3.9A+Case+Studies

=9A Case Studies:=

HIC Hurricane: Hurricane Wilma:
**When?** Monday October 24, 2005 around 5 o'clock in the evening **How bad?** Winds of 195km with gusts up to 215km ( cat 3) **Storm surge** – less than expected at 2.4m


 * Impacts **
 * Death: 6 directly caused by the hurricane due to wind-blown debris and another 23 caused during the response.
 * Infrastructure damage- several flyover junctions were severely damages. High rise offices and flats also received damage too. Mobile homes, quite popular with retirees were turned into match wood[[image:3.9A.3_H_Wilma_3.png width="404" height="245" align="right"]]
 * 3 million + lost power some for a couple of weeks
 * Water was contaminated and had to be boiled in many areas for a week or 2


 * Economic impact **
 * Recall the forces of the storm was greater in the LICs than the HICs but look at the cost?
 * Work buildings in Florida mostly were effected too which prevented the people from going to work which added to the cost.
 * Also Florida's sugar and citrus industry was hard hit; the cropping season had already started and had to be halted indefinitely. Damage to sugarcane crops was critical and widespread.“

media type="youtube" key="trbel8g-Z90?fs=1" height="423" width="528" align="center"

LIC Earthquake: Haiti
media type="youtube" key="9slp0SI_BSs" height="390" width="640" Probably one of the best sites is:@http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10596902 - there are loads of links to other articles there:

When?
12th January 2010 at 16.53 (about tea-time) local time It was a 7.0 magnitude earthquake. But as we know this only tells as the size of the earthquake not the damage it does. Look at the level of shaking!

Impacts
217,000–230,000 dead 300,000 injured 1,000,000 homeless 250,000 residences and 30,000 commercial buildings collapsed or severely damaged This is a big earthquake, but why were the number so high? Were they high in fact or is this reasonable for an earthquake that size? Let’s see

Why did so many people die in Haiti: Three Earthquakes
OK, so the Italian earthquake was much less powerful – less than 1/10 of the Chinese one but … And what about New Zealand? A 7.0-magnitude earthquake has struck off New Zealand's South Island at 4.35 on Saturday morning, 4th September 2010. The epicentre was 55km north-west of Christchurch, at a depth of 12 km – and no-none was killed! But as you can see, there is still a fair amount of mess – might not have been so good a result if it had been when the streets were busy.

But is not just deaths:
With injury and homelessness, the story is a little different

The difference appears to be much more in line with the quake strength – although Haiti’s injuries appear higher than expected

media type="youtube" key="Km5fSmJXaec" height="385" width="640" align="center"

media type="custom" key="6840301" align="center"

media type="custom" key="6953565"

Evidence of Long term future planning (also of lack of pre-planning!!!) in Haiti
In Studying Haiti, a New Angle on an Earthquake’s Intensity By HENRY FOUNTAIN [] Summary: reasons why the earthquake was so severe – Original thoughts: Summary: reasons why the earthquake was so severe – recent findings: media type="custom" key="7478903"
 * the proximity of the city to the fault that caused the shaking,
 * shoddy construction that allowed thousands of buildings to easily crumble
 * the nature of the rock, being sedimentary, carried the vibrations further and with greater amplification (bigger waves)
 * A narrow ridge of hard rock seems to have vibrated even more than expected – this are contained better built hotels/businesses which were still really badly damaged. Until recently these anomalies had been known about but written off an unexplainable flukes
 * These findings will help plan which areas should be redeveloped and which should be avoided – microzonation maps
 * The only single seismometer on Haiti was an educational instrument that was set up wrong – quote scientist. . “When the earthquake happened, it went dancing around on its little feet,” she said. “It did make a record, but it wasn’t very useful.” They now have 8 on the ridge and on the sedimentary rocks correctly installed!

A really good find for future planning in Haiti
The Interim Haiti Recovery commission and in partiuclar their Goals which look in partiuclar and short term (months) and long term (5 Year) plans for various aspects e.g. agriculture, education, housing etc. Well worth a trawl. media type="custom" key="8034480"