595).

Lorca, E. and M. Recabarren. 2005. Earthquakes and Tsunamis: High School
Text Book. Chapters 1

through 4.
<http://www.igf.fuw.edu.pl/kolo_naukowe/czytaj_pliki/tsunami/tsunami.html>

Prager, E. 1999. Furious Earth: The Science and Nature of Earthquakes,
Volcanoes, and Tsunamis.

McGraw Hill. New York, NY.

Proceedings of the 1^st^ International Coordination Meeting for the
Development of a Tsunami Warning

> and Mitigation System for the Indian Ocean within a Global Framework.
> March, 2005. <http://ioc.unesco.org/indotsunami/paris_march05.htm>

Robinson, Andrew. 1993. *Earthshock: Hurricanes, Volcanoes, Earthquakes,
Tornadoes and*

> *Other Forces of Nature.* London: Thames and Hudson Ltd., Chapter 6
> pp. 153-186: "Floods, Dambursts and Tsunamis."

United States Agency of International Development (USAID) Reconstruction
Update. June, 2005.

<http://www.usaid.gov/locations/asia_near_east/tsunami/pdf/tsunami_update_060805.pdf>

United States Congressional Research Service. 2005. Tsunamis:
Monitoring, Detection, and Early

Warning Systems. <http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/RL32739.pdf>

United States White House. 2005. "Fact Sheet: Continuing Support for
Tsunami Relief".

<http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/02/print/20050209-20.html>

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**PowerPoint slides:**

**PowerPoint 1.1** Session 1 Title Slide

**PowerPoint 1.2** Introduction: The Indian Ocean Basin

**PowerPoint 1.3** The Setting - Natural Environment

**PowerPoint 1.4** The Natural Hazard -- What is a Tsunami?

**PowerPoint 1.5** The Natural Hazard -- How it Happened

**PowerPoint 1.6** The Disaster -- Where it Happened

####### **PowerPoint 1.7** The Disaster -- Human Loss

**PowerPoint 1.8** The Disaster -- Property Loss

**PowerPoint 1.9** The Disaster -- Economic Loss

**PowerPoint 1.10** The Setting - Political Environment

**PowerPoint 1.11** The Setting - Built Environment

**PowerPoint 1.12** Recovery Efforts

**PowerPoint 1.13** Reconstruction Efforts

**Handouts:**

**Handout 1.1:** How it happened from on the ground: An American's story

**Handout 1.2:** Number of Deaths by Country (and Information Source)

**Handout 1.3:** Country Socio-political Summaries

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**General Requirements:**

The Instructor should review some of the additional background reading
and prepare copies of handouts for students based on the accompanying
PowerPoint presentation.

The content of this session should be presented as a lecture. Class
discussion can be encouraged throughout the course of the lecture
period. Students could be asked about their experiences with natural
disasters and their awareness of the natural hazards that affect the
coast. The Instructor could also lead a discussion on the many factors
(political, social, economic, etc.) that have to be considered in
mitigating these natural hazards. Students should read the session
readings before class and use them as resources for further
investigation.

*Note to Instructor:* Due to the recent nature of the information
included in this session, it may be necessary to update the information
to keep the session up to date. The Internet is by far the most useful
resource for this purpose, especially given the recent nature of this
disaster. Please refer to the "Course Developer References" Section
(Appendix B) at the end of the session for a listing of the websites
used in the lecture content as well as the end of Objective 1.4 for a
listing of updated web material on recovery and reconstruction.

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Objective 1.1: Understand the basic natural processes that contributed
to the tsunami

**Requirements:**

The content should be presented as lecture, supported by PowerPoint
slides. **Handout 1.1** is provided within the Remarks for this
objective as well as an appendix at the end of this document.

The following slides will be used during this objective:

> \[**PowerPoint 1.1** Session 1 Title Slide\]

\[**PowerPoint 1.2** Introduction: The Indian Ocean Basin\]

\[**PowerPoint 1.3** The Indian Ocean Basin Natural Environment\]

> **\[PowerPoint 1.4** The Natural Hazard -- What is a Tsunami?\]

**\[PowerPoint 1.5** The Natural Hazard -- How it Happened\]

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**Remarks:**

**I. Session Preface: How it Happened on the Ground**

> \[**PowerPoint 1.1** Session 1 Title Slide\]

*Note to Instructor:* This story is meant to be read out loud to the
class by the Instructor or for students to take turn reading aloud for
the class.

**Handout 1.1:** How it happened from on the ground: An American's story
(excerpts included here with permission from the author)

> *"As some of you may know by now, I spent this Christmas break on a
> trip for a wedding in Sri Lanka, a trip that included a pleasant
> stopover in Zurich, a few days in Dubai, a week in south India, and a
> tsunami.  The last is a story that many people have asked to hear
> since I got home, so I thought I\'d send this email about it so I can
> tell everyone at the same time.  Please do not think this is the whole
> story \-- it is really just the best that I can do, the way I remember
> the events, and consciously leaving out some unnecessary details.
>  It\'s a long email, just to warn you ahead of time. But here it
> goes\...\
> *![](media/image1.png){width="0.20833333333333334in"
> height="0.15625in"}*\
> The wedding (two of my senior year college roommates, Anushka and
> Clint) was on Dec. 24 in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Anushka\'s parents had
> arranged for the next day an overnight trip to a beach a couple of
> hours south of Colombo, in a town called Bentota.  So Christmas day
> five of us \-- Nisha, Diane, Piya, Ryan and me - piled in a van and
> headed south.  Our hotel was a two story building directly on the
> beach and separated from the mainland by a river maybe 100m wide. We
> took a small boat across, checked in, and spent a pleasant evening
> swimming, sitting beside the beach, watching the sun set, having a
> nice dinner and laughing at the cheesy American music played at night
> over the sound system.  Our rooms were on the ground floor and faced
> the ocean, with floor to ceiling windows and sliding glass doors.\
> \
> The next morning we woke up early for breakfast which, we were told,
> would be over by 9:30am.  After breakfast we changed to swim, and were
> standing outside our rooms talking about swimming when we noticed the
> tide.  What we saw was that the water was lapping up against the vines
> that marked the hotel side of the beach.  The night before, the water
> line was at least 15-20 meters further out.  We thought it was
> strange, and watched as the water crept up through the bushes to the
> small path between the beach and the hotel property.  We continued to
> watch because the water reached the fence that marked the edge of the
> hotel grounds, and it began to seep in onto the lawn and under the
> lawn furniture.  At this point I had my camera out of course, but we
> were asking the people around us if they had ever seen anything like
> this before.  Some of the hotel guests stood in the water ankle and
> then calf deep, watching in amusement.  One man stood in the water
> recording with his video camera.   Our group of 5 had moved from*
> ![](media/image1.png){width="0.20833333333333334in"
> height="0.15625in"}*the grass up a set of outdoor stairs, a few feet
> above the water to watch.\
> \
> No one remarked ever having seen anything like this before, and no one
> at this point had heard anything about an earthquake.  We made guesses
> that this could somehow be caused by the moon, like a very high tide.
>  After only barely reaching the doorways of our first floor rooms,
> this tide went out again.  It was a remarkable sight, because the tide
> went out farther and faster than I had ever seen a tide recede in my
> life.  Soon, it was hundreds of feet from the line of brush that
> marked the back edge of the beach, hundreds of feet further than it
> had been the night before.  A few of us I think darted into our rooms
> thinking in what we thought was a practical way that if the water did
> begin to seep into our rooms we would want our belongs up on beds and
> shelves, not sitting on the floor.  After moving most of our stuff up
> a couple feet, we ran excitedly back out to the beach to watch the
> water.  On our way out to the sand, we stopped to speak to a local man
> who was walking along the path near the fence in front of the hotel.
>  We asked him specifically if he had ever seen anything like this
> before.  Though I was also distracted by looking at the marks the
> water had left behind, I caught him saying he thought the tide would
> come back, and it would come back more strongly than the first time.\
> \
> Looking back on it, had we heard what he was trying to tell us and not
> what we expected to hear, we might have done a few things differently
> from this point on.  What he was probably telling us was the tide will
> be back very soon, and it may be very high.  What we heard was perhaps
> the next regular tide of the day will also be high like this one, and
> many hours from now it may begin to flood the lower rooms of the
> building.  Given that we \"heard\" something more like the latter
> story, we all proceeded to walk out on the*
> ![](media/image1.png){width="0.20833333333333334in"
> height="0.15625in"}*beach, along with a number of other tourists, to
> explore the changes the water left in the sand.  We even got caught up
> trying to help some fish find their way back to the ocean.  The
> possibility that the water would come back soon never really entered
> our minds.  Only maybe 15 minutes later, however, the first waves
> began pulling the tide back in, and we turned around heading back to
> the hotel again.  At this point, the tide was moving inland about as
> fast as we could jog up the beach.\
> \
> We hopped up the stairs on which we had retreated during the first
> tide, and this time almost all the hotel guests and staff had done the
> same thing, many watching from their second story rooms.  This time,
> the water poured through the fence and took it down in many places,
> picked up the lawn furniture, and flowed quickly into the hollow in
> front of the first floor rooms.  Instead of flowing around the pool,
> this time the ocean flowed into the pool, filling the bright blue
> water with a murky brown, and much of the nearby chairs and
> underbrush.  We watched the front of our rooms while the water filled
> the walkway 2 feet lower than the lawn, churning and filling up
> against the sliding glass doors.\
> *
>
> *At this point there is a short gap in my photo journal of these
> moments. This is basically because all I could physically do was watch
> the glass doors of our rooms and repeat in my head, \"please don\'t
> break.\"  Less than 10 minutes after the tide had turned, the water
> against the first floor of the hotel was too heavy for the doors to
> withstand and one by one the glass doors burst inward.  I think I
> would call this a low point in our day, because, while we thought that
> water might \"get into our rooms\", this really wasn\'t anything we
> could have ever imagined.  Our first thoughts were for our plane
> tickets, passports, and money, most of which was somewhere in the
> water in those rooms, now over three, maybe four feet high against
> the* ![](media/image1.png){width="0.20833333333333334in"
> height="0.15625in"}*walls.  I remember at the same time the
> excitement, and how happy we were that we were watching from above,
> safely out of our rooms and dry.  My photo journal picks up again
> minutes later when the water began to recede again, but I only got a
> few more photos before it became clear that this was probably a great
> opportunity to try to retrieve our most important things from the
> rooms, if we could find them.\
> \
> Quickly we noticed a man wading out of the wreckage of his first floor
> doorway.  Amazingly, he and his wife were in their rooms when the
> water came through, and while he sustained a rather nasty gash on the
> top of his foot, he and his wife were stunned but ok. The next thing
> we saw were many hotel staff already in the water, barefoot, helping
> the man up the steps, and generally taking stock of the situation
> across the property.  I decided that since I was wearing my Chacos
> sandals I was dressed much more appropriately than the staff to be
> walking in that water, so I walked over to our rooms for whatever I
> could find.  With the water receding, already some of our things were
> floating out of the room and down the side of the hotel.  As we saw
> these things we snatched them up and handed them to people on the
> stairs.  The hotel staff was able to help me with one suitcase I think
> before whistles started to blow signaling that the tide was coming
> back in.  I ran back to the stairs to wait, and then I repeated this
> procedure with everybody\'s help until, a couple tides later, we had
> retrieved most of our belongings.  We were very lucky \-- 4 of 5 of us
> were able to recover the majority of our things, waterlogged and
> muddy, but mostly intact.  Nisha, unfortunately, lost almost all of
> her belongings. Ryan and I searched the room multiple times, and of
> the things I was able to retrieve for her, I found most of her stuff
> crammed into the bathroom under pounds of mud and pieces of wrecked
> furniture.\
> *![](media/image1.png){width="0.20833333333333334in"
> height="0.15625in"}*\
> While this sounds a lot like an end to the story, and we thought it
> felt like one too, the next 3-4 hours or so found us waiting anxiously
> for boats to evacuate us.  The dilemma was that a river still
> separated the hotel guests and staff from the mainland, and in the
> first large surge of tide that broke the doors to our rooms, the river
> also swelled and washed away or destroyed all the boats that belonged
> to the hotel.  This was also about the time when we overheard stories
> that an earthquake had hit near Indonesia, and was the cause of it
> all. After we moved our soggy suitcases upstairs to the second floor
> restaurant, I spent most of my time with Nisha sitting out on a
> roof/balcony on the river-side of the hotel, watching to see if anyone
> came with boats to help us.  While for me the river was easier to
> watch than the ocean, it still wasn\'t a pretty sight.  The height of
> the river fluctuated with the tides from the sea, but the river was
> full of trees, pieces of boats, and other debris.  Further down the
> river we could just see a whitewater area where clearly the ocean had
> broken across the peninsula making a new inlet to the river.  Diane
> and I had walked the beach that way the night before, and we are
> pretty sure it was the stretch of public beach where this
> occurred. Nisha and I also heard what at first sounded like thunder,
> but after asking the staff that sat out there too, we discovered that
> it was the sound of buildings collapsing.  Soon a cloud of dust
> stretched out across the river and confirmed it.\
> \
> The highest tide we saw wasn\'t in fact the one that broke all those
> doors and windows, but came some time afterward, when we had already
> camped out in the restaurant attempting to dry some of our things.  It
> is kind of funny now to see the photos we took of us smiling as a
> group, smiling because we thought we had seen the worst of it and the
> rest was just a long*
> ![](media/image1.png){width="0.20833333333333334in"
> height="0.15625in"}*wait until we could leave.  Shortly after those
> group photos the tide came in again and this time it reached almost to
> the eaves that mark the transition from the first to the second floor,
> what I would guess is about 3 meters, or a little more.  For me, that
> wave took away any confidence that I had seen the worst of it, and as
> a group, we began to contemplate what our options would be if the
> water reached us before help did.  Our biggest problem was that Piya
> can\'t swim, and while many hotel guests and some staff had managed to
> get their hands on life preservers, we didn\'t have one for
> Piya. Realistically we had no hope of being able to hold on to her
> while crossing the river.  I can\'t really describe how I felt at this
> point, or if I can, I don\'t really want to.\
> \
> It wasn\'t until we started seeing small boats on the river that my
> mind and body began to feel like my own again.  We talked as a group
> and Nisha and I agreed that we would try to get across the river on a
> boat first, because Ryan and Piya wanted to stay with the bags.  Diane
> decided to stay with them.  It would be Nisha and my job to try to
> find our van and driver when we reached the other side.  Helicopters
> passed by overhead, and one actually landed on the beach at a low
> tide, retrieving maybe 10 people before taking off again.  We thought
> that might be a fun, and dry, method of getting away from the hotel,
> but no other helicopters ever came (we think that might have been
> lucky, because we have no idea where it ultimately went with all those
> people!) Instead, we waited our turn to get on a boat, retreating into
> the hotel when the river water rose periodically high enough to wash
> into the building.\
> \
> The story ends with all of us getting boats across, our luggage coming
> later and a 4 or 5 hour van ride the long way back to Colombo (the
> fast road was washed over/away by the sea).  We arrived back in
> Colombo sometime* ![](media/image1.png){width="0.20833333333333334in"
> height="0.15625in"}*around midnight on the 26th, and luckily Nisha\'s
> uncle and his family were in town and put us up for the next two
> nights in probably the nicest hotel in the city."*

*Note to Instructor:* Pause to encourage questions and discussion with
students about tsunamis and how this story is similar/different to the
homework video assignment's portrayal of the disaster.

II\. Introduction: Why was the Indian Ocean Basin Tsunami a Disaster?

\[**PowerPoint 1.2** Introduction: The Indian Ocean Basin Tsunami
Disaster\]

A.  A **natural hazard** is a natural process that occurs under certain
    extreme environmental

> conditions in the atmosphere, on the earth's surface, or under the
> ground.
>
> Natural hazards are often a source of astonishment and fear as well as
> respect
>
> because of the awesome power that they contain.

B.  There are many *different types* of natural hazards, such as
    tornadoes, blizzards, drought,

> wildfires, volcanoes and earthquakes. *Coastal hazards are those
> natural hazards that occur at the interface between the ocean and the
> shoreline.*

C.  The coastal hazards that are the most uniquely associated with the
    coast are hurricanes,

> coastal erosion, and tsunami. Flooding-- although it can occur in many
> places -- can also be very intense in coastal areas.

D.  A ***disaster*** is when these hazards occur in populated areas or
    in areas of human use. The clash of the natural hazard with human
    life, welfare and property is what distinguishes a disaster from a
    natural hazard.

    1.  The tsunami that occurred in the Indian Ocean Basin is a very
        recent and potent

> example of how natural hazards and the human environment can collide
> in the
>
> most severe form.

2.  *This session will focus on the natural processes that contribute to
    just the*

> *tsunami hazard* of *December 2004 as well as the tsunami's impacts on
> coastal*
>
> *populations to provide a recent and extreme example of the issues to
> be*
>
> *discussed in this course.*

E.  **During this course, we will be discussing the complexity of
    hazards/disasters in terms of the natural environment, political
    boundaries, and populations. The intersection of these factors is
    amplified in the example of the Indian Ocean tsunami, but the same
    problem exists everywhere.**

F.  **This course as a whole will explore some of the approaches to
    minimizing future events that are possible to prevent such a
    disaster again at such a horrific magnitude.**

**III. The Setting -- The Indian Ocean Basin Natural Environment**

> \[**PowerPoint 1.3** Natural Environment\]

A.  The Indian Ocean

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1.  There are five oceans on earth that comprise 70.1% of the earth's
    surface, and the Indian Ocean is one of them. It is the world's
    third largest ocean and contains 20% of the earth's water
    surface.[^1]

2.  With almost 67,000 kilometers of shoreline, it is 5.5 times the size
    of the United States at 68.6 million square kilometers in area.^9^
    However, it is still only half the size of the Pacific Ocean!^7^

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a.  The Indian Ocean borders Africa, Asia, Australia and Antarctica. The
    widest portion of the ocean is over 6,000 miles between the southern
    borders of Africa and Australia. ^7^

b.  It includes the Andaman Sea, Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal, Great
    Australian Bight, Gulf of Aden, Gulf of Oman, Mozambique Channel,
    Persian Gulf, Red Sea, Strait of Malacca, and other tributary water
    bodies.^1^

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B.  Topography, Geomorphology, and Climate

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1.  The Earth's oceans contain entire landscapes that are not visible to
    the human eye on the surface. Entire mountain ranges, the deepest
    canyons on earth, and the world's tallest volcanoes are found under
    the vast blue sea. The floor of the Indian Ocean consists of this
    **highly variable seafloor morphology** as well.

2.  The Indian Ocean floor is dominated by the Mid-Indian Ocean Ridge
    and subdivided by the Southeast Indian Ocean Ridge, Southwest Indian
    Ocean Ridge, and Ninetyeast Ridge. ^9^

> ***Note to Instructor:*** see the following website (also reachable in
> PowerPoint 1.5) for a scroll-over demonstration of the significant
> ridges in the Indian Ocean:
> <http://ace.acadiau.ca/science/geol/rraeside/quizzes/worldmap3i.htm>

3.  **The lowest point** in the Indian Ocean is the Java Trench at 7,258
    meters below sea level.^9^

> The Java Trench is located at the northeast corner of the ocean basin.

4.  The southern surface is dominated by a counterclockwise gyre (broad,
    circular system of currents) and a unique reversal of surface
    currents in the northern Indian Ocean.^9^

5.  There are **two monsoon seasons**: the northeast monsoon (December
    to April) and the southwest monsoon (June to October).^9^

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a.  There is a low atmospheric pressure over southwest Asia from hot,
    rising, summer air, which results in the southwest monsoons and
    southwest-to-northeast winds and currents.

b.  High pressure over northern Asia from cold, falling, winter air
    results in the northeast monsoons and northeast-to-southwest winds
    and currents.

c.  Tropical cyclones occur during May/June and October/November in the
    northern Indian Ocean and January/February in the southern Indian
    Ocean.

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```
6.  The shoreline...how flat is it?

[]{.mark}

[]{.mark}

a.  Southeast Asia provides an interesting example of some of the basic
    physical factors influencing population distribution**.**

b.  The two maps (slide 1.3) show the combined continental and submarine
    topography of Southeast Asia (top) and the distribution of
    population (bottom). It is apparent from the elevation map that the
    present position of the coastline (heavy black line) is quite
    different from the steep submarine slope that marks the actual edge
    of the continent where the South China Sea deepens from 200 to 1000
    meters.

-   This map emphasizes the point that *coastlines are ephemeral
    features and move significantly when sea level changes*.

-   The rugged topography of the Wuliang Shan Mountains in the northwest
    extends southward into Vietnam creating a very narrow coastal plain
    in contrast to the much wider coastal plains to the north and east
    of the Gulf of Thailand. These major physiographic features in the
    elevation map are reflected somewhat in the adjacent population
    density map. Most, but not all, of the rugged mountainous regions
    are very sparsely populated. **The densest concentrations of people
    are located along the coast and on low-lying river deltas.**

-   Some of the information contained in these maps can be combined and
    condensed into elevation histograms shown on the right of PowerPoint
    slide 1.3. The distribution of population with elevation is quite
    dramatic, showing that *80 million people in Southeast Asia live
    within 25 meters of sea level*. It is difficult to predict the
    impact that a gradual 1 meter increase in sea level would have on
    this region but it is clear that **a 6 meter storm surge could be
    devastating in a number of areas.**

-   Several of these areas are currently experiencing **rapid population
    growth**. The distribution of occupied land area with elevation
    shows that the population distribution is accommodated somewhat by
    the hypsography of the continent; there is more land area available
    near sea level than at any other elevation. When the population
    distribution is adjusted for the available land area we can
    determine how average population density varies with elevation.

-   Overall, **sea level is still the \"elevation of choice\"** with far
    more people per available area than any other elevation range.
    Population densities in the large cities are actually much higher
    than average population densities.[^2]

C.  Tectonic Plates

```{=html}
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```
1.  The islands of Indonesia were the product of a giant and violent
    collision. They are located directly above two colliding plates.^10^

    a.  The Australian Plate is being subducted underneath the Eurasian
        Plate at a rate of six centimeters per year. The subduction zone
        at the border of the Australian and Eurasian plates has also
        caused the formation of a large trench.

    b.  This trench is located in the Indian Ocean and is known as the
        Java Trench. The Java Trench is a deep submarine depression
        which extends for more than 2600 kms and has a maximum depth of
        7,500m. The trench makes up the deepest parts of the Indian
        Ocean (see map).

    c.  At the northern tip of the Java Trench is the Great Sumatran
        fault, a convergence between the Eurasian, Indian and Australian
        plates.

**IV. What is a Tsunami?**

> \[**PowerPoint 1.4 What** is a Tsunami?\]

# **Definition**

a.  ***The phenomenon we call a tsunami (soo-NAH-mee) is a series of
    waves of***

***extremely long wave length and long period generated in a body of
water by an***

***impulsive disturbance that displaces the water.***

b.  Tsunamis are primarily associated with earthquakes in oceanic and
    coastal regions.

Landslides, volcanic eruptions, nuclear explosions, and impacts of
objects from outer

space (such as meteorites, asteroids, and comets) can also generate
tsunamis.

1.  **Description**

```{=html}
<!-- -->
```
a.  As the tsunami crosses the deep ocean, its length from crest to
    crest may be a hundred miles or more, yet its height from crest to
    trough will only be a few feet or less.

b.  Tsunamis cannot be felt aboard ships nor can they be seen from the
    air in the open ocean.

c.  In the deepest oceans, the waves will reach speeds exceeding 600
    miles per hour (970 km/hr).

d.  When the tsunami enters the shoaling water of coastlines in its
    path, the velocity of its waves diminishes and the wave height
    increases.

> In shallow waters a large tsunami can crest to heights exceeding 100
> feet (30 m) and strike with devastating force (West Coast and Alaska
> Tsunami Warning Center, NOAA).

e.  **Tsunamis behave** **very differently in deep water than in shallow
    water**. In deep ocean water, tsunami waves form only a small hump,
    barely noticeable and harmless, which generally travels at a very
    high speed of 500 to 1,000 km/h (310 to 620 miles/hr); in shallow
    water near coastlines, a tsunami slows down to only tens of
    kilometers an hour but in doing so forms large destructive
    waves.[^3]

f.  The sudden vertical rise of the seabed by several meters during the
    earthquake displaces massive volumes of water, resulting in a
    [tsunami](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsunami) such as the one that
    struck the coasts of the [Indian
    Ocean](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Ocean). A tsunami which
    causes damage far away from its source is sometimes called a
    \"teletsunami\", and is much more likely to be produced by vertical
    motion of the seabed than by horizontal motion

*Note to Instructor:* Use link on PowerPoint slide 1.3 -1.5 to visually
convey the lecture points above. (Source:
[http://ffden-2.phys.uaf.edu/645fall2003_web.dir/elena_suleimani/generation\_
small.mov](http://ffden-2.phys.uaf.edu/645fall2003_web.dir/elena_suleimani/generation_ small.mov))

For additional background scientific information, detailed websites
include: <http://walrus.wr.usgs.gov/tsunami/> and
<http://iri.columbia.edu/~lareef/tsunami/> )

**V. The Natural Hazard -- How it Happened on December 26, 2004**

> \[**PowerPoint 1.5** The Natural Hazard -- How it Happened\]

A.  The December 26, 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami had the following
    characteristics:[^4],[^5]:

    1.  The earthquake was between a 9 and 9.3 rated magnitude -- one of
        the largest in history on the Richter Scale.

```{=html}
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```
a.  There has been some debate about the level of magnitude of the
    earthquake: ^12^

    -   the earthquake was initially reported as 2 on the [Richter
        scale](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richter_magnitude_scale).

    -   The [Indian Tsunami Authorities
        Center](http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Indian_Tsunami_Authorities_Center&action=edit)
        (ITAC) also estimated it at 5.5 shortly after the earthquake.

    -   On the [moment magnitude
        scale](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moment_magnitude_scale),
        which is more accurate for quakes of this size, the
        earthquake\'s magnitude was first reported as 4.1 by the [S.K.
        Geological
        Observation](http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=South_Korean_Geological_Observation&action=edit).

    -   After further analysis, this was increased to 6.5, 6.9, and
        8.0.[^6]

    1.  The earthquake rupture was 1,300 kilometers long and up to 30
        kilometers (or 18.6 miles) in depth.^12^

```{=html}
<!-- -->
```
a.  Seismographic data indicate that the first phase involved the
    formation of a rupture about 400 km (250 miles) long and 100 km
    (60 miles) wide -- the longest known rupture ever known to have been
    caused by an earthquake.

b.  The rupture proceeded at a speed of about 2 km/sec (1.2 miles/sec or
    7200 km/hr (4470 miles/hr), beginning off the coast of
    [Aceh](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aceh) and proceeding
    north-westerly over a period of about 100 seconds. A pause of about
    another 100 seconds took place before the rupture continued
    northwards towards the Andaman and Nicobar Islands [^7]

c.  However, the northern rupture occurred more slowly than in the
    south, reducing the speed of the water displacement and so reducing
    the size of the tsunami that hit the northern part of the Indian
    Ocean.

    1.  The tsunami wave height averaged from 3 to 10 meters.^13^

> Scientists investigating the damage in Aceh found evidence that the
> wave reached a height of 80 feet (24 m) when coming ashore along large
> stretches of the coastline, rising to 100 feet (30 m) in some areas
> when traveling inland.[^8]

2.  The tsunami vertical run-up ranges were between 3 and 12 meters.
    ^13^

> Maximum run-up was 30 meters in V-shaped valleys.

3.  The tsunami horizontal inundation averaged between 5 meters and 1
    kilometer inland.^13^

> In many places the waves reached as far as 2
> [km](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilometre) (1.24
> [mi](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miles)) inland. [^9]

*Note to Instructor:* Use links on PowerPoint slide 1.5 to visually
convey the lecture points above. The links on PowerPoint slide 1.7
covers the entire evolution of the Indian Ocean tsunami from start to
finish. (Source**:**
http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/world/04/tsunami/swf
/tsunami.swf?path=/nol/ shared/spl/hi/world/04/tsunami/ and
<http://es.ucsc.edu/~ward/indo.mov>)

\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

**Objective 1.2 Discuss the extent of the human loss and property damage
resulting from the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster**

**Requirements:**

The content should be presented as lecture, supported by PowerPoint
slides. **Handout 1.2** is provided within the Remarks for this
objective as well as an appendix at the end of this session.

The following slides will be used during this objective:

\[**PowerPoint 1.6** The Disaster -- Where it happened\]

####### \[**PowerPoint 1.7** The Disaster -- Human Loss\]

\[**PowerPoint 1.8** The Disaster -- Property Loss\]

\[**PowerPoint 1.9** The Disaster -- Economic Loss\]

\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

**Remarks:**

**VI. The Disaster -- Where it happened**

> \[**PowerPoint 1.6** The Disaster -- Where it happened\]

A.  The earthquake that caused the tsunami originated in the [**Indian
    Ocean**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Ocean) just
    [**north**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North) of
    [**Simeulue**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simeulue) island, off
    the western coast of northern
    [**Sumatra**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumatra),
    [**Indonesia**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesia).^12^

> The [**hypocentre**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypocenter) of the
> main earthquake was at 3.316°N, 95.854°E (3° 19′ N, 95° 51.24′ E),
> some [**160 km**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1_E5_m) (100 miles)
> west of Sumatra.
>
> This is at the extreme western end of the [**Ring of
> Fire**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Ring_of_Fire), the
> earthquake belt that accounts for 81 percent of the world\'s largest
> earthquakes.[^10]

B.  The tsunami caused serious damage and deaths as far as the east
    coast of [Africa](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africa), with the
    furthest recorded death due to the tsunami occurring at [Port
    Elizabeth](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Elizabeth) in [South
    Africa](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Africa), 8,000km (5,000
    miles) away from the epicenter.

C.  Because the 1,200 km of fault line affected by the quake was in a
    nearly north-south orientation, the greatest strength of the tsunami
    waves was in an east-west direction.[^11]

> [Bangladesh](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangladesh), which lies at
> the northern end of the [Bay of
> Bengal](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_of_Bengal), had very few
> casualties despite being a low-lying country relatively near the
> epicenter.
>
> It also benefited from the fact that the earthquake proceeded more
> slowly in the northern rupture zone, greatly reducing the energy of
> the water displacements in that region.[^12]

D.  Coasts that have a land mass between them and the tsunami\'s
    location of origin are usually safe; however, tsunami waves can
    sometimes [diffract](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffraction)
    around such land masses.

    1.  Thus, the Indian state of
        [Kerala](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerala) was hit by the
        tsunami despite being on the western coast of
        [India](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India), and the western
        coast of Sri Lanka also suffered substantial impacts.

    2.  Also **distance alone is no guarantee of safety**;
        [Somalia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somalia) was hit harder
        than [Bangladesh](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangladesh)
        despite being much farther away.

E.  Because of the distances involved, the tsunami took anywhere from
    **fifteen minutes to seven hours** (for
    [Somalia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somalia)) to reach the
    various coastlines (see travel time maps: PowerPoint Slide 1.7
    link).

    1.  The northern regions of the
        [Indonesian](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesia) island of
        [Sumatra](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumatra) were hit very
        quickly, while Sri Lanka and the east coast of India were hit
        roughly 90 minutes to two hours later.^19^

    2.  [Thailand](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thailand) was also
        struck about two hours later, despite being closer to the
        epicentre, because the tsunami travelled more slowly in the
        shallow [Andaman Sea](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andaman_Sea)
        off its western coast. ^19^

F.  The tsunami was noticed as far as
    [Struisbaai](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Struisbaai) in [South
    Africa](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Africa), some 8,500 km
    (5,300 miles) away, where a 1.5 m (5 feet) high 'tide' surged
    onshore about 16 hours after the quake. It took a relatively long
    time to reach this spot at the southernmost point of Africa,
    probably because of the broad continental shelf off South Africa and
    because the tsunami would have followed the South African coast from
    east to west [^13]

G.  For purposes of establishing timelines of local events, the [time
    zones](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_zone) of affected areas
    are:[^14]

    1.  [UTC+3](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_zone#UTC_.2B_3_C):
        (Kenya, Madagascar, Somalia, Tanzania);

    2.  [UTC+4](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_zone#UTC_.2B_4_D):
        (Mauritius, Réunion, Seychelles);

    3.  [UTC+5](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_zone#UTC_.2B_5_E):
        (Maldives);
        [UTC+5:30](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_zone#UTC_.2B_5:30_E.2A):
        (India);

    4.  [UTC+6](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_zone#UTC_.2B_6_F):
        (Bangladesh, Sri Lanka);

    5.  [UTC+6:30](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_zone#UTC_.2B_6:30_F.2A):
        (Cocos Islands, Myanmar);

    6.  [UTC+7](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_zone#UTC_.2B_7_G):
        (Indonesia (western), Thailand);

    7.  [UTC+8](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_zone#UTC_.2B_8_H):
        (Malaysia, Singapore).

> Since the quake occurred at 00:58:53
> [UTC](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTC), add the above offsets to find
> the local time of the quake.  

H.  Large numbers of citizens from other parts of the world, especially
    Australia and those in
    [Europe](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe), were traveling in the
    region on holiday at the time of the disaster.

**VII. The Disaster -- Human Loss**

> \[**PowerPoint 1.7** The Disaster -- Human Loss\]

A.  Deaths

```{=html}
<!-- -->
```
1.  More than **283,000 deaths**^13^

2.  More generalized estimates say that from 200,000 to 310,000 people
    are thought to have died as a result of the tsunami, and **the count
    is not yet complete**.^19^

3.  The true final toll may never be known due to bodies having been
    swept out to sea, but current estimates use conservative
    methodologies. ^19^

> The reported [death toll](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_toll)
> from the earthquake, the tsunami and the resultant floods varies
> widely because of confusion and conflicting reports.

4.  Relief agencies warn of the possibility of more deaths to come as a
    result of epidemics caused by poor sanitation, but the threat of
    [starvation](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starvation) seems now to
    have been largely averted.[^15]

5.  Measured in lives lost, this **is one of the ten worst earthquakes**
    in recorded history.[^16]

6.  It is also the single worst tsunami in history; the previous record
    was the [1703](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1703) tsunami at
    [Awa](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Awa), Japan, that killed over
    100,000 people.[^17]

7.  Relief agencies report that one-third of the dead appear to be
    children. This is a result of the high proportion of children in the
    populations of many of the affected regions and because children
    were the least able to resist being overcome by the surging
    waters.^19^

8.  As many as four times more women than men were killed in some
    regions because they were waiting on the beach for the fishermen to
    return and looking after their children in the houses. [^18]

9.  In addition to the large number of local residents, up to 9,000
    foreign tourists (mostly Europeans) enjoying the peak holiday travel
    season were among the dead or missing, especially
    [Scandinavians](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scandinavia).^19^

> The European nation hardest hit may have been
> [Sweden](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweden), which reported more
> than 500 dead or missing. [^19]

**Handout 1.2:** Number of Deaths by Country (and Information Source)

[Indonesia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_of_the_2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake_on_Indonesia):
[126,915](http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=13713552) 

([*http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=13713552*](http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=13713552))

[Sri
Lanka](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_of_the_2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake_on_Sri_Lanka):
[30,957](http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050305/wl_asia_afp/asiaquaketoll&cid=1530&ncid=2337)
([*http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050305/wl_asia_afp/asiaquaketoll&cid=1530&ncid=2337*](http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050305/wl_asia_afp/asiaquaketoll&cid=1530&ncid=2337))

[India](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_of_the_2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake_on_India):
[10,749](http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050305/wl_asia_afp/asiaquaketoll&cid=1530&ncid=2337)
([*http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050305/wl_asia_afp/asiaquaketoll&cid=1530&ncid=2337*](http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050305/wl_asia_afp/asiaquaketoll&cid=1530&ncid=2337))

[Thailand](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_of_the_2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake_on_Thailand):
[5,395](http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050305/wl_asia_afp/asiaquaketoll&cid=1530&ncid=2337)
([*http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050305/wl_asia_afp/asiaquaketoll&cid=1530&ncid=2337*](http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050305/wl_asia_afp/asiaquaketoll&cid=1530&ncid=2337))

[Somalia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_of_the_2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake_on_Somalia):
[298](http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050305/wl_asia_afp/asiaquaketoll&cid=1530&ncid=2337)
([*http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050305/wl_asia_afp/asiaquaketoll&cid=1530&ncid=2337*](http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050305/wl_asia_afp/asiaquaketoll&cid=1530&ncid=2337))

[Maldives](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_of_the_2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake_on_the_Maldives):
[82](http://www.tsunamimaldives.mv/?action=situationAssesment) 

([*http://www.tsunamimaldives.mv/?action=situationAssesment*](http://www.tsunamimaldives.mv/?action=situationAssesment))

[Malaysia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_of_the_2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake_on_Malaysia):
[68](http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050305/wl_asia_afp/asiaquaketoll&cid=1530&ncid=2337)
([*http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050305/wl_asia_afp/asiaquaketoll&cid=1530&ncid=2337*](http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050305/wl_asia_afp/asiaquaketoll&cid=1530&ncid=2337))

[Myanmar
(Burma)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_of_the_2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake_on_Myanmar):
[61](http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=13713552) 

([*http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=13713552*](http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=13713552))

[Tanzania](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Countries_affected_by_the_2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake#Countries_suffering_some_casualties_and_damage):
[10](http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200501/s1275702.htm) 

([*http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200501/s1275702.htm*](http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200501/s1275702.htm))

[Bangladesh](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Countries_affected_by_the_2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake#Countries_suffering_some_casualties_and_damage):
[2](http://www.channelnewsasia.com/killerwaves) 

([*http://www.channelnewsasia.com/killerwaves*](http://www.channelnewsasia.com/killerwaves))

[South
Africa](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Countries_affected_by_the_2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake#Countries_suffering_some_casualties_and_damage):
[2](http://www.capetimes.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=271&fArticleId=2357542) 

([*http://www.capetimes.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=271&fArticleId=2357542*](http://www.capetimes.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=271&fArticleId=2357542))

[Seychelles](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Countries_affected_by_the_2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake#Countries_suffering_some_casualties_and_damage)
[1](http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/fromthefield/110518441524.htm) 

([*http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/fromthefield/110518441524.htm*](http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/fromthefield/110518441524.htm))
  

B.  Advanced Warning

```{=html}
<!-- -->
```
1.  Despite a lag of up to several hours between the earthquake and the
    impact of the tsunami, nearly all of the victims were taken
    completely by surprise; there were no [tsunami warning
    systems](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsunami_warning_system) in the
    Indian Ocean to detect tsunamis or warn the general public.^19^

```{=html}
<!-- -->
```
a.  Tsunami detection is not simple \-- while a tsunami is in deep water
    it has a very low height and an entire network of sensors is needed
    to detect it.

b.  Setting up the communications infrastructure to issue timely
    warnings is an even bigger problem.[^20]

c.  Scientists were also hampered because the initial estimate for the
    magnitude of the earthquake was 8.1. The determination that the
    earthquake had actually been much stronger (and the resulting
    tsunami much larger) was not made until after the tsunami had
    already struck.

d.  Tsunamis more often occur in the Pacific Ocean due to earthquakes in
    the [\"Ring of
    Fire\"](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Ring_of_Fire), and an
    effective tsunami warning system has long been in place there.

-   Although the extreme western edge of the \"Ring of Fire\" extends
    into the Indian Ocean (the point where this earthquake struck), no
    warning system exists in that ocean because tsunamis there are
    relatively rare; the last major one was caused by the
    [Krakatoa](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krakatoa) eruption of
    [1883](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1883).^19^

### 

2.  The first warning sign of a possible tsunami is the earthquake
    itself; however, tsunamis can strike thousands of miles away, where
    the earthquake is only felt weakly or not at all.

    a.  In the minutes preceding a tsunami strike the sea often recedes
        temporarily from the coast. ^19^

-   People in Pacific regions are more familiar with tsunamis and often
    recognize this phenomenon as a sign to head for higher ground.

```{=html}
<!-- -->
```
-   However, around the Indian Ocean, this rare sight reportedly induced
    people, especially children, to visit the coast to investigate and
    collect stranded fish on as much as 2.5 km (1.6 miles) of exposed
    beach, with fatal results. [^21]

    a.  One of the few coastal areas to evacuate ahead of the tsunami
        was on the Indonesian island of
        [Simeulue](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simeulue), very close to
        the epicentre.^19^

```{=html}
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```
-   Island folklore recounted an earthquake and tsunami in
    [1907](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1907) and the islanders fled to
    inland hills after the initial shaking --- before the tsunami struck
    [^22]

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-   On Maikhao beach in northern
    [Phuket](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phuket), Thailand, a
    10-year-old British girl named Tilly Smith had studied tsunamis in
    geography class at school and recognized the warning sign of the
    receding ocean. She and her parents warned others on the beach,
    which was evacuated safely.[^23]

C.  Disease

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1.  Governments and
    [NGOs](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-governmental_organization)
    fear the final [death toll](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_toll)
    may double as a result of diseases, prompting a massive
    [humanitarian
    response](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanitarian_response_to_the_2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake).^19^

2.  [Epidemics](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemic) are of special
    concern, as they are likely due to the high [population
    density](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_density) and
    [tropical climate](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropical_climate) of
    the affected areas. The main concern of humanitarian and government
    agencies immediately following the tsunami was to provide sanitation
    facilities and fresh drinking water to contain the spread of
    diseases such as [cholera](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cholera),
    [diphtheria](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diphtheria),
    [dysentery](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dysentery) and
    [typhoid](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoid).

3.  In the days after the event, significant effort was spent in
    [burying](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burial) bodies hurriedly for
    fear of disease.

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D.  Mental Health Effects

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1.  Many health professionals and aid workers are reporting widespread
    psychological trauma associated with the tsunami.

    a.  \"*The emotional toll is just unbelievable on these people*,\"
        said Jude Barrand, communications director of the non-profit
        group Surf Aid International. \"We\'re not just talking
        sleepless nights and panic attacks. The people from the Hinako
        islands are choosing to leave their lives behind completely.
        They prefer the unknown to what they have been through.\" [^24]

    b.  Many sightings of ghosts have been reported, particularly those
        of foreigners.^19^

> Traditional beliefs in many of the affected regions state that a
> relative of the family must bury the body of the dead or the ghost
> will return. Some psychologists interpret this as evidence of
> psychological trauma.

2.  Some religious groups asserted that the tsunami was
    [God](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God)\'s punishment for [sex
    tourism](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_tourism) or other sinful
    activities in southeast Asia, but this assertion attracted
    considerable controversy and opposition.[^25]

3.  As in hundreds of other villages reduced to a fraction of their
    former populations, three to four times as many women and girls than
    men were killed in Lamteungoh, an Indonesian fishing village in the
    Aceh province.

    a.  Many men in these coastal towns were fishermen who survived at
        sea or were farming in the hills when the tsunami hit on
        Dec. 26. But their wives and children were killed by waves not
        far from the beach.[^26]

    b.  This has resulted in a disproportionate number of males versus
        females in areas like Lamteungon, leading to extreme disruption
        of families and a large number of wedding proposals per female
        ^34^

**VIII. The Disaster -- Property and Infrastructure Loss**

> \[**PowerPoint 1.8** The Disaster -- Property Loss\]

A.  Property Damage

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1.  Seventy percent of the coast line has been destroyed. Over 20% of
    the population is unemployed as a result of the destruction incurred
    by the tsunami.^19^

    a.  *"These raw statistics are difficult to visualise but just a
        simple three-hour trip down the South-East coast of Sri Lanka
        between Colombo and Galle reveals mile after mile of
        destruction, the result of the encroaching waves. The scene of
        this destruction is incongruous given the natural beauty of this
        coast line -- the beaches even now are simply stunning and it is
        easy to see why this part of Sri Lanka was so popular with
        tourists."* - a BBC writer's comments on 04.29.05 [^27]

2.  Across Sri Lanka, some 1.5 million people have been forced to leave
    their homes and more than 888,000 no longer have homes. [^28]

> 80% of Sri Lanka\'s coastline was mauled by the December 26th tsunami,
> which inflicted great damage on life and property.

3.  Due to its proximity to the epicentre of the earthquake and
    subsequent tsunami, Indonesia suffered the most physical damage and
    loss of human life of all of its neighbours.^32^

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a.  Whole villages were wiped out, and deposits of debris along roads
    and airline strips impeded the relief effort from accessing isolated
    areas and delivering supplies of food and water.

b.  The subsequent March 28, 2005 earthquake has added to the region\'s
    misery.

c.  Prior to the latest calamity, the number of homeless was estimated
    at 500,000.

d.  Damage includes: 1.3 million homes and buildings; 8 ports and 4 fuel
    depots; 85% of the water and 92% of the sanitation systems;120 km of
    roads and 18 bridges.

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4.  Relief efforts in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (India) have
    focused on providing shelter, food and water for some 30,000
    displaced islanders, primarily from the southern Nicobar island
    chain, into 150 refugee camps. [^29]

> Most people were initially evacuated to South Andaman (including the
> capital Port Blair) or to the Indian mainland, but many have since
> returned to camps on their native islands.

5.  In Thailand, Khao Lak suffered over THB6 billion (US\$150 million)
    in damages.[^30]

> Hundreds of retailers and small businesses have failed or have been
> shut down as a result of the devastation. Those who persist are facing
> losses of around 70%.

B.  Infrastructure Damage

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1.  Some caution that damage to infrastructure is an overriding factor
    in long-term recovery.

    a.  In some areas, drinking water supplies and farm fields may have
        been contaminated for years by salt water from the ocean [^31]

    b.  The tsunami damaged or destroyed 184 schools and 94 health
        facilities alone in Sri Lanka.[^32]

        -   UNICEF has been leading the push throughout the country to
            provide new pipelines, pumps, water treatment plants, clean
            wells, toilets, urinals and bathroom facilities.^40^

**IX. The Disaster -- Economic Loss**

> \[**PowerPoint 1.9** The Disaster -- Economic Loss\]

A.  Fishing

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1.  The impact on [coastal fishing
    communities](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fisheries#Fisheries_and_communities)
    and fishermen has been devastating with high losses of income
    earners as well as boats and fishing gear. [^33]

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a.  In Sri Lanka\'s coastal areas, for example, artisanal fishery is an
    important source of fish for local markets and industrial fishery is
    the major economic activity, providing direct employment to about
    250,000 people. ^41^

> In recent years the fishing industry has emerged as a dynamic export
> oriented sector, generating substantial foreign exchange earnings.

b.  Preliminary estimates indicate that 66 percent of the fishing fleet
    and industrial infrastructure in coastal regions have been destroyed
    by the wave surges, which will have adverse economic effects both at
    local and national levels. [^34]

c.  But some economists believe that damage to the affected countries\'
    economies will be minor because losses in the tourism and fishing
    industries are a relatively small percentage of the
    [GDP](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_domestic_product). ^41^

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B.  Shipping

> Both the earthquake and the tsunami may have affected shipping in the
> [Malacca Straits](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malacca_Straits) by
> changing the depth of the seabed and by disturbing navigational buoys
> and old shipwrecks.
>
> Compiling new navigational charts may take months or years.[^35]

C. Dollar Losses

> The estimated total damages and losses in Aceh amount to US\$4.5
> billion - almost equal to the entire GDP of that area.^40^

D. Jobs

> The Sri Lankan Ministry of Labour and Employment has estimated that as
> many as 800,000 people lost their jobs due to the tsunami.
>
> Between one third and one half were involved in small-scale industries
> and small trade and businesses. ^32^

E. Tourism

> Countries in the region appealed to tourists to return, pointing out
> that most tourist infrastructure is undamaged. However, tourists were
> reluctant to do so for psychological reasons.
>
> Even resorts on the Pacific coast of Thailand, which were completely
> untouched, were hit by cancellations. [^36]

\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

**Objective 1.3 Understand the socio-political and built environments of
the region**

**Requirements:**

The content should be presented as lecture, supported by PowerPoint
slides. **Handout 1.3** is provided within the Remarks for this
objective as well as an appendix at the end of this document.

The following slides will be used during this objective:

\[**PowerPoint 1.10** Socio-political Environment\]

\[**PowerPoint 1.11** Built Environment\]

\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

**Remarks:**

**X. The Setting -- The Indian Ocean Basin Socio-political Environment**

> \[**PowerPoint 1.10** Socio-political Environment\]

A.  The tsunami disaster impacted many different nations located in a
    wide geographic area. These include countries in Southeast Asia,
    along the Bay of Bengal, and eastern Africa.

    1.  South-East Asia consists of countries in the Indian Ocean and
        Pacific Ocean, and although some are island nations and others
        continental, each of these countries have a significant portion
        of coastline along their borders.

    2.  The countries on the east coast of the Bay of Bengal, in the
        Indian Ocean, and in the South China Sea, (part of the Pacific
        Ocean) are the countries that are commonly thought of as
        South-East Asia. These countries cover an area of about
        4,100,000 square kilometers. This includes the following
        countries:
        [Brunei](http://sunsite.nus.edu.sg/SEAlinks/brunei-info.html),
        [Burma](http://sunsite.nus.edu.sg/SEAlinks/burma-info.html),
        [Cambodia](http://sunsite.nus.edu.sg/SEAlinks/cambodia-info.html),
        [Indonesia](http://sunsite.nus.edu.sg/SEAlinks/indonesia-info.html),
        [Laos](http://sunsite.nus.edu.sg/SEAlinks/laos-info.html),
        [Malaysia](http://sunsite.nus.edu.sg/SEAlinks/malaysia-info.html),
        [Philippines](http://sunsite.nus.edu.sg/SEAlinks/philippines-info.html),
        [Singapore](http://sunsite.nus.edu.sg/SEAlinks/singapore-info.html),
        [Thailand](http://sunsite.nus.edu.sg/SEAlinks/thailand-info.html),
        and
        [Vietnam](http://sunsite.nus.edu.sg/SEAlinks/vietnam-info.html).

> The tsunami did not affect all of the countries listed above. Only the
> Southeast Asian countries bordering the Bay of Bengal were affected:
> Burma, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.

3.  India, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh are on the west coast of the Bay of
    Bengal. They are also countries that were affected by the tsunami.

4.  Countries along the eastern shore of Africa and islands in the
    Indian Ocean were also affected by the tsunami. These countries
    include: Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Madagascar, South Africa,
    Maldives and Seychelles.

**Handout 1.3: Country Socio-political Summaries**

*Note to Instructor: The following details are not meant for complete
usage in the lecture. The Instructor may select the most interesting
portions of the country information to discuss with the class and
provide the complete listing of information as a handout*.

B.  Country Summaries

> 1\. Indonesia[^37]

a.  Location: Indonesia is an archipelago of 13,500 islands located in
    south-east Asia between Malaysia and Australia. It occupies a total
    area of 1,919,400 sq km of which 1,826,440 sq km is on land. The
    country has a 2,602 km land boundary (1,782 km with Malaysia and 820
    km with Papua New Guinea) and 54,716 km of coastline. It has a
    strategic location along major sea lanes from Indian Ocean to
    Pacific Ocean.

b.  Climate: Tropical, hot and humid, but more moderate in the
    highlands. The terrain is mostly coastal lowlands while larger
    islands have interior mountains. Indonesia has occasional floods,
    severe droughts, and deforestation.

c.  Natural resources: petroleum, tin, natural gas, nickel, timber,
    bauxite, copper, fertile soils, coal, gold and silver.

d.  Population: 197,232,428 (July 1993 est.). Nationals of Indonesia are
    known as Indonesian(s). The primary ethnic group is Javanese (45%)
    and Sundanese (14%).

e.  Religions and Languages: Muslim (87%). Languages spoken include
    Bahasa Indonesia (official), and English

f.  Government: a republic. The capital is Jakarta. The national holiday
    is on 17 August (1945).

> 2\. Malaysia^1^

a.  Location: bordering the South China Sea between Vietnam and
    Indonesia. It occupies a total area of 329,750 sq km of which
    328,550 sq km is on land. The country has 2,669 km of land
    boundaries and 4,675 km of coastline.

b.  Climate: tropical - annual south-west monsoons from April to October
    and north-east monsoons from October to February. Malaysia is
    subject to flooding. The terrain consists of costal plains rising to
    hills and mountains.

c.  Natural resources: tin, petroleum, timber, copper, iron ore, natural
    gas and bauxite.

d.  Population: 18,845,340 (July 1993 est.). Nationals of Malaysia are
    known as Malaysian(s). The population is made up mostly of Malay
    (59%) and Chinese (32%).

e.  Religions and Languages: Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu. Malay is the
    official language; English, Chinese dialects and Tamil are also
    spoken.

f.  Government: constitutional monarchy. The capital is Kuala Lumpur.
    The national holiday is on 31 August (1957).

3\. Burma^1^

a.  Location: borders the Bay of Bengal between Bangladesh and Thailand.
    This is a strategic location near major Indian Ocean shipping lanes.
    The country occupies a total of 678,500 sq km of which 657,740 sq km
    is land. The country has 1,930 km of coastline. It has a 5,876 km
    long land border, sharing 193 km with Bangladesh, 2,185 km with
    China, 1,463 km with India, 235 km with Laos and 1,800 km with
    Thailand.

b.  Climate: a tropical monsoon climate - cloudy, rainy, hot, humid
    summers (south-west monsoon from June to September); less cloudy,
    scant rainfall, mild temperatures, lower humidity during winter
    (north-east monsoon from December to April). The terrain is marked
    by steep rugged highlands surrounding central lowlands. Burma is
    subject to destructive earthquakes and cyclones, flooding and
    landslides common during rainy season, and deforestation.

c.  Natural Resources: petroleum, timber, tin, antimony, zinc, copper,
    tungsten, lead, coal, some marble, limestone, precious stones and
    natural gas

d.  Population: 43,455,953 (July 1993 est.) consisting primarily of
    Burman (68%).

e.  Religions and Languages**:** Buddhist (89%). Nationals in Burma are
    known as Burmese and they speak mainly the Burmese language.

f.  Government: military regime. The capital is Rangoon. The country
    gained independence on 4 January 1948 from the UK.

> 4\. Thailand^1^

a.  Location: on the Gulf of Thailand, between Burma and Cambodia. The
    country occupies a total area of 514,000 sq km of which 511,770 sq
    km is on land. It has a 4,863 km long land boundary and 3,219 km of
    coastline.

b.  Climate: tropical - rainy, warm cloudy south-west monsoon from
    mid-May to September and dry, cool north-east monsoon from November
    to mid-March. The terrain consists of a central plain, an eastern
    plateau and mountains elsewhere.

c.  Natural Resources: tin, rubber, natural gas, tungsten, tantalum,
    timber, lead, fish, gypsum, lignite and fluorite.

d.  Population: 58,722,437 (July 1993 est.). Nationals of Thailand are
    known as Thai. 75% of the population is Thai and 14% are Chinese.

e.  Religions and Languages: Buddhism (95%); Thai and English.

f.  Government: constitutional monarchy. The capital is Bangkok.
    Thailand was founded in 1238 and was never colonized. The national
    holiday is His Majesty the King\'s birthday on 5 December (1927).

> 5\. Sri Lanka^1^

a.  Location: off the southeastern shore of India. The country is an
    island and occupies 65,610 sq km of land area with 1,340 km of
    coastline. It is mostly low, flat to rolling plain with mountains in
    the south-central interior reaching 2,524 meters at its highest
    peak.

b.  Climate: tropical monsoon; northeast monsoon (December to March);
    southwest monsoon (June to October).

c.  Natural Resources: limestone, graphite, mineral sands, gems,
    phosphates, clay, hydropower.

d.  Population: 20,064,776. Sinhalese, 74%; Tamil, 18%; Moor, 7%;
    Burgher, Malay, and Vedda, 1%.

e.  Religions and Languages: Buddhist 70%, Hindu 15%, Christian 8%,
    Muslim 7% (1999); Sinhalese (official and national language) 74%,
    Tamil (national language) 18%, other 8%. English is commonly used in
    government and is spoken competently by about 10% of the population.

f.  Government: republic; the capital is Colombo (note - Sri
    Jayewardenepura Kotte is the legislative capital); National holiday
    celebrates their independence from the UK on 4 February (1948).

> 6\. Bangladesh^1^

a.  Location: Southern Asia, bordering the Bay of Bengal, between Burma
    and India; total area is 144,000 sq km with the total land area
    equaling 133,910 sq km and 580 km of coastline. It is mostly flat
    alluvial plain, with hills in the southeast. Highest point is 1,230
    meters above sea level.

b.  Climate: tropical; mild winter (October to March); hot, humid summer
    (March to June); humid, warm rainy monsoon (June to October);
    droughts, cyclones; much of the country routinely inundated during
    the summer monsoon season.

c.  Natural Resources: natural gas, arable land, timber, coal

d.  Population: 144,319,628 (July 2005 est.); many people are landless
    and forced to live on and cultivate flood-prone land; water-borne
    diseases prevalent in surface water; water pollution, especially of
    fishing areas, results from the use of commercial pesticides; ground
    water contaminated by naturally occurring arsenic; intermittent
    water shortages because of falling water tables in the northern and
    central parts of the country; soil degradation and erosion;
    deforestation; severe overpopulation.

e.  Religions and Languages: Muslim 83%, Hindu 16%, other 1% (1998);
    Bangla (official, also known as Bengali), English

f.  Government: parliamentary democracy. Capital is Dhaka. Formerly, the
    country was named East Pakistan and it gained its independence when
    it seceded from its union with West Pakistan in 1971.

> 7\. India^1^

a.  Location: Southern Asia, bordering the Arabian Sea and the Bay of
    Bengal, between Burma and Pakistan. Total area is 3,287,590 sq km\
    with a land area of 2,973,190 sq km and coastline of 7,000 km.

b.  Climate: varies from tropical monsoon in south to temperate in
    north; has an upland plain called the Deccan Plateau in the south
    and flat to rolling plain along the Ganges, and the Himalayas in the
    north. Droughts; flash floods, as well as widespread and destructive
    flooding from monsoonal rains; severe thunderstorms; earthquakes.

c.  Natural Resources: coal (fourth-largest reserves in the world), iron
    ore, manganese, mica, bauxite, titanium ore, chromite, natural gas,
    diamonds, petroleum, limestone, arable land

d.  Population: 1,080,264,388 (July 2005 est.) with Indo-Aryan 72%,
    Dravidian 25%, Mongoloid and other 3% (2000)

e.  Religions and Languages: Hindu 81.3%, Muslim 12%, Christian 2.3%,
    Sikh 1.9%, other groups including Buddhist, Jain, Parsi 2.5% (2000).
    English enjoys associate status but is the most important language
    for national, political, and commercial communication; Hindi is the
    national language and primary tongue of 30% of the people; there are
    14 other official languages: Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu,
    Gujarati, Malayalam, Kannada, Oriya, Punjabi, Assamese, Kashmiri,
    Sindhi, and Sanskrit; Hindustani is a popular variant of Hindi/Urdu
    spoken widely throughout northern India but is not an official
    language

f.  Government: federal republic. Capital is New Delhi. Obtained its
    independence on 15 August 1947 (from UK).

> 8\. Somalia^1^

a.  Location: Eastern Africa, bordering the Gulf of Aden and the Indian
    Ocean, east of Ethiopia with 2,340 km of land area and 3,025 km of
    coastline.

b.  Climate: principally desert; December to February - northeast
    monsoon, moderate temperatures in north and very hot in south; May
    to October - southwest monsoon, torrid in the north and hot in the
    south, irregular rainfall, hot and humid periods (tangambili)
    between monsoons. Recurring droughts; frequent dust storms over
    eastern plains in summer; floods during rainy season.

c.  Natural resources: uranium and largely unexploited reserves of iron
    ore, tin, gypsum, bauxite, copper, salt, natural gas, likely oil
    reserves

d.  Population: 8,591,629

-   *Note:* this estimate was derived from an official census taken in
    1975 by the Somali Government; population counting in Somalia is
    complicated by the large number of nomads and by refugee movements
    in response to famine and clan warfare (July 2005 est.).

e.  Religions and Languages: Sunni Muslim; Somali (official), Arabic,
    Italian, English

f.  Government: no permanent national government; transitional,
    parliamentary federal government; Mogadishu is the capital.
    Foundation of the Somali Republic was on 1 July 1960.

> 9\. Kenya^1^

a.  Location: Eastern Africa, bordering the Indian Ocean, between
    Somalia and Tanzania; 569,250 sq km in area of land and 536 km of
    coastline.

b.  Climate: varies from tropical along coast to arid in interior;
    recurring drought; flooding during rainy seasons.

c.  Natural resources: gold, limestone, soda ash, salt, gemstones,
    fluorspar, zinc, diatomite, gypsum, wildlife, hydropower.

d.  Population: 33,829,590

-   *note:* estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
    effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
    life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
    population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
    population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
    2005 est.).

e.  Religions and Languages: Protestant 45%, Roman Catholic 33%,
    indigenous beliefs 10%, Muslim 10%, other 2%; English (official),
    Kiswahili (official), numerous indigenous languages.

f.  Government: republic; Nairobi is the capital and its independence
    day is on 12 December 1963 (from UK).

> 10\. Tanzania^1^

a.  Location: Eastern Africa, bordering the Indian Ocean, between Kenya
    and Mozambique; land area equals 886,037 sq km and the coastline is
    1,424 km long.

b.  Climate: varies from tropical along coast to temperate in highlands;
    flooding on the central plateau during the rainy season; drought.

c.  Natural resources: hydropower, tin, phosphates, iron ore, coal,
    diamonds, gemstones, gold, natural gas, nickel

d.  Population: 6,766,356

-   *note:* estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
    effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
    life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
    population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
    population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
    2005 est.).

e.  Religions and Languages: mainland - Christian 30%, Muslim 35%,
    indigenous beliefs 35%; Zanzibar - more than 99% Muslim; Kiswahili
    or Swahili (official), Kiunguja (name for Swahili in Zanzibar),
    English (official, primary language of commerce, administration, and
    higher education), Arabic (widely spoken in Zanzibar), many local
    languages

f.  Government: republic. The capital is Dar es Salaam and independence
    day is 26 April 1964.

> 11\. Madagascar ^1^

a.  Location: Southern Africa, island in the Indian Ocean, east of
    Mozambique; 581,540 sq km in land area and 4,828 km of coastline.

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a.  Climate: tropical along coast, temperate inland, arid in south

b.  Natural resources: graphite, chromite, coal, bauxite, salt, quartz,
    tar sands, semiprecious stones, mica, fish, hydropower

c.  Population: 18,040,341

d.  Religions and Languages: indigenous beliefs 52%, Christian 41%,
    Muslim 7%; French (official), Malagasy (official)

e.  Government: republic. Capital is Antananarivo. 26 June 1960
    (independence from France)

> 12\. South Africa^1^

a.  Location: Southern Africa, at the southern tip of the continent of
    Africa; land area of 1,219,912 sq km and coastline of 2,798 km.

b.  Climate: mostly semiarid; subtropical along east coast; sunny days,
    cool nights

c.  Natural resources: gold, chromium, antimony, coal, iron ore,
    manganese, nickel, phosphates, tin, uranium, gem diamonds, platinum,
    copper, vanadium, salt, natural gas

d.  Population: 44,344,136

    -   *note:* estimates for this country explicitly take into account
        the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in
        lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates,
        lower population and growth rates, and changes in the
        distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise
        be expected (July 2005 est.).

e.  Religions and Languages: Christian 68% (includes most whites and
    Coloreds, about 60% of blacks and about 40% of Indians), Muslim 2%,
    Hindu 1.5% (60% of Indians), indigenous beliefs and animist 28.5%;
    11 official languages, including Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, Pedi,
    Sotho, Swazi, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa, Zulu

f.  Government: republic; Cape Town is the legislative center and
    Bloemfontein the judicial center, but Pretoria is the capital;
    independence on 31 May 1910 (from UK)

> 13\. Maldives^1^

a.  Location: Southern Asia, group of atolls in the Indian Ocean,
    south-southwest of India; land area of 300 sq km and 644 km
    coastline.

b.  Climate: tropical; hot, humid; dry, northeast monsoon (November to
    March); rainy, southwest monsoon (June to August)

c.  Natural resources: fish

d.  Population: 349,106

e.  Religions and Languages: Sunni Muslim; Maldivian Dhivehi (dialect of
    Sinhala, script derived from Arabic), English spoken by most
    government officials

f.  Government: republic. Capital is Male and independence was gained on
    26 July 1965 (from UK).

> 14\. Seychelles^1^

a.  Location: Eastern Africa, group of islands in the Indian Ocean,
    northeast of Madagascar

b.  Climate: tropical marine; humid; cooler season during southeast
    monsoon (late May to September); warmer season during northwest
    monsoon (March to May)

c.  Natural resources: fish, copra, cinnamon trees

d.  Population: 81,188

e.  Religions and Languages: Roman Catholic 86.6%, Anglican 6.8%, other
    Christian 2.5%, other 4.1%; English (official), French (official),
    Creole

f.  Government: republic. Capital is Victoria. Independence 29 June 1976
    (from UK).

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C.  Political Unrest in Region

    1.  Eastern and western cultures differ, causing political unrest
        (contributing to difficulties with conducting relief efforts).
        Several examples of the diverse political issues in the region
        are below.

    2.  Indonesia political background and current issues: ^1^

        a.  The Dutch began to colonize Indonesia in the early 17th
            century; the islands were occupied by Japan from 1942
            to 1945. Indonesia declared its independence after Japan\'s
            surrender, but it required four years of intermittent
            negotiations, recurring hostilities, and UN mediation before
            the Netherlands agreed to relinquish its colony.

        b.  Current issues include:

            -   alleviating widespread poverty,

            -   preventing terrorism,

            -   continuing the transition to popularly-elected
                governments after four decades of authoritarianism,

            -   implementing reforms of the banking sector,

            -   addressing charges of cronyism and corruption,

            -   holding the military and police accountable for human
                rights violations,

            -   and resolving armed separatist movements in Aceh and
                Papua.

    3.  Thailand \-- political background and current issues: ^1^

        a.  A unified Thai kingdom was established in the mid-14th
            century. Known as Siam until 1939, Thailand is the only
            Southeast Asian country never to have been taken over by a
            European power. A bloodless revolution in 1932 led to a
            constitutional monarchy.

        b.  Thailand is currently facing armed violence in its three
            Muslim-majority southernmost provinces.

    4.  Sri Lanka \-- political background and current issues: ^1^

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a.  The Sinhalese arrived in Sri Lanka late in the 6th century B.C.,
    probably from northern India. As Ceylon, it became independent from
    the British in 1948; its name was changed to Sri Lanka in 1972.
    Tensions between the Sinhalese majority and Tamil separatists
    erupted into war in 1983. Tens of thousands have died in an ethnic
    conflict that continues to fester.

b.  Since the outbreak of hostilities between the government and armed
    Tamil separatists, several hundred thousand Tamil civilians have
    fled the island; as of yearend 2000.

    1.  India \-- political background and current issues: ^1^

        a.  The Indus Valley civilization, one of the oldest in the
            world, dates back at least 5,000 years. Nonviolent
            resistance to British colonialism led by Mohandas Gandhi and
            Jawaharlal Nehru brought independence in 1947. The
            subcontinent was divided into the secular state of India and
            the smaller Muslim state of Pakistan. A third war between
            the two countries in 1971 resulted in East Pakistan becoming
            the separate nation of Bangladesh.

        b.  Despite impressive gains in economic investment and output,
            India faces pressing problems such as:

-   the ongoing dispute with Pakistan over Kashmir,

-   massive overpopulation,

-   environmental degradation,

-   extensive poverty, and

-   ethnic and religious strife.

    1.  Somalia \-- political background and current issues: ^1^

        a.  The Siad Barre regime was ousted in January 1991; turmoil,
            factional fighting, and anarchy have followed in the years
            since.

        b.  In May of 1991, northern clans declared an independent
            Republic of Somaliland. Although not recognized by any
            government, this entity has maintained a stable existence,
            aided by the overwhelming dominance of a ruling clan and
            economic infrastructure left behind by British, Russian, and
            American military assistance programs.

        c.  A neighboring self-declared autonomous state of Puntland,
            which has been self-governing since 1998, does not aim at
            independence; it has also made strides towards
            reconstructing a legitimate, representative government, but
            has suffered some civil strife.

        d.  Beginning in 1993, a two-year UN humanitarian effort
            (primarily in the south) was able to alleviate famine
            conditions, but when the UN withdrew in 1995, having
            suffered significant casualties, order still had not been
            restored.

        e.  Suspicion of Somali links with global terrorism further
            complicates the picture.

**XI. The Setting -- The Indian Ocean Basin Built Environment**

> \[**PowerPoint 1.11** The Setting - Built Environment\]

A.  Traditional/Indigenous Built Environment

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1.  Most arable land is on the mainland - therefore, 75% of the mainland
    population is rural and works in agriculture[^38]

2.  The population shift has been from rural to urban over the region's
    history^2^

    a.  The biggest (early) cities were developed by the European powers
        as colonial ports.

    b.  China controlled trade routes from 100 - 900\'s - mainly around
        the Hong (Red) river, but when Islam was introduced by the Arabs
        in the 1300\'s - the Malay peninsula grew into an \"Arab
        center\" and \"the West\" came to trade, spread Christianity &
        claim territory.

    c.  Many changes took place due to the outside influence:

        -   small traditional farms were displaced by large plantations

        -   western powers boosted economic production for their profit
            only

        -   Europeans built roads & railways to link inland production
            to overseas trade

    d.  The urbanization process has been distinguished by dynamism,
        resulting in the blurring of rural-urban boundaries as major
        expressways and railroad lines radiate out from urban cores,
        giving rise to new towns, industrial estates, and other urban
        forms in areas hitherto agricultural. [^39]

3.  Despite the recent growth of cities, most SE Asians are still rural
    farmers who live in small villages^2^

    a.  Typical village has about 25-30 houses made of bamboo or wood.

    b.  In coastal lowland areas, houses are built on raised platforms
        supported by wooden poles for protection from insects, animals &
        flooding.

    c.  Longhouses - house up to 100 people - extended family dwellings

    d.  Most rural housing lacks running water & electricity.

4.  Rice has been cultivated in Southeast Asia for at least 7,000 years.
    Because rice was an *abundant* (large, plentiful) crop and fairly
    easy to grow, rice farming contributed to the growth of populations
    and civilizations in Southeast Asia. ^2^

    a.  If you were exploring the island of Bali in Indonesia, or the
        Philippines, you would see *rice terraces* carved into the hills
        and mountains all around you.

    b.  If you decided to continue your journey into the rich river
        deltas of Thailand, Vietnam and Laos, you would be surrounded by
        plots of flooded rice *paddy* fields on level land for as far as
        the eye could see.

    c.  Turning north into the foothills of the Himalayas, in northern
        Thailand, Laos and Burma, you would enter a region where
        *swidden* agriculture (burning fields to plant a new crop) for
        growing rice in mountainous areas was traditionally
        practiced.[^40]

5.  Since achieving independence^2^

    a.  The \"quality of life\" has improved for almost everyone - -
        Singapore has the best overall health conditions.

    b.  Per capita income has increased

    c.  Life expectancy has risen - although Cambodia still is only age
        50 compared to 74 in Singapore

    d.  Education has improved - although the average number of years of
        schooling range from 2 in Cambodia to 8 in Brunei

    e.  Thailand has the highest literacy rate - 89% with Cambodia the
        lowest - 50%.

    f.  Today, if you visited one of Southeast Asia\'s many urban
        centers, such as Thailand\'s capital, Bangkok, it would take a
        lot of exploring to find a single plot of paddy. Instead you
        would be surrounded by high rises, busy streets, shopping malls,
        factories, and all of the other features of a fast-paced urban
        environment.

        -   Life in Bangkok today has much more to do with modern
            industry than agriculture. Many other Southeast Asian cities
            share these industrialized, urban characteristics.

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B.  Tourism: highlighting the contrast between rich and poor^2^

> A large amount of tourism occurs along the coastlines of Southeast
> Asia in very luxurious resorts and hotels.

 

C.  Economics

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1.  Southeast Asia is a very rapidly developing, highly populated area
    of the world.[^41]

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a.  the population of Southeast Asia is predominantly coastal due to the
    rapid industrialization occurring in the major population centers,
    which are coastal as well

b.  The development of the coastal zone is not limited to population and
    industrial centers. Many wetlands of the region, particularly the
    mangrove swamps, have been transformed into areas for agriculture
    and aquaculture, leaving fewer and fewer existing in their natural
    state. However, due to the natural beauty and attraction of some
    areas, coastal tourism is a growing industry that both preserves and
    destroys the environment. As a consequence of these trends, land-use
    conflicts often arise.

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2.  The Indian Ocean provides major sea routes connecting the Middle
    East,\
    Africa, and East Asia with Europe and the Americas.^6^

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a.  **Ports and harbors: Chennai (Madras; India), Colombo** **(Sri
    Lanka), Durban (South Africa),** **Jakarta (Indonesia), Kolkata**
    **(Calcutta; India) Melbourne** **(Australia), Mumbai (Bombay;
    India),** **Richards Bay (South Africa)^2^**

b.  **Four critically important access** **waterways are the Suez
    Canal** **(Egypt), Bab el Mandeb (Djibouti-Yemen), Strait of Hormuz
    (Iran-Oman), and Strait of Malacca** **(Indonesia-Malaysia).^3^**

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3.  **Its fish are of** great **and growing importance to the**
    **bordering countries for domestic** **consumption and export.
    Fishing** **fleets from Russia, Japan, South** **Korea, and Taiwan
    also exploit the** **Indian Ocean, mainly for shrimp and** **tuna.**
    **^6^**

4.  **Large reserves of hydrocarbons** **are being tapped in the
    offshore** **areas of Saudi Arabia, Iran, India,** **and western
    Australia. An estimated** **40% of the world\'s offshore oil**
    **production comes from the Indian Ocean.^6^**

    a.  **It carries a** **particularly heavy traffic of** **petroleum
        and petroleum products** **from the oilfields of the Persian**
        **Gulf and Indonesia.**

    b.  **Beach sands rich in heavy** **minerals and offshore placer**
        **deposits are actively exploited by bordering countries,
        particularly** **India, South Africa, Indonesia, Sri** **Lanka,
        and Thailand.** [^42]

5.  **Individual economic examples by selected Southeast Asian countries
    are below.**

    a.  **Indonesia**[^43]

-   Indonesia is a mixed economy with many socialist institutions and
    central planning but with a recent emphasis on deregulation and
    private enterprise.

-   Indonesia has extensive natural wealth, yet, with a large and
    rapidly increasing population, it remains a poor country. Real GDP
    growth in 1985-92 averaged about 6%, quite impressive, but not
    sufficient to both slash underemployment and absorb the 2.3 million
    workers annually entering the labor force.

-   Agriculture, including forestry and fishing, is an important sector,
    accounting for almost 20% of GDP and over 50% of the labor force.

-   Industrial output now accounts for almost 40% of GDP and is based on
    a supply of diverse natural resources, including crude oil, natural
    gas, timber, metals, and coal. Of these, the oil sector dominates
    the external economy, generating more than 20% of the government\'s
    revenues and 40% of export earnings in 1989.

-   The economy\'s growth is highly dependent on the continuing
    expansion of non-oil exports. Japan remains Indonesia\'s most
    important customer and supplier of aid.

    a.  Malaysia^6^

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-   A mixture of private enterprise and a soundly managed public sector,
    Malaysia has posted a remarkable record of 8%-9% average growth in
    1987-92. This growth has resulted in a substantial reduction in
    poverty and a marked rise in real wages.

-   Despite sluggish growth in the major world economies in 1992, demand
    for Malaysian goods remained strong and foreign investors continued
    to commit large sums in the economy. The government is aware of the
    inflationary potential of this rapid development and is closely
    monitoring fiscal and monetary policies.

    a.  Thailand^6^

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-   This country's economy recovered rapidly from the political unrest
    of May 1992 to post an impressive 7% growth rate for the year.

-   Thailand, one of the more advanced developing countries in Asia,
    depends on exports of manufactures and the development of the
    service sector to fuel the country\'s rapid growth.

-   Over the longer-term, Bangkok must produce more college graduates
    with technical training and upgrade workers\' skills to continue its
    rapid economic development.

    a.  Sri Lanka^1^

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-   Sri Lanka\'s most dynamic sectors now are food processing, textiles
    and apparel, food and beverages, telecommunications, and insurance
    and banking.

-   In 2003, plantation crops made up only 15% of exports (compared with
    93% in 1970), while textiles and garments accounted for 63%.

-   About 800,000 Sri Lankans work abroad, 90% in the Middle East. They
    send home about \$1 billion a year.

-   The struggle by the Tamil Tigers of the north and east for a largely
    independent homeland continues to cast a shadow over the economy.

    a.  India^1^

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-   India\'s diverse economy encompasses traditional village farming,
    modern agriculture, handicrafts, a wide range of modern industries,
    and a multitude of services.

-   Services are the major source of economic growth, though two-thirds
    of the workforce is in agriculture.

-   The economy has posted an excellent average growth rate of 6.8%
    since 1994, reducing poverty by about 10 percentage points. India is
    capitalizing on its large numbers of well-educated people skilled in
    the English language to become a major exporter of software services
    and software workers.

-   The huge and growing population is the fundamental social, economic,
    and environmental problem.

\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

**Objective 1.4 Discuss the continuing recovery efforts and
reconstruction in the region**

**Requirements:**

The content should be presented as lecture, supported by PowerPoint
slides. This Objective can be updated over time to reflect the most
recent developments occurring in recovery and reconstruction. Please
refer to the "Course Developer References" Section (Appendix B) at the
end of the session for a listing of the websites used in the lecture
content for places to look for more recently updated information.

The following slides will be used during this objective:

\[**PowerPoint 1.12** Recovery Efforts\]

\[**PowerPoint 1.13** Reconstruction Efforts\]

\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

**Remarks:**

XII\. Recovery Efforts

> \[**PowerPoint 1.12** Recovery Efforts\]

A.  Initial response

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1.  The recovery period is when aid and assistance is given to the
    victims of a disaster to meet their immediate needs, such as
    shelter, food, and medicine.

> There is a "window of opportunity" following a disaster in which to
> provide relief to the victims and make plans for how to prevent the
> next disaster, as we will learn in later sessions as well.

2.  The plight of the many [affected people and
    countries](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Countries_affected_by_the_2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake)
    prompted a widespread [humanitarian
    response](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanitarian_response_to_the_2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake).
    ^19^

3.  The first tasks of the governments and humanitarian aid agencies
    were to bury the massive numbers of dead and prevent an
    [epidemic](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemic) of [communicable
    diseases](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communicable_disease).^19^

    a.  Many usual sources of water were spoiled by salt water, broken
        by the force of the tsunami, or contaminated with bodies of dead
        people or livestock, requiring water purification equipment or
        trucking potable water into the affected region.

    b.  Other high priorities were delivery of medical supplies and
        personnel to overwhelmed hospitals and clinics; tent shelters
        and clothing to people who have lost their houses and
        belongings; and food, especially baby food. Several governments
        have appealed for body bags to assist in the safe disposal of
        corpses.

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B.  World Aid and Support

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1.  Governments, humanitarian organizations, Asian expatriates and
    individuals around the world scrambled to offer aid and technical
    support.

    a.  The [World Bank](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Bank)
        initially estimated the amount of aid needed at
        [USD](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_dollar) 5
        [billion](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billion). [^44]

    b.  Although countries are providing relief funds, the [United
        N](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations)ations had
        criticized both the US and Europe for allocating inadequate
        resources. By [1
        January](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_1)
        [2005](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005) only USD1.8 billion
        (GBP1billion) of the 5 billion had been pledged.

        -   On [27 December](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_27),
            UN Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs [Jan
            Egeland](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Egeland)
            reportedly categorized charitable contributions of rich
            countries as \"stingy\".[^45]

        -   Speaking at a press conference later, Mr. Egeland stated,
            *\"It has nothing to do with any particular country or the
            response to this emergency. We are in early days and the
            response has so far been overwhelmingly positive*\". [^46]

        -   The US government, led by President [George W.
            Bush](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._Bush) and
            Secretary of State [Colin
            Powell](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colin_Powell), reacted
            by adding another US\$20 million to their original pledge of
            US\$ 15 million, bringing the total up to US\$ 35 million,
            not including direct aid to be rendered by naval vessels
            dispatched to the region.[^47]

        -   The US pledge was increased ten fold to US\$ 350 million,
            with President Bush saying that that amount will probably
            increase.[^48]

    c.  In the wake of the disaster, Australia, India, Japan and the
        United States formed a coalition to co-ordinate aid efforts to
        streamline immediate assistance; however, at the
        [Jakarta](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jakarta) Summit on [6
        January](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_6), the coalition
        transferred responsibilities to the [United
        Nations](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations).^19^

2.  [States of
    emergency](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_emergency) were
    declared in [Sri Lanka](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Lanka),
    [Indonesia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesia), and the
    [Maldives](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maldives). The [United
    Nations](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations) has declared
    that the current relief operation will be the costliest ever. ^19^

3.  The [World Food
    Programme](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Food_Programme)
    provided food aid to more than 1.3 million people affected by the
    tsunami.^19^

C. Problems in Response

1.  In mid-March, the [Asian Development
    Bank](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_Development_Bank) reported
    that over USD 4 billion in aid promised by governments were behind
    schedule.

> Sri Lanka criticized the nations and organizations that clamored to
> pledge donations.

-   "*Not a penny had come through yet. We are doing the relief work
    with our government money. Sri Lanka is still waiting for the money
    pledged by the donors. Money pledged by the people has been pledged
    to the NGOs*.\" [^49]

-   Sri Lanka\'s Foreign Minister, Laxman Kadirgamar, stated in a BBC
    interview, "A lot of aid which has been coming in latterly is I'm
    afraid -- I'm sorry to say -- not very useful. For instance there
    was a container full of teddy bears. They're obviously given with
    good will, nobody says no to that.\" [^50]

2.  In the early stages, before the extent of the disaster was clear,
    Sri Lanka refused Israel\'s offers of aid due to religious reasons.

> The Israeli humanitarian organization, Latet, sent a jumbo jet
> carrying 18 metric tons of supplies to Colombo, however, and a
> rescue-and-recovery team from the Jewish ultra-Orthodox organization
> Zaka arrived in Colombo with equipment used for identifying bodies, as
> well as body bags[^51]

3.  [Corruption](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption),
    [bureaucracy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bureaucracy) and
    [nationalism](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nationalism) hampered the
    humanitarian response in Indonesia [^52]

    a.  The Indonesia government is reported to have flown Muslim
        militants into Aceh to help the relief effort. On [January
        12](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_12), the Indonesian
        government put restrictions on the movement of journalists and
        aid workers, ostensibly for their protection from Acehnese
        insurgents.

    b.  However, there were concerns that this was a clumsy attempt by
        the government to gather control over, and credit for, relief
        efforts in an attempt to gain an edge over the rebels.

![](media/image2.png){width="0.15555555555555556in"
height="0.11388888888888889in"}

D. Calls for Tsunami Warning System

> In the aftermath of the disaster there is a new awareness of the need
> for a tsunami warning system for the Indian Ocean.

-   The [UN](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UN) has started working on an
    [Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning
    System](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Ocean_Tsunami_Warning_System)
    and aims to have initial steps in place by end 2005. [^53]

-   Some have even proposed creating a unified global tsunami warning
    system, to include the [Atlantic
    Ocean](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_Ocean) and
    [Caribbean](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caribbean).

**XIII. Reconstruction Efforts**

> \[**PowerPoint 1.13** Reconstruction Efforts\]

A.  Reconstruction Challenges

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1.  Reconstruction is the period following a disaster in which the
    structures that were lost during the disaster are rebuilt in the
    same, or preferably, safer locations.

2.  [UN
    Secretary-General](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UN_Secretary-General)
    [Kofi Annan](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kofi_Annan) has stated
    that reconstruction would probably take between five and ten years.

3.  These simulated natural color ASTER (Advanced Spaceborne Thermal
    Emission and Reflection Radiometer) images (as shown in Powerpoint
    1.14) show a 27-kilometer (17-mile)-long stretch of coast in 2002
    (left) and on December 31, 2004 (middle). The image on the right is
    a copy of the later ASTER scene but it includes highlighting in red
    for areas that have elevations within 10 meters (33 feet) of sea
    level.[^54]

    a.  The changes along the coast are obvious (changing from green to
        grey) where the vegetation was stripped away by the tsunami.

    b.  The red areas appear to include most of the tsunami-inundated
        areas.

    c.  The Indian Ocean coastline shown here is near Phuket, Thailand,
        which is a major tourist destination that was in the path of the
        tsunami.

    d.  Images like this can help us to determine where to rebuild in a
        smarter way.^13^

B. Human Alteration of the Natural Environment

1.  Some areas of Sri Lanka were devastated more than others. The
    increased destruction follows human development along coastal
    regions.[^55]

    a.  Inundation, or how far inland the tsunami came, was fairly
        uniform along the east coast, but on the west coast, the
        inundation distances varied greatly. Human intervention seemed
        to have amplified the behavior of the swell's path when the
        waves rushed inland.^56^

        -   A specific instance is a derailed passenger train along the
            Sri Lankan west coast that killed more than 1,500 people.
            The beach area immediately adjacent to the railroad had been
            altered after years of coral poaching.

        -   Removing the coral does more than hurt the natural beauty of
            the island and upset the ecosystem. The coral acts as
            natural coastal protection against waves by breaking up the
            current as it sweeps into the beach. With a substantial
            amount of the coral removed, the tsunami was free to tear
            further inland than it would have been able to do naturally.

        -   Re-landscaping the natural terrain of the island for
            commercial purposes also lead to horrific results. In one
            case, a resort removed part of a sand dune to accommodate
            more scenic views for its guests. That resort was completely
            destroyed when the tsunami hit, while neighboring areas
            located behind unaltered dunes were less damaged.[^56]

C. Development Policies Prior to the Tsunami

1.  Several underlying policies and their enforcement in Sri Lanka
    contributed to the context within which greater losses occurred, but
    can be learned from in reconstruction:[^57]

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a.  A Coastal Enterprise Zone was established in 1980 to encourage
    economic development within a 1 kilometer buffer around the entire
    coastline of Sri Lanka. This regulation encouraged an increase in
    the amount of development close to the ocean.

b.  Coastal Erosion Reduction Zones exist in Sri Lanka in the nearest
    portions of the island to the coast (calling for setbacks of 50
    meters within the 300 meter zone) to reduce erosion and to protect
    and create vegetation buffers. Where they were enforced, they
    provided an additional factor of protection from the tsunami, but
    this regulation was rarely enforced on the island.

    -   Compliance with building codes, especially in residences and
        small businesses, was lacking and contributed to easier
        destruction of structures by the tsunami

    -   Beach access was not regularly distributed along the coast,
        making it difficult to find a way off the beaches.

D. Indonesian Reconstruction Agency

1.  The Indonesian government created a new agency to oversee
    reconstruction.[^58]

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a.  A multi-donor trust fund was also set up to handle \$500 million in
    grants, and international audit firms will work with the Indonesian
    government to try to ensure that the billions of dollars in aid
    pledged from public and private sources is spent as intended.

b.  A 3-year, 12-volume master plan for reconstruction has been
    developed.

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2.  While most displaced people are eager to go back to the sites of
    their homes, the government has other plans.[^59]

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a.  The draft plan calls for creating a \"green zone\" that would
    prohibit people from building within 2 kilometers of the water.

b.  Most of the displaced are likely to end up in the new \"transitional
    housing\" \-- plywood barracks \-- until a new plan is settled on.

![](media/image3.png){width="2.0833333333333335in" height="1.5625in"}

(source: <http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4500992>)

3.  Many people, however, are not waiting for the central government to
    carry out its 12-volume, three-year master plan for
    reconstruction.^59^

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a.  Many residents oppose the plan, and some are already erecting crude
    structures on their plots ^60^

b.  In Peuken Bada, some have given up waiting for the government. As
    the rain season begins, they are taking matters into their own
    hands, building shelters to replace the tents that many still rely
    on for shelter

c.  In Lamteungoh, Indonesia, a village of 250 people built a small
    community shelter. The U.S. Agency for International Development
    (USAID), has given the village \$33,000 in project money, which will
    provide the funding to residents to clean the land and build a
    community center, volleyball court and garden. Uplink, a consortium
    of Indonesian and international development groups, provided
    materials for 40 temporary homes.

```{=html}
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```
4.  The pace of reconstruction is uneven and frustrating to many
    villages and aid groups. ^59^

    a.  A half-hour drive east of Lamteungoh, the fishing village of
        Lambada Lhok is building an ice factory, fish market and
        cooperative store with help from a French aid organization.

        -   The fishermen have returned to the sea in boats spared by
            the tsunami, hauling in tuna that they sell to buy gold
            jewelry.

        -   Other villages, like Lamteungoh, have not much more than
            some temporary wood houses and a token government stipend
            for residents of 30 cents a day.

5.  The tension between the government\'s desire to rebuild cautiously
    and people\'s yearning for homes and jobs has been growing. ^59^

```{=html}
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```
a.  \"I don\'t care about any blueprint,\" said an Indonesian village
    chief, \"If I have to wait for the central government, it will be a
    long time,\" he said.

b.  With a sizable portion of the more than \$6 billion in aid promised
    for reconstructing Aceh, many residents have grown frustrated at the
    slow pace of repairs. ^60^

c.  Aid groups are also frustrated. Many reconstruction projects are on
    hold pending government approval. Some worry bureaucratic infighting
    \-- and Indonesia\'s reputation for corruption \-- will delay
    projects even further. ^60^

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```
6.  Most recent global news: World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz met on
    3 June 2005 with former US President Bill Clinton, Special Envoy for
    Tsunami Recovery, and other key stakeholders in the effort to
    rebuild countries hit by the Tsunami.[^60]

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```
a.  The Bank Group president believes there are big challenges ahead in
    coordinating the rebuilding effort and in guaranteeing the huge
    amount of money pledged gets to the people who need it.

b.  Wolfowitz says the World Bank wants to be helpful and will not bog
    down the process by insisting on being the lead agency. "We will be
    in the lead when we should be or a supporting role when that makes
    more sense."

c.  Wolfowitz said it is very important that someone of Mr. Clinton\'s
    stature has taken the lead role in trying to ensure sustainable
    results are delivered to the people of the affected regions.
    Clinton, he said, can help to break the logjam that appears to have
    developed among donor agencies and institutions to guarantee
    assistance gets to Tsunami survivors.

![](media/image4.jpeg){width="2.4583333333333335in"
height="2.1979166666666665in"}

World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz; and former US President and Special
Envoy of the Secretary-General, Bill Clinton. Photo: Courtesy UN

Source:
<http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,contentMDK:20525827~pagePK:64257043~piPK:437376~theSitePK:4607,00.html>

*Note to Instructor:* Efforts for reconstruction and recovery are
ongoing. Instructors are encouraged to visit the following websites that
are regularly updated for more up-to-date information. These websites
can provide valuable references for consultation before teaching the
session and also for sharing with students during the session. All
contain a wealth of information.

National Public Radio Tsunami Website:

[**http://www.npr.org/templates/topics/topic.php?topicId=1081**](http://www.npr.org/templates/topics/topic.php?topicId=1081)

The World Bank Tsunami Recovery Website:
[**http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/EXTTSUNAMI/0,,menuPK:621043\~pagePK:64168427\~piPK:64168435\~theSitePK:621037,00.html**](http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/EXTTSUNAMI/0,,menuPK:621043~pagePK:64168427~piPK:64168435~theSitePK:621037,00.html)

Lonely Planet Tsunami Update Website:

[**http://www.lonelyplanet.com/tsunami/index.cfm**](http://www.lonelyplanet.com/tsunami/index.cfm)

U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Tsunami Reconstruction
Website:

[**http://www.usaid.gov/locations/asia_near_east/tsunami/**](http://www.usaid.gov/locations/asia_near_east/tsunami/)

Pacific Disaster Management Information Network (PDMIN)

Center of Excellence In Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance
Website:

[**http://coe-dmha.org/Tsunami/Tsu012905.htm**](http://coe-dmha.org/Tsunami/Tsu012905.htm)

United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization Tsunami Reconstruction
Website:

[**http://www.fao.org/tsunami/**](http://www.fao.org/tsunami/)

\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

-   tsunamis.[^61]

[^1]: <http://pao.cnmoc.navy.mil/pao/Educate/OceanTalk2/indexoceans.htm>

[^2]: <http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/~small/Pop/HypsoDemo/S.E.Asia.html>

[^3]: <http://www.prh.noaa.gov/itic/library/about_tsu/faqs.html#8>

[^4]: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake#Quake_personality>

[^5]: Ellen Prager, Earth2Ocean Inc. Presentation content from Capitol
    Hill Oceans Week; Washington, DC, June 7, 2005

[^6]: <http://earthquake.usgs.gov/recenteqsww/Quakes/usslav.htm>

[^7]: <http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/feature/story/0,13026,1383675,00.html>

[^8]: <http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/211012_tsunamiscience07.html>

[^9]: <http://www.newscientist.com/channel/being-human/mg18524825.100>

[^10]: USGS FAQ, <http://earthquake.usgs.gov/faq/hist.html#1>

[^11]: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake#Human_component_in_magnitude_of_damage>

[^12]: <http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/sci;308/5725/1126>

[^13]: <http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20041228044643745C770443>

[^14]: <http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/bulletin/neic_slav_tz.html>)

[^15]: BBC News, [January 9](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_9),
    [2005](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005),
    <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4157947.stm>

[^16]: <http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/eqlists/eqsmosde.html>

[^17]: <http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/eqlists/eqsmosde.html>

[^18]: <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4383573.stm>

[^19]: <http://www.thelocal.se/guides/?to=earthquake>

[^20]: <http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6839>

[^21]: <http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4246573>

[^22]: <http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,18690-1422835,00.html>

[^23]: <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/01/01/ugeog.xml&sSheet=/portal/2005/01/01/ixportaltop.html>

[^24]: <http://www.lonelyplanet.com/tsunami/indonesia.cfm#overview>

[^25]: <http://thelightofday.blogspot.com/2005/04/eleventh-commandment-thou-shalt-be.html>

[^26]: <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/02/AR2005050201367.html>

[^27]: <http://www.bbc.co.uk/nottingham/content/articles/2005/04/28/features_people_2005_04_salvation_army_major_in_chennai_part_three_feature.shtml>

[^28]: <http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2004/tsunami.disaster/>

[^29]: <http://www.lonelyplanet.com/tsunami/india.cfm>

[^30]: <http://www.lonelyplanet.com/tsunami/thailand.cfm>

[^31]: [*http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6840*](http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6840)

[^32]: <http://www.lonelyplanet.com/tsunami/srilanka.cfm>

[^33]: [*http://www.ukabc.org/tsunamis.htm*](http://www.ukabc.org/tsunamis.htm)

[^34]: [*http://www.fao.org/tsunami/doc/Note_on_South_Asia_Tsunami_ES.doc*](http://www.fao.org/tsunami/doc/Note_on_South_Asia_Tsunami_ES.doc)

[^35]: [*http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=387928*](http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=387928)

[^36]: [*http://www.cnn.com/2005/TRAVEL/01/14/tsunami.tourists.ap/index.html*](http://www.cnn.com/2005/TRAVEL/01/14/tsunami.tourists.ap/index.html)

[^37]: <http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ce.html>

[^38]: <http://www.homestead.com/parkview/SoutheastAsia.html>

[^39]: [http://www.cipotato.org/urbanharvest/southeast%20asia.htm](http://www.cipotato.org/urbanharvest/southeast asia.htm)

[^40]: <http://www.askasia.org/Vietnam_Challenge/curric/middle/11.htm>

[^41]: <http://ioc.unesco.org/goos/HOTO4/Hoto4_a13.htm>

[^42]: <http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/OCEAN_PLANET/HTML/oceanography_geography_Indian.html>

[^43]: <http://sunsite.nus.edu.sg/asiasvc.html>

[^44]: [*http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4127433.stm*](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4127433.stm)

[^45]: [*http://washingtontimes.com/national/20041228-122330-7268r.htm*](http://washingtontimes.com/national/20041228-122330-7268r.htm)

[^46]: [*http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7193859*](http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7193859)

[^47]: [*http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&e=2&u=/ap/20041228/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_quake*](http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&e=2&u=/ap/20041228/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_quake)

[^48]: [*http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/12/31/us.aid/*](http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/12/31/us.aid/)

[^49]: *<http://www.bbc.co.uk/sinhala/news/story/2005/03/050317_laxman_london.shtml>*

[^50]: *<http://www.bbc.co.uk/sinhala/news/story/2005/03/050317_laxman_london.shtml>*

[^51]: [*http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4130599.stm*](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4130599.stm)

[^52]: *<http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,144109,00.html>*

[^53]: *<http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=12932&Cr=tsunami&Cr1>=*

[^54]: <http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d2/TsunamiAftermathNorthofPhuket_NASA.jpg>

[^55]: <http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/MediaAlerts/2005/2005060919243.html>

[^56]: Dr. M. Sanjayan, The Nature Conservancy. Presentation content
    from Capitol Hill Oceans Week; Washington, DC,

    June 7, 2005

[^57]: Jane Preuss. May, 2005. "Learning from Sri Lanka: A Wake Up Call
    for Coastal Hazards Mitigation". Natural

    Hazards Observer. Volume XXIX, Number 5. p.8-9.

[^58]: <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/02/AR2005050201367.html>

[^59]: [**http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4665465**](http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4665465)

[^60]: <http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,contentMDK:20525827~pagePK:64257043~piPK:437376~theSitePK:4607,00.html>

[^61]: \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_

    **Appendix A: Handouts**

    ***Handout 1.1 - Handout 1.3: available for photocopy and
    distribution to students***

    **Handout 1.1:** How it happened from on the ground: An American's
    story (excerpts included here with permission from the author)

    *"As some of you may know by now, I spent this Christmas break on a
    trip for a wedding in Sri Lanka, a trip that included a pleasant
    stopover in Zurich, a few days in Dubai, a week in south India, and
    a tsunami.  The last is a story that many people have asked to hear
    since I got home, so I thought I\'d send this email about it so I
    can tell everyone at the same time.  Please do not think this is the
    whole story \-- it is really just the best that I can do, the way I
    remember the events, and consciously leaving out some unnecessary
    details.  It\'s a long email, just to warn you ahead of time. But
    here it goes\...\
    *![](media/image1.png){width="0.20833333333333334in"
    height="0.15625in"}*\
    The wedding (two of my senior year college roommates, Anushka and
    Clint) was on Dec. 24 in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Anushka\'s parents had
    arranged for the next day an overnight trip to a beach a couple of
    hours south of Colombo, in a town called Bentota.  So Christmas day
    five of us \-- Nisha, Diane, Piya, Ryan and me - piled in a van and
    headed south.  Our hotel was a two story building directly on the
    beach and separated from the mainland by a river maybe 100m wide. We
    took a small boat across, checked in, and spent a pleasant evening
    swimming, sitting beside the beach, watching the sun set, having a
    nice dinner and laughing at the cheesy American music played at
    night over the sound system.  Our rooms were on the ground floor and
    faced the ocean, with floor to ceiling windows and sliding glass
    doors.\
    \
    The next morning we woke up early for breakfast which, we were told,
    would be over by 9:30am.  After breakfast we changed to swim, and
    were standing outside our rooms talking about swimming when we
    noticed the tide.  What we saw was that the water was lapping up
    against the vines that marked the hotel side of the beach.  The
    night before, the water line was at least 15-20 meters further out.
     We thought it was strange, and watched as the water crept up
    through the bushes to the small path between the beach and the hotel
    property.  We continued to watch because the water reached the fence
    that marked the edge of the hotel grounds, and it began to seep in
    onto the lawn and under the lawn furniture.  At this point I had my
    camera out of course, but we were asking the people around us if
    they had ever seen anything like this before.  Some of the hotel
    guests stood in the water ankle and then calf deep, watching in
    amusement.  One man stood in the water recording with his video
    camera.   Our group of 5 had moved from*
    ![](media/image1.png){width="0.20833333333333334in"
    height="0.15625in"}*the grass up a set of outdoor stairs, a few feet
    above the water to watch.\
    \
    No one remarked ever having seen anything like this before, and no
    one at this point had heard anything about an earthquake.  We made
    guesses that this could somehow be caused by the moon, like a very
    high tide.  After only barely reaching the doorways of our first
    floor rooms, this tide went out again.  It was a remarkable sight,
    because the tide went out farther and faster than I had ever seen a
    tide recede in my life.  Soon, it was hundreds of feet from the line
    of brush that marked the back edge of the beach, hundreds of feet
    further than it had been the night before.  A few of us I think
    darted into our rooms thinking in what we thought was a practical
    way that if the water did begin to seep into our rooms we would want
    our belongs up on beds and shelves, not sitting on the floor.  After
    moving most of our stuff up a couple feet, we ran excitedly back out
    to the beach to watch the water.  On our way out to the sand, we
    stopped to speak to a local man who was walking along the path near
    the fence in front of the hotel.  We asked him specifically if he
    had ever seen anything like this before.  Though I was also
    distracted by looking at the marks the water had left behind, I
    caught him saying he thought the tide would come back, and it would
    come back more strongly than the first time.\
    \
    Looking back on it, had we heard what he was trying to tell us and
    not what we expected to hear, we might have done a few things
    differently from this point on.  What he was probably telling us was
    the tide will be back very soon, and it may be very high.  What we
    heard was perhaps the next regular tide of the day will also be high
    like this one, and many hours from now it may begin to flood the
    lower rooms of the building.  Given that we \"heard\" something more
    like the latter story, we all proceeded to walk out on the*
    ![](media/image1.png){width="0.20833333333333334in"
    height="0.15625in"}*beach, along with a number of other tourists, to
    explore the changes the water left in the sand.  We even got caught
    up trying to help some fish find their way back to the ocean.  The
    possibility that the water would come back soon never really entered
    our minds.  Only maybe 15 minutes later, however, the first waves
    began pulling the tide back in, and we turned around heading back to
    the hotel again.  At this point, the tide was moving inland about as
    fast as we could jog up the beach.*

    *We hopped up the stairs on which we had retreated during the first
    tide, and this time almost all the hotel guests and staff had done
    the same thing, many watching from their second story rooms.  This
    time, the water poured through the fence and took in down in many
    places, picked up the lawn furniture, and flowed quickly into the
    hollow in front of the first floor rooms.  Instead of flowing around
    the pool, this time the ocean flowed into the pool, filling the
    bright blue water with a murky brown, and much of the nearby chairs
    and underbrush.  We watched the front of our\
    rooms while the water filled the walkway 2 feet lower than the lawn,
    churning and filling up against the sliding glass doors.\
    \
    At this point there is a short gap in my photo journal of these
    moments. This is basically because all I could physically do was
    watch the glass doors of our rooms and repeat in my head, \"please
    don\'t break.\"  Less than 10 minutes after the tide had turned, the
    water against the first floor of\
    the hotel was too heavy for the doors to withstand and one by one
    the glass doors burst inward.  I think I would call this a low point
    in our day, because, while we though that water might \"get into our
    rooms\", this really wasn\'t anything we could have ever imagined.
     Our first thoughts were for\
    our plane tickets, passports, and money, most of which was somewhere
    in the water in those rooms, now over three, maybe four feet high
    against the* ![](media/image1.png){width="0.20833333333333334in"
    height="0.15625in"}*walls.  I remember at the same time the
    excitement, and how happy we were that we were watching from above,
    safely out of our rooms and dry.  My photo journal picks up again
    minutes later when the water began to recede\
    again, but I only got a few more photos before it became clear that
    this was probably a great opportunity to try to retrieve our most
    important things from the rooms, if we could find them.\
    \
    Quickly we noticed a man wading out of the wreckage of his first
    floor doorway.  Amazingly, he and his wife were in their rooms when
    the water came through, and while he sustained a rather nasty gash
    on the top of his foot, he and his wife were stunned but ok.  The
    next thing we saw were many hotel staff already in the water,
    barefoot, helping the man up the steps, and generally taking stock
    of the situation across the property.  I decided that since I was
    wearing my Chacos sandals I was dressed much more appropriately than
    the staff to be walking in that water, so I walked over\
    to our rooms for whatever I could find.  With the water receding,
    already some of our things were floating out of the room and down
    the side of the hotel.  As we saw these things we snatched them up
    and handed them to people on the stairs.  The hotel staff was able
    to help me with one\
    suitcase I think before whistles started to blow signaling that the
    tide was coming back in.  I ran back to the stairs to wait, and then
    I repeated this procedure with everybody\'s help until, a couple
    tides later, we had retrieved most of our belongings.  We were very
    lucky \-- 4 of 5 of us were\
    able to recover the majority of our things, waterlogged and muddy,
    but mostly intact.  Nisha, unfortunately, lost almost all of her
    belongings. Ryan and I searched the room multiple times, and of the
    things I was able to retrieve for her, I found most of her stuff
    crammed into the bathroom\
    under pounds of mud and pieces of wrecked furniture.\
    *![](media/image1.png){width="0.20833333333333334in"
    height="0.15625in"}*\
    While this sounds a lot like an end to the story, and we thought if
    felt like one too, the next 3-4 hours or so found us waiting
    anxiously for boats to evacuate us.  The dilemma was that a river
    still separated the hotel guests and staff from the mainland, and in
    the first large surge of tide that broke the doors to our rooms, the
    river also swelled and washed away or destroyed all the boats that
    belonged to the hotel.  This was also about the time when we
    overheard stories that an earthquake had hit near Indonesia, and was
    the cause of it all.  After we moved our soggy suitcases upstairs to
    the second floor restaurant, I spent most of my time with Nisha
    sitting out on a roof/balcony on the river-side of the hotel,
    watching to see if anyone came with boats to help us. While for me
    the river was easier to watch than the ocean, it still wasn\'t a
    pretty sight.  The height\
    of the river fluctuated with the tides from the sea, but the river
    was full of trees, pieces of boats, and other debris.  Further down
    the river we could just see a whitewater area where clearly the
    ocean had broken across the peninsula making a new inlet to the
    river.  Diane and I had walked the beach that way the night before,
    and we are pretty sure it was the stretch of public beach where this
    occurred.  Nisha and I also heard what at first sounded like
    thunder, but after asking the staff that sat out their too, we
    discovered that it was the sound of buildings collapsing.  Soon a
    cloud of dust stretched out across the river and confirmed it.\
    \
    The highest tide we saw wasn\'t in fact the one that broke all those
    doors and windows, but came some time afterward, when we had already
    camped out in the restaurant attempting to dry some of our things.
     It is kind of funny now to see the photos we took of us smiling as
    a group, smiling\
    because we thought we had seen the worst of it and the rest was just
    a long* ![](media/image1.png){width="0.20833333333333334in"
    height="0.15625in"}*wait until we could leave.    Shortly after
    those group photos the tide came in again and this time it reached
    almost to the eaves that mark the transition from the first to the
    second floor, what I would guess is about\
    3 meters, or a little more.  For me, that wave took away any
    confidence that I had seen the worst of it, and as a group, we began
    to contemplate what our options would be if the water reached us
    before help did.  Our biggest problem was that Piya can\'t swim, and
    while many hotel guests and\
    some staff had managed to get their hands on life preservers, we
    didn\'t have one for Piya. Realistically we had no hope of being
    able to hold on to her while crossing the river.  I can\'t really
    describe how I felt at this point, or if I can, I don\'t really want
    to.\
    \
    It wasn\'t until we started seeing small boats on the river that my
    mind and body began to feel like my own again.  We talked as a group
    and Nisha and I agreed that we would try to get across the river on
    a boat first, because Ryan and Piya wanted to stay with the bags.
     Diane decided to stay with them.  It would be Nisha and my job to
    try to find our van and driver when we reached the other side.
     Helicopters pasted by overhead, and one actually landed on the
    beach at a low tide, retrieving maybe 10 people before taking off
    again.  We thought that might be a fun, and dry, method of getting
    away from the hotel, but no other helicopters ever came (we think
    that might have been lucky, because we have no idea where it
    ultimately went with all those people!) Instead, we waited our turn
    to get on a boat, retreating into the hotel when the river water
    rose periodically\
    enough to wash into the building.\
    \
    The story ends with all of us getting boats across, our luggage
    coming later and a4 or 5 hour van ride the long way back to Colombo
    (the fast road was washed over/away by the sea).  We arrived back in
    Colombo sometime*
    ![](media/image1.png){width="0.20833333333333334in"
    height="0.15625in"}*around midnight on the 26th, and luckily
    Nisha\'s uncle and his family were in town and put us up for the
    next two nights in probably the nicest hotel in the city."\
    \
    *

    **Handout 1.2:** Number of Deaths by Country (and Information
    Source)

    [Indonesia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_of_the_2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake_on_Indonesia):
    [126,915](http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=13713552) 

    ([*http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=13713552*](http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=13713552))

    [Sri
    Lanka](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_of_the_2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake_on_Sri_Lanka):
    [30,957](http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050305/wl_asia_afp/asiaquaketoll&cid=1530&ncid=2337)
    ([*http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050305/wl_asia_afp/asiaquaketoll&cid=1530&ncid=2337*](http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050305/wl_asia_afp/asiaquaketoll&cid=1530&ncid=2337))

    [India](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_of_the_2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake_on_India):
    [10,749](http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050305/wl_asia_afp/asiaquaketoll&cid=1530&ncid=2337)
    ([*http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050305/wl_asia_afp/asiaquaketoll&cid=1530&ncid=2337*](http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050305/wl_asia_afp/asiaquaketoll&cid=1530&ncid=2337))

    [Thailand](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_of_the_2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake_on_Thailand):
    [5,395](http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050305/wl_asia_afp/asiaquaketoll&cid=1530&ncid=2337)
    ([*http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050305/wl_asia_afp/asiaquaketoll&cid=1530&ncid=2337*](http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050305/wl_asia_afp/asiaquaketoll&cid=1530&ncid=2337))

    [Somalia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_of_the_2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake_on_Somalia):
    [298](http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050305/wl_asia_afp/asiaquaketoll&cid=1530&ncid=2337)
    ([*http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050305/wl_asia_afp/asiaquaketoll&cid=1530&ncid=2337*](http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050305/wl_asia_afp/asiaquaketoll&cid=1530&ncid=2337))

    [Maldives](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_of_the_2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake_on_the_Maldives):
    [82](http://www.tsunamimaldives.mv/?action=situationAssesment) 

    ([*http://www.tsunamimaldives.mv/?action=situationAssesment*](http://www.tsunamimaldives.mv/?action=situationAssesment))

    [Malaysia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_of_the_2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake_on_Malaysia):
    [68](http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050305/wl_asia_afp/asiaquaketoll&cid=1530&ncid=2337)
    ([*http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050305/wl_asia_afp/asiaquaketoll&cid=1530&ncid=2337*](http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050305/wl_asia_afp/asiaquaketoll&cid=1530&ncid=2337))

    [Myanmar
    (Burma)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_of_the_2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake_on_Myanmar):
    [61](http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=13713552) 

    ([*http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=13713552*](http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=13713552))

    [Tanzania](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Countries_affected_by_the_2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake#Countries_suffering_some_casualties_and_damage):
    [10](http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200501/s1275702.htm) 

    ([*http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200501/s1275702.htm*](http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200501/s1275702.htm))

    [Bangladesh](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Countries_affected_by_the_2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake#Countries_suffering_some_casualties_and_damage):
    [2](http://www.channelnewsasia.com/killerwaves) 

    ([*http://www.channelnewsasia.com/killerwaves*](http://www.channelnewsasia.com/killerwaves))

    [South
    Africa](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Countries_affected_by_the_2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake#Countries_suffering_some_casualties_and_damage):
    [2](http://www.capetimes.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=271&fArticleId=2357542) 

    ([*http://www.capetimes.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=271&fArticleId=2357542*](http://www.capetimes.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=271&fArticleId=2357542))

    [Seychelles](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Countries_affected_by_the_2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake#Countries_suffering_some_casualties_and_damage)
    [1](http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/fromthefield/110518441524.htm) ([*http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/fromthefield/110518441524.htm*](http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/fromthefield/110518441524.htm))
      

    **Handout 1.3: Country Socio-political Summaries**

    ######### Country Summaries 

    Indonesia^?^

    Location: Indonesia is an archipelago of 13,500 islands located in
    south-east Asia between Malaysia and Australia. It occupies a total
    area of 1,919,400 sq km of which 1,826,440 sq km is on land. The
    country has a 2,602 km land boundary (1,782 km with Malaysia and 820
    km with Papua New Guinea) and 54,716 km of coastline. It has a
    strategic location along major sea lanes from Indian Ocean to
    Pacific Ocean.

    Climate: Tropical, hot and humid, but more moderate in the
    highlands. The terrain is mostly coastal lowlands while larger
    islands have interior mountains. Indonesia has occasional floods,
    severe droughts, and deforestation.

    Natural resources: petroleum, tin, natural gas, nickel, timber,
    bauxite, copper, fertile soils, coal, gold and silver.

    Population: 197,232,428 (July 1993 est.). Nationals of Indonesia are
    known as Indonesian(s). The primary ethnic group is Javanese (45%)
    and Sundanese (14%).

    Religions and Languages: Muslim (87%). Languages spoken include
    Bahasa Indonesia (official), and English

    Government: a republic. The capital is Jakarta. The national holiday
    is on 17 August (1945).

    Malaysia^1^

    Location: bordering the South China Sea between Vietnam and
    Indonesia. It occupies a total area of 329,750 sq km of which
    328,550 sq km is on land. The country has 2,669 km of land
    boundaries and 4,675 km of coastline.

    Climate: tropical - annual south-west monsoons from April to October
    and north-east monsoons from October to February. Malaysia is
    subject to flooding. The terrain consists of costal plains rising to
    hills and mountains.

    Natural resources: tin, petroleum, timber, copper, iron ore, natural
    gas and bauxite.

    Population: 18,845,340 (July 1993 est.). Nationals of Malaysia are
    known as Malaysian(s). The population is made up mostly of Malay
    (59%) and Chinese (32%).

    Religions and Languages: Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu. Malay is the
    official language; English, Chinese dialects and Tamil are also
    spoken.

    Government: constitutional monarchy. The capital is Kuala Lumpur.
    The national holiday is on 31 August (1957).

    Burma^1^

    Location: borders the Bay of Bengal between Bangladesh and Thailand.
    This is a strategic location near major Indian Ocean shipping lanes.
    The country occupies a total of 678,500 sq km of which 657,740 sq km
    is land. The country has 1,930 km of coastline. It has a 5,876 km
    long land border, sharing 193 km with Bangladesh, 2,185 km with
    China, 1,463 km with India, 235 km with Laos and 1,800 km with
    Thailand

    Climate: a tropical monsoon climate - cloudy, rainy, hot, humid
    summers (south-west monsoon from June to September); less cloudy,
    scant rainfall, mild temperatures, lower humidity during winter
    (north-east monsoon from December to April). The terrain is marked
    by steep rugged highlands surrounding central lowlands. Burma is
    subject to destructive earthquakes and cyclones, flooding and
    landslides common during rainy season, and deforestation.

    Natural Resources: petroleum, timber, tin, antimony, zinc, copper,
    tungsten, lead, coal, some marble, limestone, precious stones and
    natural gas

    Population: 43,455,953 (July 1993 est.) consisting primarily of
    Burman (68%).

    Religions and Languages**:** Buddhist (89%). Nationals in Burma are
    known as Burmese and they speak mainly the Burmese language.

    Government: military regime. The capital is Rangoon. The country
    gained independence on 4 January 1948 from UK.

    Thailand^1^

    Location: on the Gulf of Thailand, between Burma and Cambodia. The
    country occupies a total area of 514,000 sq km of which 511,770 sq
    km is on land. It has a 4,863 km long land boundary and 3,219 km of
    coastline.

    Climate: tropical - rainy, warm cloudy south-west monsoon from
    mid-May to September and dry, cool north-east monsoon from November
    to mid-March. The terrain consists of a central plain, an eastern
    plateau and mountains elsewhere.

    Natural Resources: tin, rubber, natural gas, tungsten, tantalum,
    timber, lead, fish, gypsum, lignite and flourite.

    Population: 58,722,437 (July 1993 est.). Nationals of Thailand are
    known as Thai. 75% of the population are Thai and 14% are Chinese.

    Religions and Languages: Buddhism (95%); Thai and English.

    Government: constitutional monarchy. The capital is Bangkok.
    Thailand was founded in 1238 and was never colonized. The national
    holiday is His Majesty the King\'s birthday on 5 December (1927).

    Sri Lanka^1^

    Location: off the southeastern shore of India. The country is an
    island and occupies 65,610 sq km of land area with 1,340 km of
    coastline. It is mostly low, flat to rolling plain with mountains in
    the south-central interior reaching 2,524 meters at its highest
    peak.

    Climate: tropical monsoon; northeast monsoon (December to March);
    southwest monsoon (June to October)

    Natural Resources: limestone, graphite, mineral sands, gems,
    phosphates, clay, hydropower

    Population: 20,064,776. Sinhalese 74%, Tamil 18%, Moor 7%, Burgher,
    Malay, and Vedda 1%

    Religions and Languages: Buddhist 70%, Hindu 15%, Christian 8%,
    Muslim 7% (1999); Sinhala (official and national language) 74%,
    Tamil (national language) 18%, other 8%. English is commonly used in
    government and is spoken competently by about 10% of the population

    Government: republic; the capital is Colombo (note - Sri
    Jayewardenepura Kotte is the legislative capital); National holiday
    celebrates their independence from the UK on 4 February (1948).

    Bangledesh^1^

    Location: Southern Asia, bordering the Bay of Bengal, between Burma
    and India; total area is 144,000 sq km with the total land area
    equaling 133,910 sq km and 580 km of coastline. It is mostly flat
    alluvial plain, with hills in the southeast. Highest point is 1,230
    meters above sea level.

    Climate: tropical; mild winter (October to March); hot, humid summer
    (March to June); humid, warm rainy monsoon (June to October);
    droughts, cyclones; much of the country routinely inundated during
    the summer monsoon season

    Natural Resources: natural gas, arable land, timber, coal

    Population: 144,319,628 (July 2005 est.); many people are landless
    and forced to live on and cultivate flood-prone land; water-borne
    diseases prevalent in surface water; water pollution, especially of
    fishing areas, results from the use of commercial pesticides; ground
    water contaminated by naturally occurring arsenic; intermittent
    water shortages because of falling water tables in the northern and
    central parts of the country; soil degradation and erosion;
    deforestation; severe overpopulation

    Religions and Languages: Muslim 83%, Hindu 16%, other 1% (1998);
    Bangla (official, also known as Bengali), English

    Government: parliamentary democracy. Capital is Dhaka. Formerly, the
    country was named East Pakistan and it gained its independence when
    it seceded from its union with West Pakistan in 1971.

    India^1^

    Location: Southern Asia, bordering the Arabian Sea and the Bay of
    Bengal, between Burma and Pakistan. Total area is 3,287,590 sq km\
    with a land area of 2,973,190 sq km and coastline of 7,000 km.

    Climate: varies from tropical monsoon in south to temperate in
    north; has an upland plain called the Deccan Plateau in the south
    and flat to rolling plain along the Ganges, and the Himalayas in the
    north. Droughts; flash floods, as well as widespread and destructive
    flooding from monsoonal rains; severe thunderstorms; earthquakes.

    Natural Resources: coal (fourth-largest reserves in the world), iron
    ore, manganese, mica, bauxite, titanium ore, chromite, natural gas,
    diamonds, petroleum, limestone, arable land

    Population: 1,080,264,388 (July 2005 est.) with Indo-Aryan 72%,
    Dravidian 25%, Mongoloid and other 3% (2000)

    Religions and Languages: Hindu 81.3%, Muslim 12%, Christian 2.3%,
    Sikh 1.9%, other groups including Buddhist, Jain, Parsi 2.5% (2000).
    English enjoys associate status but is the most important language
    for national, political, and commercial communication; Hindi is the
    national language and primary tongue of 30% of the people; there are
    14 other official languages: Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Urdu,
    Gujarati, Malayalam, Kannada, Oriya, Punjabi, Assamese, Kashmiri,
    Sindhi, and Sanskrit; Hindustani is a popular variant of Hindi/Urdu
    spoken widely throughout northern India but is not an official
    language

    Government: federal republic. Capital is New Delhi. Obtained its
    independence on 15 August 1947 (from UK).

    Somalia^1^

    Location: Eastern Africa, bordering the Gulf of Aden and the Indian
    Ocean, east of Ethiopia with 2,340 km of land area and 3,025 km of
    coastline.

    Climate: principally desert; December to February - northeast
    monsoon, moderate temperatures in north and very hot in south; May
    to October - southwest monsoon, torrid in the north and hot in the
    south, irregular rainfall, hot and humid periods (tangambili)
    between monsoons. Recurring droughts; frequent dust storms over
    eastern plains in summer; floods during rainy season

    Natural resources: uranium and largely unexploited reserves of iron
    ore, tin, gypsum, bauxite, copper, salt, natural gas, likely oil
    reserves

    Population: 8,591,629

    *note:* this estimate was derived from an official census taken in
    1975 by the Somali Government; population counting in Somalia is
    complicated by the large number of nomads and by refugee movements
    in response to famine and clan warfare (July 2005 est.)

    Religions and Languages: Sunni Muslim; Somali (official), Arabic,
    Italian, English

    Government: no permanent national government; transitional,
    parliamentary federal government; Mogadishu is the capital.
    Foundation of the Somali Republic was on 1 July 1960.

    Kenya^1^

    Location: Eastern Africa, bordering the Indian Ocean, between
    Somalia and Tanzania; 569,250 sq km in area of land and 536 km of
    coastline.

    Climate: varies from tropical along coast to arid in interior;
    recurring drought; flooding during rainy seasons

    Natural resources: gold, limestone, soda ash, salt, gemstones,
    fluorspar, zinc, diatomite, gypsum, wildlife, hydropower

    Population: 33,829,590

    *note:* estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
    effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
    life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
    population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
    population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
    2005 est.)

    Religions and Languages: Protestant 45%, Roman Catholic 33%,
    indigenous beliefs 10%, Muslim 10%, other 2%; English (official),
    Kiswahili (official), numerous indigenous languages

    Government: republic; Nairobi is the capital and its independence
    day is on 12 December 1963 (from UK)

    Tanzania^1^

    Location: Eastern Africa, bordering the Indian Ocean, between Kenya
    and Mozambique; land area equals 886,037 sq km and the coastline is
    1,424 km long.

    Climate: varies from tropical along coast to temperate in highlands;
    flooding on the central plateau during the rainy season; drought

    Natural resources: hydropower, tin, phosphates, iron ore, coal,
    diamonds, gemstones, gold, natural gas, nickel

    Population: 6,766,356

    *note:* estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
    effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
    life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
    population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
    population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
    2005 est.)

    Religions and Languages: mainland - Christian 30%, Muslim 35%,
    indigenous beliefs 35%; Zanzibar - more than 99% Muslim; Kiswahili
    or Swahili (official), Kiunguja (name for Swahili in Zanzibar),
    English (official, primary language of commerce, administration, and
    higher education), Arabic (widely spoken in Zanzibar), many local
    languages

    Government: republic. The capital is Dar es Salaam and independence
    day is 26 April 1964.

    Madagascar ^1^

    Location: Southern Africa, island in the Indian Ocean, east of
    Mozambique; 581,540 sq km in land area and 4,828 km of coastline.

    Climate: tropical along coast, temperate inland, arid in south

    Natural resources: graphite, chromite, coal, bauxite, salt, quartz,
    tar sands, semiprecious stones, mica, fish, hydropower

    Population: 18,040,341

    Religions and Languages: indigenous beliefs 52%, Christian 41%,
    Muslim 7%; French (official), Malagasy (official)

    Government: republic. Capital is Antananarivo. 26 June 1960
    (independence from France)

    South Africa^1^

    Location: Southern Africa, at the southern tip of the continent of
    Africa; land area of 1,219,912 sq km and coastline of 2,798 km.

    Climate: mostly semiarid; subtropical along east coast; sunny days,
    cool nights

    Natural resources: gold, chromium, antimony, coal, iron ore,
    manganese, nickel, phosphates, tin, uranium, gem diamonds, platinum,
    copper, vanadium, salt, natural gas

    Population: 44,344,136

    *note:* estimates for this country explicitly take into account the
    effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower
    life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower
    population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of
    population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July
    2005 est.)

    Religions and Languages: Christian 68% (includes most whites and
    Coloreds, about 60% of blacks and about 40% of Indians), Muslim 2%,
    Hindu 1.5% (60% of Indians), indigenous beliefs and animist 28.5%;
    11 official languages, including Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, Pedi,
    Sotho, Swazi, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa, Zulu

    Government: republic; Cape Town is the legislative center and
    Bloemfontein the judicial center, but Pretoria is the capital;
    independence on 31 May 1910 (from UK)

    Maldives^1^

    Location: Southern Asia, group of atolls in the Indian Ocean,
    south-southwest of India; land area of 300 sq km and 644 km
    coastline.

    Climate: tropical; hot, humid; dry, northeast monsoon (November to
    March); rainy, southwest monsoon (June to August)

    Natural resources: fish

    Population: 349,106

    Religions and Languages: Sunni Muslim; Maldivian Dhivehi (dialect of
    Sinhala, script derived from Arabic), English spoken by most
    government officials

    Government: republic. Capital is Male and independence was gained on
    26 July 1965 (from UK).

    Seychelles^1^

    Location: Eastern Africa, group of islands in the Indian Ocean,
    northeast of Madagascar

    Climate: tropical marine; humid; cooler season during southeast
    monsoon (late May to September); warmer season during northwest
    monsoon (March to May)

    Natural resources: fish, copra, cinnamon trees

    Population: 81,188

    Religions and Languages: Roman Catholic 86.6%, Anglican 6.8%, other
    Christian 2.5%, other 4.1%; English (official), French (official),
    Creole

    Government: republic. Capital is Victoria. Independence 29 June 1976
    (from UK)

    Political Unrest in Region

    Eastern and western cultures differ, causing political unrest
    (contributing to difficulties with conducting relief efforts).
    Several examples of the diverse political issues in the region are
    below.

    Indonesia political background and current issues: ^1^

    The Dutch began to colonize Indonesia in the early 17th century; the
    islands were occupied by Japan from 1942 to 1945. Indonesia declared
    its independence after Japan\'s surrender, but it required four
    years of intermittent negotiations, recurring hostilities, and UN
    mediation before the Netherlands agreed to relinquish its colony.

    Current issues include:

    alleviating widespread poverty,

    preventing terrorism,

    continuing the transition to popularly-elected governments after
    four decades of authoritarianism,

    implementing reforms of the banking sector,

    addressing charges of cronyism and corruption,

    holding the military and police accountable for human rights
    violations,

    and resolving armed separatist movements in Aceh and Papua.

    Thailand political background and current issues: ^1^

    A unified Thai kingdom was established in the mid-14th century.
    Known as Siam until 1939, Thailand is the only Southeast Asian
    country never to have been taken over by a European power. A
    bloodless revolution in 1932 led to a constitutional monarchy.

    Thailand is currently facing armed violence in its three
    Muslim-majority southernmost provinces.

    Sri Lanka political background and current issues: ^1^

    The Sinhalese arrived in Sri Lanka late in the 6th century B.C.,
    probably from northern India. As Ceylon, it became independent from
    the British in 1948; its name was changed to Sri Lanka in 1972.
    Tensions between the Sinhalese majority and Tamil separatists
    erupted into war in 1983. Tens of thousands have died in an ethnic
    conflict that continues to fester.

    Since the outbreak of hostilities between the government and armed
    Tamil separatists, several hundred thousand Tamil civilians have
    fled the island; as of yearend 2000.

    India political background and current issues: ^1^

    The Indus Valley civilization, one of the oldest in the world, dates
    back at least 5,000 years. Nonviolent resistance to British
    colonialism led by Mohandas Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru brought
    independence in 1947. The subcontinent was divided into the secular
    state of India and the smaller Muslim state of Pakistan. A third war
    between the two countries in 1971 resulted in East Pakistan becoming
    the separate nation of Bangladesh.

    Despite impressive gains in economic investment and output, India
    faces pressing problems such as:

    the ongoing dispute with Pakistan over Kashmir,

    massive overpopulation,

    environmental degradation,

    extensive poverty, and

    ethnic and religious strife.

    Somalia political background and current issues: ^1^

    The Siad Barre regime was ousted in January 1991; turmoil, factional
    fighting, and anarchy have followed in the years since.

    In May of 1991, northern clans declared an independent Republic of
    Somaliland. Although not recognized by any government, this entity
    has maintained a stable existence, aided by the overwhelming
    dominance of a ruling clan and economic infrastructure left behind
    by British, Russian, and American military assistance programs.

    A neighboring self-declared autonomous state of Puntland, which has
    been self-governing since 1998, does not aim at independence; it has
    also made strides towards reconstructing a legitimate,
    representative government, but has suffered some civil strife.

    Beginning in 1993, a two-year UN humanitarian effort (primarily in
    the south) was able to alleviate famine conditions, but when the UN
    withdrew in 1995, having suffered significant casualties, order
    still had not been restored.

    Suspicion of Somali links with global terrorism further complicates
    the picture.

    **Appendix B: Course Developer References**

    <http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ce.html>

    <http://www.homestead.com/parkview/SoutheastAsia.html>

    [http://www.cipotato.org/urbanharvest/southeast%20asia.htm](http://www.cipotato.org/urbanharvest/southeast asia.htm)

    <http://www.askasia.org/Vietnam_Challenge/curric/middle/11.htm>

    <http://tourism.gov.my/statistic/default.asp>

    <http://ioc.unesco.org/goos/HOTO4/Hoto4_a13.htm>

    <http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/OCEAN_PLANET/HTML/oceanography_geography_Indian.html>

    <http://sunsite.nus.edu.sg/asiasvc.html>

    <http://pao.cnmoc.navy.mil/pao/Educate/OceanTalk2/indexoceans.htm>

    <http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/~small/Pop/HypsoDemo/S.E.Asia.html>

    <http://www.prh.noaa.gov/itic/library/about_tsu/faqs.html#8>

    <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake#Quake_personality>

    <http://earthquake.usgs.gov/recenteqsww/Quakes/usslav.htm>

    <http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/feature/story/0,13026,1383675,00.html>

    <http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/211012_tsunamiscience07.html>

    <http://www.newscientist.com/channel/being-human/mg18524825.100>

    <http://earthquake.usgs.gov/faq/hist.html#1>

    <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake#Human_component_in_magnitude_of_damage>

    <http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/sci;308/5725/1126>

    <http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20041228044643745C770443>

    <http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/bulletin/neic_slav_tz.html>)

    <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4157947.stm>

    <http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/eqlists/eqsmosde.html>

    <http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/eqlists/eqsmosde.html>

    <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4383573.stm>

    <http://www.thelocal.se/guides/?to=earthquake>

    <http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6839>

    <http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4246573>

    <http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,18690-1422835,00.html>

    <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/01/01/ugeog.xml&sSheet=/portal/2005/01/01/ixportaltop.html>

    <http://www.lonelyplanet.com/tsunami/indonesia.cfm#overview>

    <http://thelightofday.blogspot.com/2005/04/eleventh-commandment-thou-shalt-be.html>

    <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/02/AR2005050201367.html>

    <http://www.bbc.co.uk/nottingham/content/articles/2005/04/28/features_people_2005_04_salvation_army_major_in_chennai_part_three_feature.shtml>

    <http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2004/tsunami.disaster/>

    <http://www.lonelyplanet.com/tsunami/india.cfm>

    <http://www.lonelyplanet.com/tsunami/thailand.cfm>

    <http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6840>

    <http://www.lonelyplanet.com/tsunami/srilanka.cfm>

    <http://www.ukabc.org/tsunamis.htm>

    <http://www.fao.org/tsunami/doc/Note_on_South_Asia_Tsunami_ES.doc>

    <http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=387928>

    <http://www.cnn.com/2005/TRAVEL/01/14/tsunami.tourists.ap/index.html>

    <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4127433.stm>

    <http://washingtontimes.com/national/20041228-122330-7268r.htm>

    <http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7193859>

    <http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&e=2&u=/ap/20041228/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_quake>

    <http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/12/31/us.aid/>

    <http://www.bbc.co.uk/sinhala/news/story/2005/03/050317_laxman_london.shtml>

    <http://www.bbc.co.uk/sinhala/news/story/2005/03/050317_laxman_london.shtml>

    <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4130599.stm>

    <http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,144109,00.html>

    <http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=12932&Cr=tsunami&Cr1>=

    <http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d2/TsunamiAftermathNorthofPhuket_NASA.jpg>

    <http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/MediaAlerts/2005/2005060919243.html>

    <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/02/AR2005050201367.html>

    [**http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4665465**](http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4665465)

    <http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,contentMDK:20525827~pagePK:64257043~piPK:437376~theSitePK:4607,00.html>

    **[Appendix C: Power Point Graphics Citations]{.mark}**

    **[Part I: Session 1]{.mark}**

    **PowerPoint 1.1**

    (Courtesy: <http://www.nasa.gov/>)

    **PowerPoint 1.2**

    (Courtesy: <http://sunsite.nus.edu.sg/asiasvc.html>)

    (Courtesy: <http://homepage.mac.com/demark/tsunami/2.html>)

    **Power Point 1.3**

    (Courtesy:
    <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake_-_affected_countries.png>)

    (Courtesy:
    <http://www.washcoll.edu/wc/news/press_releases/images/tsunami_map.gif>)

    **PowerPoint 1.4**

    (Courtesy:
    <http://tourism.gov.my/statistic/hotels_rooms_supply.asp>)

    **PowerPoint 1.5** What is a Tsunami?

    (Courtesy:
    <http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/~small/Pop/HypsoDemo/S.E.Asia.html>)

    (Courtesy: USGS)

    (Courtesy:
    <http://ace.acadiau.ca/science/geol/rraeside/quizzes/worldmap3i.htm>**)**

    **PowerPoint 1. 6**

    (Courtesy:
    <http://cse.ssl.berkeley.edu/lessons/indiv/davis/inprogress/QuakesEng3.html>)

    (Courtesy:
    <http://www.santegidio.org/it/amicimondo/salvador/foto1.htm>)

    (Courtesy:
    <http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/volcano/gifs/volcanodiagram.GIF>)

    (Courtesy:
    [http://ffden-2.phys.uaf.edu/645fall2003_web.dir/elena_suleimani/generation\_
    small.mov](http://ffden-2.phys.uaf.edu/645fall2003_web.dir/elena_suleimani/generation_ small.mov)
    **)**

    **PowerPoint 1**.**7**

    (Courtesy: NOAA)

    (Courtesy: <http://es.ucsc.edu/~ward/indo.mov>[)]{.underline}

    (Courtesy:
    [http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/world/04/tsunami/swf
    /tsunami.swf?path=/nol/
    shared/spl/hi/world/04/tsunami/)]{.underline}

    **PowerPoint 1**.**8**

    (Courtesy:
    <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake#Human_component_in_magnitude_of_damage>)

    **PowerPoint 1.9**

    (Courtesy: [www.reliefweb.int](http://www.reliefweb.int/))

    (Courtesy:
    [http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2004/tsunami.disaster](http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2004/tsunami.disaster/))

    (Courtesy: <http://www.guardian.co.uk/flash/0,5860,1380592,00.html>)

    **PowerPoint 1.10**

    (Courtesy: <http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2004/tsunami.disaster>)

    (Courtesy:
    <http://ffden-2.phys.uaf.edu/645fall2003_web.dir/elena_suleimani/runup4.mov>)

    **PowerPoint 1.11**

    (Courtesy: NASA Earth Observatory)

    **PowerPoint 1.12**

    (Courtesy: <http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2004/tsunami.disaster>)

    (Courtesy: <http://www.lonelyplanet.com/tsunami/srilanka.cfm>)

    **PowerPoint 1.13**

    (Courtesy:
    <http://www.washcoll.edu/wc/news/press_releases/05_01_04_tsunami.html>)

    (Courtesy:
    <http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4500992>)

    (Courtesy:
    <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanitarian_response_to_the_2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake>)

    **PowerPoint 1.14**

    (Courtesy:
    <http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d2/TsunamiAftermathNorthofPhuket_NASA.jpg>)

    (Courtesy:
    <http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,contentMDK:20525827~pagePK:64257043~piPK:437376~theSitePK:4607,00.html>)

    (Courtesy:
    <http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4500992>)