Before December 26, 2004, only a few Sri Lankans knew what the word Tsunami (Big Wave in Japanese) meant, leave alone experienced it. But that fateful Boxing Day changed everything for Sri Lankans and practically everyone in the Indian Ocean region. In fact, it was the biggest tsunami in recent history. It caused an estimated 227,000 fatalities in 14 countries, with Indonesia, Sri Lanka (40,000 deaths), India and Thailand hardest-hit.
Tsunamis are rare events, but can be extremely deadly. The world may have experienced tsunamis well before history was recorded by man. An ancient skull dating back more than 6,000 years may have belonged to the earliest known human victim of a tsunami, say scientists. The Aitape skull - named after a small coastal town in the north of Papua New Guinea, where it was found - was discovered in 1929 by Australian geologist Paul S. Hossfeld. Since then, archaeologists and anthropologists have been trying to unravel the circumstances that resulted in it ending up there. The most recent study, published Wednesday, suggests the skull may have belonged to a human who drowned in a tsunami or had his or her grave displaced by the tsunami’s waves.
Natural hazard
Tsunamis and their effects have been recorded meticulously in the past few centuries. In the past 100 years, 58 of them have claimed more than 260,000 lives, or an average of 4,600 per disaster, surpassing any other natural hazard. Just three weeks after the Boxing Day tsunami, the international community came together in Kobe, in Japan’s Hyogo region to address the threat posed by tsunamis. The participating Governments adopted the 10-year Framework for Action, the first comprehensive global agreement on disaster risk reduction that included tsunamis.
They also created the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System, which boasts scores of seismographic and sea-level monitoring stations and disseminates alerts to national tsunami information centres. This system is fully operational now. It can quickly detect undersea earthquakes, discern whether or not they will produce a tsunami, monitor how ocean waves are propagating, and predict where they might end up. This detection and monitoring network then provides information to the region’s three tsunami warning centres in Australia, Indonesia, and India. Even for so-called near-field tsunamis which can sometimes hit within 10 to 15 minutes, the system should be able to give at least a few minutes heads-up for affected populations.
The public can be informed via siren stations, radio and TV and text message. The world learnt a bitter lesson in December 2004 when most countries failed to act on the warning issued by the US Geological Survey and authorities at ground level did not possess any means to communicate the warning to the community.
Nearly 14 years later, there is much more awareness on tsunamis. Coastal communities that hear of an earthquake in Indonesia or nearby now immediately get ready to vacate their houses, until the authorities reassure them that no danger is posed. But, more must be done to educate the public on tsunamis. With this aim in mind, in December 2015, the UN General Assembly designated November 5 as World Tsunami Awareness Day.
The World Tsunami Awareness Day was the brainchild of Japan, which due to its repeated, bitter experience has over the years built up major expertise in areas such as, tsunami early warning, public action and building back better after a disaster to reduce future impacts. Japan has suffered a lot over the centuries from tsunamis, most recently in 2011, which also resulted in nuclear catastrophe.
Education and awareness is much needed. For example, in tsunami-prone Chile, children are taught in school that if the earthquake is strong enough to throw you to the ground, they should run for high ground the minute they can get up. Indeed, technology alone cannot save lives - the warning system has to work with existing infrastructure limitations and preparedness of local authorities.
The date for the annual celebration was chosen in honour of the Japanese story of “Inamura-no-hi”, meaning the “burning of the rice sheaves”. During an 1854 earthquake a farmer saw the tide receding, a sign of a looming tsunami. He set fire to his entire harvest to warn villagers, who fled to high ground. Afterwards, he built an embankment and planted trees as a buffer against future waves. The villager has been proved correct on countless more occasions, as trees, coral reefs and mangroves have been proved to reduce the impact of the deadly waves.
The biggest danger is that earthquakes and subsequent tsunamis cannot be predicted beforehand. Scientists can however estimate the possibility of a tsunami that follows an undersea quake or a landslide. This means, only a couple of hours could be available for evacuation. Rapid urbanization and growing tourism in tsunami-prone regions are putting ever-more people in harm’s way. Scientists say, tsunamis can occur in some of the world’s biggest lakes as well. (A lake tsunami was recorded on September 18, 1601, at Lake Lucerne in central Switzerland). That makes the reduction of risk a key factor if the world is to achieve substantial reductions in disaster mortality – a primary goal of the Sendai Framework, the 15-year international agreement adopted in March 2015 to succeed the Hyogo Framework.
The UN General Assembly has called on all countries, international bodies and civil society to observe the Tsunami Awareness Day, in order to raise tsunami awareness and share innovative approaches to risk reduction. For the second year in a row, the Tsunami Awareness Day will align with the International Day for Disaster Reduction. The latter aims at reducing deaths and injuries caused by natural disasters worldwide.
Coastal countries
Scientists are still learning about tsunamis so that deaths and injuries could be reduced, if not prevented altogether. Tsunami research is an exciting and rewarding field. Although most tsunami research still takes place in Japan, other countries are joining the bandwagon. Sri Lanka should also set up a tsunami research station with foreign expertise, perhaps, as an extension of the Geological Survey and Mines Bureau. Tsunami research involves everything from tsunami modeling to predictions and is essential for coastal countries.
A tsunami is also a very traumatic event. Are we prepared for another such event ? It is very difficult to get shattered lives back on track - what do you say to a little girl who had lost her entire family to the raging waves? To parents who lost all their children? While tsunami affected people can be provided with jobs and housing, there will always be those who cannot come to terms with their loss. There must be a mechanism to deal with this kind of psychological emergency. The response to a tsunami should be multifaceted and swift.