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TSUNAMIS

CYCLONES

EARTHQUAKES

PANDEMICS

฀ VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS

FROM THE MAKERS OF

NATURAL

DISASTERS

FIRST EDITION

Digital Edition

REAL-LIFE EVENTS THAT ALTERED THE COURSE OF HUMAN HISTORY

NATURAL DISASTERS Natural disasters have threatened the safety and survival of the human race since time immemorial. Hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis and pandemics have all had a devastating effect on populations. The Book of Natural Disasters takes an in-depth look at some of the biggest tragedies to have struck humankind throughout history. From the destruction of Pompeii and the ravages of the Black Death, to Hurricane Katrina and the Indian Ocean Tsunami, a whole host of deadly modern and historic events are covered here. Find out how communities rallied together in the face of great adversity to organise rescue efforts, and how scientists are working to help countries be better prepared when catastrophe strikes. Read the stories of eyewitnesses and interviews with experts in an effort to understand the natural disasters that altered the course of human history.

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Editorial Editor Hannah Westlake Designer Briony Duguid Editorial Director Jon White Senior Art Editor Andy Downes Cover images Getty Images, Wiki Photography All copyrights and trademarks are recognised and respected Advertising Media packs are available on request Commercial Director Clare Dove [email protected] International International Licensing Director Matt Ellis [email protected] Circulation Head of Newstrade Tim Mathers Production Head of Production Mark Constance Production Project Manager Clare Scott Advertising Production Manager Joanne Crosby Digital Editions Controller Jason Hudson Production Managers Keely Miller, Nola Cokely, Vivienne Calvert, Fran Twentyman Management !ǝǣƺǔ…ȵƺȸƏɎǣȒȇɀ…ǔˡƬƺȸAaron Asadi Commercial Finance Director Dan Jotcham Head of Art & Design Greg Whitaker Printed by William Gibbons, 26 Planetary Road, Willenhall, West Midlands, WV13 3XT Distributed by Marketforce, 5 Churchill Place, Canary Wharf, London, E14 5HU www.marketforce.co.uk Tel: 0203 787 9001 Natural Disasters © 2018 Future Publishing Limited We are committed to only using magazine paper which is derived from responsibly managed, ƬƺȸɎǣˡƺƳǔȒȸƺɀɎȸɵƏȇƳƬǝǼȒȸǣȇƺ‫ٮ‬ǔȸƺƺȅƏȇɖǔƏƬɎɖȸƺِÁǝƺȵƏȵƺȸǣȇɎǝǣɀȅƏǕƏɿǣȇƺɯƏɀɀȒɖȸƬƺƳ and produced from sustainable managed forests, conforming to strict environmental and socioeconomic standards. The manufacturing paper mill holds full FSC (Forest ³ɎƺɯƏȸƳɀǝǣȵ!ȒɖȇƬǣǼ٣ƬƺȸɎǣˡƬƏɎǣȒȇƏȇƳƏƬƬȸƺƳǣɎƏɎǣȒȇ All contents © 2018 Future Publishing Limited or published under licence. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be used, stored, transmitted or reproduced in any way without the prior written permission of the publisher. Future Publishing Limited (company number ‫דזזז׎׎א‬٣ǣɀȸƺǕǣɀɎƺȸƺƳǣȇ0ȇǕǼƏȇƳƏȇƳáƏǼƺɀِ«ƺǕǣɀɎƺȸƺƳȒǔˡƬƺ‫ي‬ªɖƏɵRȒɖɀƺًÁǝƺȅƫɖȸɵً Bath BA1 1UA. All information contained in this publication is for information only and is, as far as we are aware, correct at the time of going to press. Future cannot accept any responsibility for errors or inaccuracies in such information. You are advised to contact manufacturers and retailers directly with regard to the price of products/services referred to in this publication. Apps and websites mentioned in this publication are not under our control. We are not responsible for their contents or any other changes or updates to them. This magazine is fully independent ƏȇƳȇȒɎƏǔˡǼǣƏɎƺƳǣȇƏȇɵɯƏɵɯǣɎǝɎǝƺƬȒȅȵƏȇǣƺɀȅƺȇɎǣȒȇƺƳǝƺȸƺǣȇِ

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Part of the

bookazine series

CONTENTS 8

THE HAITI EARTHQUAKE Haiti was brought to its knees when an earthquake struck in 2010

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CYCLONE NARGIS The worst natural disaster in Myanmar’s recorded history made landfall in 2008

18 SPANISH FLU In 1918, Spanish Flu killed more people than World War I

28 HURRICANE IRMA Irma’s trail of destruction is a reminder of nature’s fury and indiference

32 TYPHOON HAIYAN A powerful typhoon battered the Philippines and other South East Asian countries

36 EAST AFRICA DROUGHT How humans turned a disaster into a catastrophe by not taking action

40 POMPEII The story of the dramatic destruction of a great Roman city

46 THE CHRISTCHURCH EARTHQUAKE 22 February 2011 started out just like any other day in Christchurch, New Zealand

52 HURRICANE KATRINA Hurricane Katrina became the most expensive natural disaster in US history

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60 MOUNT PINATUBO As a typhoon struck the Philippines, Mount Pinatubo blew its top

64 TOHOKU EARTHQUAKE & FUKISHIMA MELTDOWN A trio of disasters sent the capital of Japan into meltdown

70 EUROPEAN HEAT WAVE The searing heat of August 2003 proved to be a silent killer

76 SARS The race to cure a virus infecting thousands of people across the world

82 SAN FRANCISCO EARTHQUAKE San Francisco burned in the days following a devastating earthquake

86 YANGTZE RIVER FLOODS The most deadly natural disaster of the 20th century

90 MOUNT ST HELENS The eruption of Mount St Helens caused the biggest landslide ever seen

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90

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18 96 BHOLA CYCLONE The Bhola cyclone was one of the most deadly weather events of all time

100 INDIAN OCEAN TSUNAMI A monstrous tsunami headed for the Boxing Day beaches of South East Asia

134

106 2005 KASHMIR EARTHQUAKE How an earthquake developed into a monumental humanitarian catastrophe

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110 THE ARMERO TRAGEDY In the blink of an eye, a mudslide wiped out an entire town

116 HURRICANE ANDREW Andrew was one of the most destructive Category Five storms ever

122 TANGSHAN EARTHQUAKE The industrial city of Tangshan is brought to its knees

128 THE BLACK DEATH The terrifying true story of the outbreak that crippled the world

134 CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES California burned for weeks and over 1 million acres of land was destroyed

140 THE GREAT KANTO EARTHQUAKE It lasted less than 10 minutes, but killed over 100,000 people

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40 7

HAITI EARTHQUAKE

THE HAITI EARTHQUAKE In 2010, an impoverished nation used to adverse tropical weather was struck by an earthquake that brought it to its knees

arch 2008. Five scientists are attending the 18th Caribbean Geological Conference in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. The gathering of scientific minds, which comes together to discuss everything from seismic activity to the production of hydrocarbons, is always a colourful experience due to the lively geological nature of the Caribbean. But these five men aren’t here to share any good tidings. Their research has produced some frightening results and they’ve come to the Dominican Republic not just to share their valuable data, but to try to convince authorities that something terrible is stirring: Hispaniola’s two major east-west trending strike-slip faults, the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden Fault in the south and the Septentrional Fault in the north, are due for a major seismic event. Using a series of GPS readings, the team predicts the region will suffer an earthquake on a magnitude of 7.2. The faults also run beneath the Haitian city of Port-au-Prince, meaning the most populated locale in the region would endure the very worst of the quake. The news worsens when the team reveals that the seismic tantrum could kick off at any moment, a ticking geological time bomb primed to explode with little or no warning. The findings don’t fall on deaf ears – in fact, representatives from the Haitian government meet with the scientists to discuss their data but the fact remains Haiti simply doesn’t have the time, or the resources, to build any sort of protection for its citizens. Unlike Japan – which began reinforcing buildings and conducting regular earthquake drills following the devastating event in Tokyo in 1994 – Haiti is simply too poor a nation to be able to erect any kind of meaningful defence. “We had talked to a number of government officials about the risk and they were very receptive. They just didn’t have enough time to do much to prepare for such

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an event, especially with Haiti’s other pressing problems,” recalled Eric Calais, one of the members of that team and a geophysicist at Purdue University in West Lafayette, in a 2010 interview with Earth Magazine. Before that fateful day in 2010, Haiti was no stranger to the trials and tribulations of tropical weather and geological activity. Those “pressing problems” were numerous and constant. Between 2001 and 2007, tropical cyclones and floods left more than 18,000 dead and 132,000 homeless, with approximately 6.4 million people affected (the total population of Haiti is about 10 million). During the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season alone, Haiti had been rocked by Tropical Storm Fay, and Hurricanes Gustav, Hanna and Ike, all of which hit the country within a month. This cabal of tropical events left over 800,000 people displaced. The populous city of Port-au-Prince, the rest of Haiti and the island of Hispaniola as a whole is one of many ecological punch bags that continues to soak up the blows thrown their way. This nation had known hardship its entire life, from the bloody grip of the French slave colonies to the realities of sustaining itself following independence (gang violence had been a serious issue since the 1980s), so Haiti already had a bloody nose when the plates beneath the region shifted. As Port-au-Prince and the rest of Haiti begins to wind down after a long day on 12th January 2010, its positioning above the North American plate to the north and the Caribbean plate to the south comes into play. These two plates are slowly shifting past one other, as the Caribbean plate moves from west to east. Between them lies a set of interconnected fault lines that pass through Haiti – the first, the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden Fault, runs through the south of the country, while the Septentrional Fault runs through the north. This creates an unusual geological composition known as a ‘strike-slip’ fault – similar to the San Andreas

HAITI EARTHQUAKE

IN BRIEF Q Death toll: 316,000 Q Port-au-Prince, Haiti Q 12th January 2010

© Alamy

Haiti was not prepared for the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck on 12th January 2010. As a poor nation, Haiti was unable to withstand the shock of impact.

9

HAITI EARTHQUAKE

Fault that runs beneath California – meaning the plates slide horizontally past one another, rather than one slipping under the other. There’s very little warning before the quake kicks into action, most of which comes down to the fact very little research of the region and its geological makeup has been performed prior to the 2010 quake. Scientists simply didn’t have enough data to predict when the event would occur, only knowing that it could happen at any time. So when the quake strikes, there’s little time for evacuation. At 4.53pm, the earthquake hits with full force. The day is drawing to a close, but the streets are still full of people, the roads still full of cars and traffic. Buildings across the city of Port-au-Prince start to shake with a terrible violence. Glass windows instantly shatter, raining razor-sharp shards onto the streets below. Walls crack and crumble, collapsing in on themselves as the very earth beneath Haitian feet spasms with a terrifying

intensity. On the hills surrounding the city, buildings as high as nine storeys crumble inwards and begin flattening down the elevation, creating a wave of concrete and rubble. Car alarms ring everywhere. Screams and cries of panic fill the air. Entire concrete walls are ripped from where they previously stood and thrown like strips of paper against other structures. The quake doesn’t cause any surface rupture (large cracks or chasms in the ground near a quake’s path of destruction), but the shaking registers with an intensity of IX on the Modified Mercalli scale (MM). In a country that doesn’t use any sort of building code (meaning people can erect houses anywhere and build them however they wish, regardless of how unsafe such methods might make them), Port-au-Prince is shaking to its core. Among the remains of gutted homes, bodies lie everywhere. As the quake subsides and the aftershocks commence, the race to react begins. The response

THE EARTHQUAKE OF 1770 The 2010 earthquake was one of the most catastrophic natural disasters ever seen and proved a stark reminder of just how much destruction a quake could unleash upon coastal towns and cities. But for its horror and magnitude, this was not the first time the Earth had shaken Haitian soil to its core. Back in 1770, Haiti was still a French colony under the moniker of Saint-Domingue and most of the population were slaves based around what would become the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince. When the 8.0 magnitude earthquake struck at 7.45pm on 3rd

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June, the result was catastrophic. The force of the quake was so strong it liquefied the soil beneath Port-au-Prince, causing practically every building to collapse as the ground shifted into a hellscape. About 250 people were killed as the city was reduced to rubble. Even those structures that had survived a smaller earthquake in 1651 were torn down as the colony was crippled in a matter of minutes. One village, Croix des Bouquets, was struck so hard it sank below sea level. A tsunami also hit the island shortly after – however, a distinct rumbling prior to the quake enabled a great deal

of the population to flee before the first tremors began. While the death toll of the event itself topped off about 250 souls, the aftermath that followed claimed far more. The collapse of Port-auPrince enabled thousands of slaves to escape captivity, throwing the entire region into chaos. The fragile economy established by French colonists effectively collapsed, leading to a catastrophic famine. In the ensuing months, over 15,000 people would die of starvation. It would prove to be the most terrible natural phenomenon to strike the region until almost 250 years later.

from the government remains thin on the ground, with water trucks appearing to bring clean water to the survivors and ferries organised to ship people away from Port-au-Prince to nearby shelters in Port Jeremie and beyond. It’s a point of contention that leads to vocal protests in the days to come, but here and now in the heart of the disaster, it’s the international humanitarian response that touches down in the hours that follow. The United Nations Security Council sends 3,500 troops and police of the United Nations Stabilization Mission via Resolution 1908. The USA, the UK, Israel, the Dominican Republic, Canada, Brazil, Italy and Cuba are just some of the many countries that send thousands of troops to help in the rescue efforts. The international community, realising that Haiti simply doesn’t have the economy to mount and sustain a full-scale response, begins releasing huge amounts of relief aid funds to help fund what becomes a truly global response. The EU releases €3 million in emergency funds to fuel the initial response, followed up by €122 million in humanitarian assistance. It even releases another emergency relief aid package of €30 million to ensure there’s enough food, medicine and qualified boots on the ground to save those trapped and protect those that have survived the disaster. For Philippa Young, head of Emergency Food Security and Vulnerable Livelihoods at Oxfam’s Global Humanitarian Team, experiencing the chaos

HAITI EARTHQUAKE Q A US Air Force pararescueman from the 23rd Special Tactics Squadron helps rescue a woman trapped in a collapsed building

EXPERT OPINION Dr Luc Herby Mesadieu, senior manager Program & Support, HelpAge International Haiti

“Despite all the death and destruction that lies across the city, the Haitian people aren’t broken by the disaster” first-hand revealed just how severe the damage to Haiti really is. “I arrived about ten days after the earthquake,” she explained. “Everything was still very chaotic. Bodies still hadn’t been fully cleared away; damaged and destroyed buildings were everywhere. Our guest house had a big crack down the side. There were about 40 of us camping in the garden of the guest house, all queuing for toilets and showers and such. Banks were closed and security was very tight so we were totally reliant on the office to provide food for us. A makeshift canteen was put together serving over 100 people a day and it took a while to get going properly. In the beginning breakfast was something quick at six-ish and lunch wasn’t served until about three. We didn’t really notice the hunger though as everyone was running on adrenaline.” Despite all the death and destruction that lies across the city, the Haitian people aren’t broken by the disaster. In fact, Young witnesses an inspiring sense of unity and remembrance while everyone works to clear the rubble and rescue trapped citizens. “Two of the office staff were killed in the earthquake and a few days after I arrived,

there was a memorial to them which was lovely,” remarked Young on her experiences in the aid effort in 2010. “All the Haitian staff sang local songs and everyone held hands while they thought about them. It was highly emotional and I had to go and hide in the loo to cry after it had finished. “The Haitian national team were amazing – full of energy and eager to get things done,” she added. “Our local partners were very keen to work with us and needs were extremely high everywhere we looked. We knew we had to get aid out asap and were trying to work out the best ways of doing this though some emergency aid had of course already started. Makeshift camps were everywhere. Thousands of people were living in tents on the main golf course and on any space they could find.” That sense of unity runs through the whole of Port-au-Prince and the surrounding areas. A terrible calamity has struck the region, one that many have endured before, but that doesn’t mean it’s left them broken or lost. Haitian citizens fill the streets, working together to clear rubble and bodies, carrying supplies and medicine to those that need it, comforting one another with songs and words

What were conditions like when you arrived? I started with HelpAge in April 2010, right after the earthquake, and conditions in the country, especially in the metropolitan area, were catastrophic. The population affected was living in a very difficult situation without access to basic needs. This situation affected most of the older people, who are among the most vulnerable group and being overlooked by the emergency responses. Most of their needs were related to health – more specifically, a lack of specialist care for older people in Haiti. Also, the inconsistency of age-specific data collected has limited a widespread direct response to older people’s health needs. Older people were also abandoned in camps, presumably in acts of desperation by family or community members. Without livelihoods, without creative and well-planned income generation strategies, older people have been forced to rely solely on family and community members. How do you decide what aid is needed where? Is there one system applied to all cases or a general idea that is then adapted? At the first phase of the response, we tried to address basic needs like food, access to water, health care and distribution of non-food items. But rapidly with the help of HelpAge staff, older people living in camps organised themselves and started creating older people camps associations and homebase careers. HelpAge International meet with those structures to assess needs in order to better adapt the response. Each association had their specific need in function of the locality where they live. It was not one system applied for all cases as we had provided personalised assistance and needs base. For example, older people that were living in rural areas did not have the same needs as older people living in urban areas. Do you think it took too long for conditions to improve, or did the disaster and the conditions before the earthquake mean it would always take a long time? It would always take a long time for conditions to be improved. Haiti is vulnerable to natural disasters and also there was a precarious economic situation and political instability. The disaster worsens the situation, but we have hoped that it was an opportunity to rebuild the country. Up to now, Haiti is facing food insecurity; vulnerable people are still living in camps; health access is very limited; most people cannot access basic needs.

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HAITI EARTHQUAKE

HAITI IN RECOVERY When an earthquake of the magnitude that struck Haiti arrives, any coastal city on Earth would find itself wounded from the encounter. From destroyed residences to endangered nuclear power plants, an earthquake can destabilise or merely fracture a nation in its wake. For a country as poor and underdeveloped at Haiti (which ranks as the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, ranking 149th out of 182 countries on the Human Development Index), rebuilding lives and livelihoods can seem as insurmountable as the actual event itself. According to the International Organization for Migration, around 94 per cent of the displaced citizens in Port-au-Prince have left

camps and other temporary sites. However, a good 80,000 Haitians are still without, “a proper roof over their heads,” spread across the country’s remaining 105 camps. Despite this, Haiti is beginning to rebuild itself, albeit at a steady pace. While a few wrecked buildings still remain in the capital, almost all rubble has been cleared away. The famous Iron Market that was destroyed back in 2010 has been replaced with a colourful new one and a clock tower. Tensions continued to rise when an outbreak of cholera rocked the nation in the months following the earthquake. The epidemic, which has claimed the lives of 8,000 Haitians so far, sent an already

of hope. There’s death all around, it’s impossible to ignore, but there’s life too, and an enduring sense of hope in the face of such intimidating adversity. Those humanitarian forces have a huge amount of work to do in the aftermath of the quake. With over 3.5 million people affected by the event, ranging from the many killed by the tremors to the businesses and livelihoods disrupted by the aftershocks, work begins to erect tented camps in areas safe from fallen buildings. With the aftershocks finally subsiding, there is a startling 19 million cubic metres of rubble and debris in Portau-Prince – enough detritus to fill a line of shipping containers stretching end to end from London to Beirut. In total, 60 per cent of government and administrative buildings, 80 per cent of schools in Port-au-Prince (roughly 4,000 sites of education) and 60 per cent of schools in the South and West Departments have been destroyed or damaged. So where do you start as a humanitarian force? How do you prioritise your manpower and resources when so many people have been

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crippled country into a nationwide health scare and created serious divisions between Haitians and relief forces. The US government claimed United Nations forces were the ones who had brought the contagion to Haitian soil, a claim the UN refuted. An investigation that followed revealed a UN peacekeeping base near the Artibonite River (a body of water that provided drinking water and hydroelectricity for Haiti and the surrounding areas) had become contaminated. The UN denied it had caused such contamination, but further tests proved the strain of cholera originated in South Asia, adding further weight to an outside source bringing it to Haiti.

affected? That’s a question Young and her fellow relief workers at Oxfam had to consider when they arrived in Haiti. “An organisation like Oxfam will have a generic idea globally of the sort of vulnerability criteria that it could use but this of course needs to be massively adapted to a local context and depends on the severity of a disaster,” she revealed. “In Haiti, everyone had been affected – the very poor had become utterly destitute, the poor who might have scraped by previously now had no options. People who would have had reasonable income earning potential, tradesmen, shop owners and such, also lost everything with no hope of recuperating this by themselves.” That combination of location, depth, severity and lack of earthquake proofing created a

maelstrom of problems for both the Haitian government and the international teams that arrived in the hours after the initial quake. Accessing every area proves a serious issue, especially by road as most are strewn with rubble and bodies, a great deal of which has slid downhill from those homes that once stood on the hills surrounding Port-au-Prince. Roads in Haiti were poor to begin with, now most are impossible to traverse. This means there is a greater reliance on air support, a resource that’s both expensive and difficult to organise across such a vast affected area. “Poverty and living conditions were often terrible even before the earthquake, so it was difficult to distinguish general poverty from overall

“The very poor had become utterly destitute, the poor who might have scraped by previously now had no options”

HAITI EARTHQUAKE

Q Citizens are evacuated from Port-Au-Prince on ferries

FACTS

7.0

The precise magnitude of the 2010 earthquake

Death toll figure presented by the US Geological Survey

100,000 160,000 Larger death toll figure presented by the University of Michigan in 2010

MILLION

3.5

The number of people estimated to have been affected by the quake

52 16.53

The number of aftershocks detected after the initial quake in 2010

The time at which the first tremors struck Haiti

earthquake-related needs,” recalled Young on her time helping the survivors of the disaster. “Security was also an issue, though this has improved in recent years. There were no decent construction standards in place and as people had lived in slums, they didn’t own the land to begin with. This made it impossible to just start rebuilding houses because first; they weren’t typical houses to begin wit. Second; if they did they were possibly illegal and third; there were no real decent construction companies to be trusted to rebuild.” So why did this particular earthquake, centred in a region that had seen dozens of quakes of this magnitude over the years, conjure so much destruction? The answer lies in three very important factors that coalesced on that fateful day. The epicentre of the quake had been just ten miles southwest of Port-au-Prince – rather than being far out at sea, the quake’s origins were instead terrestrial. This prevented the creation of a tsunami (or at least one powerful enough to cause much damage), but its proximity to the

people of Haiti going about their daily business was catastrophic. The second factor that amplified the destructive power of the quake relates to depth. By rumbling at a depth of 10-15 kilometres below the surface, the quake’s brutality wasn’t dampened by travelling through the layers of the Earth. Considered ‘shallow’ by the United States Geological Survey, the 2010 Haiti earthquake was not only close to Haiti’s most populous city but was primed to attack with little or no geological dilution. The final issue related to the roadblock encountered by the scientists at the 18th Caribbean Geological Conference in 2008 – Haiti’s government simply didn’t have the infrastructure or the economy to support region-wide protection against quakes. Seven years on, Haiti is still very much a nation in recovery. Despite the economic support provided by the United States, Europe and the rest of the developed world, the small nation is still struggling to ‘better’ itself in the wake of its

worst ecological disaster in living memory. A total of $13.5 billion was pumped into Haiti to fund the relief effort and help kick-start the country’s economic rehabilitation, but with ongoing political in-fighting within Haiti’s government and a general sense of distrust that’s grown since the outbreak of cholera (a disease that had never touched the island prior to 2010) has made seeing true improvements, such as ensuring new buildings are earthquake proof, a near impossibility at this stage. Haiti remains a nation full of hope for the future, but that doesn’t change the danger that still lies beneath its soil. As a geological hotspot for seismic activity and ecological nightmares, Haiti and the surrounding areas will no doubt endure more of these events in the future. As a country with a rich sense of culture and a people who found a sense of hope even in the darkest of hours, we can only hope it will be better prepared when that inevitable ‘next time’ arrives. For more information on Oxfam’s humanitarian efforts in Haiti and around the word, visit bit.ly/2a9pTr7.

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CYCLONE NARGIS

CYCLONE NARGIS Winds, water and debris tore homes and people to shreds when Cyclone Nargis made landfall on the coast of Myanmar

yanmar, formerly known as Burma, is famed as paradise on earth. It is a vision of palm trees. Its beaches are bathed in rosy-purple gold every evening in their western-facing position on the coastline. The sea is an enchanting blue; the sand a soft and playful white. If you should want to ‘earn’ your share of the local shrimp from one of the restaurants, you can always snorkel or kayak to your heart’s delight. The air is kept warm in the spring, and the seas tiptoe far in land on the shallow ocean floors, helping locals make a steady living from travellers who wish to stay to sample nature’s gifts. Everyone, increasingly including tourists, takes the little huts near the beach rather than needing anything more

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luxurious on which to lay their heads after the departure of the evening sun. It is peaceful. It was these very conditions that led to Myanmar becoming the site of the second deadliest named cyclone of all time: Cyclone Nargis. Cyclones, typhoons and hurricanes are all the same thing. The different names just indicate where in the world they will stomp their path of destruction. The cyclone’s path, or direction of travel, is dictated by the way the Earth spins on its axis, not a care for the destruction it enforces as it tramples inhabitants. The swirling images we see on news reports are gradually moving terror with a wandering and utterly indiscriminate eye. It started in the Bay of Bengal on 27 April 2008. Hot and bothered by the increasingly warm seas,

“Myanmar [became] the site of the second deadliest named cyclone of all time”

LET THEM EAT FROG The government was said to have attempted to downplay the need for international aid such as shelter and food for refugees, fearing it would make it appear incompetent as a result of not having stocks ready itself. It appealed to the refugees’ sense of patriotism and advised them to be self-reliant rather than waiting to be fed ‘chocolate bars’ by international aid, suggesting through mention of the luxury that help was neither necessary nor appropriate. The population were told aid providers were in the country and would check their homes to snoop. The government had alternative suggestions for dinner. To the homeless, injured, bereaved and starving, it said to go into the waterlogged, sewage-strewn lands and fish in ditches. What they should have used to catch fish with is unclear. Anyway, the government also suggested something a little less awkward to hold: frogs. Precisely how much meat might be on a frog (particularly to feed a surviving family), how it may be prepared in a sanitary fashion to ward off disease, and how many such frogs there were to go around, particularly considering they hadn’t actively been part of a farming program, was not directly answered. In a croak or otherwise.

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CYCLONE NARGIS Q Children walk past portraits of their neighbours, though neither the people nor their houses exist anymore

IN BRIEF Q Death toll: 138,366 Q Myanmar Q 2 May 2008 On 2 May 2008, Cyclone Nargis swept into the south of Myanmar (Burma) and devastated much of the Irrawaddy Delta region through wind and flooding. Lives were lost not only because of the natural disaster and subsequent disease outbreaks, but because of the governmental response to it, as aid agencies were initially prevented from entering the country and assisting those in need.

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CYCLONE NARGIS

THE FAMILY LOST Aung Than Htay had it made. At 30 years old, he was in the prime of his life. He had a job as a fisherman, a wife, two daughters (aged four and seven) and a baby son. When the cyclone hit, they literally clung together for survival. Seeing everything around them being tossed by the winds, Aung grasped a tree, his wife at his waist. Buffeted and bruised, she was stolen by the storm. Their children? When the weather had abated enough for the forlorn father to see three hours later, he found his daughter’s body at the foot of the tree. The water was still as high as his chest, so it is

likely his other children would simply have been submerged. He never found the rest of his family, and spoke to the press on a busy, populated street. Only these people were not clearing up the debris to get back to life as usual but shambling, shocked refugees in tattered clothing. There had been 30,000 people in his region, Labutta, before the cyclone. 80,000 in the wider area were confirmed dead or simply vanished. It is estimated there were more than 100,000 people in Aung’s weary line. Some were entire families who had each other but were

homeless; others were mothers whose children had been swept from the breasts. Infants stood wide eyed and barefooted in the road as the television and newspaper camera pressed into their faces or scouted for bodies. Will Aung recover? He is young and strong. Only the slight marks on his arms that you might otherwise miss tell a different story: they are his permanent reminder of his family – the grazes he got from when the storm pried his loved ones away from him while he clung to that tree on that terrible night.

“Metal roofing was toyed with until the beast grew tired and simply ripped the twisted shards of sheeting into the street” low pressure from the earth’s atmosphere caused air to connive in and upon itself, snapping and irritated by being forced by the earth to move. It padded upwards to try and escape the crowded shuffle, breaking into an angry sweat of cloud and rain as it narrowed on its targets: pretty villages as far as the eye could see. It would play with the children and babies on the beach. Gathering pace, the irritable beast was now deemed a tropical depression owing to its speed and rancor. On 2 May, it had reached the mainland, and bursts of rain had given way to high winds as it began to swat and paw at the coastline. The winds came first. Eyewitnesses say it was late at night, about 11pm, and dark as the clacking began. It is to be expected to hear a low moan as air whispers its way around simple timber eaves, but this force was indulging itself by flicking over road signs outside the houses and municipal buildings. Little bits of law and order that should later have advised the terrified how to get to safety were being

16

picked away. Metal roofing was toyed with until the beast grew tired and simply ripped the twisted shards of sheeting into the street. Then the water joined the fray. Because of those dreamy shallow seas, there was no underground earth wall to stop the march of the aggressor. The winds riled their challenger and pushed towering waves inland, and together they saw how much they would tear down. Jolly boats waiting on the next day’s passengers were tilted, lifted, then dumped at tragi-comic angles. Door frames were pried open then simply ripped out by the intruder, and people struggling home against the wind lost their footing and were swept under. Some were even left covered with burns – they had bent down for cover only to find those tiny grains of sand that gave way under footfall on the beach instead galvanized into heavy waterlogged shards. These shards were thrown at them with such force it tore the skin from their flesh.

Q The terrifying image of the swirl of the cyclone on a weather map with which we are all familiar.

CYCLONE NARGIS

Q Heavy metal street signs became lethal leaves as the cyclone tossed everything in its path

FACTS

2.4 mil ion

people were affected by the cyclone, according to the United Nations

1/2

Fewer than half of those affected received aid, according to the United Nations

138,000 An estimate of the people left dead or missing

12.9 billion

dollars estimate cost of the damage to Myanmar

50,000

The acres of

farming land destroyed forever.

135

The number of miles per hour the cyclone travelled at its peak

400

survivors were evicted from a church by government police after the cyclone

26,000 people had been living in the river delta when the cyclone hit

90-95

The percentage of buildings destroyed in low-lying areas

12

The height (in feet) of the storm surge, or sea level, at the height of the cyclone

17

© Getty Images

Q A dead man reached out for the help that couldn’t reach him during the disastrous cyclone Nargis

The area is sadly used to such storms. The reason cyclones such as Nargis are named at all is so that scientists are able to keep track of them. There are so many, and they go on for such a long time before dissipating. There are in fact yearly meetings in which names are pre-agreed in line with the letters of the alphabet. That administrative foresight did not translate into Myanmar’s own infrastructure, however. Rather than simply having to contend with not being swept to their deaths or crushed by their own bedroom walls, many of the people faced the end of life as they knew it. The additional water had thrown itself clamouring into the sewage system. Overpowered, the pipes had burst, and raw sewage – including human faeces – was jetted into the streets and houses. Raising the risk of disease and infection (even diarrhoea can be fatal if untreated), it landed sprawling across the crop fields. The proud stems of rice were left tar-brown. Fields that were not touched by sewage were given a treatment of sea-salt water instead, and since there was no aid given to the majority of farmers to buy new tools (their plow oxen had drowned), the crop was wasted. Their livelihood and industry? Decimated. The storm finally dissipated near the border with Thailand.

Documentary crews revisiting the site a month later walk along the otherwise poetically desolate beach while periodically focusing on the bodies that they find still floating in the water. The camera lingers on gradually decaying flesh. A dead man’s face is a mess of mulch, although he would otherwise appear to be sculling leisurely in his billowing blue shorts. In other footage, the pink and tender hollow of someone’s nose has insects in it; picking in it. A bloated baby lies on its front, head to its left and eyes closed, having apparently been snatched from its parents. They are all simply lying there, weeks after the disaster. Indeed, bodies that were buried have even begun to resurface as a result of their hasty interment and the altering landscape after the waters have receded. According to locals, the hot odour of decay clings in the back of your throat. Monstrosity had caused this, but the weather has no feeling or conscience in the matter. The ongoing devastation is alleged to have been the result of the response to the disaster. Survivors by their thousands huddled in makeshift shelters. The land was polluted with decaying corpses yet the living had to forage for food and clean water. While the government officially asked the United Nations for aid on 6 March, it was reported as having denied visa passports to workers waiting at airports to deliver supplies. It was also argued that officials had downplayed the numbers of those affected, as it was thought to reflect on their ability to manage their country. Some estimates suggest they placed 50,000 souls among the dead. Many of the bodies were never formally accounted for. It is thought that some had decayed to the point that they were no longer easy to find. Some were unofficially buried in order to ward off disease. Some were simply swept out to sea. The international press later reported that government police were removing survivors from refugee camps, fearing that the temporary villages might become permanent. The government also dismissed suggestions of improved early warning systems, commenting that it would be impossible to evacuate large numbers of people unwilling to leave their families and property, as quoted by NBC News. International aid eventually came through. Countries including the United Kingdom gave money, food and shelter. They provided survivors with disaster training. Hope for a better tomorrow was possible, and paradise through humanity may exist after all.

SPANISH FLU

SPANISH FLU

In 1918, Spanish flu killed more people than the number killed in the whole of World War 1. How could one virus be so devastating?

IN BRIEF Q Death toll: 20-40 million Q Worldwide Q 1918-1919 The Spanish flu pandemic hit a world already devastated by World War I and it proved to be the deadliest pandemic in modern history, infecting a third of the world’s population.

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SPANISH FLU

A

group of children play in one of London’s parks. They are happy, and giggling, pleased that the council has closed their school for the week, giving them some unexpected free time. The streets they have walked through to get to this park are quieter than usual, and when they have passed adults, they have had scarves clutched to their mouths and noses, with some even wearing odd-looking masks, like the injured soldiers have been wearing since they returned from the war, to stop them, these children, from staring at the burns and the scars that they have come home with. The children start singing, and even though most of the adults near them are closeted in their houses and flats, their windows clamped shut, they can still hear the high-pitched words of the children come tumbling out: I had a little bird Its name was Enza I opened the window And in-flew-enza… The song’s words reflected the true horror behind the seemingly cheerful picture of children playing. A strain of influenza – known as Spanish Flu – had struck not only the local community, but the wider world, spreading rapidly, and hitting people indiscriminately. The young, the old, the sick and the healthy were being infected, and at least 10 per cent of everyone who sickened would die. This was a world that has just been through the horrors of war. Many families would not see their fathers, brothers or husbands return from the battlefields, and others would see them come home as changed men, physically or mentally damaged by their experiences. And just as they returned, and those left behind hoped that their world would now go back to what it was, and that they will resume a peaceful, happy life, it became clear that there was a new, even more deadly, threat coming their way. The war might even have been responsible for the Spanish flu pandemic that ended up killing so many people worldwide. Towards the end of the war, many soldiers, in

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SPANISH FLU

Q In Walter Reed Hospital, Washington DC, a nurse checks on patients on an open gallery

Q Farmers attempting to protect themselves from the Spanish flu in Canada, 1918

WAS SPANISH FLU ACTUALLY CHINESE? In 2014, a new theory about the origins of Spanish flu was published that suggested it was not Spanish, but Chinese. New research placed the origins of the flu to the transportation of Chinese labourers – the Chinese Labour Corps – across Canada in 1917. These labourers, usually farm workers from remote parts of rural China, were shipped across the country in sealed train containers, part of the mobilisation of over 90,000 Chinese workers needed to work behind the front line on the Western Front. They spent six days in these train carriages, before continuing across to France, where they would be required to dig trenches, unload trains, lay tracks, build roads, and repair damaged tanks. Previous research has suggested that Chinese people were less likely to die from the Spanish flu than other

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nationalities, perhaps because they had become immune following earlier exposure to the flu virus. There had been a flu-type illness in China in late 1917, known as the ‘winter sickness’ – not widely known about because of poor record keeping, and its relatively isolated location. Was this what had given the Chinese some immunity from the 1918 virus? In one count of 25,000 Chinese labourers, some 3,000 ended their Canadian journey in medical quarantine. At the time, racial stereotypes meant that their illness was blamed on ‘Chinese laziness’, and so their symptoms were not taken seriously by Canadian doctors. By the time they arrived in northern France in early 1918, many were sick, and hundreds were soon reported to be dying. By the time the Spanish flu had become a worldwide phenomenon, though, the Chinese labourers appeared to have stopped becoming ill. While researchers may never be able to definitely prove the influence of the Chinese ‘winter sickness’ on the Spanish flu pandemic, it is certainly arousing interest, and has been described as a ‘smoking gun’.

Q Members of the Chinese Labour Corps at work in France

SPANISH FLU

their cramped, dirty, damp trenches in northern France, were becoming ill. Their tendency to become ill was put down to ‘world-weariness’ caused by their experiences of war – their immune systems were weakened, and they were malnourished, meaning their bodies weren’t strong enough to fight off illness. They couldn’t eat; they had sore throats and headaches. Their illnesses, which were known locally as la grippe, were infectious and spread among the soldiers. Within around three days of becoming ill, many soldiers would usually start to feel better – but not all, and not all would make it home. Lieutenant Leo Mansfield Matthews, aged 35, had volunteered for active service, and had been on the front since September 1916. He died in hospital there on 25th June 1918, remembered by his fellow soldiers as a cheerful, bright, confident man who managed to cheer up his men “even in the most depressing moments.” During the summer of 1918, troops started to return to Britain, travelling by train. They brought with them the undetected virus that had made them ill, spreading it out across the cities, towns and villages. For their families, the happiness at their return might be soon replaced by horror and grief. There was no rapid recovery for many – both

soldiers and civilians. The virus particularly hit the young, those aged between 20 and 30 who had previously been healthy. The Times reported that, “…persons who feel perfectly well, and are able to go about their business at 10 o’clock in the morning [are] prostrate at noon.” From the initial symptoms of a sore head and tiredness, they would develop a dry, hacking cough, a loss of appetite, stomach problems, and then, on the second day, excessive sweating. But then, the respiratory organs might start to become affected, and pneumonia would develop. This happened to Howard Brooks, a 19-year-old Londoner, who caught influenza and died of the pneumonia that then occurred. It also happened to 27-year-old naval instructor George Carter, who died of septic pneumonia following a bout of influenza. There were no antibiotics – no medicine that could make them feel better. Instead, people were given advice that amounted to seeking fresh air, cleanliness, a good diet and “constant disinfection”.

The newspapers, from January 1918 onwards, were reporting cases of people dying after influenza without making explicit any link between them – instead they were reported as isolated, unrelated cases. People were dying in the UK of influenza, but it was Spain – one of the earliest countries to see influenza hit, and which gave its name to this strain of the virus – that received more attention. However, even in May 1918, the Spanish ambassador in London had stated that, “The epidemic which has broken out in Spain is not of a serious character. The illness presents the symptoms of influenza with slight gastric disturbance.” But a week later, The Times, which had reported the ambassador’s PR attempt as a true statement, was taking a different, more panicked, approach. By now, 700 people had died in ten days in Spain, and it was being reported that more than 100,000 people there had become infected within the two weeks since it had “appeared in Madrid”. The papers now regretted their previous, jovial tone, and stated that the epidemic had “passed the joking stage”. By this point, the flu had spread beyond Spain and reached Morocco. The king of Spain, Alfonso XIII, had been struck down with it, along with leading politicians. Where people worked or lived in close confines to each other, such as in schools, barracks and government buildings, 30 to 40 per cent of their populations were becoming infected. The Madrid tram system had to be reduced, and the telegraph service was disturbed, in both cases because there were not enough healthy employees available to work. Pressure was being put on the medical service and supplies, and they were failing. Soon, it was being reported that the Spanish flu had spread to other countries in mainland Europe. One high-profile victim was the sultan of Turkey, whose death was reported in the Daily Mirror on 5th July 1918 – the paper regarding his death as rather trivial as “…he was a regarded as a nonentity in the hands of his advisers.” Vienna and Budapest were suffering; parts of Germany and France were similarly affected. Many children in Berlin schools were reported as being ill and off school, and in the armament and munition works, absences were affecting production. In Frankfurt’s factories, up to 50 per cent of workers were ill. The epidemic then reached Switzerland, with 7,000 cases being reported among soldiers of the Swiss army. Half the population of Motiers in the Vale de Travers were sick, and both telegraph and telephone services were affected by a lack of well staff. Initially, when the epidemic was still seen as being restricted to Spain, it was noted that men were more likely to be infected than women, and that adults

“It was believed that the wet weather that most of Britain was subject to might stop the flu spreading there” 21

SPANISH FLU DEATH OF A MOVIE STAR Harold A Lockwood was one of the high-profile casualties of the Spanish flu pandemic. Born on 12th April 1887 in Brooklyn, but raised in Newark, New Jersey, the son of a horse breeder, he became an American silent film actor, and one of the most popular matinee idols of the 1910s. Like many of his contemporaries, he had started his career in vaudeville, before moving over to the new movie industry in 1910, his obituary in the Deseret News stating that his, “…progress from that time was rapid.” He appeared with May Allison in more than 20 movies, with the couple becoming a famous romantic pairing on screen. He also appeared opposite Mary Pickford in the movie Tess Of The Storm Country, and directed and produced films as well as acting; he also wrote a regular column for Motion Picture magazine. During World War I, Harold worked on the home front, helping to sell Liberty Loans, a government bond. He also continued his movie work, and in 1918, started filming in Manhattan. However, he then became ill with Spanish flu, which then turned into pneumonia. On 19th October 1918, at the age of 31, Harold Lockwood died at the Hotel Woodward in New York, leaving behind a wife and ten-year-old son. He was buried three days later in the Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx, and his film had to be completed using a double. His newspaper obituary noted that with the exception of his brief vaudeville career, he had, “…never appeared before the public except in motion pictures, and he was one of the best examples of the successful motion picture star.” Photoplay magazine was similarly admiring of Lockwood, describing him as modest, a good worker, and a, “…clean, wholesome, worthy young American citizen in the very best sense of the term.” Many of his films continued to be shown in the picture houses; at the end of 1920, two years after his death, one movie, Broadway Bill! (1918) was being shown at the Pavilion Picture and Variety Theatre in Berwick, while A Man Of Honor (also 1918) was being shown in Portsmouth.

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Q Temporary hospitals were needed including this auditorium

“Doctors were at a loss as to what to recommend; many urged them to avoid crowded places, or simply other people” were at far more risk than children. Similarly, once it became a pandemic, and had spread to Switzerland, again it was stressed that men between the ages of 20 and 40 were most at risk. However, it was also said that those “on the slippery descent of middle age” were more likely to die once infected, because they tried to “fight” the symptoms too hard – instead of simply taking some quinine and going to bed with a hot water bottle. The term ‘Spanish Influenza’ rapidly took hold in Britain. The British papers blamed the flu epidemic there on the Spanish weather – their spring was dry and windy – an “unpleasant and unhealthy season” that saw microbe-laden dust being spread by the high winds. Therefore, it was believed that the wet weather that most of Britain was subject to might stop the flu spreading there. Many ordinary people had, due to the Great War, become interested in foreign affairs, and had read about the epidemic, discussing it with their friends and anticipating its arrival on British shores. Conspiracy theories abounded – were Germans carrying test tubes containing cultures

from all known viruses and trying to infect other nations? Or was it the fault of Russia, the land of ‘melodramatic mysteries’? The former conspiracy theory was debunked at the end of June when the German army was hit by the epidemic, with many soldiers being so ill that they were unable to fight. One of the side-effects of the virus appeared to be a deep depression, a lack of interest in life, and this was seen to be a symptom that might have been conjured up by those wanting to destroy morale. One victim was reported as saying, “Well, it cures ambition,” and this summed up the lesser known dangers of becoming infected. Doctors were at a loss as to what to recommend to their patients; many urged them to avoid crowded places, or simply other people; other remedies included eating cinnamon, drinking wine, or even drinking Oxo’s meat drink. Positives were sought; when it was reported that the Allies had had a good week on the front in France, it was speculated that this might have been helped by the flu, which was, “…known to be distributing its unwelcome favours with a lavish hand among the German divisions.” In a rather British way, the

SPANISH FLU

Q In army hospitals, patients’ beds were reversed so that they would not breathe over each other

press noted that it was rather comical that the oncepowerful Germans were being felled by something as mundane a virus. It was, perhaps, inevitable that conspiracy theories would abound – the British press was subject to censorship during this period of war, and if the seriousness of the flu pandemic had been recognised in the press early on, this might have affected the morale of the nation. But Spain, for example, did not have press censorship, and published freer accounts of the illness in its pages. This had the effect of making people erroneously think it was an illness specific to Spain – Spanish flu – and the name stuck. Likewise, as the British press showed, to stress the effect of flu on the enemy, German forces had a useful propaganda effect, and so it was in the newspapers’ – and the British government’s – interest to highlight the ‘foreign’ cases, while down playing the effect of flu on British forces and civilians. By 25th June 1918, it was recognised that the flu epidemic in Spain had already reached Britain. At a meeting of the Hitchin Rural Council in Hertfordshire that day, the councillors heard that 600 cases of flu had been reported at two different factories in Letchworth. The medical advice that was given here was to avoid going to cinemas and other crowded places, and to keep the mouth and nose covered if going out. During the previous nine days, 200 people with flu had been treated in the

Belfast workhouse infirmary, with 45 cases reported there in just one day. Meanwhile, 40 workers at Cardiff’s Central Post Office had been taken ill, and all schools in Huddersfield had been closed for a week due to the epidemic. By the end of that week, on 28th June, a public notice was put in the British papers, advising people of the symptoms – but it turned out that this was actually an advertisement for Formamints, a tablet made and sold by a company that also sold Sanatogen vitamins. The advert stated that the mints were the, “…best means of preventing the infective processes” and that everyone – men, women and children – should suck four or five of these tablets a day until they felt better. Even as people were dying, there was money to be made by advertising ‘cures’ – especially so as the medical profession seemed to be bereft of more practical ideas. By early July, the epidemic was hitting the London textile trade badly, with one factory having 80 out of 400 workers go sick on one evening alone. It was said that in London, an average of 15 to 20 per cent of the workforce was suffering from the flu. In Egham, Surrey, 133 cases were reported in one school on one day, and many miners were ill, to the extent that the mining output in Northumberland and Durham was drastically reduced, while in one pit in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, 250 miners were sick on one day. Urban centres were particularly badly hit, with Nottingham, Leicester

Q It was believed that spitting could spread Spanish flu, as this public health poster shows

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SPANISH FLU and Northampton having a high rate of infection. It was speculated that this was because many of the workers in these areas were based indoors – “Persons engaged in outdoor occupations are practically immune.” Once one person was infected, others quickly followed. In the Convent of St Vincent de Paul in Westminster, a 13-year-old girl died of the flu – she was believed to have infected 62 others in the convent. Two ten-year-old boys died in Deptford, with the coroner at their inquest suggesting that they should have rinsed their mouth and nostrils every morning with salt and water to avoid getting infected. In Birmingham, doctors said they were at their “wit’s end” and couldn’t deal with the large number of patients – one doctor arrived at his surgery one morning to find nearly 200 patients waiting to see him. Manchester’s dispensing chemists had to introduce a controlled queuing system because of the sheer number of people seeking remedies for their illnesses. The epidemic also hit in unexpected ways – one man due to be tried for bigamy at the Assize courts escaped prosecution because he came down with the Spanish flu. Whether he was too ill to attend court, or the court officials were terrified of catching his illness, is not known. Another man, Joseph Jackson,

a discharged soldier, who claimed to have shellshock, was sentenced to six months in prison for GBH after attacking a police constable while drunk. His defence was that he had been suffering from Spanish flu and a friend had advised him that drinking strong beer would cure him. He had followed the advice, with an unintended result. In Sheffield, children under 14 were banned from going to the cinema, as local magistrates thought this move would help ‘stamp out’ the influenza

“Bodies piled up to such an extent that it was said that families had to dig graves for their own relatives”

Q In Washington, DC, in 1918, the Red Cross Emergency Ambulance Station demonstrates its services

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epidemic. At a meeting of the Rotherham Board of Guardians, the clerk reported that the chairman was absent due to having the flu, as was one of the poor law guardians, and that five military nurses, the superintendent nurse, three nurses and an engineer were all sick locally. The clerk himself had just lost his sister to the Spanish flu. The lack of healthy workers affected all areas of daily life. Council workers had to become grave diggers; railway workers made coffins; and ambulance drivers found that their vehicles were now hearses. As with previous historical disasters – the plagues that had haunted England in previous centuries, for example – pressure was put on services by the sheer rate of deaths and the effect of the flu on those who survived. The epidemic had rapidly become a pandemic, making its way around the world. In August 1918, six Canadian sailors died on the St Lawrence River from a, “…strange illness, which is thought to be the Spanish influenza.” The same month, cases were reported among the Swedish army, then its civilian population, and also among South Africa’s labouring population. Then, the following month, it reached Boston through its port, and by the end of October, nearly 200,000 people in the USA had died. Bodies piled up to such an extent that it was said that families had to dig graves for their own relatives. There was a shortage of farm workers, which affected the late summer harvest, and as in Britain, other services, such as the collection of rubbish, were put under pressure due to a lack of staff and resources. Also as in Britain, Americans were offered conflicting and confusing advice about how best to avoid getting infected. They were advised not to shake hands with others, to stay indoors, not to touch library books, and to wear masks. Schools and theatres were closed, and a Sanitary Code was issued that made spitting in the streets illegal. At one point, the use of aspirin was blamed for causing the pandemic – when it might actually have helped the ill. As a result of World War I, there was a shortage of doctors in some areas, and of those who

How many people are believed to have died in total worldwide

675,000 The estimated number of Americans who died How many people were infected with the virus worldwide

500 milion The amount American life expectancy dropped by, as a result of the pandemic

12 years The number of people in Britain who died of Spanish Flu

228,000 The mortality rate of those who were infected with the virus

10%-20%

1

The number of regions in the world that did not have an outbreak (Marajo, an island in the Brazilian Amazon delta)

2

The number of years the pandemic was at its peak (1918-19)

The number of Chinese Labour Corps workers who got flu-like symptoms

3,000 How many Canadians died of Spanish flu

50,000

Q In Seattle, people weren’t allowed to ride on the streetcars without wearing a mask

© Getty; Alamy; Rex

milion

FACTS 20-40

were left, many became ill themselves. Makeshift hospitals were made out of schools and other buildings, and medical students had to take the place of some doctors. Here, too, the flu virus hit people from all levels of society. The president, Woodrow Wilson, was said to have become infected; Cawthra Mulock, described as “one of the very wealthy men of Toronto” died in New York from the virus in December 1918. 40 per cent of the US Navy also became ill, and when four women sat down to a game of bridge one night, only one of them got up again the next day, the others having died of the flu overnight. It was estimated that 28 per cent of the American population was infected by the virus. Elsewhere, the mortality rate was even worse. The pandemic spread to Asia, Africa, South America and the South Pacific, and in India, the morality rate was 50 deaths per 1,000 people – a shocking figure. As the Great War ended, the influenza pandemic became a new war that was being fought around the world. Back in Britain, in November 1918, the House of Commons heard a report from the War Department about how many British soldiers had been affected by the Spanish flu. In October, 421 members of the British Army had died in France from flu, and more than 1,000 from the pneumonia it had developed into. There had been nearly 25,000 influenza cases admitted to hospital in France the previous month. And this was just the figure for one month, for a specific occupation, in one part of one country. On a worldwide scale, the numbers were far larger and even more difficult to comprehend. However, by the spring of 1919, it was being reported that the numbers of deaths from the Spanish flu were decreasing. This did not mean that it came to a quick end – in March 1919, immediately under a story about the decrease in cases, one Scottish newspaper reported the funeral of three members of the Wilson family of St Combs in Aberdeenshire, with a further child dying as the cortege was being taken to the churchyard. Their deaths left the family, “…practically wiped out by the scourge” of Spanish flu. Although the influenza pandemic eventually died out, it did so only after wreaking devastation in many countries, and showing the inability of the medical profession to do anything to halt its progress – in an echo of what had happened 500 years earlier, when the Black Death similarly wreaked chaos around the world. Today, a woman sits in her flat in the suburban midlands. She is content; she is approaching her century, and has had a long and varied life. But she hides a more dramatic start to that life; her parents both contracted Spanish flu in 1918, when her mother was pregnant. It was her mother’s life that was feared for most; but it was her father who died, three weeks before her own birth. Even today, in the 21st century, the Spanish flu pandemic is a reality that has shaped lives, and one that people remember having affected them and their families.

© Alamy; Getty Images; Rex Features

SPANISH FLU

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CENTRAL ITALY QUAKE

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CENTRAL ITALY QUAKE

CENTRAL ITALY QUAKE AMATRICE, CENTRAL ITALY, 2016 Centred at the picturesque town of Amatrice, an earthquake shook the town to its foundations, killing 297 people and injuring hundreds more. A rich cultural heritage was also lost, including museums, churches, and a beautiful rose window.

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HURRICANE IRMA Q The National Oceanographic and Atmosphere Administration’s satellite image of Irma as it makes land on 6 September 2017

IN BRIEF Q Death toll: 134 Q Caribbean and USA Q 2017 Irma began life as a cluster of clouds rolling down from the highlands of Ethiopia. Upon hitting warm water over the Atlantic, the clouds matured into a hurricane force and Irma developed into one of the greatest tropical storms in recorded history. When it hit the Caribbean on 6 September, 185-miles-perhour winds laid waste to everything in its path.

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HURRICANE IRMA

HURRICANE IRMA Hurricane Irma’s trail of epic destruction reminded the world of nature’s fury and total indifference to life on Earth, when it arrived in September 2017

017 proved to be a truly devastating year for the impact of hurricanes on countries that regularly endure and suffer from them. The question of climate change being held directly responsible for the noted increase in the frequency of extraordinarily formidable storms is on the lips of scientists, the media and citizens alike. While 2005 boasted more named storm systems and hurricanes, including Wilma and Katrina, the latter whose destruction of Louisiana and New Orleans developed into a searing national tragedy for the United States, 2017’s band of miscreant weather raked up costs in the hundreds of billions, making the clean-up operations in storm-affected regions more and more costly. Once-in-a-lifetime hurricanes are now in danger of becoming oncea-year events, with damage to infrastructure and the constant need to rebuild leading to a massive drain on government coffers. It also means rich countries having to increase aid budgets and humanitarian relief to poorer Caribbean islands. The economic costs of hurricanes do threaten to become gargantuan, no matter the amount of preplanning or reinforcements built to prevent widescale carnage. A week or so before Hurricane Irma tore through the Caribbean and southern US states, Hurricane Harvey headed across the Gulf of Mexico to cause big-time mayhem in Houston, Texas – the city is flood-prone due to its low-level topography. Harvey and Irma formed a deadly duo, savaging the southern coastlines of America. Harvey was a record-breaker on several fronts, too. The largest rainfall from a tropical storm ever documented, 1,539mm, streets and residential areas were

2

swamped. The clean-up operation cost hundreds of billions of dollars, not to mention consequences to the local economy. In total, there were six major hurricanes in 2017, with Hurricane Irma – ranging 650 miles east to west – becoming the joint second most powerful Atlantic storm ever recorded, which at its peak reached 185 miles per hour winds, sustained for a whopping 37 hours. Hurricane season in the tropics has always been dicey, but with planning and preparation, people can hunker down for the duration and hope to deal with whatever storms dole out. Those who grow up in hurricane alley are used to it, to an extent. But the increase in severity is noticeable, and the burden on locals to constantly maintain and prepare their properties against nature’s mighty breath threatens to become exacerbated by frequency in events. In the wake of Irma, many bemoaned the fact they’d just got through last year’s season and then the worst of the worst happened. Many people lost everything they owned, as homes and their contents scattered in the wind. Material losses achieve a staggering horror. How would you feel if your home literally blew away? How does one get over that? To be left with nothing but the shirt on your back and a mess of numbing proportions to clear up. 11 of 33 Category 5 hurricanes (as per the SaffirSimpson scale) recorded since 1924 have occurred in the last 14 years. Are rising sea temperatures directly related to the frequency of these mega storms? Our oceans have risen in temperature by one degree Celsius in the past 100 years. Polar ice caps melting also mean seas are rising, directly affecting coastal regions and coastal flats. If only it were so simple. Some years are worse than others

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HURRICANE IRMA

Q An extraordinary photograph taken by NOAA hurricane hunters flying through the eye of Irma on 5 September

due to other meteorological factors, such as Saharan dust particles, other storms around the equator and strong winds, which can – thankfully – impede things, meaning settings not always favourable to the development of the fiercest kind of hurricane, as air circulation conditions must be right. Tourism is the lifeblood of the Caribbean. Millions flock yearly to tropical paradise islands for sun and relaxation. The tourist brochure vibe of the place might not always tally with daily realities, but the turquoise waters, exciting associations with infamous pirates and buried treasure, plus the

promise of memorable times has been a consistent quixotic pull. But in the late days of summer 2017, Hurricane Irma turned the rum cocktails and lounging-on-a-hammock utopia into an apocalyptic hellscape. In total, the storm made seven landfalls and caused utter desolation to US mainland cities, small towns and villages on tiny islands with populations no more than a few thousand. On Barbuda – which Irma smacked into like a fist meeting supple skin (as a Category 5 hurricane at peak intensity) – an accompanying surge caused waters to rise eight feet above sea level in some parts. 95 per cent of the island’s infrastructure was wrecked, including an airstrip. Communications were knocked out completely and citizens ordered evacuated – the first instance of such action in 300 years. Barbuda was deemed uninhabitable by authorities. Further along, Cuba saw significant flooding, as did Puerto Rico. The storm surge and tide proved costly to lower parts of the Florida Keys, where water levels rose between five to six feet above ground level. Even when Irma was downgraded to a Category 4 storm, it still knocked seven bells out of the place. In the orange groves of Florida, too, Irma cost agricultural businesses $750 million, and it was estimated 50 per cent of the fruit-growing economy was impacted. It wiped out livelihoods’ wholesale, and recovery of the fruit business – a vital export – had a knock-on effect into 2018. Groves were flattened or left submerged under water. “It will take us a couple of years to recover fully from [Hurricane Irma] because of the need to replant trees and get production back up,” spokesperson for the Florida Department of Citrus,

“It turned the lounging-on-a-hammock utopia into an apocalyptic hellscape”

CARIBBEAN RELIEF EFFORT RESPONSES The Caribbean is a mixture of sovereign countries and independent overseas territories with deep ties to former colonial masters. As Hurricane Irma swept across the tropical region and battered island after island, there was concern among survivors left without food, water and shelter. Countries such as Britain, France and the Netherlands weren’t doing their bit to help, or were sluggish in the response. The main accusation – aimed at Britain, France and others – was a lack of preparation in the event of a major ecological disaster. Of course, government spokespersons refuted the allegations, but there are still islanders living in shelters, and some areas in Puerto Rico remain without power almost a year on.

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Because Britain has no permanent military presence stationed on various islands, relief efforts by air and sea took time. When people are left with nothing and their home’s infrastructure has been catastrophically damaged, with ready access to the basics for survival destroyed, the clock can tick ever so slowly. Those injured or unable to source water and food were most definitely in a life-threatening situation, so an aircraft carrier making the ten-day voyage across the sea can feel like a lifetime. Britain’s RFA Mounts Bay was fortunately already in the area, and was able to drop off six tonnes of relief materials. Personnel helped to clear the runway on Anguilla so

that relief planes could land, then it moved on to the British Virgin Islands. The British government sent 1,100 military personnel to affected islands, along with 55 police officers, and announced a disaster relief fund to the tune of £32 million, with the government also matching public donations. HMS Ocean carried 60 pallets of emergency relief stores, and 200 pallets of goods and materials – such as 5,000 hygiene kits that contained essential items like soap and a torch, 10,000 buckets and 504,000 aquatabs – from the Department for International Development. Still, despite these relief efforts, 23 people lost their lives across the three countries’ territories.

Q Hurricane Irma’s winds bend palm trees at Fort Lauderdale, after making landfall on 10 September at 9.10am

FLYING INTO THE STORM Force Reserve lieutenant colonel Jim Hitterman as like going through a car wash while a bunch of gorillas jump on top of your car – to collect vital data. While satellite imaging can provide excellent detail, experts have claimed only by flying into the hurricane, noting its structure,

Shelley Rossetter, told the Tampa Bay Times in March 2018. With many residents of Caribbean islands and other locales very reluctant to leave their homes, there are plenty of eyewitness accounts pertaining to Irma’s sustained wrath. Holidaymakers, too, experienced the force of nature first-hand. On the island of St Martin, shared between France and the Netherlands, a holidaying couple, doctors by profession, described in terrifying detail to the press, what they endured for hours on end. Taking shelter in their holiday apartment’s bathroom, they felt pressure build, and the winds screamed with increased ferocity. The bedroom windows exploded, sending debris whirling and rains to lash. Trapped in the bathroom, the roof began to cave in, and water leaked through to around five inches, flooding all rooms. Hurricanes of this magnitude are very often tales of loss and survival, too. On the US Virgin Island of St John, Cruz Bay was pulverised within mere minutes. Boats previously moored in the harbour now dotted the streets; trees were destroyed as if pulled up by the roots; cars were scattered and laid upside down like children’s play things; and, most frightening of all, homes were lifted into the air and thrown around, resettling hundreds of feet away from their original location. A verdant and tranquil place resembled a nuclear bomb site. One of the most tragic instances of death occurred in north Miami, at a care home whose

shape and force from the air, can meteorologists get a true picture of the scale and power of the storm. It might sound like a suicide mission, but the safety record is strong. Not a single plane has been lost chasing hurricanes since 1974, though 54 lives have been lost since the

team formed in 1946, and there have been many close shaves. Pilots have access to ten fourengine, WC-130J aircraft, specially fitted with data sensors, known as dropsondes, but there is talk of using modified drones in the future, making the team and their skills redundant.

power was knocked out by Irma. Without air con and electricity, six residents lost their lives; three were found dead on site and another three later in hospital, the chances of survival greatly diminished by a mix of gross human negligence and nature. 100 residents of the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills had been evacuated, with many being treated for respiratory distress and dehydration. Provider Florida Power & Light told investigators some parts of the nursing home received emergency electricity, but it was not on the county’s top tier emergency power restoration. The indignity of their deaths led to a criminal investigation. At the mercy of the weather is an oft-heard expression and a reminder some things are out of our control. We stand humble and vulnerable before an indifferent Mother Nature, when the heavens roar, the seas pound and our neat and ordered existence is upended, sometimes to sorrowful results. Storm data and scientists tracking weather fronts can help us to prepare the best we possibly can, but it’s all we can do. We can no more stop the wind than King Canute could stop the tide. On 27 August 2017, a tropical wave off the coast of west Africa became a magnificent beast over the course of a few days. From the Cabo Verde Islands in the eastern Atlantic, Irma built and built in strength, its eye developing in size and moving briskly towards populated areas, the Caribbean sadly bearing the brunt of Irma at her most ferocious; a humanitarian crisis the sorry outcome.

“Trapped in the bathroom, the roof began to cave in, and water leaked through”

FACTS

65

per cent of homes in Florida Keys suffered major damage

15

million people were left without electrical power in Florida

185

Irma reached a windspeed of 185 miles per hour

70,000

The area impact in total was 70,000 square miles

5,000

residents of the Bahamas were evacuated

37

The windspeed remained constant for 37 hours

25

per cent of homes in Florida Keys were destroyed

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© Getty

Based out of Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi, the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron are known as the Hurricane Hunters. Made up of reservists rather than full-time dedicated staff, the team of scientists and ace pilots fly into hurricanes – described by Air

Q An aerial view of the outskirts of Tacloban where, miraculously, a church remains standing amid the destruction

IN BRIEF Q Death toll: 6,340 Q Philippines Q 2013 Although there had been numerous warnings, the severity of Typhoon Haiyan caught many by surprise, leading to a devastatingly high loss of life. As a Category Five storm – the strongest to make landfall – it battered the Philippines on 8 November 2013, not only causing sea levels to rise, washing away homes and businesses, but society to temporarily break down.

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TYPHOON HAIYAN

TYPHOON HAIYAN When a hugely powerful typhoon battered the Philippines and other South East Asian countries, it brought with it high waves and major flooding

hen the Tacloban City Convention Centre opened in the Philippines on 23 June 2006, the occasion was marked by a concert featuring legendary and contemporary artists. It was a chance for people to see the 4,500-capacity indoor arena for the first time. But nobody who attended that evening would have ever imagined that the name of the event, ‘I Will Survive’, could have proven to be so prophetic. Some seven-and-a-half years later, thousands packed into the arena once again, though this time they had little choice. Outside, human bodies were piling up on the pavements and hanging in trees amid the remnants of fallen buildings, toppled power lines and washed-up cars and trucks. Detritus and dead animals flowed along the rising waters of the flooded streets, and the intolerable stench of death and destruction was accompanied by the sobs of those who had lost people. On 8 November 2013, one of the strongest tropical cyclones on record had struck land in South East Asia. There had been waves of up to seven metres in height, and as much as 281.9 millimetres of rainfall had ricocheted off the roads and soaked the ground in the space of just 12 hours. Amid all of this, the arena stood still. But for all of the calm it displayed on the outside, there was chaos within. A city of 220,000 people had just born the brunt of Typhoon Haiyan. There had been warnings. For two days, the government and the Philippines’ meteorological agency PAGASA spoke of an intense storm, named locally as Yolanda. There had been televised press briefings informing residents of sustained winds of 175 kilometres per hour at the centre and gusts

W

of up to 210kph, and the agency feared the storm could gain strength over sea as it approached land, so it urged people to evacuate. But only a minority across the country heeded the advice, and one of the problems was that they had grown used to storms. There had been 25 in 2013 alone, yet in this instance they underestimated how strong Haiyan would be. “The preparation of the local governments and the national government agencies was not equal to the strength of the typhoon,” admitted Corazón Solíman, head of the Department for Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in The Guardian newspaper. This was to prove crucial. Early in the morning, people could hear wailing as a swirling cloud of pressurised air whipped across the sea and formed the high waves that battered the land. Blown along by gales reaching 300kph, the typhoon pummelled the islands of Samar and Leyte, uprooting Tacloban City in the process before barrelling through the archipelago close to the second largest city of Cebu and taking out much of the surrounding areas. Between 70 and 80 per cent of the buildings in the typhoon’s path were destroyed, roofs torn off, farms ripped apart and roads destroyed. Debris flew through the air and people were knocked to the ground, while Tacloban’s airport and the thriving neighbourhood around it were severely damaged, glass shattering across the runway and homes torn apart. Frightened citizens didn’t know where to go or what to do. Even shelters were being ripped to shreds as four more landfalls were made. By the time the typhoon settled, it had affected 14 million people across 46 provinces, with Tacloban suffering more loss of life than anywhere else.

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TYPHOON HAIYAN Q Here, the typhoon is at its peak intensity on 7 November 2013 and heading for the Philippines after forming in the Pacific Ocean

HOW TYPHOON HAIYAN FORMED There is no denying Typhoon Haiyan’s strength. After all, it was one of the strongest storms in history. But just how it became so powerful was down to it being in the right place at the right time, and that’s because they are like giant engines, using warm, moist air as their fuel. In this case, Typhoon Haiyan formed in the very warm, open waters of the Pacific Ocean as the strong winds of a thunderstorm pulled in rising moisture that was then converted into heat. By leaving an area of low pressure below, greater amounts of air flowed towards the centre, producing continuous flows of heat and air. This resulted in air swirls. Now, because the water was also warm below the surface, cold water could not reduce its power as it ordinarily would do. It was also able to swirl in a circular pattern unheeded since it was far away from any land. Add to that low wind sheer (that is the variation in wind velocity at right angles to the wind’s direction), and you had a typhoon that rotated faster and faster. “The storm was moving together at both low and high levels,” explains hurricane researcher Brian McNoldy. The result was catastrophic damage.

For many, however, the suffering had only just begun. Suddenly finding themselves homeless, people sought safe places to stay, as well as food and burial sites. They tried to get around roads blocked by debris, and looked for medicine either for themselves or to treat loved ones who were sick. People shared what they had and children made the most of the situation by playing with anything to hand. But as body bags lined up and the typhoon made its way towards Vietnam and China, it became clear that a relief mission was desperately needed, even though manpower was short on the ground. Many men feared looting of their properties, and so they sent their wives and children to apparent safety while staying behind to guard what they owned. This didn’t always work out well. In the case of the Tacloban City Convention Centre, the basement flooded, killing many of the (mainly) women who believed they were safe. Those who survived waited in agony for news that their husbands and fathers were alive. Not all of them were, but it was hard to get news when communications and electricity were down.

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It was certainly tough going within the convention centre. There were reports of people using a stairwell as a toilet and seeking water from broken pipes outside. As news got around of the chaos and conditions, many became reluctant to visit the shelter since they were worried their children would become ill due to poor hygiene. As people cried with the pain of hunger, it added to a sense of bewilderment. Across the city there was looting and violence. By now, stories were emerging. The Philippine Daily Inquirer reported the last, heart-wrenching words that head teacher Bernadette Tenegra heard from her daughter as her body was cut by wooden splinters from crushed houses. “Ma, just let me go. Save yourself,” the girl had said. The Guardian wrote of Urwin Coquilla and his wife Ethel, who lost their children and were saved only by clambering aboard a ship that had hurtled towards them. Nichola Jones, a delegate of the International Federation of the Red Cross, said some people were walking barefoot, while others had managed to throw their family and remaining belongings on to the back of scooters.

Q A week after the devastating storm, Tacloban City lies in ruins, with rubbish strewn through its streets

TYPHOON HAIYAN REBUILDING THE PHILIPPINES As the extent of the damage became apparent, President Benigno Aquino III promised to build 205,128 houses in Tacloban City, the worst-hit of the areas affected. That would have gone some way to replacing the million homes flattened by the typhoon, but reports suggest that only 67,754 of them have been completed, and of those, fewer than 35 per cent are occupied. It is fair to say, then, that the rebuilding efforts have been slow. Many residents took it upon themselves to create makeshift homes on the same plots of land they once lived using corrugated iron and any materials they could gather from aftermath of the storm. Yet these areas were deemed unfit for dwelling because, being so close to the coast, they could so easily be swept away should another huge storm ever hit. More successful has been the charitable efforts. The Red Cross distributed cash grants, helping to repair schools, invest

in business and support safer shelter for 13,000 households. The International Rescue Committee focussed its response on Capiz, Iloilo and northern Cebu, which it says were receiving very little relief. It distributed basic shelter kits, vouchers for construction materials and cash grants for labour. Meanwhile, members of the Disasters Emergency Committee repaired or rebuilt more than 40,000 homes, and UNESCO has been active in training 285 secondary school teachers to help children rebuild and improve their lives. But that’s not to say the government has done nothing. About $3.2 billion was set aside for constructing roads, bridges and schools, and cash has also been spent on giving a helping hand to those wishing to start – or restart – their businesses. Given most of the affected areas had been reduced to wasteland, rebuilding was never going to be easy.

Q US Marines help displaced Filipinos just four days after the storm hit the Philippines

FACTS 750,000

People evacuated across the Philippines in the days before the storm

6,329

People confirmed dead after the typhoon hit land

315

The sustained wind speed at landfall in kph (195mph)

16,000,000 Number of people affected by the typhoon

4,100,000 People displaced in the aftermath of the disaster

90 In response, President Benigo Aquino III put 20 navy ships, three cargo planes and 32 military planes and helicopters at the disposal of the relief effort, while governments across the world pledged to help. The UK government alone provided food, shelter, medicine and clean water for 800,000 victims, and charities descended on the region not just to help in the immediate aftermath, but long term to help rebuild the country. The provinces of Leyte, Samar, Aklan, Capiz, Cebu, Iloilo and Palawan were placed under a state of national calamity. But there were reports of relief trucks being attacked and food stolen. Fuel depots needed to be guarded and curfews were imposed. The Philippine government was also criticised for being too slow to respond. Indeed, there was great joy when aircraft carrier USS George Washington appeared

with 5,000 US navy personnel on board to dish out food and water. It was difficult, however, given that other countries were also affected, including Micronesia, Palau, China, Taiwan and Vietnam. There was a great sense of worry, too, since rice, corn and sugar production was ruined, fishing boats were destroyed, and tourists looked to stay away. It would prove to be a long way back from a natural disaster that had taken the lives of 6,329 people, and put a question mark over the 1,074 reported as missing. Huge parts of the Philippines needed rebuilding, particularly along the coast, where cargo ships and oil tankers brought aground had levelled scores of buildings. Bodies were also still being found months later. But then it was the deadliest storm to ever hit landfall in the Philippines, and the country would never be the same again.

“Rice, corn and sugar production was ruined, fishing boats were destroyed, and tourists looked to stay away”

Percentage of homes destroyed in the worst-hit areas

4.55 bil ion

$

Amount in US dollars of damage caused

5.2

Height, in metres, of the storm surge destroying Tacloban Airport’s terminal

2,500,000

Number of people in need of food

98,000,000 Population of the Philippines at the time

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© Eoghan Rice – Trócaire / Caritas

Q Overturned trucks, lots of debris and damaged homes: this was the aftermath of the storm in Basey on the third island in the Philippines, Samar

THE EAST AFRICA DROUGHT

IN BRIEF Q Death toll: 50,000260,000 Q Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia Q 2011 This was the worst drought seen in East Africa for 60 years, but it is notable for there being so many warning signs that went unheeded by governments. By the time the worst of the disaster hit in mid2011, it was already too late, and hundreds of thousands died from a lack of food and water.

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THE EAST AFRICA DROUGHT Q Somali refugees pictured arriving at a camp in Dolo Ado, Ethiopia in July 2011

THE EAST AFRICA DROUGHT

The worst disaster in the Horn of Africa for two generations was turned into a catastrophe by humans

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he first warning signs of a drought arrived in late 2010. A strong weather event called La Niña changed the temperature of the Pacific Ocean, while the additional impact of climate change warmed the Indian Ocean. During two rainy seasons in the Horn of Africa – Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia – the rain never arrived, as it was instead dumped over the ocean by clouds due to the increase in temperature. Despite repeated warnings of impending disaster, governments and agencies failed to react. The results were horrifying.

That loss of rain over two seasons, from October to December 2010 and March to May 2011, resulted in the East Africa Drought of 2011. This was the worst drought to hit the region in six decades, causing mass famine on a scale never seen before. As many as 100,000 people died, with hundreds of thousands more suffering from malnutrition, and many others being forced out of their homes. In total, it is estimated that approximately 13 million people were affected, with many of those that survived still feeling the repercussions today.

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THE EAST AFRICA DROUGHT East African countries rely on the rains for both their crops and livestock. But in 2011, the La Niña event, coupled with climate change, changed everything. The amount of rain falling over the region dropped dramatically, with precipitation rates falling by more than 30 per cent. April, typically the wettest month of the year, would normally see 120 to 150 millimetres of rain. In April 2011, just 30 to 40 millimetres of rain would fall. Many people in the region were still suffering the effects from another serious (although less severe) drought back in 2009, so when the rains failed again, the situation was dire. There was widespread crop failure and loss of livestock, such as cattle, as high as 60 per cent in some places. This in turn decreased milk production and caused a poor harvest. For cattle farmers, also called pastoralists, this was disastrous. All across the region problems started to arise. The lack of water meant that animals died of dehydration, leading to a dramatic loss in income and food. The biggest problems were in

“There was widespread crop failure and loss of livestock as high as 60 per cent in places” parts of Somalia and Ethiopia, where about 65 per cent of the population made their living from raising livestock. In Somalia, pastoralists had to sell five goats to be able to buy a 90-kilogram bag of maize in July 2011, up from just one or two goats in January 2011. In Garissa in Kenya, meanwhile, a kilogram of meat increased in price from about £2.50 in 2010 to £3.50 in 2011, while a litre of milk tripled in price to 70p. This meant that many people had no access to milk and meat. And maize prices were as much as 85 per cent higher than May 2010. Milk production collapsed, and would not recover again until rains started again towards the end of the year. Cereal prices rose to record levels, while livestock prices plummeted and wages fell. In Somalia, the problem was made worse by a conflict between the Islamist extremist group al-Shabab and its weak government, propped up by Western powers. When the former started attacking humanitarian operations, aid agencies were forced to limit trips to the region. The militant group also had bans in place preventing international aid groups from helping Somalians, as they were fearful about such agencies making their way into the country. This had a huge impact on how agencies were able to respond to the crisis. And the conflict had another effect, not only worsening the famine, but also causing hundreds of thousands of people to flee war-torn areas. Combined with the drought, it meant that a huge number of refugees

COPING WITH DISASTER A cattle herder in the Wajir district of north Kenya revealed to the BBC just how the drought was causing problems for his livestock during the disaster in 2011. He had a herd of 200 cows, but as the ground dried up, he found that his animals no longer had anything to graze on, so he took them to another area of Ethiopia in the hopes of finding a place to graze. Unfortunately, that new location was no better than where he had been before. The cows started to drop dead, until all of them had perished. He returned home without a single cow, seriously threatening his livelihood. It was estimated that as many as half a million cattle were lost like this in Ethiopia during the severe drought. It can take two years for a herd to be built up again to provide a way of life, and many people have nothing saved to prepare for such a situation. But efforts are being made to try and give locals a way to build up money and food in case such an extreme event occurs again.

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Q Average rainfall on the left, 2011 in the middle, and the departure from the norm on the right

fled Somalia, causing huge problems elsewhere. By September 2011, more than 920,000 had travelled to neighbouring countries like Kenya and Ethiopia, themselves struggling with their own drought, causing a huge strain on local services and aid relief efforts. In June 2011, at the height of the crisis, a UN base in Dadaab, Kenya had more than 440,000 people in three camps, despite having capacity for just 90,000. Across the East African region the loss of life was immense, and the figures are startling. Infant mortality rose by a factor of three leading up to July 2011, to 7.4 per 10,000 per day, seven times higher than the emergency rate of 1 out of 10,000. More than 30 per cent of children suffered from acute malnutrition, and between May and July, it’s estimated that 29,000 children under the age of five died. The rate of malnutrition in southern and central Somalia increased from 16.4 per cent in 2010 to 36.4 per cent in 2011. Two adults died of hunger per 10,000 people every single day. Millions of people needed food aid in order to survive, as they were priced out of purchasing food themselves or had lost their source of food. Schools were forced to shut down as there was no food to feed the children. Owing to the cramped and unclean conditions people were forced into, the risk of malaria and cholera was also ever present. In Somalia, people had access to less than 2,100 kilocalories of food and four litres of water per day.

THE EAST AFRICA DROUGHT THE LESSONS LEARNED

FACTS

investment in agriculture. Safety nets for the poorest ten per cent of the population, in the form of direct cash payments, could also help improve access to food, while food prices themselves need to be better maintained to ensure people were not priced out of a meal. They noted that reducing armed violence and conflict could play a crucial part in futureproofing regions against droughts and famines, pushing for “more vigorous and sustained diplomatic engagement” to help prevent both local and national conflicts. “The truth is that this crisis was predicted – and preventable,” Oxfam said. “We already have the knowledge to stop this kind of tragedy from unfolding; we know the steps that must be taken to prevent suffering on this scale. Women, men and children dying of hunger is not acceptable. We all have a responsibility to prevent this from ever happening again.”

“People had access to less than 2,100 kilocalories of food and four litres of water per day” Help did eventually come, in the form of billions of dollars of aid that included food, water, and shelter. But while the drought itself was bad, many attribute the lack of early action as having a major impact on the loss of life, turning it from a crisis into a fully fledged disaster. Despite the early warnings, international agencies were particularly slow in responding. One reason was that it was difficult to get funding for aid in advance of the event; only when a disaster makes headlines at its crisis point do donations flow in, but by then it can already be too late. And before the crisis point had been reached, it was hard to get noticed by higher-ups in government. This was despite the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWSNET) warning that the situation would deteriorate even further. By the time people noticed, with the UN declaring a famine in Somalia in mid-July, 13 million people had already been affected. By the end of the year the aid was starting to have an effect, with people returning to their homes in places, although torrential rains later destroyed many temporary houses. The event was a steep learning curve, with agencies and governments getting a stark reminder of the deadly effects of

13 million

The number of people affected by the East Africa Drought

65%

Population that made their living from livestock

100,000

Number of people estimated to have died Drop in rainfall seen in April 2011

75% 2,100kcal

Average amount of food available per person per day in the drought

famine and drought if left unchecked. It’s predicted that climate change could result in repeated droughts in the region, so future-proofing the countries was imperative. As a result of the crises, aid agencies have tried to make the region more resilient to future droughts. This has included using novel technologies to increase harvests, and digging irrigation canals to improve the movement of water. Lessons must be learned to prevent something on this scale from happening again. With stringent early warning systems in place, you would hope that such a huge loss of life could be lessened with proper planning, and ensuring people have enough food and water in reserve to help them through the most testing times.

29,000 Number of children that died between May and July 2011

3x

The cost of milk tripled during the crisis

920,000

Number of Somalians that fled by September 2011

36.4%

Upper rate of malnutrition in Somalia in 2011

Q Refugees gather sticks and branches for firewood in Dadaab, Kenya in July 2011

$1.3 billion Amount of money raised during relief efforts

©AlamYy; NOAA

Following this crisis, Oxfam wrote a scathing report titled, ‘A Dangerous Delay’, detailing how the late response ultimately turned the situation from bad to much, much worse. They said there were clear early warning signs months in advance, but there followed an “insufficient response until it was far too late.” So they came up with a list of recommendations to prevent something like this happening again. They said governments and aid agencies needed to move away from a “wait-and-see” approach, and identify triggers for early action. The international community needed to move towards long-term approaches, rather than simply rushing in and out with aid when there was a crisis. As part of their Charter to End Extreme Hunger, they also recommended that local food production needed to be supported, providing long-term

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POMPEII

VESUVIUS DESTROYS POMPEII The city that once stood as a bastion of Roman life and culture was savaged by one of the most apocalyptic natural disasters ever witnessed on Earth. This is the story of its dramatic destruction

he darkness that surrounded him was blacker and denser than any night. It smothered like a blanket, choking the sights and the sounds from the air. He had fought it for the people’s sake, for her sake, but despite his show of courage to Pomponianus and the others, he knew he couldn’t bear it much longer. The sea, his only means of escape from that desolate place of dust and death, remained violent and dangerous, and pinned him to the shoreline mercilessly. The fires grew fiercer, the falling rock heavier and his strength began to fail him. When he closed his eyes, he could still see the flames. Before the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE, Pompeii had long been an important and prosperous settlement. Originally founded by the Oscan peoples of central Italy around the 6th century BCE, it quickly became a crucial economic and cultural hub, with its position between Cumae, Nola and Stabiae placing it at the centre of human activities. The settlement also developed a large and bustling port, with the entire Bay of Naples – as well as destinations further afield – serviced through it. Pompeii was economically and culturally at the centre of Roman life, helping at first to formulate pre-Roman culture and then develop the Roman society that can still be seen in the ruins today. Although Pompeii is best known for how it met its grisly and spectacular end, it was, for centuries, very much a city teeming with culture and life. This picture of Pompeii as a city is still being pieced together. However, thanks to the diligent work of academics and archaeologists from all

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around the world, today we are developing a snapshot of what life was like in the city. From a basic point of view, Pompeii boasted almost everything a Roman would expect from a major settlement. Markets, bars, temples, theatres, parks, bath houses, swimming pools, race tracks, vineyards, administrative buildings, blacksmiths, eateries, libraries, schools, armourers, villas and more were all present. Thanks to excavation work carried out in the city, we know that it sported about 200 bars, for example. Equally, three major bath houses have been unearthed and numerous inscriptions have been found in market halls and other buildings indicating what was sold, bought or exchanged within them. Pompeii was a city of activity and energy that was run from a grand Forum. The rural areas surrounding the city were also teeming with life and activity. The terrain before the eruption was incredibly fertile, and numerous farmsteads produced vast quantities of agricultural staples such as barley and wheat, as well as olives and more. The city’s incredibly prosperous port at the mouth of the Sarno River was also home to many Pompeians. For the time, Pompeii was a rather populous place, with 10-12,000 people living in and around its walls. The city was home to all rungs of society’s ladder – the aristocratic rich, the average men and women that worked as merchants, labourers or craftsmen, the children, who attended schools if they could or worked alongside the adults, and of course there were the slaves, an intrinsic staple of Roman society at the time.

IN BRIEF Q Death toll: 2,000 (est) Q Pompeii, Italy Q 79 CE The eruption of Mt Vesuvius in 79 CE destroyed a city, killed its inhabitants and buried it under ash for centuries. The archaeological remains reveal a profound amount of information.

POMPEII

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POMPEII launched at once. He had his own doubts about the severity of the situation that Rectina had painted in her letter, but agreed that action must be taken regardless. In contrast, his men were not at all convinced that any movement towards the mountain should be taken. Some said it was a suicide mission, while others feared the wrath of the gods, whose will they believed was being demonstrated through the mountain’s eruptions and was something no man was capable of facing up to. Pliny soon dismissed these concerns and, reminding the men that they had a social duty to the people of the region to uphold, ordered that they should make posthaste on a mission of aid. The fleet launched swiftly and made its course for the bay. As Pliny looked out from the bow of

Q As the bodies of Pompeians decomposed, ash preserved their form. Models were made by pouring plaster into these voids

Some exceptionally wealthy members of Roman society lived in Pompeii. Archaeologists have found the remains of some truly spectacular residences within the city walls, which at the time would have also had amazing sea views and unparalleled gardens, courtyards and dining halls. One famous residence, titled the House of the Faun, covers three quarters of an acre, while others still contain wondrous mosaics with hundreds of thousands of pieces of stone, or intricately carved statues depicting men, women and deities alike. Arguably though, it is the discoveries made about the lives of the poor or average people of Pompeii that have been most illuminating. By looking closely at Pompeii’s public bath houses, archaeologists have garnered a greater understanding of how they were lit – by hundreds of pottery lamps – and by studying a number of the small shops that lined the city’s high street, the Via dell’abbondanza, they have also demonstrated how they used to be protected at night against intrusion with shutters. The vibrant, everyday lives of Pompeians have also been glimpsed in some of the objects recovered from the city. The now famous ‘CAVE CANEM’ sign in one of the larger surviving residences translates as ‘Beware of the dog’, while a series of pictures found in a bar show the kinds of dice games its patrons used to play. Ornate mirrors and combs show the importance some of the wealthier residents of Pompeii placed on

COUNTDOWN TO ARMAGEDDON For more than 24 hours Vesuvius brought the apocalypse to Pompeii, engulfing the city in flame and ash

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“Pompeii was economically and culturally at the centre of Roman life, helping at first to formulate pre-Roman culture” their appearance, while records of people, clothing and culture help show that Pompeii was far more multicultural than a typical Roman city. It is this challenge of discovering the Pompeii that was alive, a city that once stood in the light of the Sun, that currently drives archaeological and academic study in the field. Thanks to the detailed records of Pliny the Younger, the famous Roman lawyer and author, we have a detailed account of Pompeii’s fall and the story of how his uncle, Pliny the Elder, strode forth into the disaster zone in an attempt to help the region’s fleeing citizens escape. It is with these records that here we are able to imagine what his final hours may have entailed. Pliny the Elder, a respected military commander of the Roman Empire and formidable natural scientist, was overseeing the region’s naval fleet at Misenum across the bay from Pompeii when the letter came. In it, Rectina, a friend of Pliny’s, informed him that the mountain’s eruptions had rendered all escape from the plains impossible, and pleaded with him as prefect of the naval fleet to come at once to save them. Pliny, always a man of action and social duty, ordered the fleet’s warships to be prepared and

the capital ship, all he could see of the region was that it was cast in permanent shadow under the great cloud of the mountain. The only other detail of note was that the other boats at sea were all heading in the opposite direction. The waters of the bay were choppy but far from unnavigable, and as Pliny surveyed the coastline that was pocketed with poorer settlements and wealthy estates alike, he calculated that they would make land without issue at Stabiae shortly. Pliny and his fleet soon made port and, amid the falling ash and rock, embraced his friend Pomponianus, who had come to meet him. Interestingly to Pliny, Pomponianus appeared genuinely terrified. He told him of a series of quakes, eruptions and falling debris showers that had plagued the city’s residents over the preceding hours, and that numerous other houses had already been damaged. According to the man, the mountain had already destroyed much, and he told Pliny of his fear that his family would be the next to suffer; that their house would fall down and crush them all. Decamping into Stabiae and, for Pliny, into Pomponianus’s residence, the rescue operation

24th August, 79 CE 8.00AM

1.00PM

3.00PM

4.00PM

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OFollowing more than a week of ground tremors, which were overlooked due to their frequency in Campania, a night of extremely violent shocks occurs that culminates at 8.00am. Many household items and furniture are found overturned.

OAfter a morning of eerie calm, Mount Vesuvius erupts with incredible force, throwing out a cloud of volcanic material that spreads out around the mountain and rises 14 kilometres into the sky. It begins depositing ash over the city.

OThe volcano continues to throw out volcanic material. As it cools in the Earth’s atmosphere, it solidiies and turns into lapilli, hardened lava, which rains down over Pompeii. Most lee the city; some, including the old and pregnant, remain.

ODue to the size and intensity of the volcanic hail, Sarno River and the nearby port begin to clog up with debris. Ships get trapped and others at sea cannot make port. Shockwaves shake the city, causing some structures to collapse.

OChunks of pumice (a form of volcanic rock) fall from the volcanic cloud that has now blocked out the Sun. Pompeii’s streets are buried under the pumice, lapilli and ash, and buildings are crushed and demolished under the weight.

POMPEII

Q Most of the second storeys of the buildings in Pompeii were destroyed during the eruption

began. Pliny and his men quickly went about helping the people whose houses had collapsed, who had been trapped by falling masonry or had become separated from their families. They aided people whose carts had become stuck in the ash and rock, helped others to get their bearings amid the chaos and more than once prevented acts of looting, which had begun to take place in some of the shops on the high streets. This was to be Pliny’s course of action moving forward. He was going to stabilise Stabiae and then proceed to other towns and cities, such as Pompeii and Herculaneum, aiding those who needed it and maintaining law and order despite the trying conditions. Pliny awoke the next day in the early hours to much commotion. Against his instruction, the entire house had remained awake all night, with only Pliny getting any sleep. He soon realised that in one way this had been a good thing, as unknown to him, the frequency of the falling rock had increased dramatically and the courtyard from which his room was accessed had almost been entirely filled with rock and debris. In fact, if one of the family had not come and woken Pliny, then he may not have been able to escape the confines of his room. As Pliny moved through the courtyard to bid good morning to the others, the entire house was suddenly subject to a colossal quake, with the walls violently shaking and bits of ceiling crumbling to the ground. Pliny had already surmised that any further progress on land was then going to be impossible due to the escalating severity of the conditions. He immediately began to plot a new plan in which they would leave as soon as they could via boat, make port further down the bay and redouble their rescue efforts inland. Comparing the risks involved, either being hit by the rock raining down outside or by the falling masonry inside, the assembled group of people decided that they would remain indoors, and there was nothing that would convince them to venture forth with Pliny. As Pomponianus and company refused to leave the residence, Pliny realised that it would be up to him and his men to get them all to safety. They would have to move quickly, too, as Pliny could see that far from subsiding, the mountain’s fury was not yet at its climax. Gathering the best and

25th August, 79 CE 1.00AM

4.00AM

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OPeople continue to lee, their movements only occasionally lit up by lashes of lightning. Scalding mudlows stream down the volcano, obliterating the nearby Herculaneum. Ash, lapilli and pumice continue to fall on Pompeii.

OThe volcanic column that has risen above Vesuvius collapses spectacularly, sending pyroclastic lows (superheated ash and gases) down its slopes. The irst of these lows slams into Herculaneum and eradicates all remaining life.

OA second, larger and hotter pyroclastic low buries Herculaneum. In Pompeii, the rain of pumice and ash falters, however, due to the thickness of the ash and gas, it becomes hard to breathe within the city and the surrounding area.

OMore pyroclastic surges reach Pompeii and demolish the city’s northern wall. They sweep over the city in waves of toxic gas and smouldering ash. Everyone still in Pompeii is killed horribly, burned and choked to death.

OA inal super destructive surge hits Pompeii, demolishing the top loors of almost every building. This surge is so powerful that it reaches Stabiae and even parts of Naples. Fortunately, it loses momentum before it reaches Misenum.

OA ire and lightning storm follows, and, after one inal eruption, Vesuvius’s summit is blasted apart, shearing 200 metres of its top. The cloud begins to clear, but the landscape is changed completely and blanketed in snow-like ash.

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POMPEII bravest of his men, Pliny made for the shore. As they moved, dodging the falling rock and with burning lamps and torches lighting the way left, right and centre (as even after morning arrived the gloom had remained intense due to the mountain’s Sun-blocking cloud), Pliny decided that if the conditions were in any way favourable for a launch, then he would gather all he could and leave immediately. The heat and humidity continued to grow in intensity. The cloud of the mountain seemed, according to Pliny’s understanding, to have trapped all of its expelled heat and gas and, combined with the perpetual night and glow of the fires, produced a sweltering and claustrophobic atmosphere. It was at this point that Pliny felt his throat becoming inflamed – an old ailment that had been with him since youth – and he soon found that he was becoming out of breath far quicker than normal. Upon finally arriving at the shore, Pliny’s spirits sunk, as while the wind was not as severe as it once had been, it still blew against a departure and the ocean waves were incredibly fierce. He suddenly felt dizzy and, calling to a few of the men who had made it with him, asked for a blanket to be laid out for him so that he could catch his breath. He also asked, repeatedly, for cold water to be brought for him, which he consumed while sitting on the shoreline and staring out to sea. Then, without warning, the glows coming from inland exploded in intensity and the smell of sulphur hit Pliny like a great wave. Looking left and right, he saw the remaining men beginning to flee in every direction, stumbling and tripping in their haste to run. Rising slowly from the blanket, Pliny turned and, like the breaking of the Sun’s rays at dawn across the sea, was illuminated by the onrushing firestorm. Pliny the Elder was found two days later, when daylight finally returned to the region, dead on the shore. His body was found intact and uninjured, looking as though he had slipped into a peaceful sleep. It is believed that he died from suffocation, both due to the density of gases expelled in firestorm and in part to his weak windpipe. Rectina, who wrote to Pliny, was never rescued and there are no existing records of whether she survived the disaster or not. The town-cities of Herculaneum, Pompeii and Stabiae were levelled by the eruption of Vesuvius, their populations largely eradicated and their once proud majesty destroyed. However, people soon returned to the region after the disaster and began repairing what they could and rebuilding. Due to the apocalyptic scale of the disaster, though, the three sites were academically lost for more than 1,500 years, with the first new mention of them in historical records emerging in 1599. Today, the entire region is a major tourist attraction, with millions of visitors seeing this part of Campania every year. It is Pompeii, however, the once thriving centre of culture, that draws the most attention. Its story is one of humanity, both in good times and bad, both in sun and shadow.

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INSIDE POMPEII Discover the key sites of this famous city, both for the Roman people archaeologists today exploring its remains

1. RESIDENCES For archaeologists today, building up a picture of how Pompeians lived prior to the disaster is incredibly important. As such, excavating various houses ranging from basic huts to palatial mansions is paramount. The ‘House of the Tragic Poet’, located here, is believed to be a typical example of a Pompeian residence.

08. MACELLUM

06. FORUM A crucial structure in most Roman cities and towns, the Forum was the seat of local government and housed a number of administrative buildings. In Pompeii, the Forum faced north, towards the important Temple of Jupiter (the ruler of the gods).

The central market of Pompeii, the Macellum was one of the focus points for an everyday Pompeian’s life. From an archaeological point of view, the Macellum has surrendered a number of interesting finds, ranging from food remains to items of necessity and wall paintings.

07. BATHS Romans took the act of bathing very seriously and this was equally true in Pompeii. There were three main bath houses in the city, one here (the Stabian Baths) as well as one at the Forum and one in the centre of town.

3. TEMPLES The gods were a crucial aspect of Roman society, and in Pompeii a number of high-profile temples were built in their honour. The Temple of Venus and Temple of Jupiter were arguably the most important, and remain so today in terms of archaeological study.

10. THEATRE Separate to the amphitheatre, Pompeii’s theatre was an incredibly important destination for the ancient Pompeian people, with up to 5,000 citizens capable of being entertained at any one time with the plays of Plautus and Terence, among others.

POMPEII

9. AMPHITHEATRE Another serious pastime for Ancient Roman citizens was going to watch combative sports at the amphitheatre. Everything from gladiatorial fights and chariot races to executions were staged in this impressive arena. Today, concerts and public events are held at the venue.

2. HIGH STREET Pompeii was intersected in an east to west orientation by the Via dell’abbondanza, a large high street off which a number of merchants, bars, baths, administrative buildings, temples and more were located and connected.

05. PALAESTRA Another important site for Pompeians was the Palaestra, a large grassy area equipped with a swimming pool and surrounded by a portico. The site was used as an exercise ground for the local people, as well as for military training.

04. BARS

© Adrian Mann , The Art Agency, Getty Images, Look & Learn, Thinkstock

Unsurprisingly, bars were an incredibly important part of Pompeian life. Archaeologists have discovered the remains of more than 200 bars in Pompeii, with many lining a vast vineyard boarding the Via dell’abbondanza high street.

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THE CHRISTCHURCH EARTHQUAKE Q Shot from Port Hills, this was taken minutes after a 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck central Christchurch on 22 February 2011

THE CHRISTCHURCH EARTHQUAKE 22 February 2011 started as just another day for the residents of Christchurch, New Zealand. Afterward, lives would never be the same again

t 12:51pm on 22 February 2011, the lives of the people of Christchurch changed forever. Earthquakes were nothing new, but this one would alter and destroy lives and properties all over the city. Amid the rumble of earth tremors and collapsing buildings, the screech of twisted metal and the

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slurping of liquified earth gushing up, the people of Christchurch suffered, prayed, survived and died. Earthquakes are common coin to the people of New Zealand. Existing as it does within the Ring of Fire, volcanic eruptions are semi-regular and quakes are frequent. The quake of February 2011 was so close to its predecessor in September 2010 that

many people consider it only an aftershock. It was some aftershock. The quake of February 2011 wasn’t one single shake-up, but a series of smaller quakes densely packed into a comparatively small area. Like saboteurs planting charges in different places to create maximum damage, nature inflicted

THE CHRISTCHURCH EARTHQUAKE IN BRIEF Q Death toll: 185 Q Christchurch, New Zealand Q 2011 Earthquakes and volcanoes are nothing new to New Zealanders; they’ve existed since before New Zealand itself. In February 2011, one of the most destructive and deadly quakes rocked the islands. A series, many packed into a small area, hit the city of Christchurch. Coming while New Zealand was still recovering from previous quakes, they caused considerable damage and many casualties.

multiple quakes. Each one increased the effect of the others. While Christchurch and its people bore the brunt of the death and destruction, the quake was felt as far away as Invercargill (288 miles to the south) and Tauranga (444 miles to the north). That Christchurch is on New Zealand’s South Island and Tauranga on its North shows just how powerful the quake really was. The largest tremor measured 6.3 on the Richter scale, a large quake striking a heavily populated urban area. Despite being smaller than the largest of the previous September’s quakes (measured at 7.1), February’s hit along a shallow fault line near the city centre. Location being everything, February 2011 was far more destructive than its predecessors. It was also vastly more deadly. The time of day was instrumental in so many deaths. Many people in central Christchurch were on their lunch break. They were outdoors and surrounded by buildings of steel and concrete with

plenty of windows. Lots of masonry, steel girders and glass overlooked them. Like a guillotine, it was only a matter of time before it fell. Across Christchurch a rain of masonry, twisted steel and shattered glass killed and injured dozens. The roads were no safer – eight Christchurch citizens died when falling masonry buried two buses. Aside from the Christchurch TV and Pyne Gould Corporation buildings, 36 people died in central Christchurch alone. Many of those indoors fared little better. When the Christchurch TV building collapsed, 115 people died, more than 60 per cent of the total death toll. The four-storey Pyne Gould Corporation building vanished in a cloud of dust, twisted steel, shattered glass and crumbling concrete; 19 people were in the building. Some 24 hours later, a single survivor was pulled from the wreckage. Whole buildings collapsed. Thousands more were destroyed or damaged beyond repair. Many others, especially in the Redcliffs area, found destruction

not from below, but from above. In areas where homes were surrounded or overlooked by hills and cliffs, landslides crushed the homes built beneath them. A number of their occupants also died, death coming from above as well as below. The tremors, however, weren’t the only threat beneath New Zealand’s soil. It was soil, in fact, that proved a major problem. When the quake struck, hundreds – perhaps thousands – of underground water pipes and sewers burst or fractured. Everything from domestic piping in people’s homes to water mains and sewers were damaged. Millions of gallons of water and sewage mixed with New Zealand’s soil, producing another potentially lethal menace: liquefaction. Liquefaction wasn’t unusual either, to some degree. It had happened before, including in the previous September’s quake. This time it was unusually severe, though. Compared to September 2010, February 2011’s deluge of liquified soil was worse. Much, much worse.

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THE CHRISTCHURCH EARTHQUAKE LANDSAR – HELPING THE HELPLESS Founded in 1994, LandSAR is New Zealand’s volunteer search and rescue organisation. Drawn from all over New Zealand, LandSAR relies on well-trained professionals and civilian volunteers providing search, rescue and support services nationwide. It operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, unpaid. Its members number over 3,000 divided into 61 local groups. There are 11 specialist teams, including LandSAR Search Dogs, LandSAR Caving, Alpine Cliff Rescue and the Swift Rescue Team that provide specialist support whenever and wherever needed. The lead agency for New Zealand’s search and rescue efforts is the police, in co-operation with volunteer groups and other organisations including LandSAR. LandsSAR’s efforts are directed from the Rescue Co-ordination Centre. Local members are activated via text message, telephone, pager and email. With no regular duty rosters or schedules, volunteers are activated whenever and wherever they are required. On cliffs, mountains, hills, coastlines, water or land, LandSAR members answer the call. During the Christchurch earthquake, LandSAR teams performed a number of vital tasks. Run out of the Halswell Domain Rugby Club southwest of the city centre, the principal task of LandSAR’s 530 volunteers was performing welfare checks on some 67,000 of the city’s inhabitants. LandSAR volunteers went street by street and house by house, knocking on every door as they went. They provided free advice on welfare and support for those who needed it. In the process, they also provided emotional and psychological support just by letting residents know the situation was well in hand. LandSAR’s volunteers also freed up other people for other duties. For every volunteer doing welfare checks, another police officer, soldier, medic and relief worker was available for other work. LandSAR quickly proved its worth, providing help and support to those who needed it most.

Q Search and rescue dogs obey commands

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Q 80 per cent of Christchurch’s water and sewage services were severely damaged

Liquefaction created a staggering amount of sludgy, waterlogged soil, resembling a cross between mud and quicksand. The combination of water pressure from below and quakes also created fractures in the ground. Thousands of gallons of this sludge then pushed upwards. It destroyed road surfaces, cracking and crumbling asphalt from beneath. Bubbling up like some primeval ooze, it inundated houses, buildings, roads and pathways. This greasy, oily, quicksand-like sludge created further problems. As its water content drained away, it solidified again, covering parts of Christchurch like chocolate spread over a piece of toast. While the sludge did solidify, though, it didn’t solidify enough to be used as building land. Thousands of tons had to be cleared away, an army of volunteers doing the work. Parts of Christchurch, especially in the suburbs, then had to be written off as unsafe to rebuild on. While quakes are never unexpected, the intensity and suddenness of these were truly frightening. Quakes and aftershocks hit random places at random intervals. Nobody knew where or when the next one would hit, only that it would hit somewhere. Their random nature disrupted rescue and recovery operations and scared the population. Infrastructure was severely disrupted. Power supplies went down, although amazingly the power companies restored 75 per cent within three days. The telephone system was seriously affected – even the 111 emergency service went down. Roads were destroyed or flooded with liquified soil. Bridges were rendered unsafe until proven otherwise. Buildings with less built-in protection against earthquakes suffered most, especially older buildings and those already damaged by the quakes of the previous year. Christchurch Cathedral’s spire and part of its tower were turned to dust and rubble, the rest of the cathedral later being demolished on safety grounds.

Q The earthquake wasn’t the serious threat. Some buildings were destroyed by rockfalls from overlooking hills

THE CHRISTCHURCH EARTHQUAKE THE ‘RING OF FIRE’ Officially named the ‘CircumPacific belt’, nature’s Ring of Fire exists in a Pacific basin. Shaped like a horseshoe, the ring covers some 40,000 square kilometres. Within it you’ll find oceanic trenches, volcanic arcs, volcanic belts, areas where the Earth’s tectonic plates rub against each other and volcanoes. Lots and lots of volcanoes. The Ring of Fire is certainly well named. It contains 452 volcanoes, some 75 per cent of the world’s volcanoes all packed in to a comparatively small area. Tectonic shifts (where the edges of tectonic plates meet and grind against one another along fault lines) make earthquakes and

other seismic events a rather common occurrence. Where there’s lava flowing, the Earth is probably shaking. Not surprisingly, it’s perhaps not the safest area to live in. A constant watch is kept for preearthquake movements, quakes themselves, impending volcanic eruptions and aftershocks. As turbulent an area as it is, to scientists and seismologists the Ring is everything they could wish for. Name the type of seismic event and the Ring of Fire can provide it. It frequently does. New Zealand lies within the southern portion of the Ring. It’s home to Mount Ruapehu (one of the Ring’s most active volcanoes),

and earthquakes are a regular event. Another ticking time bomb is the Auckland volcanic field, currently dormant but including at least 40 volcanoes. New Zealanders are used to both volcanic eruptions and earthquakes; one can often trigger the other and vice versa. Being a modern, industrialised country, it has the tools, technology and infrastructure to cope with such events quickly. Nothing can stop quakes and eruptions from happening or doing serious damage, but New Zealanders are among the best and mostexperienced at repairing damage quickly and limiting casualties. They need to be.

Q New Zealand has many volcanoes

“New Zealanders are a tough bunch. They’re used to volcanic eruptions and earthquakes so, rather than panic, they acted” The Catholic Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament was also seriously damaged, but it did survive. Its dome didn’t, though. It was demolished in 2012 for safety reasons. Civil service and administration buildings also suffered heavily. All three of Christchurch’s principal civil administration buildings were seriously damaged, causing the relocation of one of the emergency command centres. The 21-storey PricewaterhouseCoopers building, the largest office building in Christchurch, was so severely damaged that it was later slated for demolition. Authorities feared it might collapse and take other buildings down with it. In total, more than half of the buildings in Christchurch’s central business district were destroyed in the initial quake or later had to be torn down. The damage and destruction wasn’t confined to central Christchurch, either. In Lyttelton, 60 per cent of the main street’s buildings were wrecked. Two Lyttelton citizens were crushed to death by falling rocks and landslides. Timeball Station, one of its historic landmarks, was severely damaged. A few months later, a 6.4-magnitude aftershock destroyed what had remained. Sumner saw landslides and rockfalls. Buildings were swamped by liquified soil, shaken to the ground or buried under falling rocks and sliding land. Hours after the initial quake, parts of Sumner had to be evacuated. Cracks had been spotted in a hillside overlooking the area. Authorities, fearing serious loss of life, ordered residents from their

homes. Three of Sumner’s residents died while local landmark Shag Rock was reduced in height by 50 per cent, so severe was the subsidence caused by the quake. Sumner wasn’t the only place to be evacuated. The suburb of Redcliffs saw 12 whole streets evacuated on 24 February. The cliffs overlooking them were examined and deemed too unstable. The risk of their collapsing, burying the streets and killing dozens, perhaps hundreds, of residents was simply too great. They were right to be worried – some of Redcliffs houses were buried under landslides. Fortunately, their residents were no longer at home. Deaths and injuries were all too common, unusually so. In total, 185 people died in the quake, 115 in the CTV building collapse alone. 97 New Zealanders lost their lives, 28 from Japan and 23 from China. 11 Filipinos were among the dead. Six came from Thailand, three from Israel and two from South Korea. Canada, Ireland, Malaysia, Peru, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Taiwan, Turkey and the US also mourned the deaths of one citizen each. The death toll was as multi-national as it was high. New Zealanders, however, are a stolid, tough bunch. They’re used to volcanic eruptions and earthquakes so, rather than panic, they acted. Within minutes of the quake hitting central Christchurch, the emergency response was already in full swing. New Zealand’s National Crisis Management Centre (NCMC) was immediately activated. Operating out of the ‘Beehive Bunker’ in Wellington,

FACTS 5.9

The largest aftershock measured 5.9, two hours later

185

people died from the earthquake in Christchurch

361

More than 361 aftershocks came within a week of the earthquake

67,000

LandSAR teams visited over 67,000 homes to perform welfare checks

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per cent of Christchurch’s water/sewage services were restored within a week of the quake

200,000

More than 200,000 tonnes of liquefaction silt was cleared by volunteers

10,000

houses needed to be demolished due to irreparable structural damage

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THE CHRISTCHURCH EARTHQUAKE

Q International support from numerous countries helped to mitigate the earthquake’s effect. Japanese rescue workers were among them

“Despite their reduced resources and increased demand, the staff of Christchurch Hospital exceeded all expectations”

THE HOTEL GRAND CHANCELLOR One of the biggest threats to the safety of Christchurch citizens was its tallest building, the 26-storey Hotel Grand Chancellor. In the initial quake the Grand Chancellor had suffered potentially deadly structural damage. After the first quake it could have come down at any moment. Its emergency stairwells had partially collapsed, leaving those inside trapped with only limited ways to escape the crumbling building. Even worse, it was tilting to one side by an entire metre, and the whole building had been displaced by more than 50 centimetres. In short, the Hotel Grand Chancellor could have collapsed or toppled at any moment. If it collapsed in on itself, anyone trapped inside or near the building would almost certainly have died. If, on the other hand, it toppled like a falling tree, buildings within two blocks could be brought down with it. A two-block exclusion zone was immediately established, and those still inside were hurriedly brought

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out. Meanwhile, people watched Given the structural damage, the and waited, knowing the potential Grand Chancellor was going to come for a spectacular (and possibly down one way or the other. Wise deadly) spectacle. precautions and quick decisionIn the end, the hotel stayed making saw it brought down safely upright, but could not be repaired. without flattening nearby buildings It had to be torn down before it fell and anyone trapped inside them. down. Any one of the hundreds of aftershocks could have brought the Hotel Grand Chancellor crashing down across central Christchurch. Not surprisingly, the authorities felt that they simply could not take the risk. Abandoned on 23 February, the building was temporarily stabilised before the decision to demolish it came on 4 March. Demolition would be gradual over the following few Q The tilt of months, the hotel coming the Hotel down in controlled Grand stages. By May 2012, Chancellor demolition work had finally been completed.

NCMC staff immediately became very busy bees. The Beehive controlled every major aspect of the operation at a national level, delegating many operational decisions to local officials in the field. At regional level, Christchurch’s Emergency Operations Centre and the Emergency Co-ordination Centre in nearby Canterbury linked national co-ordination with local action. Within 24 hours, New Zealand’s minister of civil defence John Carter declared a state of national emergency, only the second in the nation’s history. Emergency operations were disrupted, though, when the Canterbury ECC had to relocate. The Copthorne Hotel was next to the ECC’s usual base and looked like it might collapse, burying the operations centre. ECC staff had to move to Canterbury University and set up shop again before resuming their duties. That can’t have helped what was already an extremely difficult job. Christchurch Hospital did remarkable work under the most difficult circumstances. Itself damaged by the quake, parts of it were cordoned off and evacuated. Despite this, it remained open throughout the ordeal. Hundreds of casualties came through its doors for treatment, 231 within an hour of the quake hitting Christchurch. In spite of the situation, hospital staff continued their work, undoubtedly saving numerous lives in the process. In total, some 6,600 to 6,800 people were treated for minor injuries. After the initial rush, a second deluge of patients arrived. To make life even more difficult many were seeking treatment for more serious injuries. Despite their reduced resources and increased demand, the staff of Christchurch Hospital exceeded all expectations. Christchurch Police were also in the thick of the response. Augmented by 323 Australian officers specially sworn in as New Zealand Police, they had the enormous task of maintaining public order and preventing widespread chaos. Even with the Australians, Christchurch had only around 1,200 officers available to perform multiple vital tasks. Australian prime minister Julia Gillard was quick to show sympathy and support: “We will be doing everything we can to work with our New Zealand family, with Prime Minister Key and his emergency services personnel, his military officers, his medical people, his search and rescue teams. We will be working alongside them to give as much relief and assistance to New Zealand as we possibly can.” Australia wasn’t the only country to provide help. Emergency support flooded in from the US, UK, Japan, Taiwan and Singapore. They all sent experts, equipment and supplies to aid New Zealand in what prime minister John Key later said might have been “New Zealand’s darkest day.” They provided security cordons around areas declared off-limits; some areas were so dangerous the cordons remained until June 2013. They organised safe evacuation of residents in Sumner, Redcliffs and central Christchurch. Working alongside search and rescue groups like LandSAR,

THE CHRISTCHURCH EARTHQUAKE

they also provided family liaison, informing the families of the missing, wounded and dead. Their press department also kept the public informed via local media outlets, calming public fears and reassuring them that everything was being done that could be. Family liaison was a grim task in itself, but they faced worse. Operating out of an emergency mortuary hurriedly set up at Burnham Military Camp and working alongside pathologists and forensic experts, police helped gather evidence, using their forensic skills to identify the dead. The military also played their part. HMNZS Canterbury was especially active, delivering supplies to the Lyttelton area, so heavily damaged by the quake and liquefaction. The Canterbury’s biggest contribution provided meals for around 1,000 Lyttelton residents left homeless by the damage. The New Zealand Defence Force embarked on its largest-ever domestic operation, mainly providing logistical support but also assisting the police and relief agencies. The New Zealand Air Force was vital in moving people, supplies and equipment. When Lyttelton was cut off from the rest of Christchurch for several days, the RNZAF bridged the gap. RNZAF cargo planes provided a vital ‘air bridge’, shuttling people, equipment and stores in and out of Lyttelton. Using film and photographic cameras, a reconnaissance aircraft provided up-to-date and accurate information, allowing emergency planners an aerial overview of the situation as it happened. High-altitude satellites did the same under the UN’s International Charter on Space and Major Disasters.

On a smaller scale, though no less vital, the RNZAF’s Huey helicopters also shuttled people wherever they were needed. In the weeks following the disaster, life in Christchurch slowly began resembling normality. Water, power, sewage and electricity services were all restored, albeit with great effort. Thousands of buildings were inspected, some repaired while others sadly slated for demolition. Roads were repaired and thousands of gallons of liquified (and now solidified) soil were cleared away by an army of volunteers. The civil and political administration began to return to normal, albeit with a vastly increased workload. Most of all, the stolid and stoic New Zealanders dealt with the crisis as they have with so many others; they simply got on with restoring and returning to their daily lives. In the months and years after the quakes of February 2011, much has been rebuilt, redesigned, remodelled and restored. The building code has changed to improve earthquake protection. A government enquiry into building standards and safety helped to expose Gerald Shirtcliff. It also demanded answers. Why, for instance, did so many buildings deemed safe after the September 2010 quake crumble so readily in February 2011? Along with repairs, restoration and reconstruction have come other earthquakes – there always will be. Nature’s fury can never be defeated, but New Zealand has never been better prepared to face it the next time and the time after that. Much of Christchurch was knocked down, but its people are far from knocked out.

TRAGEDY AT THE CTV BUILDING The CTV building was the epicentre of the Christchurch tragedy, with 115 people in the building when the earthquake struck. They all died. The building simply collapsed, taking everyone with it. Out of the 185 fatalities attributable to the earthquake, around 60 per cent came at the CTV building alone. CTV employees weren’t the only casualties. The building was also home to a medical clinic and an English language school. Only the lift shaft was left standing, and that quickly caught fire. The building was totally destroyed along with the people in it. Initially rescue workers tried to find and free any possible survivors but, on 23 February 2011, it was decided that rescue efforts should be suspended. Authorities believed that anyone still trapped in the ruins must be dead. With resources stretched and other priorities pressing hard, rescue became recovery; bringing out the dead. The principal cause of those deaths, however, was the building’s construction supervisor Gerald Morton Shirtcliff. Shirtcliff was later exposed as having no engineering degree of his own despite having overseen several major construction projects. Shirtcliff had instead stolen one from retired engineer William Fisher, a former friend and graduate of England’s University of Sheffield, along with much of Fisher’s identity. Shirtcliff had also secured a master’s degree in highway engineering, although it was later shown that his father did much of the work for him. Shirtcliff/Fisher’s initial refusal to give evidence at the Royal Commission investigating the CTV building’s collapse aroused suspicions. Journalists investigated further, discovering the fraud. His original degree was fraudulent and his master’s was revoked by Australia’s University of New South Wales. It also emerged that Shirtcliff, aside from being a fake engineer, had also served a prison term for tax fraud. Shirtcliff’s false credentials weren’t the only flaw in the building. A government report found the building’s design was flawed. What Shirtcliff’s dishonesty contributed towards had begun with a building poorly designed, unable to withstand something it should have. A flawed design, fake construction manager and the earthquake cost 115 lives.

Q All 115 people in the CTV building died from the earthquake

©Getty; Alamy

Q Liquified sand severely disrupted rescue operations. Resembling quicksand, it solidifies as water runs off

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HURRICANE KATRINA

IN BRIEF Q Death toll: 1,836 Q Eastern United States Q 23rd August 2005 Katrina caused widespread destruction along the Gulf coast and plunged most of New Orleans underwater, taking lives and homes and displacing thousands.

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HURRICANE KATRINA

HURRICANE KATRINA When Hurricane Katrina killed 1,800 people and became the most expensive natural disaster in US history, it also blew fresh life into traditional reporting

hey were desperate and pleading for help – not for themselves, but for their loved ones and friends. One by one they constructed their messages. “My mother is trapped in her home,” typed one; “Marcell is 85yrs old. He is bed ridden and needs to be rescued badly,” tapped another. “The town people are trying to get word out that there is no help and people are dying,” someone else wrote. And so it went on. Dozens of messages each day, every single one of them an agonising, individual story that introduced a terrible situation, and yet – just as if the last page of a book had been mercilessly torn out – carried no hint of a potential happy ending or any kind of resolution. But then, they were living in a city of chaos and catastrophe, and being able to even get a message out there was comforting in and of itself. For this was New Orleans in 2005, and the city was witnessing all of the horrors and heartbreak of one of the worst natural disasters to hit the shores of the United States of America. A population used to turning on the television or seeing a newspaper land on their doormat was suddenly having to find different outlets for information that could so easily be the difference between life and death. Two forms of media suddenly proved their worth: radio and online. It would also become a new chapter for media reporting; a watershed moment during which huge numbers of ordinary people turned to the internet not only to read the news, but to report it themselves. Jon Donley was the editor of NOLA, a website set up to accompany the New Orleans Times-Picayune, a newspaper whose origins in the Louisiana community stretches back to 1837. As Hurricane Katrina made her destructive way across most of the eastern US, he – together with all of the other journalists who worked for the paper – had been busily getting themselves ready for the inevitable spike in stories and coverage such an event would

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require. Little did Donley know that his website would prove to be so important. The world had first caught wind of a potential problem shortly after the National Hurricane Centre in Miami, Florida issued its first warning at 5pm on 23rd August 2005. It had noted an interaction between a tropical wave and the remnants of Tropical Depression Ten over the Bahamas, some 350 miles east of Miami, significantly strengthening to that point that it was being labelled a tropical storm the following day. But by 5pm on 25th August, there was a rising panic. It had become apparent that this was a Category One hurricane, and as winds gusted at around 75 miles per hour and made their way to land, it felled trees and killed two people. Katrina then continued on her path, fluctuating between a tropical storm and a hurricane as the winds lessened and then intensified. They reached 100 miles an hour by the morning of 26th August. That day, Brendan Loy was sitting on his couch in Indiana with only a laptop computer and the television remote for company. He was a weather enthusiast and blogger who shared his thoughts on his site at irishtrojan.com, and he had spotted something rather concerning. “At the risk of being alarmist,” he noted, “We could be 3-4 days away from an unprecedented cataclysm that could kill as many as 100,000 people in New Orleans. If I were in New Orleans, I would seriously consider getting the hell out of Dodge right now, just in case.” He was right to be alarmist. For the next two days, Katrina wreaked havoc. The winds began reaching 175 miles an hour, and the National Hurricane Centre was already suggesting that the people of New Orleans prepare for the worst. Mayor Ray Nagin took no chances, and ordered the city’s first ever mandatory evacuation. In a conference, he told residents: “I wish I had better news. This is very serious. This is going to be an unprecedented event.” The predictions were terrifying.

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HURRICANE KATRINA The key issue was that New Orleans lies below sea level, and Governor Kathleen Blanco said water was likely to engulf the city, reaching 20 feet in places. The levees that were supposed to protect New Orleans would be unable to provide sufficient protection from the likely rise of the Mississippi River and Lake Ponchartrain. It was imperative that people leave. But not everyone went. City, state and federal officials, as well as the parish prison’s inmates, tourists, hospital patients and media, were allowed to remain. Meanwhile, those too poor to flee were told they could seek refuge in the city’s Superdome. It seemed that everything was very much in hand. With all the makings of a juicy story, Donley and the journalists working for the TimesPicayune sharpened their pencils, knuckled down and got to work. The front page on 29th August told of how New Orleans was bracing itself for the “nightmare of the big one”, and it wasn’t an easy read. Staff writer Gwen Filosa wrote of the stark situation people faced in what was labelled the “last resort”. She described homeless men sleeping on the pavements outside, and long queues snaking within the Superdome while people clutched tightly to bedding, toys and other essentials – enough, they hoped, for a few nights, no more. Elsewhere, the paper reported fears that there would be no electricity or telephone services for weeks or even months. It was believed that at least one half of the city’s well-constructed homes would have both roof and wall failure. But that was only part of the tale. The following day, the front page told of what had happened that Monday. ‘Catastrophic’, said the main headline with other stories below headed, ‘Flooding wipes out two communities’ and ‘After the mighty storm came the rising water’. Katrina had arrived. For that day, 29th August, New Orleans had become the worst of all the affected areas. The hurricane hit the Gulf Coast with some force, causing damage to the coasts of Mississippi and Alabama, smashing homes apart, sending cars hurtling through the air and bringing down power cables and telecommunications, just as the authorities feared. But it also caused flooding to 80 per cent of New Orleans, and the city was showing signs of stress. Those sheltering were doing so in the worst of conditions, and as they waited for help, the atmosphere started to turn sour. Food and water became scarce, with the sheer amount of people packed into the massively hot Superdome also finding conditions unhygienic and unsanitary. People were desperate for information and a way of finding missing people. Realising the extent of the problem, local journalists stepped up to the mark and mixed gritty reporting with ingenuity. But they were not the only ones stepping in to cover the disaster. Bloggers also sought to provide

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FACTS

1,836 Number of reported deaths attributed to Hurricane Katrina

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Number of breaches of the levee system

80%

of the city and neighbouring parishes under water

£108 billion

Total amount of damage to property

175 miles-per-hour of the wind at its strongest

Q Katrina was the deadliest US hurricane since the 1928 Okeechobee hurricane

HURRICANE KATRINA

WHY THE LEVEES FAILED Since New Orleans is mostly below sea level and surrounded by water from the Mississippi River, Lake Pontchartrain and the Gulf of Mexico, the city came to rely very heavily on a huge levee system to hold back any major overflow that could be caused by a storm such as Katrina. But the levees failed – 28 of them in the first 24 hours. The Army Corps of Engineers said this was due to two main factors: federal engineers had not considered that storm waters would reach the height that they did, and they also failed to anticipate that the strength of the levees may not be enough to counter its incredible force. As such, the water flowed into the saucer-like city and had nowhere to go. It wasn’t entirely a surprise. The Army Corps had tested the design of the levees in the Eighties, and found that they would crumble if the pressure from high water became too great on the Lake Pontchartrain side. They were right. But there were other problems: the levees were poorly designed and constructed; they were not interlocked for extra strength and some of them gave way because they were built on land that was easily eroded by the floodwaters.

reports. Loy’s blog became filled with updates as he balanced citizen journalism with his personal life. “I have a job interview in the morning, and classes as well, so I fear I won’t be able to blog at quite the furious pace of the past three days,” he wrote at, and yet a sense of duty and an ownership meant he was back just three hours later. Loy used his blog to link to lots of images of the devastation, as well as guest blogs from friends and people who contacted him via his site. But he was by no means alone. Various local bloggers used the New Orleans Metblogs metro blogging site to report on the evacuation and problems, while Kaye Trammell, who was an assistant professor in mass communication at Louisiana State University, made some brief notes of her own. Sites such as deadlykatrina.com or The Weather Channel’s own blog complete with streaming video reports became popular, and Weatherblog sought to bring together individual perspectives. Livejournal.com provided a solid platform for many writers, and there were various webcams hoping not to be scuppered by a dropped connection.

“I tend to think that blogging was to Hurricane Katrina what Twitter was to Arab Spring,” says Cynthia Joyce, an assistant journalism professor at the University of Mississippi. “It was the perfect tool for the time. In the case of Katrina, blogs wound up providing a real sense of ‘place’ for many of the displaced. Back then, having an online hub with a permanent web address was so reassuring, especially when your actual home was destroyed or inaccessible.” Not that the professional press wasn’t working hard too. The printed Times-Picayune had hit problems shortly after 8pm on 29th August when it became apparent that it would be impossible to print and distribute the newspaper the following day. The waters had not only ruined the printing press, but devastated the shops that normally

sold it, and so the paper’s staff found themselves holed up in a hurricane bunker – the windowless photography department – discussing the need for an alternative. Thankfully, with all of their electricity and broadband intact, the web was able to provide it. People were already going online in great numbers, and the journalists at the Times-Picayune were meeting their readers’ needs perfectly, even taking to sleeping in the office, such was their dedication. The NOLA.com news blog soon became the primary way of discovering the latest updates on the hurricane online. Many journalists, regardless of their specialism, were heading out into the city and suburbs to chronicle the damage and personal stories while producing reports with great immediacy.

“Blogging was to Hurricane Katrina what Twitter was to the Arab Spring... blogs wound up providing a sense of place” 55

HURRICANE KATRINA

Q Citizens had to resort to desperate measures to save possessions and source edible food and drinkable water

Both they and the bloggers had an advantage over the national media: contacts and familiarity with their areas. The blog structure was allowing them to get under the skin of the city almost in real time, logging the minutest of details, but it worked particularly well because they knew their patch inside out. “Prior to Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans’ anomalies – and, for that matter, those of the entire Gulf Coast – were of little interest to the national media,” says Joyce. “In 2005, the network bureau closest to New Orleans was five hours away in Atlanta. Despite this, crews very quickly mobilised to provide 24-7 coverage – some of it stellar, much of it award-winning, but very little of it immediately useful to the victims and evacuees themselves. So the blogs emerged as a critical source of information on a block-by-block, hyperlocal level.” During this time, Donley also made an important decision. He stopped writing his NOLA View blog on NOLA.com, and instead allowed it to become a notice board for others. Readers flocked to it in order to appeal for help finding missing people, with rescuers monitoring it. The blog revealed important information that would save lives, and it helped the site grow quickly from 10 million views on 28 August to 17 million the following day, and 30 million by the end of the week. The staff had to evacuate on 30th August, but they continued to report the news: the paper was simply ‘printed’ in PDF format and made available online. There was certainly plenty to write about. By the Friday, a public health emergency had been declared in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. Food had all but run out in the Superdome and the New Orleans convention centre, and they were certainly proving to be desperate times. In the midst of this, the website was becoming even more vital. Its forums buzzed, and offers of aid flooded in. It would continue that way for many, many weeks. And yet the websites and blogs weren’t the only outlets available. Hundreds of thousands more

THE WRONG KIND OF VICTIM? CNN’s Wolf Blitzer has enjoyed a long and illustrious career, but he made a rather controversial remark following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina: “So many of these people, almost all of them that we see, are so poor, and they are so black,” he said. “And this is going to raise lots of questions for people who are watching this story unfold.” The issue of race in relation to Hurricane Katrina is a sensitive one that has been raised

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numerous times in the years since the disaster. The response to Katrina is widely seen as having been grossly mismanaged and heavily marked by incompetence and failure. But there is also a prevalent feeling that race may have played a part too. Many people had been unable to leave New Orleans, with those left behind as the hurricane hit saying they did not have the resources to evacuate. They were told to seek shelter in designated

buildings, but the authorities – who appeared to lack leadership and failed to react swiftly enough in enacting effective relief efforts – were ill-prepared for the numbers of people who wanted to use them. There was a feeling that they had been left to fend for themselves with a distinct lack of provisions. It led to growing opinion that there was an indifference in America to black life, and that had the disaster

occurred in a different area with a different racial make-up that the first response would have been far quicker. Polls following the disaster showed 60 per cent of black people believed race played a part in the slow response, while only 12 per cent of whites felt the same. Many predominantly white commentators said the residents had simply not heeded the warnings – almost blaming them for their situation.

In any case, President George W Bush, who was heavily criticised at the time for not acting quickly enough in response to the catastrophic events in New Orleans, admitted there were “serious problems” in the government’s emergency response capabilities. The social consequence of Katrina was a collapse in black racial optimism, and there is no doubt that the disaster has left its mark on the United States in the decade since.

HURRICANE KATRINA

“Nagin had a message for George W Bush: Every day that we delay, people are dying, and they are dying by the hundreds” hesitation. The frank interview was heard by hundreds of thousands of people, many on the battery-operated radios they had taken with them in their emergency backpacks. The immediacy of the situation was clear. Nagin expressed anger at talk of getting public school bus drivers to help evacuate: “You’ve got to be kidding me; this is a national disaster. Get every dog-gone Greyhound bus line in the country and get their asses moving to New Orleans.” He had a message for President George W Bush: “Every day that we delay, people are dying, and they are dying by the hundreds I’m willing to bet you.” WWL’s rolling news coverage was simulcast on other radio stations, allowing as many people as possible to tune in. It urged people to leave the city, and was boosted by the government’s decision to hand supplies that allowed it stay on air during periods of no electricity. By Monday it was the only station broadcasting live. To get its coverage out to as many people as possible, the radio groups had come together under the banner of The United Radio Broadcasters of New Orleans to simulcast WWL’s shows. An estimated 15 stations combined their programming and engineering resources, and a free hotline was set up to allow people to share their eyewitness reports. The lines became packed with people trying to contact others or share their fear at the rising waters around them, and there was an incredible sense of deja vu as caller after caller related the same scenarios: there was no doubt that people needed to be heard, and there was a sense of duty to report everything that was going on.

“The people of New Orleans are now, more than ever, depending on radio to keep them informed and connected,” said David J Field, president and chief executive officer at Entercom Communications, which owns WWL. “Our staff at WWL-AM has provided a vital lifeline of critical news and information to the community throughout the storm and its unfortunate aftermath.” He wasn’t wrong. The efforts of the news organisations and the bloggers who provided words, images and videos not only for their own sites, but for newspapers and television channels, helped keep the vital information channels flowing. The same was true in Kentucky, Alabama, Georgi, Ohio, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana and the other places affected by Katrina. NOLA.com was awarded the Breaking News Pulitzer Prize, and it shared the Public Service Pulitizer with the Biloxi-based Sun Herald. It also showed how grass-roots reporting could make a massive difference to relief efforts. Of course, the problems didn’t stop once the storm died down. There was a major relief effort, and a need for repairs and reconstruction. The economic effects were also huge, and the environmental impact was great. There was social disorder to deal with, and the need to draft in thousands of National Guard and federal troops. There was also ongoing criticism of the government’s response and of Bush directly. But there was only praise for the tireless local media outlets and the bloggers in helping to make sense of the most chaotic of circumstances. Without them, an unthinkable situation would have been far worse.

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© Alamy; Getty Images

were tuning into the radio too, as one in particular – WWL-AM – came into its own. As one of the few stations on the air in the immediate aftermath of the storm, news anchor and investigative reporter Garland Robinette found himself broadcasting from a makeshift studio, which had been created in a closet at the WWL offices, protecting himself from the gusts that were whistling through the smashed windows. Listeners hung on to his every word to discover evacuation plans and find out which neighbourhoods were worst affected. The station provided all they needed to know about when help would arrive and what was going to happen in the short term given the sheer number of houses that had been levelled by the power of Katrina. It was becoming increasingly clear that the authorities were not handling the disaster as well as they might, and there was rising anger that little was being done to help them. On 2nd September, frustration boiled over, and it was heard on WWL. Robinette asked Nagin what he needed. “I need reinforcements, I need troops, I need 500 buses,” the mayor replied without

HURRICANE HARVEY

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HURRICANE HARVEY

HURRICANE HARVEY TEXAS & LOUISIANA, USA, 2017 Hurricane Harvey was one of the costliest natural disasters in the USA, coming in at around $125 billion. Thousands of people were displaced, and thousands more were in need of rescue. 107 people lost their lives in storm-related incidents.

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MOUNT PINATUBO

IN BRIEF Q Death toll: 722 Q Central Luzon, Philippines Q 15th June 1991 Following a series of small earthquakes, Mount Pinatubo erupted just as a terrifying typhoon hit town. Were it not for the intelligence gathered by scientists, the death toll could have been catastrophic.

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MOUNT PINATUBO

MOUNT PINATUBO ERUPTS Mount Pinatubo blew its top just as a typhoon struck. But how did scientists help save thousands of lives?

he US team members were gnawing at their fingernails, nervously pacing around their office and reaching for coffee to help make themselves feel more alert. It was the evening of 10th June 1991 and they had made a monumental decision that day over an issue which had seen them clash numerous times with the US military. The anxiety among the group from the United States Geologic Survey’s (USGS) Volcano Disaster Assistance Program was centred on Mount Pinatubo, and their prediction that it was about to blow. Yet they could not say for certain that anything was going to happen. All they knew is that they desperately needed this volcano to erupt. Mount Pinatubo lies on the island of Luzon in the Philippines and it is just 90 kilometres northwest of the capital Manila. It’s in the midst of the junglecovered Zambales mountain range and, until 1991, it had lain dormant for a little under 500 years. For the half a million people who lived within 40 kilometres, it was simply a piece of natural background furniture that in most cases had gone completely unnoticed. It had never in their lifetime posed any danger and few people had even heard yet alone seen it. But that was about to change. On 15th March, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PIVS) had noticed a series of earthquakes and it was becoming apparent that Mount Pinatubo was awakening. By 2nd April, the problem was clear. A crack of about 1.5km in length had opened across the north side of the existing lava dome. At the request of the PIVS and following a subsequent number of steam explosions, a team of three people from the USGS was despatched to the Philippines to help

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monitor the volcano around the clock. When they witnessed a succession of explosions, a second group, which numbered volcanologist and college graduate John Ewert, was also sent out. They rolled up their sleeves and got down to business. “At that time, it was not widely known that Pinatubo was an active volcano,” says Ewert. “It was a subtle feature in the jungle rather than the large, cone-shaped volcano that people are familiar with. So we went into it cold. There had been no seismic instruments near it prior to the activity on 2nd April and we were working from scratch. We didn’t know much about what we were dealing with other than it had never erupted in anyone’s memory.” After 2nd April, the Philippine volcanologists had placed portable seismic recorders to the northwest of the volcano and, five days later, anyone within ten kilometres of the volcano’s summit was asked to leave. When the USGS team arrived, they added radio telemetred instruments into the mix. But even though the focus was on the volcano itself, they were very much concerned about their surroundings. For not only was the volcano close to the city of Angeles with its hundreds of thousands of residents, it was also in between two of the largest US foreign military bases at the time: the Subic Naval Base and the Clark Air Base. Clark was home to a permanent population of 15,000 people and the economy of Angeles was heavily dependent on it, but it was also very sensitive. As the team began to draft evacuation plans, they had to negotiate the politics of disaster management. It was a twin battle in some respects, but one that they knew they had to get right. “Our goal was to figure out what hazards this volcano would present to the Philippines and the

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MOUNT PINATUBO

Q Volcanologists Maurice and Katia Krafft

CASE FOR EVACUATION Persuading people to evacuate isn’t easy but for Mount Pinatubo, the experts were helped by two other disasters. The first was the eruption of Nevado del Ruiz in northern Columbia in 1985 which caused a mudslide and killed 23,000 people. “That catastrophe was a result of poor communication among scientists, the authorities and the public and, as a result of that, the volcanological community resolved to improve the way scientists communicated with the decision makers,” says volcanologist John Ewert. The second involved husband and wife volcanologists and vieographers, Maurice and Katia Krafft, who were commissioned by the International Association of Volcanology to create instructive videos of volcanic phenomena and its impact on people and agriculture. Their first task was to look at the aftermath of Columbia. The Kraftts produced a video called Understanding Volcano Hazards and a rough cut of this was used by the USGS team in the Philippines to make their case about Mount Pinatubo. But on 3rd June, the Kraffts were filming the eruption of Mount Unzen in Japan and they were were among 41 people killed by a pyroclastic flow. “This had a big impact on our scientific team and on the people we were trying to convince,” says Ewert. “We would say, look, here is the video of Nevado del Ruiz but understand the people who produced it died in a pyroclastic flow just a few days ago. You need to take this seriously.”

Q Military and civilians are evacuated from the Clark Air Base

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US military bases,” says Ewert, who is now a top scientist in charge of the USGS’ Cascades Volcano Observatory in Vancouver. “We were seeing if we could forecast when an eruption may occur but the bases were a source of much stress and anxiety on the part of the scientists. There was a concern that if they were evacuated then it would be tantamount to abandoning it and that is not something the military establishment or the diplomatic community wanted to see happen at that point.” To gain a more accurate estimate, Ewert’s task was to supplement the seismic monitors with tilt meters – “they are essentially an electronic carpenter’s level but one that is extremely sensitive,” he says – and these were used to detect the inflation of the volcano as the magma reservoir beneath the volcano grew or as the conduit opened towards the surface. As the days went by their concerns became more acute. By the first magmatic eruptions on 3rd June, they knew plans would have to be acted upon sooner rather than later. Indeed, within four days, a large explosion produced an ash column that soared seven

kilometres into the sky. It was time to persuade people that they may have to leave or else perish in the oncoming onslaught. Talks continued between the scientists, elected officials and the public. Meanwhile, the team looked at past deposits from the volcano as they tried to piece together clues and figure what would happen. As plumes of ash continued to filter into the air, it was time to take action. Anyone within 20 kilometres was told to evacuate. Soon, though, it was the turn of the service members and families living at Clark Air Base to evacuate. After some persuasion, this took place on the morning of 10th June. Around 14,000 people walked across the fields with their bags in hand to awaiting buses that were driven in to help the evacuation. As expected, it was orderly and calm but there was still resistance elsewhere. “The mayor of Angeles decided the Americans were Chicken Littles saying the sky was falling in,” says Ewert. “He said there was no reason to be concerned and that everyone should go about their business as usual. He was not re-elected.” It became obvious why.

“Around 14,000 people walked across the fields with their bags in hand”

Q Ash some 9cm thick forms a blanket over vehicles at Clark Air Base

MOUNT PINATUBO

AFTERMATH OF A VOLCANO highland area and you get a typhoon with many centimetres of rain, you generate debris flows,” explains Ewert. “Since water does not infiltrate as it would in normal soil – because the ash is water repellent, or hydrophobic – the rain gathered loose fragmental material with it. It bulked up as it flowed downhill so you got these flows that have the consistency of flowing

On 12th June at 8.51am, a Vesuvian eruption which lasted up to 20 minutes created an ash cloud 19 kilometres high. “It was very impressive,” says Ewert admiringly. “It made a large umbrella cloud and it was so beautiful and clear that everyone could see it.” Ewert was relieved. “People could now understand that this is a big thing which is happening here.” A super-massive pyroclastic flow extended four kilometres from the summit but it was only just getting going. “We were really fortunate to have these initial explosions in daylight hours when people could see them,” says Ewert, who says it helped with the subsequent evacuations. “We’d only evacuated 48 hours earlier and although we were tired and stressed, we were fortunate that our forecast had been borne out.” Three days later, Pinatubo unleashed its biggest fury. The eruption cloud reached 34km into the sky and the umbrella spanned 400km. The noise of the debris smashing together was almost deafening. “The volcano behaved in a manner that didn’t pull any tricks so there was an element of luck there and at certain times luck works in your favour,” says Ewert, who was in the thick of it. Yet no-one counted on the cyclone Typhoon Yunya throwing a spanner in the works as it moved west to northeast at the same time the volcano was at its peak. Winds howled at up to 195kph, striking southern Luzon on 15th June. The rain smashed the earth, causing flash floods and sweeping away homes. It was mixing with the volcanic ash and making a bad situation terribly worse. “If someone would have told me that I was going to be present at one of the largest eruptions of the

concrete. It was very dense and in the case of Pinatubo it was very hot because they were coming off of pyroclastic flow deposits that have just been laid down. “So you got this incandescent hot material at 400 or 500 degrees Celsius, added with water, running downhill. It created problems for the next ten years for the three provinces around Pinatubo.”

20th century and, by the way, on the same day there was going to be a typhoon coming ashore and tracking across the volcano, I would have said, ‘no, the odds of that are vanishingly small and that is not something I can plan for,’ and yet there you have it,” says Ewert. “It happened.” As ash fell on to the rooves of houses and the rain pounded down, the water combined to create a heavy mass on structures not built to support such a load. The buildings collapsed under the weight, killing hundreds. “The earthquakes as the caldera was forming had shaken the structures so with the load and the wind, the houses couldn’t stand,” says Ewert. “That is where, by and large, most of the casualties occurred on 15th June. People were sheltering and saw structures collapse on them.”

The aftermath was also uncomfortable for the survivors. “It was hot and humid,” Ewert says. “If you imagine being in 32 or 33 degrees Celsius with talcum powdersized dust on you all the time, you can imagine how much of an uncomfortable environment it was. The grit sticks to everything. It took four days to get the ash out of my hair and off my body.”

The team’s instruments were destroyed too and danger was very much upon them as they completed their last of observations at their offices in Clark Air Base. It was time for them to join the 250,000 people on the move. “We evacuated Clark Air Base at 2pm, leaving behind the only remaining instrument still operating.” It was a good move, since the base suffered such extensive damage that it eventually had to be abandoned for good; the Philippine government unable to reach new terms on the lease of such a battered area. When the dust settled there was good news and bad. The death toll was around 800 and more than 10,000 people had been left homeless. But, it was estimated 20,000 lives may have been saved due to the early-warning actions of the scientists.

© Getty Images; NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

In the aftermath of the eruption, the landscape was transformed. “It became very grey, very monotone and it had a little bit of an acrid sulphurous smell,” describes volcanologist and witness John Ewert. The effects of the volcano and the typhoon had also taken their toll on the ground. “When you put five, six or seven cubic kilometres of fragmental material on a

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IN BRIEF Q Death toll: 15,000+ ō hoku, Japan Q To Q 11th March 2011 The events in Tōhoku would represent the most catastrophic disaster suffered by the nation of Japan since the dual atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

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TOHOKU EARTHQUAKE & FUKUSHIMA MELTDOWN In 2011, a trio of domino-like disasters sent the capital of Japan into meltdown and nearly brought a world superpower tumbling down

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efore that fateful day in 2011, the town of Fukushima was a quiet and restful region, famed for its lush green mountains, ripe summer fruits and tranquil hot springs. The enviable beauty of this peaceful region in north-east Japan was broken only by a true contrast to its natural panoramas – the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Polar Plant situated in its namesake capital city. Built in 1971, the 3.5-square-kilometre site was one of the nation’s foremost sources of power and remained one of the 15 largest nuclear plants on the planet. An industrial beast – much like its sister site – it may have been, but it was a feat of engineering prowess that inspired national pride in many who worked there. On Friday 11th March 2011, that calm, idyllic image of a sleepy region was torn asunder. In a matter of hours, an earthquake shook the nation to its core, conjuring a tsunami so powerful it swept homes, business and schools aside like tissue paper. Then that flooding reached the most critical point in the entire area – the power plant. Soon a region that had been shaken, flooded and pummelled into submission would be smothered in deathly fallout as the plant bled radiation. It was a terrible disaster of three, but it begs a very important question: was a country as experienced in earthquakes as Japan truly prepared for the fate that played out that day?

On the morning of 11th March 2011, the city of Fukushima (the namesake of the larger region it nestled within) moved about its business like any other day. Its 13 districts and population of almost 300,000 people worked, studied and laughed their way through the morning, the air loud with the horns of long-haul fishing boats and industrial ships as they sailed into port. It’s a haven of life and activity, and one that has no idea the earth beneath it is about to move, as if cracked by unseen forces. Deep beneath the city and the rest of the nation, the very mantle of the earth is beginning to subside. The country is positioned above a tectonic mosaic and the intersection of two colossal plates – the Continental Plate and the Pacific Ocean Plate – but the tension that holds these two plates in place, a force known as subduction, is beginning to shift. The Japan Trench, the geological fault line created between the two plates, is suddenly in turmoil. The Pacific Ocean Plate begins to slip further beneath the other, lifting the seabed itself by 80 kilometre over an area the size of Connecticut. The effect of these titans shifting beneath islands of Japan creates a force so powerful that it’s felt across the world. The energy churning below generates a geological echo resulting in an earthquake with a rating of 9.0 on the moment magnitude scale. It’s the most powerful quake

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FUKUSHIMA

Q The quake was so powerful it was felt as far as Massachusetts, USA – 6,557 miles away.

to strike Japan in history, and the fourth largest in history. Suddenly, Japan is rocked to its core as the earthquake spools itself into full force. It’s 2.46pm. For six minutes, normality is put to the sword. For six minutes, the very ground itself seems locked in a violent swaying and rolling motion. Windows shatter, buildings lurch so hard they seem like they might topple and the very fabric of existence seems to come undone. Terror hangs thick in the air, screams and cries can be heard and explosions boom in the distance as petrol tanks rupture. Entire cities shut down, transportation networks grind to a halt and electrical grids shut off across the region. When the quake subsides, the citizens of Fukushima and the rest of Japan try to collect themselves. Cars are overturned; some are on fire; entire homes have been shaken to pieces; there’s glass and dust everywhere. But the nation hasn’t been levelled, and the level of distress and chaos varies from Hokkaido to Tokyo. Japan isn’t gripped by an overwhelming sense of panic either – there’s almost a bizarre, adrenaline-driven sense of excitement. A powerful earthquake has come and

gone and life remains as it was, albeit with a great deal of mess. Despite the severity of the earthquake, Japan was far from unprepared. Its Earthquake Early Warning (EEW) system was one of the most accurate – and the most costly – in the world with more than 10,000 sensors in place. Japan is a country that endures 1,500 earthquakes of varying seismic levels every year, and so the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) keeps tabs on any geological activity in case of tremors that could endanger lives. The EEW detected the shifting plates about one minute before the earthquake struck. The system sent out a national warning, which reached members of the public eight seconds before the shaking began. It was barely any time, but some members of the public had been informed, and tried to prepare. Half an hour later, the first of many aftershocks begins. Registering at a powerful 7.4 and clocking in at 3.08pm, it only lasts for a few minutes. Another hits shortly after, although this one registers as less aggressive (these will taper off over time, but continue long after the disasters to come have subsided). As the people of Japan begin to gather themselves, those same forces that shook their homes and businesses were being boomed out into the ocean, creating a force of seismic energy so huge it could power the city of Los Angeles for a year. The JMA’s Earthquake Early Warning system registers a growing tsunami out at sea, one deemed so severe it’s immediately classed as a ‘major tsunami’. The JMA estimates the tsunami will collide with Japanese shores within half an hour, expecting it to tower as high as three metres. At 3.55pm, one hour after the first earthquake, a tsunami is reported colliding with Sendai Airport. It’s the first of many as massive ripples of violent water and thrown towards northeastern Japan as high as 39 metres. The walls of water smash into the airport, sweeping cars and planes aside as the water floods the surrounding areas. People flee on foot to no avail, while others attempt to escape on the roads leading away from the airport. The waters rage on, unabated.

Q The nuclear disaster at Fukushima remains the worst disaster of its kind since Chernobyl

Q International relief efforts were launched to help bring food and other aid to the Japanese citizens affected by the disasters

HOW PREPARATION PREVENTED A WORSE DISASTER Japan is a nation somewhat accustomed to earthquakes that would terrify other countries. Over the course of 50-odd years it’s crafted a series of national precautions and methods to ensure the nation reacts fast with the least number of casualties possible. At the heart of that prevention lies the Earthquake Early Warning System, which monitors the tectonic movement of plates 24/7. When any seismic activity is registered, the data is proofed by the Japan Meteorological Society then

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broadcast across the nation with information showing the severity of a quake and its seismic origins. When an earthquake is about to strike, all radio and TV channels immediately change over to an emergency channel that broadcasts information regarding safety steps and evacuation notice. By law, buildings have been made earthquake proof with the help of deep, sturdy foundations and colossal shock absorbers that reduce the destructive effects of seismic energy. This is coupled with an ingenious

method that enables the base of a building to move semi-independently to its superstructure, reducing the shaking caused by a quake. In schools, children take part in monthly earthquake drills. In playgrounds they are drilled to move to an open area to avoid falling debris, and inside they are taught to use inflatable slides to escape safely. Fire departments regularly conduct drills in earthquake simulators to ensure young citizens understand just how dangerous a high-magnitude earthquake can be.

Q Japanese children take part in an earthquake drill

FUKUSHIMA THE HUMAN COST OF FUKUSHIMA

Q The fallout from the made some of the surrounding areas uninhabitable

It feels like an understatement to describe Fukushima as a mere disaster, what with the triple blow of an earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown occurring all within a matter of days. Nevertheless, whatever word you can use to describe it, words fail to encapsulate the sheer loss of life wrought by the earthquake and the tidal waves that struck Japan as a direct result. By the time Japan had begun its recovery in 2011, 15,894 people had lost their lives. According to Japan’s Fire and Disaster Management Agency, about 2,000 died of post-disaster conditions with a further 2,500 still missing and presumed lost.

Q Memorials stand for the dead and missing earthquake victims

According to the National Police Agency, 95 per cent of the people who perished died of drowning, with 65 per cent of this figure aged 65 and over. Of all the casualties, 19 were foreign nationals from the United States, Canada, China, the Philippines, Pakistan, North Korea, South Korea and Taiwan. Interestingly, as of 2016, there have been no recorded deaths in which radiation poisoning has been the main cause. Much of this prevention should be laid at the feet of the Japanese authorities and emergency services, whose evacuation plans saw more than half the population in Fukushima evacuated to a safe distance after the first hit of the earthquake.

“The walls of water smash into the airport, sweeping cars and planes aside” Within minutes, thousands of people are drowned or swept to their deaths by the roaring violence of the rolling tsunami. A four-metre-high tsunami hits Iwate Prefecture, driving into the Wakabayashi Ward where 101 evacuation sites are positioned. As with many earthquake/tsunami events, the waves that pummel into Japan create far more devastation than the earthquake and its aftershocks. Entire towns are completely obliterated, ripped to ribbons by water surges. Large parts of Kuji and the southern section of Ōfunato – including the port area – are nearly completely annihilated. The initial high death toll comes from the sheer heights of the tsunami waves – fleeing citizens think they can take refuge at higher ground, only to find the thunderous waves hunting them down regardless. The city of Rikuzentakata, where the tsunami rises to three storeys high, is completely destroyed and its population torn asunder. The tsunamis don’t strike the same area in intervals either – waves whip and thunder into areas across the north-eastern shores of Japan with a relentless vigour, with heights varying from four metres at the Shiogama section of ShiogamaSendai port to a staggering 24 metres in the port of Ōfunato area. There is even news that the tsunami has reached heights of up to 40.5 metres in Miyako in Tōhoku’s Iwate Prefecture. It’s a monster of epic proportions and it’s lashing Japan with all its might. Across the city, the waters have reached the worst place possible: the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. When the earthquake hit, the emergency protocols of the plant kicked into gear and the

active reactors were shut down, their sustained fission reactions halted. Since the plant is no longer generating electricity and it powers itself as well as the rest of the region, it is no longer able to power the generators that keep the temperature of the reactors at a safe level. However, a series of emergency generators initiate to ensure everything remains safe and controlled. However, although the plant may have been designed to withstand an earthquake, one of this particular magnitude was not accounted for. Workers operating on site witness the reactor walls of a number of the reactors begin to crack and crumble. Even before the tsunami hits, workers are already fleeing the scene. Confidence in the site’s ability to maintain the unstable material it uses to run the plant is nowhere near as cast iron as it should be. At about 3.40pm, 50 minutes after the first shock of the earthquake struck, a 13-15-metre-high tsunami wave collides with the plant and begins flooding it with sea water. With the plant’s own seawall being 5.7 metres in height, the powerful wave passes over it with ease. The water rushes into the complex, slamming plant workers against walls and drowning them in the torrent of water. The current pours into every space and begins flooding the basement of the site. At 3.41pm, the water pouring in disables the emergency generators – suddenly a catastrophic situation has escalated to unimaginable proportions. Now the reactors are beginning to overheat. A secondary backup system also fails to kick in due to the rising tide of water. Emergency services are automatically notified and scramble to transport

FACTS 6

minutes: the length of time the Tōhoku earthquake took to shake itself out

XI

The classification the Tōhoku earthquake received on the Mercalli scale

2.99g

The peak acceleration of the Tōhoku earthquake

2,562

Number of people missing following the disaster

11,450

Number of aftershocks (as of March 2015)

37

Number of non-fatal injuries at the Fukushima meltdown

3

Number of electricityproducing reactors shut down immediately after the quake

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HOW TO COOL A NUCLEAR REACTOR To understand and appreciate the full extent of why we cool the core of a nuclear reactor, you first to have to take into account what happens if the radioactive material within is allowed to heat up unchecked. It’s a fascinating process, but one that reminds you just how permanently dangerous a nuclear power plant can be if safety features fail as they did at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Polar Plant. Without a coolant being constantly pumped across and around its core, the materials within the reactor begin to heat up. At its simplest definition, this heat is an energy created when uranium atoms are split open. Uranium is a naturally unstable element and a nuclear reactor uses this instability to harness the energy released when these uranium-235 isotope fissions (another word for splits) occur. In order to regulate and produce more nuclear fission, a reactor will need to reduce the temperature of the core, which in turn enables the continuous chain reaction of nuclear fission to produce more instances of fission, thus generating more energy. This is done by using a coolant or ‘moderator’, usually water or graphite. Water is one of the most common moderators, and its presence slows down the production of neutrons in the nuclei of uranium. Plutonium accounts for about one third of the energy produced by a nuclear reactor, however this element is in actual fact a by product of the process and is actually considered waste. Nevertheless, plutonium naturally exhibits a high rate of spontaneous fission due to the rate at which it decays. This decaying material is highly volatile and it is this radiation that was detected leaking from one of the reactors during the initial stages of the disaster at the Fukushima power plant. The core of a nuclear reactor, and the fission chain reactions within, are usually contained within a steel vessel that enables engineers to keep water flowing around a core in a liquid state, even at an operating temperature of 320 degrees Celsius. Hundreds of gallons of constantly temperature-regulated water is needed to keep a reactor from producing too much fission and thus overheating into a meltdown, hence the need for such large generators.

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emergency generators to the site to halt the now un-cooled generators. However, the mud slides and flooded streets prevent the large portable generators from arriving at the sight until 9pm – five hours after the earthquake first hit. When they do arrive, no one is able to successfully connect them due to the intensely high water levels. Without sufficient cooling, the cores are heading for meltdown. A meltdown would mean the overflow of radiation and the contamination of the entire region. A nightmare has been realised. As the levels of the cores of the reactors are being monitored remotely, it takes hours for the authorities to realise just how severe the situation could be. Put simply, if the cores were to become too hot, they would explode, scattering radiation in a wave of superheated air. The Japanese government has no alternative – the area, already flattened by the tsunami waves that continue to strike the mainland, must be evacuated and the plant cordoned off. A distance of two kilometres is ordered in case of a meltdown and explosion. Seven hours later, this range is extended to ten kilometres as news of pressure levels rising inside

the reactor cores has reached critical. Radioactive decay continues to increase the temperature of the cores – this in turn has generated a catastrophic amount of hydrogen gas that’s nearing the very limit of its capacity. At 3.30am the following morning, reactor one can take no more and erupts – a font of radioactive material is blasted into the air as the roof of the reactor is blown off. The Japanese army is now deployed onto the streets, helping ferry citizens through the flooded devastation as panic sets in. Not only have the people of Fukushima had to endure an earthquake and the most destructive tsunami to ever strike Japan, but the nuclear power station that’s sat at the heart of their city is now poisoning it and their livelihoods with deadly radiation. Yet all this time, the plant itself has not been abandoned – movements to cool the reactors continue as cold water is furiously pumped across each one in a futile attempt to halt the rising temperatures. On the morning of 13th April, the water cooling system for reactor three fails – less than 24 hours later, the reactor suffers a similar hydrogen explosion. A day later, reactor four goes

FUKUSHIMA

Q Some areas of Tokyo were devastated by both the earthquake and the tsunami

critical and blows apart just as authorities realise reactor two has been leaking high levels of radiation since the tsunami struck on 11th April. According to estimates published by the Japanese national newspaper Asahi Shimbun, which based its article on the data collected by the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the amount of radioactive material released into the air by each of the ruptured reactors is close to 770,000 tera Bq when the meltdown occurs. For context, this is roughly 20 per cent of the radiation released during the Chernobyl accident. On 12th April 2011, the Japanese Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency raises the rate of the accident from level five to the level seven – the same level given to the Chernobyl disaster. Today, the region of Fukushima – and as a result, the rest of Japan – is still recovering from that catastrophic day, and it’s a path that could take decades to navigate. Local tourism and trade has

It’s been over five years since the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear power plant disaster flattened Fukushima and the surrounding towns and turned them into Chernobyl-esque ghost towns, and in 2016 this once thriving Japanese region is now an eerily quiet shadow of its former self. Half a decade on, Fukushima is still haunted by Japan’s worst nuclear disaster in history. Much like its namesake capital city, a large proportion of the Fukushima region is now a cordoned-off wasteland full of abandoned homes, businesses and schools. Weeds are bursting through concrete roads while thick layers of rust can be seen on the bonnets of abandoned cars, evidence of a population that was forced to up and leave in mere hours. A huge, 20km-wide dead zone surrounds the power station, a colossal band of radioactive real estate certified as too dangerous to live in.

The small town of Futaba, the closest inhabited location to the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, sits within this dead zone and remains one of the most contaminated areas. It’s a locale so close to the leaking power station that it’s likely to be turned into a radioactive dumping ground, deemed too dangerous to ever inhabit again Another town in the evacuation zone, Naraha, had a population

been impacted most of all – fisheries and agriculture torn to shreds by the connotation between the words ‘Fukushima’ and ‘nuclear contamination’. It’s an image that recalls perhaps the greatest nuclear disaster of our time, Chernobyl, a city still deemed too dangerous to enter. Tourists avoid the city and the region has seen its economy severely wounded as a result. Fukushima and its surrounding areas still have radiation ‘hot spots’ that the government has sealed to ensure the attempts to shut down the plant safely doesn’t risk any more Japanese lives. As a result, more than 80,000 citizens have been displaced with no sign of being able to return. Homes, businesses, schools and public services were abandoned in mere hours, and those still standing after the quake and the tsunami stand abandoned to rot. In July 2013, the Tokyo Electric Power Company admitted that about 300 tons of radioactive water continued to leak from the plant every day into the Pacific Ocean. The cleanup of this radiation has proved a continuing issue for the Japanese government, its presence effectively destroying marine ecosystems in the surrounding areas. The Japanese government has estimated that the tsunami pulled close to 5 million tons of debris back into the ocean. About 70 per cent of this is believed to have sunk, leaving a good 1.5 million tons floating in the Pacific Ocean.

“A font of radioactive material is blasted into the air as the roof of the reactor is blown off”

The radioactive materials that leaked profusely following the meltdowns at the plant were just contained to Fukushima and the surrounding Japanese regions. The waters that washed into the plant, the ones that caused the meltdowns in the first place, became enriched with unstable radiation and were swept out back into the ocean. In the months and years that followed, low levels of radiation (now diluted by seawater) were detected as far away as California and the coast of Canada. So what of the polar plant itself? After five years, is the nuclear site finally decommissioned on the slow road to recovery? In reality, the process of dismantling the site and removing the nuclear material is one that could take decades to complete. The Japanese government is still working the Fukushima Daiichi Polar Plant into a state of cold cooldown, whereby water is pushed past a reactor in order to take its heat somewhere else, and as of 2016, a total of four units have been decommissioned. Unfortunately, despite national protests against their use, the Japanese government’s faith in nuclear power has failed to waver in the aftermath of the earthquake and the monolithic tsunami that followed. Much like the aftermath of the Kobe earthquake in 1995, Japan seems eager to fortify its nuclear future without truly understanding why the Fukushima Nuclear Daiichi Polar Plant destabilised as rapidly and as catastrophically as it did. Will its planned 60 billion yen new seawall be enough to protect the region and its remaining nuclear site? It’s a question no one wants to the know the answer to, the memory of that nightmarish day now etched in the national consciousness for all time.

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© Alamy; Getty Images

THE LEGACY OF FUKUSHIMA

of 7,000 before the disaster and it too remains an eerie shadow of civilisation. It was recently deemed safe enough for habitation by the Japanese government, a symbol of the nation’s slow recovery, but confidence in such locations remains low and Japanese citizens are hardly flocking back to the area in their droves. Fukushima has done more than just impact the economy of a single region, it’s rocked the confidence of the nation in is reliance on nuclear power, permanently forcing the issue of nuclear reliance firmly into the arena of Japanese politics.

EUROPEAN HEAT WAVE 2003 IN BRIEF Q Death toll: 35,000 Q Western Europe Q August, 2003 As temperatures across Europe rose by up to 30 per cent above the average, the intense heat began to claim tens of thousands of lives while wreaking havoc on vital services and the environment. Lasting for days, it became the hottest August on record in the northern hemisphere, with even the UK recording a temperature of 100 degrees Farenheit for the first time.

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EUROPEAN HEAT WAVE 2003

EUROPEAN HEATWAVE 2003 The searing August heat that scorched Europe in 2003 proved to be a silent killer, as tens of thousands of people died

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t the huge Rungis food market on the southern outskirts of Paris, 200 human bodies lay in a refrigerated former food warehouse, cooled to temperatures of four degrees Celsius. They were the victims of a terrible tragedy that had affected all of France, as well as many other European countries. Only their plight was arguably worse, because not only had they suffered greatly in the heat as the sun baked the nation for days on end, they had also been forgotten: stored in emergency surroundings while attempts were made to trace their relatives. This was France in the summer of 2003 during what has become known, quite simply, as the European heat wave. During August in particular, the continent had bathed in unbroken sunshine, but it was certainly far from welcome. At the start of the month, in Auxerre, France, the temperature reached a maximum of 41.1 degrees Celsius (107 degrees Fahrenheit). Paris was cooler, but only just, registering a blistering 39.5 degrees Celsius at its height (103 degrees Fahrenheit). Unable to cope, people began to wilt, and by the end of the month, it was abundantly clear that a catastrophe had occurred. There had been an area of high pressure across much of Western Europe at the time. An anticyclone was also stationed above the land mass, and it was holding back any chance of rain. Usually a heat wave is defined as being of

a length of at least five consecutive days. This one, however, raged for as many as 20, with temperatures way above what was typical for the area. As such, France and the other affected countries were unprepared, and they found it difficult to cope with the extreme conditions. The elderly ended up suffering the most. Among them was a 77-year-old Serbian called Petar who was thought to have been lying in his small Parisian apartment for two weeks before he was discovered. The giveaway that something was wrong had been the smell of death coming from his home, prompting the investigating authorities to break in. But he was by no means the only elderly person to die alone. For deeply entrenched within this tragedy was a heartbreaking tale about France’s lonely, aging population, and just how isolated they had proved to be. One of the biggest problems, other than the heat itself, was that so many people were on holiday. As is traditional in France, Parisians and other city dwellers took off en masse to the beach or countryside in order to enjoy the splendid surroundings of locations such as Saint-Tropez or Cap d’Agde. Politicians also took their breaks, companies closed and family doctors sought some downtime. It meant that, as temperatures rose, there was a lack of proper leadership and healthcare. Families on holiday were also failing to check in on their relatives so they did not

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EUROPEAN HEAT WAVE 2003

FACTS 8

days in a row of temperatures above 40˚C in France

Q This public sign in Paris urged people who found a victim of the heat wave to immediately dial a number

20 9

officials were part of the Paris crisis team in France

refrigerated trucks were used to store unclaimed bodies

70,000

Number of deaths recorded across Europe

20,089

Number of those who died in Italy

know what was happening to them. And so the problems began. Average global The most natural way for the body to keep cool temperature on hot days is by sweating. It does this when the rise in Celsius over the past 25 years body temperature rises above 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 degrees Fahrenheit) by releasing moisture onto the skin. When this evaporates on a hot day, it takes some of the heat with it. But if there is a lot of Number of fires that humidity in the air, it cannot do this as effectively, burned in Europe causing the body temperature to rise leading to degrees headaches and dizziness. This is called heatstroke Celsius was and it can be fatal. Indeed, this proved to be a major a recorded temperature in contributor to the numbers who died in France. Portugal Dehydration was also a big problem, with people failing to replenish the water they were losing degrees Celsius when through sweat. UK trains had Without proper assistance, vulnerable people speed restrictions found they couldn’t cope, and it certainly didn’t

0.6

25,000

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help that there was no respite from the heat. The apartments in which many of them lived were less than 100 square feet in size, and they were without air conditioning. With the nights remaining very warm, it meant there was no natural cooling cycle, so dehydration and disorientation soon set in. Things became so bad that there was one particular heartbreaking night on 10 August when 2,000 people were carried out of their apartments in body bags. The big questions, therefore, were how to tackle the underlying problem and where to store the rapidly rising number of bodies. The refrigerated warehouse at Regis was just one of the emergency morgues used by the authorities. White-coated, masked mortuary assistants were also storing bodies in refrigerated lorries parked up around Paris, while some of the dead were placed in a morgue normally used for victims of murder. More of them were actually being temporarily buried in individual graves in a paupers’ section of a cemetery to the east of the capital. Such measures bought time, since each body desperately needed to be identified by relatives as and when they returned back from their breaks. Only then could they be transferred from the cold, and buried properly (or, in the case of the graves, exhumed and either buried somewhere else or cremated). The hope was that relatives would quickly realise something was wrong and seek to pay their loved ones a visit, thereby discovering the haunting and hurtful truth. ‘We’re all guilty’, said the headline on the front of Le Parisien as newspapers began to point the finger at such families, believing them to have been neglectful. At the same time, people who were very much alive but buckling under the strain of the heat were swamping the healthcare system. At first, the Ministry of Health refused to acknowledge the huge problem, and it dismissed doctors’ warnings. When wards rapidly became overcrowded, though, an admission was forthcoming. By now, doctors and nurses were at breaking point as they fought to treat the effects of heat

EUROPE’S WATERY METAL GRAVEYARD As thermometers rose across Europe, so the water levels fell in the rivers, lakes and reservoirs across the country. In doing so, however, a treasure trove of long-lost military hardware dating back to World War II was uncovered. Certainly this was the case in the Danube, Europe’s second-longest river running through the central and eastern parts of the continent. The Nazis had ruled over the river during the bloody conflict, but in 1944 when they were in retreat and the war was coming to a close, they deliberately sank more than 80 warships in a bid to hamper the movements of the advancing Soviet forces

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that threatened to overrun them. This fleet emerged like ghostly tangled metallic bodies in the searing heat around 110 miles east of the Serbian capital Belgrade where the river’s depth was lowered to as little as ten feet in the heat. Yet while that proved fascinating for historians, these rusty remnants jutting from the rippling waters also posed a danger. With their cannons protruding and guns aboard, it was feared they contained live ammunition, while port authorities said the wreckage risked blocking traffic on the river. That said, it was proving more difficult for ships to navigate the waters anyway as the levels fell

to their lowest in well over a century. There was also other hardware to consider. For as well as more than 37 mostly German barges and an assortment of bombs, elsewhere along the 1,727-mile river was a military jeep complete with its Volkswagen marking and the Nazi swastika on the gasoline cans discovered inside. A German tank was also found in eastern Croatia, along with a personnel carrier, perhaps dating back to a battle in Batina between the Soviets, Germans and Yugoslavs. Seeing such treasures emerge was a delight for many, a silver lining for the cloudless skies.

Q Forest fires swept across Portugal, with helicopters commanded to drop water on the blaze to help extinguish it

EUROPEAN HEAT WAVE 2003 HOW EUROPE’S ANIMALS WERE AFFECTED Although the human death toll was high during the heat wave, animals also suffered greatly in the heat. In many cases, there was little anyone could do (30,000 eels died when the water temperatures in the German and Dutch stretches of the Rhine rose to 26 degrees Celsius (79 degrees Fahrenheit)) but in other cases, action was taken. At London Zoo penguins were fed with fish-flavoured ice pops, and tigers were given lollies with rosemary. Monkeys and bears were fed fruit lollies while elsewhere at other zoos pigs were covered in sunscreen to protect their bodies from the sun’s harmful rays. Farmers struggled, however. Many pigs, cows and chickens died in the heat, which lowered the numbers of livestock and poultry stocks, causing financial hardship. Milk production, meanwhile, declined thanks to heat stress, and there was a 30 to 60 per cent drop

in the amount of animal fodder available during the winter, which meant the impact stretched on for many more months. Pet owners also worried about keeping their own animals cool

stroke, dehydration and sunburn. Patients were also showing respiratory problems due to poor air quality (police in the Île de France region of Paris reduced the speed limit from 50kph to 30kph to reduce pollution levels) and others had got into difficulty in rivers and lakes as they sought to cool off. To assist, French military hospitals were used, boosting the number of available beds. But while the French prime minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, was acutely aware of the growing problem, in midAugust he was still speaking to journalists from his holiday accommodation in Combloux in the French alps looking resplendent in short sleeves. The French president Jacques Chirac would later promise that “everything will be done” to correct failings, particularly in the health system, but the damage had been done. Le Monde newspaper accused the government of failing to lead: “The Siesta is traditionally a means of conserving one’s energy in warm climates,” it said. “But can it be used as a method of government?” Alarm bells were also ringing over a death rate that was, on average, 60 per cent higher than usual for the time of year, and in some areas much higher than that. It led to questions as to why France appeared to have suffered the most, with 14,802 people dying from causes attributable to the heat. It certainly didn’t help the situation that France had to shut the equivalent of four nuclear power stations because they relied on river water to Q Some rivers ran almost completely dry and fish stocks were threatened

and there were strong warnings to never leave them unattended in cars in the sweltering heat. Wild animals became more susceptible to infectious diseases as the heat rose and many of these died too.

Q Nicola the hippopotamus is hosed down by a London Zoo worker

cool their reactors – water that was becoming too warm to be effective. Neither was it ecologically sound to be returning water back to the rivers at a higher-than-normal temperature: there was a worry that fish would be harmed. But even though the Fessenheim nuclear power station near Strasbourg had to be doused with cold water to prevent it from overheating, at least France did not have to contend with mass numbers of forest fires too. That was very much a problem for Portugal. As one of many Western European countries also affected by the heat wave (others being the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Ireland, Sweden and the United Kingdom), Portugal had declared a national calamity. Firefighters worked around the clock in a bid to extinguish blazes that eventually burned across more than 215,000 hectares of land, an amount equating to 10 per cent of the country’s forests and an area the size of Luxembourg. For decades Portugal had seen migration from rural areas leaving lands untended and this, together with poor fire prevention measures, was wreaking havoc during this very dry summer. As in France, temperatures were incredibly high, reaching 48 degrees Celsius (118 degrees Fahrenheit) in the city of Amareleja. But the death toll, while considerable and nonetheless tragic, was nowhere near that of France. Sadly 18 died in the forest fires, and between 1,866 and 2,039 perished from heat-

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EUROPEAN HEAT WAVE 2003

WHEN LUCIFER PAID A VISIT Europe suffered greatly in 2003, but the continent also had a very tough time due to the heat in 2017. That year a heat wave called Lucifer prompted danger warnings to be issued in 11 countries as the thermometer rose above 40 degrees Celsius. Once more, there were fears that elderly and vulnerable people would suffer grave ill-health. Lessons, however, had been learned, and the death tolls were nowhere near as high. The heat was due to a high pressure system over south-east Europe and led to the same problems as 2003. In Italy, emergency hospital admissions were up by 15 per cent and water restrictions were put in place elsewhere. There was damage to crops, and people were treated for sunstroke and other heatrelated conditions. Tourists seeking the sun were warned to be careful and slap on lots of sun cream. Yet stricter heat-wave guidelines introduced after 2003 have helped enormously. In France, it includes making daily phone calls to hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people, ensuring they are safe and advising them about what to do. It gives them sufficient warning and outlines the steps that need to be taken to ensure their wellbeing. France just cannot afford for people to be forgotten again. But what of the future? It would appear that heat waves are only going to become more common and, indeed, there had been such a thing in 2015 when records were shattered in June for Germany, France and the Netherlands. Climate change is thought to be at the heart of these rising temperatures as humans emit more and more greenhouse gases, causing the world to warm. Indeed, the period between 2011 and 2015 was already the warmest five-year period on record according to the World Meteorological Organisation. Chances are, however, that records are going to continue being broken in the future.

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Q Cooling down in Paris as temperatures reach more than 40 degrees Celsius

related causes. People were also treated for smoke inhalation, burns and wounds. The flames were fanned by strong winds and the resulting, billowing smoke made it difficult for water-bombing aircraft – sent to help by Italy, Spain and Morocco – to get close enough to be effective. It was a particularly kind gesture given the problems in their own countries. Spain also had forest fires, and it recorded a temperature of 45.1 degrees Celsius (113.2 degrees Fahrenheit) in Jerez, while tourist hotspots such as Barcelona and Sevilla cooked at 36 degrees Celsius (97 degrees Fahrenheit) and 45.2 degrees Celsius (113.4 degrees Fahrenheit) respectively. In 2004, Spain’s National Institute of Statistics said there had been 12,963 more deaths in Spain that summer than in the same period of the previous year, even though the government at the time had never attributed more than 141 deaths to the heat

wave. “Heat must be considered a health problem and now all preventive measures have to be taken,” said the vice president of the Spanish Society of Family and Community Medicine, Asensio López. Across Europe, rivers started to run relatively dry. The River Danube, for example, was at its lowest level for a century, and in Germany ships were unable to navigate the waters. There were worries that reservoirs would not be able to provide enough water, and there was even concern about rock and ice falls in the Alps as snow and glaciers melted (Switzerland saw flash flooding). Getting around cities was proving tricky given the extreme heats on public transport, particularly the Tube in London. Animals were also suffering, and large numbers of livestock deaths were threatening food shortages. Meanwhile, a study in the Netherlands showed that there had been between 1,000 and 1,400 more

EUROPEAN HEAT WAVE 2003 EUROPE’S RISING TEMPERATURES United Kingdom 38.5˚C/101.3˚F With about 2,000 deaths, the UK’s unusually hot weather peaked in Faversham, Kent. The government now has a Heat Health Watch system that issues warnings about temperatures above 30˚C during the day and 15˚C at night.

Germany 40.2˚C/104˚F

Netherlands 37.8˚C/100˚F

Following the heat wave that resulted in around 7,500 deaths (the worst natural disaster witnessed in Germany), the government introduced a warning system to send alerts to hospitals, schools and nursing homes.

The maximum temperatures in the Netherlands were less than that of some other European countries, but nursing homes registered many elderly deaths.

France 41.1˚C/105.8˚F

Portugal 48˚C/118˚F Huge forest fires raged across large swarths of Portugal, spread by the dry, hot conditions. Clouds of smoke billowed across the sky and blanketed much of the northern part of the country as the heat rose.

human deaths during the summer period, and it said roughly half had been due to air pollution. Research in 2005 by the Istat Institute also showed that the death toll had been much higher in Italy than initially thought. In fact, it appeared to be double the original estimates, putting the number of those killed at a heart-breaking 20,000. Just as in France, most of those were elderly. Italy sizzled for months. Stefano Colvolino, a 70-year-old traffic officer working Rome, told journalists that he’d never felt heat like it before. “It’s totally impossible,” he said. Gabriel Medei, a fruit seller in Campo de’ Fiori, likened Italy to a tropical

Spain 45.1˚C/113.2˚F

Italy 46˚C/114.8˚F

A review of the death toll in Spain during the heat wave was revised in 2016, putting it at 12,963. Northern Spain was cooler than the south where Jerez de la Frontera saw the recorded maximum.

As if the heat wasn't bad enough, high humidity made it feel much worse. About 20,000 are thought to have died due to soaring temperatures in Italy, the majority of them elderly.

country, and she may have suffered from fewer customers as the price of many fruits and vegetables increased by 20 per cent. The Agriculture Ministry said Italian farmers had lost about $6 billion worth of produce, and wheat harvests were down 13 per cent. But to make matters worse, the heavy surge in demand on Italy’s electricity supplies was taking its toll. People had been switching on air conditioning and fans, and collectively burning through an extra 2,000 megawatts each day. Even so, the authorities urged the elderly to keep as cool as possible so they couldn’t discourage such methods. In Genoa, a lack of air conditioning in the city’s justice department prompted the employees to walk out in protest. There has been constant worry that a similar summer to 2003 could return. In 2015, for example, Europe sizzled again: Parisians braced themselves for temperatures reaching 39 degrees Celsius (102 degrees Fahrenheit), and there were similar issues with pollution and transport. This time, however, bodies were not piling up thanks to better preventative measures and a robust alert system. With more than 70,000 people killed across Europe that summer, lessons certainly had to be learned.

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© Getty; Sebjarod; freevectormaps.com

France suffered greatly with 14,802 deaths related to the heat. Many bodies had to be stored in refrigerated lorries and warehouses while the authorities waited for relatives to get in touch to identify them.

SARS

IN BRIEF Q Death toll: 774 Q Worldwide Q 2002-2003 At the end of 2002, hundreds of people fell ill with what appeared to be pneumonia. The answer came after one man visited Hong Kong from Guangdong: he inadvertently spread the virus sparked a global health pandemic.

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SARS

SARS: FIGHTING FOR A CURE

As the virus infected thousands of people across the world, scientists raced to discover exactly what it was he ninth floor of the Metropole Hotel in Hong Kong looked like any other. Artwork adorned the walls of the lobby, people came and went to their rooms, there were nods of acknowledgment among tourists and businessmen but very little engagement beyond that. Professor Liu Jianlun was in the city for a wedding and he was among the many guests staying on that floor. But he was ill, coughing and sneezing, feeling short of breath and high in temperature and he felt so bad that he did not attend that wedding. Instead, he visited the Kwong Wah hospital and told medical staff: “Lock me up. Don’t touch me. I have contracted a very virulent disease.” Just over two weeks later, he was dead. His brief time in the hotel had been notable. The 64-year-old had checked in on 21st February 2003 and he had stayed – rather ironically – in Room 911. He’d walked down the corridor, shared a lift and, as investigators suggested, he’d been sick on the carpet outside his room. But in the course of his walkabouts, he had unknowingly passed on his virus to at least 16 other guests on that floor. One of them was Kwan Sui-Chu who had travelled from Canada to Hong Kong to visit her son. On her return to Toronto, she fell ill and died. Her son, Tse Chi Kwai, died too, as did the patient in the bed next to him in hospital. But that was just the start. American businessman Johnny Chen, aged 48, had flown back to Vietnam after coming into contact with the professor and, suffering much the same symptoms, he went to hospital in Hanoi five days later. There he was treated by medical staff including the World Health Organisation expert in communicable diseases, Dr Carlo Urbani, before being transferred to a hospital in Hong Kong for specialist treatment. It was in vain. Chen died on 13th March but the virus also claimed the lives of Urbani and two other staff. And so it went on. People who had been infected by Liu were leaving Hong Kong and spreading it to family, friends

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and strangers in their own countries. The world suddenly had a health pandemic on their hands. Liu had been a respiratory diseases expert working in the neighbouring Chinese province of Guangdong. He had been working in a hospital in Guangzhou looking after patients who displayed identical symptoms to his own and he saw the progression of their illness and the speed at which it took hold and laid them to rest. The victims were being hooked up to artificial ventilation and placed in intensive care in a bid to keep them alive. By the time Liu had fallen ill, the government of Guangdong admitted 305 people had contracted atypical pneumonia since 16th November and that five had died. No-one had an inclination then but the illness was to become known as SARS – or severe acute respiratory syndrome. It would dominate the health agenda for months. Professor Malik Peiris was watching the developments with great interest. He had been studying avian flu since 1997 and he had already cancelled his Christmas holiday of 2002 in order to look at two unusual outbreaks of the H1N1 influenza virus. The problem in China, which was being widely reported in mid-February of 2003, was pointing to a potential human transmission of avian flu and he was keen to take a closer look. “It was an unusual pneumonia that was causing severe disease and outbreaks in hospitals,” he tells us. “We were worried that avian flu was causing problems in humans and we decided to take a closer look.” The illness was seen to be clearly attacking the lungs and affecting the deep lung tissue. “Essentially, patients were unable to breathe and they would run out of oxygen,” Peiris says. “The body’s response to SARS was also making the lung damage worse – there was a battle going on in the lung and the human reaction was contributing to the problem which was an unusual pattern but one that you see in avian flu.”

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SARS Initial investigations had already ruled out a number of possibilities. It wasn’t anthrax or leptospirosis, nor haemorrhagic fever or pulmonary plague. Worried that it may actually be avian flu, the World Health Organisation had sought permission to send an investigative team but when they arrived in Beijing on 23rd February, they were not granted access to visit Guangdong – much to the frustration of the fact-finding mission. Instead, the Chinese Ministry of Health made its own claims, later saying the problem in the province was most likely chlamydia pneumoniae. As it turned out, it wasn’t that at all. By now, dozens of people were falling ill in Hong Kong and elsewhere, and on 12th March, a global alert was issued. SARS was traveling faster and wider than any other outbreak ever seen and it was claiming many lives in the process. Some people said it showed the inherent risk of a globalised world and experts claimed no country could be deemed to be safe. But they were right to look on the dark side in this instance since every government was viewing the situation with trepidation, hoping the virus wouldn’t land within their borders. In the UK, the Secretary of State for Health was speaking of the need for public health surveillance and of managing patients to reduce the risk of cross-infection. There were guidelines for travelling to Southeast Asia and governments were cancelling flights and businesses, while schools were shutting their doors as worry about the illness spreading became more and more acute. Cases were being reported in Spain, Germany, Slovenia, the US and the UK, and plans for containment were formulated. “There were reports of SARS in Vietnam and alerts in Singapore and Canada,” Peiris adds. The world was on edge. Under such circumstances, it was perhaps only human nature to play the blame game to a degree. Fingers began to point towards the slow response of the Chinese authorities and there were accusations that the country’s attempts to hide the significance of the disease had caused SARS to spread far wider than it should have.

“Fingers began to point towards the slow response of the Chinese authorities” The accusers had a point, though. Beijing only officially acknowledged SARS was present in China on 26th March and even then it said it was due to a handful of “imported” cases. Finally realising its error, the country apologised for its slow response on 5th April. “Looking back, we now know there were cases of SARS in 2002 and it had spread within Guangdong,” Peiris says. “If the virus had been identified at that time, then we could have worked on it before it ever got to Hong Kong and to the rest of the world. But instead, it spread within the hotel here and within days those patients had gone back to their various countries. On that day there was no chance for us to prevent it: the patient [who was initially infected] was not even in hospital. But

Q An ambulance carrying two suspected patients is disinfected outside the Sunshan Military Hospital in Taipei

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the chance of an earlier response would have likely reduced the spread so much more.” Even so, Peiris and his team threw themselves into the task at hand: to find the virus that was causing the disease. “The hospital authority in Hong Kong was heightening its surveillance of all significant pneumonia cases and we were investigating them to see if anything unusual was going on,” he says. “We monitored those who were coming from Guangdong because there is a lot of movement between the province and Hong Kong and we were able to exclude avian influenza and all other known respiratory viruses and bacteria. It was only then that we knew we were looking for something new.” The Chinese University of Hong Kong together with counterparts in Canada, Germany and Singapore initially believed the virus was a paramyxovirus which could have put it in the same bracket as the cause of measles, mumps and respiratory tract infections, but that was soon found not to be the case. The WHO, meanwhile, believed it to be a novel pathogen. And then, on 21st March, there was a breakthrough. Peiris, who said his team had been growing some unusual viruses from two patients, emailed the WHO laboratory network. His team, he claimed, had isolated the SARS virus. “Basically, we were growing this virus in a subculture and then simultaneously we were trying to do a number of things with it,” Peiris explains. “We were asking, are there normal cells, a virus or something else? We made sections of the infected cells and put them under a microscope and we could clearly see the virus particles, although that didn’t identify exactly what the virus was.

SARS

Q Doctors check on a SARS patient in the institute of tropical diseases at Hanoi’s Bach Mai hospital

We tested it on the blood samples of a number of patients who had suspected SARS. Our hypothesis was that, if the virus that we had in our hands was a pointer to the disease, then patients should be making a committed response to the virus. Lo and behold, that was the case.” The blood samples were reacting against the virus and behaving in a way that led Peiris to believe he was on the right track. “The eight people whose blood samples we had were becoming antibody positive to this new virus and reacting to it. But as other patients previously were negative, it suggested it was a new virus. We looked at it with a different type of technique under the microscope and we saw the characteristic spikes and signs of a coronavirus. My colleague was able to fish out small fragments of nucleic acid from the virus and after sequencing it helped to confirm that it was a unique coronavirus and that is how the whole picture came together.” As well as identifying the virus, Peiris and his team began to devise a basic medical diagnostic test that would allow signs of the illness to be spotted far more quickly than before. This would be crucial in aiding the identification of infected patients and helping to prevent the spread of the virus. Some scientists were aware that Liu had died because the hospital in Hong Kong had never come across SARS before. Both they and the WHO understood that education and discovering methods of diagnosis allowed medics to fight back. “I think we knew the virus would be transmitted by sneezing and coughing when we saw patients in Guangdong coming in and transmitting to patients and doctors in the ward. But we needed a diagnostic test,” Peiris says. “The big problem is that severe pneumonia is a common condition even now. You can go to intensive care units anywhere in the world and there will be patients with severe pneumonia. Some will unfortunately

THEY DIED AS HEROES Dr Carlo Urbani, a World Health Organisation worker based in Hanoi, Vietnam, was adamant: “If I don’t go now what am I doing here? Just answering emails and going to cocktail parties? I’m a doctor. I have to help.” His wife was understandably worried that his job would put him in grave danger and when he got the call from a local hospital asking him to visit the businessman Johnny Chen who was severely ill with SARS, she hoped he would not go. But he insisted that he had to help even though the risk of exposure was all too great. In that, he was typical of so many health professionals all around the world, and yet Urbani’s wife was right: many of them – including her husband – died in the course of their duty. Although 150 doctors and nurses in Taiwan left their jobs out of fear in a single week in May 2003, they

were actually shown to be the exception. The majority of doctors and nurses overwhelmingly wanted to assist and even when hospital managers hoped to persuade medical staff with young families to stay away, very few of them did. Not that the medics didn’t think hard about their own families. On the contrary. In taking up those roles, many of the medical staff did not dare go home in case they inadvertently infected their loved ones with the deadly disease. It effectively meant they were on a round-the-clock programme of care and it left a mark on each one of them, a mix of sadness and pride. Yet if it wasn’t for their diligence and expertise, the death toll would have likely been much higher and the spread of SARS far worse. They were the heroes of 2003.

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Q A security guard checks the temperature of a driver as part of efforts to combat SARS.

THE LASTING EFFECTS As you can imagine, going back to normal in Hong Kong after such a major health scare wasn’t easy. For a start, there were political repercussions – Hong Kong’s Health Secretary Dr Yeoh Eng-kiong resigned having been accused in a report of issuing misleading public statements about SARS in July 2004 – and there was an economic downturn that affected the lives of many too. But eventually, Hong Kong not only picked up, it began to flourish once more. Key buildings including Amoy Gardens were overhauled (in this case to the tune of $7.7 million) and while the BBC reported that residents of those blocks felt stigmatised by the news coverage, property prices boomed, making it a sweeter pill to swallow. Indeed, today, Hong Kong is one of the world’s most expensive cities in which to live and, for most, SARS is a distant memory. Not that there aren’t any reminders. Visit the hotel at the epicentre of the outbreak and you’ll struggle to find room 911. A year after the outbreak, the Metropole Hotel bosses whipped the number away from the door and replaced it with 913. The hotel then went on to bizarrely insist that the room was always named 913 in what can only be explained as a reluctance to turn it into a ghoulish tourist attraction.

succumb and some will recover. But the fact is, in a number of cases, no clear bacterial virus is identified. We just know how to treat these patients. With SARS, there was no simple way to distinguish patients infected with the normal bugs that cause pneumonia and this new disease. Having the virus and sequence in hand, we were able to develop the diagnostic tests within days. We had concrete proof to detect these cases and that was fundamentally important.” The doctors also made an important observation at this point. When someone contracted SARS, there was actually a window of opportunity for treatment, since it was discovered that patients were far less infectious at the start of their illness than they were after two or three days. “It gave us a time window for getting people into hospital and this enabled us to break the transmission in the community,” explains Peiris, whose findings were confirmed on 27th March.

In order to halt the spread of the disease, a programme of isolation was put in place. An entire 35-storey block of Amoy Garden in Hong Kong, for instance, was ordered to remain inside for ten days before being moved to the country for a further ten days. “There was a freak incident where one patient was sick and he did not know that he had SARS,” Peiris explains. “His clinical presentation was rather atypical and he had more diarrhea than pneumonia. He visited a relation in a densely-populated housing estate in Hong Kong and infected almost 300 people but this was a completely unique event. There had been no single transmission between one person to such a large number. But, of course, in four or five days, Hong Kong had 300 new patients with SARS and it overloaded the system. There were not enough isolation beds available for such a large number and it posed problems.” There were continued attempts to isolate the whole of Hong Kong and Guangdong too. Seen as the hub of the virus, travellers were warned away unless it was essential that they visit, but still the virus spread, reaching Africa on 9th April. By this time, more than 1,300 people were infected and 82 were dead. Attentions began to turn towards the true source of the virus, and rumours that animals or pets could carry the disease were leading to man’s best friends becoming enemy number one. There was speculation that the Amoy Gardens infection had been caused by rats or cockroaches that had resulted from an inadequate arrangement of the bathroom drains. But a report that a cat had been the source of SARS led to much greater panic: people were taking to the streets to dump their pets – including dogs, rabbits and hamsters – by the roadside. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Hong Kong subsequently reported a large increase in abandoned animals. Yet the truth about where SARS had initially come from was somewhat different. Yuen Kwok-Yung, a microbiologist at the University of Home Kong, had identified the masked palm civet – a cat-like mammal which

“People were taking to the streets to dump their pets – including dogs, rabbits and hamsters – by the roadside”

KEY MONTHS OF SARS FEBRUARY 2003

MARCH 2003

APRIL 2003

MAY 2003

This month, the world began to wake up to SARS although it didn’t quite know what the illness was at this stage. An atypical pneumonia had been reported in China and the first known case of SARS was discovered to have dated back to November 2002. But the WHO was becoming frustrated in its attempts to draw more information from the Chinese Ministry of Health. Worse, as China later reported 305 cases of an unknown respiratory syndrome that had killed five, Dr Liu Jianlun visited a Hong Kong hotel on a trip from Guangdong.

Liu’s visit had infected 16 people who returned home to various countries, spreading the virus in turn. Vietnam-based Dr Carlo Urbani treated Johnny Chen and he expressed alarm at SARS’ rapid spread. Efforts to discover what it were stepped up throughout March: indeed, 11 laboratories in nine countries worked on unlocking the virus in a ‘race’ won by Malik Peiris from the University of Hong Kong. Beijing received its first case and 18 healthcare workers reported falling ill at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Hong Kong. The situation was worsening.

Finally recognised as a coronavirus, the WHO placed stringent travel advice on Hong Kong and Guangdong provinces in a bid to control SARS’ spread. Later, Canadian researchers successfully sequenced the SARS’ genome and the WHO announced that a new pathogen member of the coronavirus family was the cause of SARS. Scientists tested it on monkeys and found it to cause similar symptoms. But the identification allowed for better medical planning. Meanwhile, Beijing admitted the situation was worse than it had reported.

Scientists continued to uncover new details about the virus, including its ability to survive in faeces for more than 48 hours and in urine for a day. It put medical staff on alert but the extra information helped in the battle to prevent further contamination. It became accepted that more than half of all deaths from SARS would affect those aged over 45. By the end of the month, restrictions on travel eased and the situation was deemed to be under control. Singapore was declared free of SARS by 31st May and others quickly followed suit.

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SARS SYMPTOMS OF SARS

is treated as a delicacy in parts of China – as the potential culprit. Four of them were found to be carrying the coronavirus that caused SARS and it led to questioning over whether the virus may have jumped across to humans. As the news began to be reported, Peiris told journalists that the virus would be killed if the meat was properly cooked. But, as he later discovered, the truth was even more complex than that. “In China, there are wild animals of diverse types which are eaten because they are believed to heal the body,” he says, pointing to civets being among them. “The prediction was that the animals that were being sold on the markets in Guangdong could have carried the SARS virus and my

colleagues who sampled the civet cats had found just that. “But further studies showed that the civet cats on the market showed signs of having the SARS virus but those in the wild did not. So the thought was that it was coming from somewhere else. It soon became clear that the virus was actually coming from the bats that were also sold in the markets: the virus was presenting in the tiniest horseshoe bats and it seemed that it jumped to other animal species. That wasn’t difficult – the animal market in Guangdong is bigger than most zoos and it became a reservoir for the virus. “Now we knew how SARS jumped to humans, we could also see how it changed over months

Q The areas of the map marked black showed the countries with confirmed deaths while red shows confirmed infections

couple of days and sometimes up to a week-and-a-half for the first signs of the illness to be felt. At its worst – and certainly if it is left untreated either via mechanical ventilation, oxygen or antipyretics – SARS can be a killer. It can lead to viral pneumonia or secondary bacterial pneumonia and the breathlessness can become so acute that it suffocates the patient. There is no simple cure either – no-one has come up with a vaccine. For that reason, during the outbreak, advice centered on prevention. To help prevent SARS developing, people were advised to wear a surgical mask, avoid bodily fluid contact and more. Treatment primarily involved the isolation and quarantine of patients but it was effective in eventually preventing its long-term spread. The good news is that, despite SARS being a very serious disease, more than 90 per cent of people survived and it was a relatively rare virus even during the short spell in which it became a global concern.

to the point where it could be passed from human to human. And that is how it emerged.” This knowledge would be crucial in enabling the authorities to look at ways to prevent a reoccurrence. Officials in Guangdong in 2004, for example, ordered the immediate killing of every captive civet cat. But it was the policy of containment that truly allowed the authorities to fight back. Their key weapon became the thermometer, which allowed doctors to identify people with critical temperatures and get them into quarantine where they could be treated. This swift ability to recognise SARS and help victims meant that, by June, the World Health Organisation was lifting its warning against travel in four Chinese provinces and Taiwan. On 24th June it also removed Beijing, something Shigeru Omi, the WHO regional director for the Western Pacific, called a “milestone in the fight against SARS, not only in China but in the world”. One by one, countries and cities were being declared SARS free: from Singapore to China to Hong Kong to Taiwan. For Peiris, his fellow scientists and the World Health Organisation, it was a triumph worth celebrating. “The outbreak was contained and that was a major public health success for the global community,” he says. “It was extremely important and it worked by coordinating information between different countries. By July the outbreak was essentially contained and over.” And so it was. Although there were isolated cases after July, SARS had largely been controlled and eradicated. People could finally breathe a sigh of relief, although the statistics were nevertheless depressing. In total, SARS affected 8,096 people in 30 countries and claimed 744 lives.

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© Alamy; Getty Images; TopFoto

SARS is a viral respiratory disease caused by a member of the coronavirus family. To complicate matters, various symptoms may or may not be present and many of them are flu-like in nature. They can include a fever, headache, muscle aching, chills and shaking. Some people may feel dizzy or suffer the pain of diarrhea while less common are sore throats, a runny nose, nausea and vomiting. But in every case, SARS sends a patient’s temperature beyond 38 degrees Celsius and it also typically causes breathing difficulties and a cough. These are the tell-tale signs many doctors watched out for in 2003. The virus was passed between humans through infected droplets of nasal and mouth spray expelled from the body in sneezes and coughs. It was found that the virus could survive outside the body for up to six hours and that it could be transferred hand-tohand and also through the air. But the symptoms did not surface immediately after contact: it would take at least a

SAN FRANCISCO EARTHQUAKE

THE SAN FRANCISCO EARTHQUAKE San Francisco ferociously burned in the days following the devastating earthquake of 1906. But for a team of scientists, it was true education

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he front-page headline of the special CallChronicle-Examiner perfectly summed up the events that took place in San Francisco on 18th April 1906. Printed the morning after, the combined publication of the city’s three newspapers splashed: “Earthquake and fire: San Francisco in ruins.” What was written beneath laid bare the devastating, immediate effects. “Not a business house stands,” it said. “Theatres are crumbled into heaps. Factories and commission houses lie smouldering on their former sites. ” What the journalists did not immediately know as they hunched over their typewriters in their bid to make sense of that dark day was that some 3,000 people would be killed and 225,000 left homeless over the coming days. Yet the earthquake was hugely significant for another important reason. Scientists, for the very first time, began building a wealth of knowledge about quakes. “It

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SAN FRANCISCO EARTHQUAKE basically gave birth to modern seismology,” said Dr Jennifer Strauss, who works at the Berkeley Seismological Laboratory in California. In the weeks and months following the earthquake, scientists diligently sought to map, report, describe and analyse its cause and effects in the tiniest of detail, producing a 17-page preliminary report within five weeks and a larger, more in-depth follow up within two years. More information was gathered about the San Francisco earthquake than any other in history and the information gleaned from it led to discoveries that have informed generations of seismologists ever since. Yet when residents were jolted from their slumber at 5.12am on 18th April, none of that was of primary concern. For them, as the earthquake struck without warning and lasted for 48 seconds, punctuated by violent shocks, safety was foremost in their mind. Those already bright and alert – including a Mr Barrett who was believed to be the

news editor on the San Francisco Examiner and had finished work just moments earlier – would speak of the immediate consequences. They were terrifying. “All of a sudden we had found ourselves staggering and reeling,” he said, describing his walk home with a colleague. “It was as if the earth was slipping gently from under our feet.” He recalled trying to get up but he was thrown back to the floor. “Big buildings were crumbling as one might crush a biscuit,” he added. But that was just the start. “People spoke of the earthquake going on and on and on,” said Dr Strauss. “And as soon as they basically got on their feet and figured what was happening, all of the fires started.” A ferocious blaze swept across San Francisco for three devastating days, sending temperatures soaring above 1,090 degrees Celsius. It destroyed vast swathes of the city’s infrastructure and choked the air with smoke. “Much of the damage after the 1906 earthquake was due to fire,” Dr Strauss continued. It was clear

that after this event, the city of San Francisco would never be the same again. The epicentre was offshore near San Francisco and the quake was felt from Eureka, close to the northern Californian border, all the way down to Salinas Valley. “It was most significant along the coastline and the areas of the peninsula where it was very, very violent,” explained Dr Strauss of the quake that had ruptured the San Andreas fault to the north west and the south east. “Where the soil is loose sediment, you would have got massive shaking amplification. You’d be shaking like a bell.” The inmates of Alcatraz out across the Bay felt the earth move too, but while the prison building survived – with the damage confined to a sewer and the lighthouse – San Francisco was in chaos. Many people became trapped when the ground beneath the tenement district south of Market Street gave way and the buildings collapsed. Elsewhere, bricks and mortar fell from the sky, killing many

IN BRIEF Q Death toll: 3,000+ Q San Francisco, USA Q 18th April 1906 Understood to have been of a magnitude of between 7.7 and 7.9, the east coast quake of 1906 rocked California and Nevada but it notably affected populous San Francisco.

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SAN FRANCISCO EARTHQUAKE Luckily for future residents, much of this unfolding drama and devastation was captured by photographers who were documenting what they saw. It meant the earthquake became the first natural disaster to be pictured in such a way and the images went on to help scientists better study its effects. Just three days after the earthquake, Andrew Lawson, a professor of geology at the University of California, Berkley, got to work in heading a commission to investigate the earthquake and its effects. “The most significant thing to come out of the 1906 earthquake was the Lawson Report,” said Dr Strauss. Lawson had already earned much respect in this field. 11 years earlier, he had become the first person to identify and name the San Andreas Fault and

Q A building remains standing on Fourth Street as soldiers patrol

panicking residents in the streets below. As bodies began to pile up amid the twisted street car tracks, uprooted trees and tangles of electric wires, scores of people wandered the streets dazed and homeless in desperate need of shelter. Hungry and exhausted, the authorities and the residents made desperate rescue attempts but the fires, which had started in large pockets across the city, were out of control. “A lot of people were still using candles at that time to light up the interiors of their homes so a lot of those would have fallen over,” Dr Strauss said of the cause for some of the blazes. In the heart of Hayes Valley, a woman looking to make breakfast following the initial shocks did not know the chimney above the stove had been damaged. Her house burned down and destroyed a 30-block area. “Wood stoves were being compromised either in the shock itself or in the aftershock. But the other thing that made the fires worse was a lack of water,” said Dr Strauss. The water lines had broken from the rupture, which meant there was no way for people to put the fires out themselves.” The lack of an organised fire brigade didn’t help and so, as the wind whipped up and fanned

“People wandered the streets dazed and homeless in desperate need of shelter” the flames, desperate measures were needed. To prevent the blaze from spreading, the city opted to create fire breaks, but the method was severe. “If there were a whole bunch of houses on fire, they would go to people’s homes and tell them to leave because they were going to explode them,” Dr Strauss said, the idea being to create a gap that would help stop the fire in its tracks. “They set explosives, which is pretty scary when you think about it and also quite unfair,” she continued. “People would have been sitting outside their house, wanting to go back in because the shaking was done and the authorities would be like, no, you can’t. But as they were not exploded very well, it only increased the number of conflagrations to the point where a large portion of the city was burned. Highly flammable black gunpowder was used as dynamite and it only served to create a path for the fires. Burning debris also ignited ruptured gas lines, worsening the problem.”

A CITY UNDER LOCKDOWN Shortly after the quake, Brigadier General Frederick Funston, acting commander of the Pacific Division, sent hundreds of troops on to the streets to help police and fire departments bring the population under control. It was similar to martial law, although such a declaration was never actually made. Instead, Mayor Eugene Schmitz, infamously gave the nod to the police and troops to kill anyone found stealing. That afternoon, three looters were said to have been shot. Such actions were deemed necessary because the authorities feared looting and general disorderly

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behaviour. Before long, witnesses were telling of sentries “posted on every corner” and the comfort derived from hearing them proclaim, “12 o’clock and all is well”. They would praise the troops for providing supplies of blankets, food, tents and for bringing portable toilets. With no worries about their own family, given they were drawn from outside of the area, the troops were able to carry out their work with great effectiveness. There were guards outside the ruins and key buildings such as the post office and the vaults, and a more general sense of calm prevailed.

so, following the earthquake and with the help of a core team of more than two dozen scientists, he was able to look more closely at this. The rupture was analysed and mapped to within an inch of its life, allowing a view of its full continuity. It was seen to stretch across California as a continuous geological structure of some 600 miles. “They produced a massive compilation of reports on the damage, not only looking at where there were visible fault lines on the surface but looking at how buildings were damaged in different areas depending on how far away they were from the fault or what the buildings materials were,” said Dr Strauss. “They produced some very detailed maps, as well as hand-drawn surveys and they had photographs of everything. This document became the benchmark for future investigations into the after-effects of earthquakes.” The resulting The Report Of The State Earthquake Investigation Commission, Volume 1, ran to 220 pages

Q Soldiers outside the Hall of Justice in 1906

People were threatened with jail if they were caught starting fires to keep warm. Yet it was Funston who decided that dynamiting homes to create firebreaks was “the only way” of preventing the spread. But there were some other consequences that didn’t go down well. Colonel Charles Morris ordered “all liquor, except beer, shall be immediately seized and poured into the gutter of the ground so that it cannot be imbibed.” Around $30,000 worth of liquor was destroyed out of fear it would not only spread the fires but be seized upon by gangs.

SAN FRANCISCO EARTHQUAKE

REBUILDING SAN FRANCISCO Despite predictions that San Francisco would die, it rose from the ashes and, within weeks, it was starting to get back on its feet. Although it would take just short of a decade for the city to be completely rebuilt, a decision to simply erect buildings where the old one’s stood rather than start to formulate ambitious remodelling plans certainly helped to speed up its recovery.

Street cars were trundling down Market Street within a month and tiny wooden cottages were created in the parks. “Once the city was rebuilt,” said Dr Jennifer Strauss, “people put large pieces of wood under them and carried them to places of the city where they wanted to put down roots.” The banks were re-opened after six weeks and new railway tracks began to

(and if you want to view it for yourself, it is available to read for free on the Internet Archive site at: bit.ly/2aMD0Sp). The report showed a correlation between the intensity of the earthquake and the underlying geological conditions. Bedrock sites were less able to sustain strong shaking than sediment-filled valleys, it had been found, and reclaimed ground from San Francisco Bay was the worst hit of all the areas, with the coastal areas that were on sediment and soil becoming prone to the phenomenon of liquefaction. It soon became apparent that the earthquake was linked to the continuous active fault and that ground motion would decrease further away from the fault. “But the one key thing that the Lawson report did was provide all the data and the basis for elastic rebound theory,” said Dr Strauss, of an important explanation for how energy is spread during earthquakes. It had previously been thought that forces that led to an earthquake were concentrated close to the location of the quake. But when one of the research scientists, Harry Fielding Reid, studied the fault trace of 1906, he said the forces that caused the earthquake were actually very distant. He proposed that stress over many years distorted the earth to such an extent that it caused ground weaknesses – or faults – to fail. “It’s not like a ‘the earth moves a foot in one fell swoop’ kind of thing,” said Dr Strauss. “It’s more stretch, stretch, stretch, stretch and then snap, like a rubber band. So instead of these straight lines going across the fault, it starts getting curved. This formed the basis for our modern understanding

be laid. The clear-up job was long and hard, with the Marina District of today being filled with rubble. The Victorian houses had also been destroyed but that was seen by many as a good thing: “I don’t know if the people in 1906 – except for the homeowners – were particularly beat up about the fact that many of them were no longer with them,” said Dr Strauss.

of earthquakes and how the crust movement gradually moves and distorts everything with the plate motion. This important discovery was made before plate tectonics. It’s pretty amazing and it was a huge feat for seismology as a whole.” Lawson’s report remains the authoritative work on a single earthquake and it has enabled San Francisco to be better prepared for any repeat. The Hayward Fault, which runs along the foot of the East Bay Hills, was to blame for the city’s major earthquake in 1868 and studies have shown that it ruptures, on average, every 140 years. “The talk

Yet there have been suggestions that it was perhaps rebuilt too quickly. The city held the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in 1915 and some believe buildings were rushed in preparation. Today, however, the Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities programme includes San Francisco and it is being helped to prepare residents and buildings for future quakes and fires.

of the town is we are due a large earthquake,” Dr Strauss said. “People have been working on resiliency strategies and ways to co-ordinate services. The city has a massive retro-fit programme for buildings to make them safer.” That’s not to say the San Andreas fault has finished the job it began in 1906. “There is research suggesting that every once in a while there is an earthquake that can be re-correlated back to the 1906 quake. The aftershock sequence falls away over time but for these very large events, it takes a very long time to return to background seismicity.”

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THE YANGTZE RIVER FLOODS OF 1931 IN BRIEF Q Death toll: 4 million (est) Q Central and Eastern China Q 1931 Hundreds of thousands died of drowning, disease, starvation and malnutrition. China’s economy was severely damaged and local agriculture decimated. After eight years of drought, the floods destroyed much of what the droughts left behind. In doing so they condemned millions to perpetual hardship and perhaps as many to death. Combined, they were one of the worst disasters in history.

Q It remained business as usual in Hankou market. With huge areas of China underwater, life went on

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THE YANGTZE RIVER FLOODS OF 1931

THE YANGTZE RIVER FLOODS OF 1931 Floods, disease, starvation, death. The Chinese floods of 1931 were probably the most devastating natural disaster of the 20th century

loods can be one of nature's most powerful, terrifying and deadly events. Overwhelming and unstoppable, they sweep all before them, destroying everything in their path. The China floods of 1931 were among the most destructive and deadly natural disasters in human history. Although they centred along China's great Yangtze River, the floods devastated and destroyed life and property far, far beyond it. Calling them the Yangtze River floods isn't strictly accurate. One of the largest river systems in the world, it covers more than just one river and one region. The name suggests that only people living along the Yangtze's track were at risk. They weren't. At least eight Chinese provinces were affected, and those were only the worst damaged. The floods inundated areas, affecting areas as far north as Manchuria, as far south as Guandong and as far west as Sichuan. The Yangtze area wasn't the complete package; merely the eye of the storm. 1931 hadn't started well for communities along China's four great rivers, once known collectively as the Yangtze River. Scorched by years of drought, the peasants and farmers needed water; lots of water. In a matter of months they were repeatedly devastated by infinitely more than they needed or ever thought possible. The China river floods were about to begin. What we know today as the Yangtze is actually made up of several rivers, each with its own name.

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The 'Jiang Yiang' is the Long River, connected with the Jinshia Jiang (Gold Sands River), the Tongtian (River Passing Through Heaven) and the Tuotuo (Tearful River) – all sections of the Yangtze River itself. Originating in the hills and mountains of Tibet, together they form what Westerners know as the Yangtze River. The floods of 1931 were spawned on the same lines as many others, a lengthy dry period followed by massive rainfall far exceeding the norm. After two years of droughts the Yangtze wasn't dry, but it wasn't far off. Agriculture was suffering, and the locals no doubt praying for rain. Nature, unfortunately, was feeling catastrophically generous. By the end of the floods, many thousands, perhaps millions, of people had drowned, starved to death or succumbed to disease. An area equivalent to the states of Connecticut, New Jersey and New York found itself underwater. That they came in a series rather than a single deluge probably didn't help. Every time refugees, suffering and starving in makeshift shelters or refugee camps, thought they had ceased, another burst into life. It seemed never-ending. Repeated deluges destroyed much of what previous floods had left behind while seriously hampering relief efforts. Like a boxer picking his punches, Mother Nature picked hers, striking repeatedly where it would do the most harm. Refugees and relief workers, meanwhile, were on the

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THE YANGTZE RIVER FLOODS OF 1931 ropes. Not surprisingly, that did nothing to help the situation and certainly increased the death toll. The drought finally breaking wasn't unexpected, but the amount of spring rainfall and run-off from the Tibetan plateau and nearby hills was. Normally, the Yangtze river system has only three periods of high water every year. 1931 was just one long deluge. Another of nature's weapons also came into play. During the summer, extreme cyclones hit the

Q Malaria mosquito

DISEASE; THE SILENT KILLER With millions of tons of water swamping a vast area, sanitation and medical services were simply overwhelmed. The floods had also destroyed staggering amounts of food, leaving starving, homeless refugees to all manner of diseases. Cholera, typhoid, schistosomiasis and measles were rampant. Pools of undrained water and a warm climate provided breeding grounds for mosquitoes spreading malaria through regions already ravaged by disease and starvation. Mosquitoes can also spread yellow fever, although this was less rampant. Other deadly diseases played their part. Mass inoculations limited the effects of smallpox, but typhus was also common. Many thousands of people were found to have enlarged spleens, the result of starvation, malnutrition and drinking dirty water when they had nothing else. When food supplies ran out, people started to eat tree bark, leaves, twigs and earth. More desperate still, some resorted to cannibalism. What the floods had started the ravages of disease only made even worse. Highly contagious in an area already devastated, they spread like wildfire and killed tens of thousands. After the floods themselves they were the single largest factor in the staggering death toll estimated between hundreds of thousands and millions. Foreign governments, private organisations, the American Red Cross and funds raised from abroad all helped mitigate the effects of rampant disease. Drug companies and governments in particular donated stocks of drugs and sanitation supplies. These helped a great deal in cleaning up the bestial conditions of temporary refugee camps that were almost immediately overcrowded and overwhelmed. Despite the aid from abroad and the Chinese government, casualties continued to mount long after the flood waters had finally subsided. The resulting cholera epidemic of 1932 killed some 31,974 people according to a report from the National Flood Relief Commission. Starvation and malnutrition must have killed even more.

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region – far more than usual. While the average was only two a year, the month of July alone saw nine whirling through the region. Destructive and potentially lethal in themselves, this time they were only a harbinger of what was to come. Chinese authorities and citizens didn't expect one continuous period of constant storms and record water levels, and that wasn't the only problem. Like a general choosing his ground for maximum effect, China’s geography also played its part. Funnelled through so many narrow gorges increasing their power and destructive potential, water levels reached record and then alarming levels. By March, 1931’s crisis point was already fast approaching. China's dykes, rivers and dams simply weren't built to handle so staggering an amount of water. Over time the record flow began eroding dykes and weakening dams, and it continued getting worse. The Yangtze was inching closer and closer to breaking through the defences. For areas where the dykes were built higher than the building, this left everybody vulnerable. Some dykes and riverbanks held, but for many the water simply rose until gigantic torrents came streaming over their tops. When previously solid defences began to crack and crumble, people started fearing the worst. When the dykes began collapsing, people were terrified. No matter how they begged or wept or prayed for their nightmare to end, the floods simply wouldn't stop coming. The Chinese public were worried by the rising waters, then scared that they kept rising, and ultimately swept away by a disaster seemingly without end. By the time it actually did

Q Dictator Chiang kai Shek ruled China in 1931. His nationalist government considered the floods an enormous challenge

THE YANGTZE RIVER FLOODS OF 1931 THE INVASION OF MANCHURIA

Q In Hankou, it was nigh impossible to travel without a boat or canoe

and parts of Inner Mongolia. Theoretically independent, Manchukuo was really a puppet state ruled from Japan. It would stay that way until 1945 when Chinese and Soviet troops finally drove out the remaining Japanese forces. In the meantime, those within the area that survived the floods now had to endure brutal Japanese occupation. Whether the Japanese leadership planned to invade then or simply took advantage of China’s vulnerability is debatable. The fact remains that had the Japanese stayed out, Chinese troops, resources and funds sent to defend Manchuria could have been used helping the survivors of the floods instead.

end many thousands, possibly millions, would also be dead. Amid the chaos, the worst affected area was probably around Wuhan and Hankou. As dykes and rivers overflowed or simply burst, refugees fled to the area in ever-increasing numbers. At one point some 30,000 were existing on a railway embankment in Hankou alone, while over 750,000 people had gathered in and around Wuhan. That Wuhan had river levels over 50 feet above its annual average didn't put them off. In any case, they had nowhere else to go. In other places the death toll was particularly high. When dykes burst along the Grand canal running through Gaeyou, itself near a lake brimming with excess water, over 2,000 drowned in their sleep. Sudden massive population movements placed enormous strain on local services. China's infrastructure simply wasn't designed to cope. In areas already devastated by floods, starvation, malnutrition and especially disease killed many thousands of people. As people shifted around China hoping to find somewhere they might be safe, they helped spread diseases like typhoid, cholera, dysentery and a host of other lethal illnesses. The disease problem could have been worse, if not for the response of the Chinese authorities. Partly supported by donations of drugs, vaccines and other essential equipment, thousands of refugees and survivors were inoculated against cholera and smallpox in particular. The Japanese invasion of Manchuria, parts of which were badly affected by the floods, was a kick in the teeth to the relief efforts. Valuable resources and men had to be diverted from rebuilding damaged dykes and riverbanks. Plans to build a number of dams along the Yangtze were stalled by the financial cost of the war with Japan. Japan's

assault on Manchuria was as cynically timed as it was bloody and brutal. The death toll and destruction were astounding. More astounding still was the success of the Chinese response. Despite the destruction, the Japanese invasion, the repeated floods and cyclones and the massive shifts in population, China held firm. With foreign help, Chinese authorities managed to provide refugee camps, hospitals, food and inoculation programs against disease. They began the process of reconstruction, slowly and laboriously replacing what couldn't be salvaged and rebuilding what could be. By the end of 1931 the floods had finally relented, but it would take many years to restore even a semblance of what was there before. With thousands of square miles of land and crops destroyed, the US Government made a deal to provide 450,000 tons of wheat on credit, half of which was to be delivered as flour. The deal came with preferential treatment for American suppliers, granted, but another clause benefited China's devastated economy just as much. Half of the wheat and flour could be sold within China, stimulating the struggling economy and helping to restore trade within the country. With a sizable proportion of China's annual wheat and rice crop destroyed and huge swathes of farmland polluted by silt and mud, this was an important step. One thing was certain: thousands of square miles of crops and land had been destroyed. Regional infrastructure lay in ruins. Hundreds of thousands were starving, diseased, dispossessed or dead. Millions more were left wandering through China, desperately looking for a safe place to start again. The Imperial Japanese Army were running riot across Manchuria, renamed as their puppet state Manchukuo, and would be there until 1945. China would never be the same again.

FACTS 15%

of the Yangtze Valley’s rice and wheat crop was destroyed

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How many feet above average the high water mark rose on 19 August

2000

people died when the floods engulfed the city of Gaoyou

30,000

Refugees sheltered on Hankou’s railway embankment alone

180,000

square kilometres of land inundated by the flood

600mm of rain fell along the Yangtze River in July 1931 alone

4 million

estimated death toll according to some Western historians

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© Alamy

While China was trying to deal with the floods and their catastrophic results, life was made even harder by Japan invading Manchuria. The invasion began on 18 September 1931 when Japanese troops under General Shigeru Honjo (right) marched into Chinese territory. The Chinese bond market immediately collapsed, further weakening the already-struggling Chinese economy. Troops that might otherwise be employed in reconstruction went to fight the Japanese instead. Supplies and equipment, in turn, were sent to support the Chinese defenders of Manchuria, not the Chinese people still struggling to survive. Manchuria became ‘Manchukuo’ comprising most of Manchuria

MOUNT ST HELENS

IN BRIEF Q Death toll: 57 Q Washington, USA Q 18th May 1980 Mount St Helens was one of the first volcano eruptions to be widely photographed, and it was accompanied by the largest landslide the world has ever recorded.

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MOUNT ST HELENS

MOUNT ST HELENS ERUPTS When Catherine Hickson witnessed the 1980 eruption of Mount St Helens, she learned to expect the unexpected. It changed her life forever

t was eerily quiet. In the distance, some 14 kilometres west, Mount St Helens – which had so often been seen as the most perfectly symmetrical of mountains – was steaming heavily from its fluted snow-covered top. The 2,950-metre-high volcano in south-western Washington state had been awoken by a series of earthquakes since the beginning of March 1980 – one of which had a magnitude of 4.2. But while that rocked the tranquil surroundings of the USA’s fire mountain and opened twin fissures on its north face, there was still a sense of silent peace, at least from where Catherine Hickson was standing. On the inside, the third-year geology student was bursting with excitement, and she wasn’t the only one. Tourists, reporters and scientists – both professional and amateur – had flocked to the area in the hope of catching the full view of Mount St Helens’ anticipated eruption. Yet while they jostled for the best positions and there was some arguing as a number of residents refused to leave their homes, Hickson had taken up position on a remote rock quarry directly facing the volcano. She had decided to camp out for the weekend with only her husband, Paul, for company, having driven for seven hours down from their home in Vancouver. For her, it was a no-brainer. “Everyone in the geology departments had been talking about it and I was interested in volcanoes and volcanology,” she said. “It was the first time that there had been active volcanism in the Lower 48 and because it was so close by, we just had to go.” The couple left their home on Friday 16th May and, as they got near to their destination, they spotted a forest road – a non-public track that had been created by a logging company that was operating in the area. “We followed it along the east side of the volcano and found a place where they had been taking gravel, a kind of flat spot. It was the Victoria Day long weekend in Canada so we were able to stay until the Monday.” As it turned out, they didn’t need that long.

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The following day, Hickson was starting to become restless. “We could clearly see Mount St Helens and it was lovely weather, very hot. We could see steam from the summit but it was so quiet that on the Saturday afternoon, I suggested that we should go somewhere else, but we didn’t.” The following day, they woke early and had a breakfast of eggs and bacon. Then, at 8.32am, as they sat together in their campervan looking close up at the volcano through a shared pair of binoculars. It was then that they felt an earthquake of magnitude 5.1. Slightly closer to the volcano was David A Johnston, a principal scientist on the monitoring team, whose observation post was ten kilometres away from the action. He had been confident that the seismic activity being recorded by the United States Geological Survey stations was pointing towards an imminent major eruption, and during his time on the ridge, he’d noted the changes to Mount St Helens. The alterations to the mountain’s structure had mainly occurred after the phreatic eruption of 27th March sent a plume of ash 2,134 metres skywards. In the aftermath, the

crater had been excavated and a second caldera created. But a number of relatively small eruptions continued to take place, and a bulge – known as a cryptodome – on the north flank had appeared within a couple of weeks, growing two metres each day. “Vancouver! Vancouver!,” Johnston shouted into his radio as the clock struck 8.32am and he too felt the tremendous rumble. “This is it!” Hickson and her husband couldn’t take their eyes off the volcano, and within seconds, the drama they had been waiting for from the advantage of their elevated front row began to unfold. “The whole mass of the north-eastern side of the volcano had been pushed out, steepened and broken up,” Hickson said. “Magma had risen inside, found the volcano’s weak spots and exerted outward pressure but now gravity had taken over. The side failed because it had been pushed up too far.” The couple were mesmerised. “We saw the beginning of this failure. We saw the landslide,” she said. “And as it progressed down the side of the volcano, it was releasing its pressure.” The north face was sliding down in an avalanche of

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MOUNT ST HELENS debris at up to 250 kilometres per hour. More than 2.5 cubic kilometres worth of deposits cascaded towards northern ridges and the westward valley. “It was the largest landslide ever witnessed,” said Hickson. “A few kilometres of material slid off the mountain – something that was unrecognised in its association with volcanic eruptions.” With the northern flank exposed and the cryptodome removed, the stratovolcano’s magmatic system was suddenly depressurised. The volcano erupted at its summit and, as the landslide progressed, there was a secondary explosion. “It decapitated the conduit,” Hickson said. After 100 years of stillness, Mount St Helens was brought to life in the most dramatic of fashions. Instead of erupting upwards, it erupted sideways, surprising everybody who was watching. The lateral blast travelled at 482 kilometres per hour and ash was sent some 25,000 metres into the air. The pyroclastic flow surged; the hot gas, ash and rock reaching temperatures of 350 degrees Celsius. Within minutes, an area of 370 square kilometres

was levelled, destroying hundreds of homes, smashing bridges and sending ash across 11 states. Trees were felled as much as 25 kilometres away and the area was plunged into darkness as the black, billowing clouds filled the sky. The noise was a tremendous blend of roars and rumbles. “Initially it was incredibly exciting,” said Hickson. “It was an amazing thing to witness. Essentially a huge chunk of the volcano slid away and this incredible explosion was occurring.” But there was a terrible human cost. Following the blast, 57 people were instantly killed as the area around them was destroyed. Johnston was among them, his positioning within the direct blast zone that radiated 13 kilometres proving fatal. It has been said that the blast was equal to 24 megatons of TNT, yet even those further away were not safe. “We had to flee,” said Hickson. “When the landslide occurred, it exposed the north flank and it had this big buttress that was left behind. It directed the blast 32 kilometres to the north and it tumbled down the slope in front of us, progressing towards

“The area was plunged into darkness as the black, billowing clouds filled the sky”

USING CRYSTAL-CLEAR THINKING

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Scientists have continued to monitor Mount St Helens in the hope of understanding the cause of the eruption. In June 2016, Professor Jon Blundy, the lead researcher from the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol, said he believed the rise of dateable crystals within the magma could point to destabilisation and a possible eruption. “These crystals are zoned and they grow a bit like tree rings – you can use the zoning patterns to discover where in pressure, temperature and time-space the crystals were in the lead up to an eruption,”

he told us. “The data from Mount St Helens shows that the crystals spent the early part of their lives at depths of 12 or 14 kilometres in what you may describe as a longlived magmatic mush. These reservoirs could have been there for tens, hundreds or thousands of years.” Using the crystals, scientists should be able to work out where and when the magma moved. “We have noticed that magma is moved up to four or five kilometres in a timescale of a few years and then there is an eruption pending. From that, we can see that a quick

upward movement of magma indicates a lead up to eruption over the next few years.” Such thinking is vital in coming up with ways to predict when a volcano will blow well before it does, allowing for ample warning and evacuation plans to be drawn up. “There are various aspects of Mount St Helens that make it amenable to studies,” he said. “I’ve been lucky with Mount St Helens because it’s a simple volcano. It erupted a few months before I started studying geology at university so it was significant for me too,” Blundy added.

MOUNT ST HELENS

Q Spirit Lake after the eruption, stripped of its lush forest

Q The Washington National Guard were instrumental to rescue efforts

the east. That’s when we realised we were in grave danger.” As they drove south at speed, Hickson could see the cloud behind their vehicle. Her husband’s camera had been used to snap away at the volcano’s progress but he was trying his hardest to avoid the results of the earthquake; the rocks that were blocking paths. Muddy rain fell but they continued on their two-hour journey. When they later returned to their makeshift campsite, the danger they had been in hit home. “It was covered in a small hail and several centimetres of ash,” she said. “I’m glad we didn’t try to stay.” Yet that day remained with her forever. She pursued a career in volcanology and, today, the student who was studying sedimentology at the time is now Canada’s most celebrated volcanologist. Following the eruption, the mountain was not as majestic as it once was although both it and the adjacent forests and streams became classed as a National Monument. The mountain had fallen from being Washington state’s fifth-highest peak at 2,950 metres to 2,550 metres – which now puts it in 52nd place. The eruption had changed the landscape forever too, killing animals, stripping soil and dirtying clear lakes. Cars were left stranded, almost melted into the earth. President Jimmy Carter visited the area following the eruption, and in a conference with journalists, he told reporters: “I don’t know how long it’ll take for that region to be open even for normal movement of traffic. Enormous blocks of ice apparently are still covered by literally hundreds of feet of fluffy, face-powder-type ash, and as that ice is melted under the hot conditions that exist, enormous cave-ins are taking place. Steam is bubbling up. There are a few fires about. Someone said it was like a Moonscape but it’s much worse than anything I’ve ever seen in pictures of the Moon’s surface.” But despite the $1.1 billion of damage caused to local industry, the area has become crucial for volcanologists, especially since Mount St Helens remains active and has erupted on a smaller scale on numerous occasions since. The lives lost have not been forgotten, though: the US Geological

Survey office in Vancouver was renamed the David A Johnston Cascades Volcano Observatory and the Johnston Ridge Observatory, which was built in 1997, sits roughly nine kilometres from the crater. Its visitor centre affords great views. “Mount St Helens was an important eruption from a scientific viewpoint,” Hickson said. “That is partly due to the sector collapse, the huge landslide that decapitated the upper part of the magma chamber and the sideways blast as opposed to a vertical eruption.” Hickson ended up completing an undergraduate thesis on pyroclastic surge deposits, detailing the fluidised mass of ejected volcanic rock fragments and turbulent gas that result from such eruptions. “The volcano contributed significantly to our understanding of how these kinds of stratovolcanos erupt,” she said of the volcanos

UPS & DOWNS The eruption of Mount St Helens devastated the mountain and changed its appearance for ever. The first noticeable feature was the emergence of the cryptodome, the side bulge that was caused by viscous magma pushing out from the surface. This altered the shape of the mountain on its north flank and it led to destabilisation.

Summit dome (mid 1600s – late 1700s)

that are built up of alternate layers of lava and ash. “When scientists looked back over the seismic records of Mount St Helens, they saw that seismicity had started a couple of years prior to the eruption. They also learned about the interaction with snow and glaciers that were on top of the mountain. The magma had descended into the volcano and melted the ice and snow, creating a very saturated mass around the cryptodome. That had never been witnessed before.” Mount St Helens remains active, with significant activity between 2004 and 2008 creating plumes of steam and ash visible as far away as Seattle. Its rugged terrain and challenging slopes are also popular with mountaineers. But Hickson will never forget that day in 1980 when the mountain roared. “I always say if something almost kills you, then it’s nice to learn something about it.”

When the cryptodome collapsed and created a landslide, the northern flank was removed and the powerful eruptions were triggered. As they blasted out twice from the side of the volcano, emitting a lateral blast of hot material across more than 30 kilometres, magma expanded upwards towards the opening of the vent and there was a Vesuvian eruption that sent plumes of ash about 25 kilometres directly upwards. An ash cloud spread across North America over three days. 1979 profile

When the volcano had settled down, its height had dropped significantly and it took on an entirely different profile. Life is slowly returning to the mountain after the devastation. Trees were the first to revegetate thanks to their seeds being protected by snow and vegetative cover. Elk and deer began to make a comeback too. But it’s not the end: between 2004 and 2008, there was a gradual extrusion of magma and a new lava dome has been created.

Profile of bulge by May 18th, 1980

Goat Rocks dome (1842-57)

Q The beautiful symmetry of Mount St Helens on view before the eruption

Profile after 1980 eruption

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GORKHA EARTHQUAKE

GORKHA EARTHQUAKE NEPAL, 2015 Entire villages in Nepal were flattened, killing thousands, when the Gorkha earthquake struck. It even triggered an avalanche on Mount Everest, killing 21. Many culturally important UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the Kathmandu Valley were also destroyed.

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GORKHA EARTHQUAKE

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THE BHOLA CYCLONE

IN BRIEF Q Death toll: 300,000 Q East Pakistan Q 1970 The Bhola cyclone in 1970 is widely regarded as the deadliest single weather event in human history. Hundreds of thousands of people died, and many more were made homeless, as strong winds coupled with huge tidal wave swept whole villages off the map. Inaction from the Pakistani government led to uproar and, after months of bitter fighting, political upheaval.

Q An aerial view of the coastal area of Patuakhali showing the damage wrought by the cyclone

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THE BHOLA CYCLONE

THE BHOLA CYCLONE

One of the worst single weather events of all time, this storm changed the course of history t was the storm that defined a generation. The Bhola cyclone of November 1970 is often referred to as the deadliest single weather event of all time, claiming an astonishing number lives when it struck the Bay of Bengal, then the eastern wing of Pakistan. By some estimates as many as 300,000 people were killed, with a further 4 million affected. The storm had another dramatic effect, too, as the resultant political strife is credited as being the progenitor that led to the birth of Bangladesh. The origin of this immense storm dates back to the remnants of another, called tropical storm Nora, that had moved westward across Malaysia on 5 November. Three days later, this led to the creation of a depression over the south central Bay of Bengal, which strengthened and grew into a storm on 9 November that moved slowly north. While meteorological instruments were not available to monitor the centre of the storm, satellite pictures suggested that it steadily strengthened as it then turned northeast towards the coast. At this point, things started to look bleak. A ship at the Chittagong Port reported a wind speed of 120 knots as the storm approached, reaching hurricane force. This was not the most powerful storm to ever hit the region, with another in 1876 dubbed Bakerganj also claiming at least 100,000 lives. But a combination of events meant that the outcome was dire. The storm struck in the south-facing portion of the Bay, where cyclones in this region always strike, in the early hours of 12 November 1970. It generated a tidal wave six metres (20 feet) tall that swept at least a quarter of a million people into the Bay of Bengal, along with their animals, crops and houses. In some areas, almost half the population

I

was washed away, with people torn from trees they clung to for dear life by the surging waters. Some described the waves as being like a bombing raid. While a previous cyclone in the region in October 1960 was of a similar strength, it had occurred at low tide, leading to a comparatively low death toll of around 5,000. Tropical depressions in the Bay of Bengal are not uncommon, with about a dozen expected every year, five of which can strengthen into a cyclonic storm. The Bhola cyclone, however, crossed the coast at high tide. While the storm itself was bad, it was the accompanying flooding from the storm surge that caused the most problems. Disaster was on the horizon. When the storm made landfall, many locals either refused to evacuate or simply had no means to due to poor transportation links. Others were so used to cyclones happening every year that they were largely indifferent to the impending disaster, while some were desperate to keep hold of their farmland and refused to leave, fearing theft. Fertile soil in the region, specifically the Ganges Delta, had led to an extremely dense population that even if they had tried to evacuate, it would have been next to impossible to get everyone out in time. Many also had no means of communication with the outside word, save for the odd radio, relying mostly on word of mouth. Thus, despite limited warnings about the storm in advance, it was difficult to get information to people, let alone evacuate them. It’s estimated that while about 90 per cent of the population may have heard about the storm, only one per cent chose to flee to stronger buildings. At the time known as East Pakistan, the region was roughly the size of Arkansas in the US, but had

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THE BHOLA CYCLONE

BIRTH OF A NATION The ruling Pakistani regime viewed storms in this region as simply part of the landscape, with a seeming indifference to providing protection for the impoverished population in what was then East Pakistan. The government plead helplessness in times like this, claiming all that could be done was to “pray to Allah”. It took days after the Bhola cyclone made landfall for the news to spread to the nearby capital of Dacca (now Dakha), and later still to Islamabad. After what was described as a callous response, the region sought independence. With Pakistan’s first democratic elections on the horizon on 7 December 1970, the storm was politicised. After weeks of illfeeling towards the ruling elite, the opposition Awami League party swept to a landslide victory, claiming 160 of the 162 National Assembly Seats in East Pakistan. The party demanded regional autonomy or, in other words, independence. The crisis had put this region on the map, whose impoverished nature had previously gone unnoticed. But the Pakistani elite did not accept the result of the election. On the night of 25 March 1971 they launched a vicious attack against East Pakistan, a genocidal battle as they sought to eliminate Bengali civilians. The results of the election were annulled, and the incoming Prime Minister arrested. Waves of military attacks and air strikes followed, with radical religious groups enlisted to help the military. Coming to the aid of Bengalis, however, was India. They provided military support, and formally joined the war on 3 December 1971, after Pakistan had launch strikes in North India. This turned the fight significantly against Pakistan and, just two weeks later on 16 December, they surrendered. In 1972, a treaty was signed in which Pakistan recognised the independence of Bangladesh, and a new nation was born.

36 times as many people, with a population of 72 million. What’s more, the Bay itself had practically no elevation, with places like Manpura Island lying just six metres above sea level, right at the height the storm surge reached. The disaster was made all the worse by the lack of an appropriate response, largely due to political tensions in the region. Officials in the capital of East Pakistan, Islamabad, refused for the first few days to have helicopters provided by the US, UK and elsewhere to be flown by foreign pilots, insisting that they must be Pakistani. An offer of a field hospital from West Germany, meanwhile, was simply ignored. And it took a day for a message to even reach the headquarters of the International Red Cross in Geneva. So many locals were forced to go it alone, building their own new huts and frying rice despite being soaked in saltwater. The cyclone had struck three weeks before the first democratic elections in the country and, following the ineffectual response of the ruling

Pakistani elite, it allowed the political party Awami League to sweep to victory in the elections. But the elite did not accept the result of the election, launching a vicious attack on the Awami League, which had been forced to claim independence, sparking an intense civil war. After nine months of fighting, East Pakistan won its independence and became Bangladesh in December 1971. Many attribute the birth of Bangladesh to the Bhola cyclone, which set in motion the events that led to its creation. (See boxout: Birth of a Nation) The loss of life from the storm was immense. On Manpura Island, only 5,000 people of its population of 30,000 survived. One local described a “gigantic, luminous crest heading toward our village,” with the sky then turning pitch dark. Almost all of the cattle, sheep, goats and buffaloes on the island drowned, while its fishing boats were swept out to sea. A reporter for TIME magazine noted that he “could not walk 200 yards without passing heaps of bloated bodies”, with the carcasses

FACTS

6

metres Tidal wave height created by the centre of the cyclone

4.8 million Number of people affected by the cyclone

150mph

Highest winds reported in the storm

300,000

Estimated number of people that died

280,000

Number of cattle lost to the storm

600,000

People without adequate shelter four months later

65% Q Dead cattle litter the landscape as villagers search for rice and grains to salvage

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Q Homeless villagers crowd the office of a Pakistani medical team, waiting for a cholera inoculation

Percentage of total fishing capital destroyed

4

Category of storm for the cyclone

THE BHOLA CYCLONE

HOW A CYCLONE FORMS cluster of thunderstorms and a body of warm water. The storm draws its energy from evaporated water, forming clouds and releasing heat. Due to Earth’s rotation, the cyclone starts to spin and move. The strongest winds occur around the eye, within which conditions can be oddly

“Entire populations perished on 13 small islands near Patuakhali” of animals littering the landscape for miles. “The stench was appalling, the sight of parents hovering over their dead children staggering. My legs shook,” he said. Ships in the bay had either been torn apart or left stranded on land, while the beaches and islands were covered in bodies. Entire populations perished on 13 small islands near Patuakhali, while elsewhere rice crops were destroyed, and paddies turned black by the salt water. Thousands were buried in mass graves and, when people no longer had the strength to dig any more, bodies were left out in the open. On some islands, when relief workers arrived, there was no need for them to supply children’s clothing as no children had survived.

calm, despite the storm raging around it. They range in scale from Category One to Category Five. A big danger, as was the case with the Bhola cyclone, comes from the increase in water height known as a storm surge caused by the drop in pressure at the centre of the storm. The

It took almost a week for relief to arrive, days after cholera and typhoid fever had run rampant on many of the islands. Only a limited number of ships and aircraft were assigned by the Pakistani government, who blamed the Indian government for not granting clearance to cross Indian territory. Despite the poor relations, India was one of the first countries to offer aid, although Pakistan refused some offers of aircraft and boats. The US and UK governments sent dozens of helicopters to the area and raised millions of pounds. Continuing altercations with Pakistan, however, hampered efforts. To raise awareness and funds for the region, former Beatles member George Harrison organised The Concert for Bangladesh on 1 August 1971. There’s little doubt that relief efforts were mishandled, however, and coupled with a lack of evacuation it led to an astonishing loss of life. It was a storm so powerful that it not only resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands, but sent political shockwaves through the country that led to civil war. The Bhola cyclone will not long be forgotten as one of the most deadly natural disasters in history.

storms usually weaken when they hit land, as they can no longer draw up water to feed themselves. But they can move far inland, dumping huge amounts of water and causing substantial wind damage before they eventually dissipate, leaving a trail of destruction in their wake.

Q A hungry young boy awaits food distributed by government relief officials, two weeks after the storm hit

© Getty

Tropical cyclones are large spinning storm systems with low-pressure centres that form over warm oceans. In the Atlantic and eastern Pacific they are known as hurricanes, while in Southeast Asia they are called typhoons. A tropical cyclone needs two major ingredients, namely a

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INDIAN OCEAN TSUNAMI

INDIAN OCEAN TSUNAMI The ocean floor burst apart, releasing the monster tsunami across the sea to have its fill on the Boxing Day beaches

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he sun glinted high and jubilant against the bright blue sky. It seemed oblivious that the azure sea below would soon obliterate nearly everything in its path. This is the story of Indian Ocean tsunami disaster and how the determination of many, many people reached out to save lives and make sure that a natural disaster of this scale never, ever happens again. Sumatra is a holiday region. Whether you went there in high summer or at Christmas, you’d be met with honeyed beaches covered in warm, welcoming sand, dinky traditional fishing boats and nonchalant palm trees lilting in the breeze as far as the eye can see. Friendly locals chat happily with holiday makers and ex-patriots from other nations, all enjoying the healthy glow a paradise bestows. They didn’t know about the invisible giant that was steadily moving towards them. Over 155 miles off the coast of Sunda Trench, Sumatra, something large and incredibly powerful was stirring. It always moved its

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massive, heavy body sleepily under the waves, but now it had been properly disturbed. It was a tectonic plate above the earth’s core. Struggling for room in the dark depths, it ground against its neighbour, forcing it down; a process known as subduction. Finally one of the plate pair snapped upward, no longer able to hold the strain. It caused a massive flow of energy towards Sri Lanka: an earthquake. It was recorded by a seismograph in California, but it would be long hours before the results of this quake were analysed. In that time, a surge of water with a bulk head and a powerful body began plowing through the natural ocean. The monster began its gradual trek up to the beaches. It was early morning at Sumatra but the streets were busy with tourists and locals. In the distance was the beach. People were already there, sunbathing, when the first wave came up. There is an unfortunate phenomenon associated with tsunamis. When they are due to hit, water actually withdraws from the rest of the beach first. People had, therefore, come to the beach

INDIAN OCEAN TSUNAMI

IN BRIEF Q Death toll: 225,000+ Q Indian Ocean Q 26 December 2004 The tsunami killed at least 225,000 people with its momentous magnitude of 9.2. The little existing video footage that there is shows its scale and instantaneous devastation.

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INDIAN OCEAN TSUNAMI

“Experts noted that the power of the water alone was roughly the weight of a car” Q Passersby are captured mid-motion as the hellish wave appears. Tourists often didn’t know to run

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walked further into the surf than usual. Standing in their swimming trunks and bikinis, they would, perhaps hold their arms out to feel the sea air on their skin, wiggling their toes in the damp sand as it shifted gently to accommodate their weight. They would see the wave travelling towards them and may have held their faces forward slightly, laughing to meet it. The wave’s whisper would increase to a low rumble, the voice of a thousand jostling droplets, while the beach folks clenched the muscles in their arms, pursed their lips for the playfully salty coolness, squared their feet and dug their heels in… In one small section of the limited witness footage that exists of the tsunami in progress, there is the longshot of a beach. A man is standing calmly on it as the wave approaches. The wave smashes over him and he disappears completely. The voiceover reminds you that you have just witnessed another human being’s death on camera. That man would not have realised what was happening until it was far too late. He may have noticed that the wave seemed more powerful than usual and might have assumed he would be knocked off balance, but would have thought that he could simply pick himself up again, shakily brushing the sand and stray shingle from his shorts and hair. Instead, the wave picked him up along with the other beach bric-a-brac it found in its path as it made its way up the shoreline. By the time it had moved up the beach, the wave’s force was catastrophic. Experts noted that the power of the water alone was roughly that of the weight of a car. Within that water was everything that the wave had picked up along the way – anything from umbrellas to cars to bits of masonry. Indeed, the wave wafted against the Banda Aceh Cement Works, a wall three times the height of a man and several feet wide. It was simply broken in two and tossed to the ground. A person would be picked up, buffeted underneath the floating debris and pinned there, sustaining horrific injuries from the brute force and flying edges before drowning. The monster is still largely unknown to us, with the science of seismology and tsunami prediction still relatively new. It’s one of the reasons why so many died; the experts simply did not know how or where the beast would move as it roared across the ocean. They also had no way to instantly communicate the information when they began to understand. Hence, 15 minutes after that first earthquake, the exposed coast of Sumatra was the first to be hit, the casualties there making up around three quarters of the total victim count. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands were pulverised a mere 15 minutes later, southern Thailand 45 minutes after them, Sri Lanka two hours later and four hours later The Maldives. Luckily, loss of life was largely prevented in Africa as the pattern of the powerful foe had been detected and the

INDIAN OCEAN TSUNAMI seismologists were able to pre-warn the continent, allowing vulnerable areas to be evacuated. Perhaps the hardest thing to accept in retrospect is that the damage caused was predictable. It is fate, dependent on coastline. Kamala beach was smashed to smithereens, the wave aided by a sloping coastline that enabled the beast to slither up the shore on its belly, unchallenged by underwater cliffs that could have broken its stride. Other places were left largely untouched, out of the tide’s sight. For every photograph that you see where the tsunami’s aftermath seems to be the relatively innocuous-looking splinters of wood that almost authenticate a desert island, holiday environment, remember that under those bits of indistinguishable fragments of modern life (houses) are hundreds of human corpses lying on the sand. After the waves had their play, they went away. A coda gut punch peculiar to tsunamis is that rather than the waves simply retreating, they actually suck their debris back to the ocean bed with them, some of their victims vanishing forever into the depths. Those people who were too much for the mammoth’s belly would be found washed ashore in the later days as bloated, fish-eaten corpses perhaps looking eerily peaceful from a distance in the dawn’s new light. The rescue attempts were hampered from the outset, but the people were determined to band together. Hospitals were destroyed and with the tsunami swatting the infrastructure, even the water system was contaminated in some places. This led to concerns about the spread of disease. In many places, the water had blocked the roads and wrecked the electricity pylons. In some areas, people waited in vain for help that it seemed just never came; many regions, paradises though they appeared, were isolated hamlets away from the main thrust of island life. Refugee centres were set up in places such as the tiny capital, Port Blair, where relatives could visit

Q A building sits amid a street of splintered timber in what would have been downtown Sumatra

THE ISABELLA PEATFIELD MEMORIAL FUND Kim and Tristan Peatfield established a charity in their daughter’s name after she was taken by the flood waters. Little ‘Bellie’, as she was known, had fallen in love with Sri Lanka in the short time that she was on the island and loved to play with the children there. It was her first big holiday. A photograph of her shows a small girl, head tilted slightly as she squints in the beautiful sunshine in her summer dress. To date, the charity works to sponsor children to get a good education and escape poverty. It helps a number of orphanages by

providing money to cover their maintenance costs, has supplied a library, funded an annual Christmas party in Isabella’s name and provide plants for a gardening project that allows children the joys of seeing what nature can bring. Other key projects have included establishing the Isabella Peatfield Children’s Ward at Tangalle Hospital and, perhaps most importantly (according to her family), the Isabella’s Playgrounds scheme. The playground has funded 16 play areas in Sri Lanka and has ensured that the little girl can stay in spirit where she was so happy.

The Peatfields have also made sure that children all over the world can enjoy the things that Bellie did. The family had been looking forward to going to see the elephants as part of their holiday adventure when the tsunami happened, so part of their fundraising effort includes t-shirts, bags and other items that help spread her love for life and the world around her to others. The website is always updated with new projects and accepts donations that can help make other children like Isabella healthy and happy. Visit isabellapeatfield.com.

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INDIAN OCEAN TSUNAMI

FACTS

$7bilion The amount of aid money pledged to assist with rebuilding

23,000

THE EARTHQUAKE’S EPICENTRE SOMALIA

THAILAND

Deathtoll: 78 Cost of damage: $13.1bn Without financial assistance, the lack of governmental structure meant the country couldn’t begin to assess its needs.

Deathtoll: 8,212 Cost of damage: $2,198 Many people killed in Thailand were foreign tourists. They went back out to the beach after the first wave.

The tsunami’s power was equivalent to 23,000 Hiroshimasized atomic bombs

MALDIVES

800km/h The speed the tsunami travelled in the open ocean

2000m

The distance, in meters, that the waves travelled inland

150,000 Estimated additional deaths caused by resulting infectious diseases

MALAYSIA

Deathtoll: 82 Cost of damage: $304 million The area relies on tourism for its trade, but many bookings were subsequently cancelled.

SRI LANKA Deathtoll: 12,405 (confirmed) 35,322 (confirmed) Cost of damage: $1.5 billion The tsunami also decimated the tourist industry, leaving about 1/5 of the hotels on the south coast unworkable.

SEYCHELLES Deathtoll: 2 Cost of damage: $30m The fishing and tourism industry was hit and the damage equivalent to 14% of the area’s 2005 budget.

INDIA Deathtoll: 12,405 (confirmed) Cost of damage: $1.2bn on the mainland, $6.5bn according to some estimates. Damage to the Nicobar and Andaman islands could top $600bn. The fishing industry suffered to due jetty damage.

“In some areas, people waited in vain for help that it seemed just never came” and read the regularly updated notice board to see if their family members had been saved. It fell to many of the locals to co-ordinate the initial rescue effort on the ground, later assisted by workers from the World Health Organization as well as others. We are often taught to think of natural disasters in a religious context. In documentaries about the tsunami, survivors describe the waters as ‘biblical’. If one is a believer in intelligent design – the idea that the universe is so complex that it must have been created by a God or similar being – some may think there should be an acceptance of death as the will of that creator. Others, such as tsunami survivor Amanda, weep at the idea that people who saved the lives of others could sometimes themselves be found dead. There seems so little justice in the idea that people who enjoyed the simple pleasure of the sun on a beautiful beach could essentially be punished for it. But the wave is seen as monstrous because we personify it. We try to think of it as having

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Deathtoll: 69 Cost of damage: $25m Malaysia took the lack of economic impact it suffered as incentive to provide aid for other tsunami-hit countries.

the behaviours of something living to try and see ourselves as similar to it in order to try and understand and conquer it. It also reminds us of our place in the world. We try and understand it as a monster exacting revenge, like Jaws the shark, or as a sleeping beast that doesn’t realise the damage it is doing but reminds us of how small and otherwise insignificant we are on the planet. Only this is not quite the case. Thousands upon thousands of people died that Boxing Day, yet the issue can seem remote because it happened far away in a fantastical place, the set of the Leonardo DiCaprio film, The Beach, no less. Its gorgeous background is the magical place to which tourists run to forget the worries of the work-a-day world. Because of that, we may forget the place really exists at our peril. Comparatively little footage of the disaster exists because people were running for their lives. They had no idea of what was about to happen. Vast swathes of the world do not have adequate

INDONESIA Deathtoll: 130,736 Cost of damage: $4 billion The worst hit area for loss of life, the area was still economically viable.

Q It was estimated that the amount of aid needed would come to $5 billion

INDIAN OCEAN TSUNAMI

Q In Patong, tourists remember those lost ten years after the disaster

© Getty Images

disaster prevention systems in place. The science itself is also in its infancy, so that even when the equipment to examine the physical data is available, scientists may not know how to interpret it accurately. The monitors can appear to show nothing more than incomprehensible mesh of acidic neon lines to them, just as they do to us. Even when the scientists did finally begin to understand the potential scale of the disaster that the tsunami could cause, they were unable to warn many people because there was no single point of contact that they could call who would get the blissful sunbathers out of the storm’s path with minutes to spare. The only definite way in which the storm was a judgment to remind us to care for the others who share our planet even though we are not near. We must ensure such catastrophic loss of life does not happen again. Scientists had called for early warning systems to measure earth data in the Indian Ocean since 2003, but the plans had not been actioned. In early 2005, just following the catastrophic event, the Indian Ocean Tsunami warning system was formally put in place. Linking geographical data with diplomatic channels, it should save lives for years to come and help to prevent a repeat of the tragedy that traumatised the world and its people so many years ago. We may always try and understand disaster with recourse to mythical beings, monsters or luck and it is beyond the power of individuals to save the world, for we are but single beings. What we can and indeed have a duty to do, however, is to remain vigilant in defence of our family across nations whether regarding storm, famine or war. As the bravery that stood up in the wake of that terrible Boxing Day in 2004 shows, even in the face of the most savage monster that is needless destruction, humankind can still hold strong.

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2005 KASHMIR EARTHQUAKE

2005 KASHMIR EARTHQUAKE On an ordinary Saturday morning in 2005, an earthquake in the disputed Kashmir region developed into a monumental humanitarian catastrophe

ctober 8 2005 was a Saturday – a school day in Pakistan. As children sat down for class in Kashmir, where fighting over territory between Pakistan and India (and sometimes China) has made it a notorious global flashpoint for political strife, an earthquake struck to a magnitude of 7.6 on the Richter scale. The quake caused a 70-kilometrelong surface rupture to a depth of seven metres – the first ever documented in the area – with the epicentre located 19 kilometres to the northeast of Muzaffarabad. The rupture zone experienced catastrophic devastation. The initial strike and subsequent aftershocks were felt, too, in neighbouring India – where over 1,000 people were killed – other areas in northern Pakistan (Islamabad, Abbottabad, Lahore), and Afghanistan, where several were injured and a handful killed by a collapsing wall. Areas directly and primarily bearing the brunt of the quake were Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), mountainous terrain with some parts extraordinarily difficult to access at the best of times. In total, the quake’s deadly impact was spread over 30,000 square kilometres. Entire cities, towns and villages shook violently and were levelled flat in the blink of an eye, as if the invisible hand of an angry god had waved over the land, smiting them all. Some areas were engulfed by landslides. Where once were human settlements were now mounds of earth hiding the mass graves of people and animals. Caught so unawares, they were buried alive. Signs of destruction elsewhere were more revealing, more strikingly horrifying. Bloodied limbs protruding from collapsed apartment blocks, deformed corpses pulverised by debris, the screams and sobbing of those trapped somewhere

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beneath ruins, time running out. The lives of Kashmiri citizens were indeed changed forever. Entire families were torn apart; generations lost. Thousands of children were left without parents. The region’s schools were badly affected. It is estimated that 19,000 children were killed. Hospitals and healthcare units met similar fates. Structures simply gave way like a deck of cards in a magic trick gone wrong. In total, the earthquake turned homes, shops, schools, hospitals and governmental buildings – just about every standing edifice – into 200 million tons of debris and rubble. Kashmir is located where the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates converge and collide at a rate of four to five centimetres a year. The convergence between continental crusts and subsequent deformations resulted in the formation of the Himalayas over millions of years. Earthquakes in northern Pakistan are rare, but their magnitude threatens to be deadly because of this very infrequency and the way the plates stick, accumulating what scientists call ‘strain’. There are other unique and localised geological factors at play, but those who have studied the region believe quakes of greater impact are inevitable – it’s just a matter of knowing when. The October earthquake caused extensive damage because of poor construction of municipal buildings and homes and infrastructure, rather than from the direct intensity of the quake itself. Landslides and rock falls also played a part in further loss of life and disruption to the recovery process. The huge death toll from a mid-range earthquake tells us a lot about response, recovery and engineering in poverty-stricken countries, and how vulnerable or displaced people are forced to live in dangerous areas in awful conditions. Politics played its part, too. Extending an olive

2005 KASHMIR EARTHQUAKE IN BRIEF Q Death toll: 86,000 Q Kashmir region of Pakistan, India and China Q 2005 On the morning of 8 October 2005, a 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck the disputed Kashmir region of northern Pakistan and India. Thousands were killed – many instantly – as buildings crumbled to dust and landslides and rock falls barrelled down mountainsides, wiping out entire villages. The 2005 Kashmir earthquake, while midsized in magnitude, created an appalling humanitarian disaster, with millions displaced.

Q Soldiers help residents take away a body from the rubble of a collapsed house, Balakot, 12 October 2005

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2005 KASHMIR EARTHQUAKE

FACTS 2.8milion

people were displaced, creating a humanitarian disaster

69,000

received injuries from the quake and aftershocks

5.9, 5.8 and 6.4

Measurements of the three aftershocks (on the Richter scale)

87,000

people were killed in the disaster

$6.2bilion Amount that Pakistan received from international NGOs

70%

of the destruction took place in Muzaffarabad

3.5 Million people affected by the earthquake, directly or indirectly

780,000 buildings were destroyed – many were schools

1, 360 people were killed in India, with 6,226 more injured

7.6

Measurement of the earthquake on the Richter scale

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branch, India proposed it send soldiers to aid in the relief work, offered use of helicopters – vital to search and rescue – and other assistance, but it was turned down flat. To Kashmiris, the sight of Indian soldiers on disputed turf was too much to bear, even under such dire circumstances. However, with the onset of what turned out to be an especially harsh winter, the line of control was opened up at five points (Nauseri-Tithwal, Chakothi-Uri, Hajipur-Uri, Rawalakot-Poonch and Tattapani-Mendhar) after epic discussions, allowing aid and people to get through, despite a series of terror-related bombings in India, strongly condemned by Pakistan. People needed special permits and vehicles were forbidden, but the cooperation between countries was seen as a positive and politics was set aside for the sake of the relief effort. Those who live on the fault line are at risk and those who live in extreme poverty have little to no opportunity to move away. Many cities of the world exist on fault lines, but their governments have the economic power to plot for major events on their turf. That’s why a more powerful earthquake in a western country can produce lower death tolls. What killed so many in Kashmir was, unfortunately, a chronic lack of preparedness and engineering codes, with many buildings that did not adhere to safety regulations or use reinforced materials to prevent collapse during earthquakes. The government had formed an emergency response unit in the event of a catastrophic event, such as an earthquake, but there was simply an inability to function when such an event happened. In the days that followed, the Pakistani military was effectively put in charge of the relief effort, coordination of resources and distributing aid. Muzaffarabad and Balakot suffered the most widespread structural damage. In the former, up to 50 per cent of its buildings collapsed, leaving extraordinary scenes of ruin. Electricity supplies (the area was powered by a nearby hydroelectric

Q The body of a man, killed after a heavily populated residential area in Muzaffarabad was reduced to utter ruins

Q Sergeant Kornelia Rachwal gives a child water, as she and others are airlifted from Muzaffarabad to Islamabad

TALES OF THE NON-RECONSTRUCTION Balakot, a town of 30,000 people, was flattened by the 2005 earthquake. In the days and years that followed, the government proposed that a new city be built on the ruins of the old. This was to be a time of hope, revival and getting on with life. The reality, however, over ten years later, is that these plans largely came to nought. Mired in corruption, plain old political strife and local resentments, the residents of Balakot felt abandoned, with many of the poorest people still dwelling in prefab disaster relief huts. This is despite the fact that the provincial Earthquake Reconstruction authority declared the town a ‘red zone’, meaning

that as fault lines run through it, people shouldn’t be living there at all. The government’s declaration of the town as having a red zone status prohibited the building of permanent structures, but many citizens rebuilt homes in old Balakot anyway, completely ignoring governmental advice. This was purely out of necessity. The proposed rebuilding also met a snag over land rights and acquisitions between central and regional governments. New Balakot City was partly built – roads and footpaths – but not a single home constructed. Ultimately, it became what is known as a white elephant project.

TERRORIST AID CHARITIES i-Islami, who boasted ties to Hamas. Their hard graft and stockpile of aid was a public relations coup. The UN remained adamant they did not work with these groups, but tolerated them for the greater good. In a 2006 BBC Radio 4 report on the subject, it was discovered that neither Jamaat ud-Dawa or Al-Rashid Trust had a presence in the area before the earthquake struck, and saw the event as an opportunity to spread their anti-West ideals and prey upon vulnerable

plant) were severed by broken power lines and transponders. Further afield, in Islamabad, a high-rise apartment block – the Margalla Towers – was the only building to collapse. It had been considered a safe and pretigious place to live, but the earthquake revealed otherwise. In rural areas, up to 80 per cent of buildings were wiped out. Farming communities – migratory and non-migratory – and those existing in the most abject conditions used unreinforced materials such as mud, wood, straw and concrete for building. It is estimated that 250,000 animals were killed when stone barns collapsed. Bridges collapsed, roads were blocked and other land routes were rendered impassable. In towns, conditions are slightly better, but homes are still constructed with inadequate materials, given the fact they are on a fault line, and few of them are force-resistant. Despite Pakistan categorising zones across the country vulnerable to earthquakes, Kashmir was deemed Zone 2 (low to moderate risk). It isn’t the frequency or power of quakes that causes the huge numbers of deaths, but the lack of urban planning and construction that fails to take into account seismic activity. Following the disaster, the region fell into turmoil. Frantic survivors attempted to clear rubble by hand and free those trapped before it was too late, their neighbourhoods contorted and distorted beyond recognition. One elderly lady, Naqsha Bibi, survived for 63 days under what was previously her kitchen. Her family believed she’d been killed instantly, her body carried off by a landslide. When digging up materials to salvage, she was discovered emaciated but alive. She’d survived all this time drinking rain

orphaned children, many of whom became entrusted to the groups. In the days following the earthquake, the mass mobilisation of aid workers ranged from UN workers to ordinary citizens eager to help in any way they could. The chaos wrought by the disaster led to much organisational confusion and moral conflict. Would the UN refuse to hand out aid and resources to people in need, just because the camps were being controlled by Al-Rashid?

water and nibbling rotten food. It is one miraculous tale among the thousands of tragedies. The task of providing relief and medical aid to 3.5 million people was an overwhelming job. In the immediate days following the quake, millions of blankets were needed and tons of medicine and food, tents and bottled water were required. A humanitarian crisis developed due to lack of centralised planning and coordination among relief workers. Some survivors were encouraged to make temporary accommodation from the debris around them. Unhygienic conditions brought disease and children were threatened with malnutrition. Thousands required immediate surgery, too. The scale swamped relief workers in the early days, with deaths that may have been preventable had coordination of resources been better handled.

The Pakistan government promised to ensure those left without families would be looked after by the state or placed with their extended kin. This didn’t happen. Instead, aid groups like Jamaat ud-Dawa and Al-Rashid Trust were handed hundreds of children and sent them to madrassas far from their homes, some identified as preaching anti-West rhetoric, with songs containing lyrics such as: “When people deny our faith, ask them to convert and if they don’t, destroy them utterly.”

Ten years on from the disaster, the region still bears the scars – literally and figuratively. One person interviewed for a British newspaper to mark the tenth anniversary discussed how she had rebuilt her home with family members, but is afraid of sleeping inside in case a quake strikes again. There are thousands like her who go to bed at night and suffer nightmares about entombment and being buried alive. A home can be rebuilt, but the loss of a loved one is irreparable. Over a decade on, hundreds of people are still missing and unaccounted for, and thousands of orphans have been shipped off to other parts of the country as part of a resettlement scheme. Despite all the big talk of rebuilding the region, politics and corruption have conspired to make the healing process as difficult as possible. For the poor, little has changed.

Q Soldiers in Balakot unloading humanitarian aid (tents for the homeless) from a US Chinook

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© Getty Images, Rex

In the wake of the Kashmir earthquake, with coordination of relief efforts hampered by geographical and organisational factors, opportunistic extreme Islamist groups moved in to provide aid and medicine. Al-Rashid Trust, banned by the UN and on Pakistan’s proscribed terror organisations list for being financially aided by Al-Qaeda, made their presence known, and so did another charity – Jamaat ud-Dawa – with links to terrorist outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jamiat-

THE ARMERO TRAGEDY

THE ARMERO TRAGEDY

In the blink of an eye, a mudslide caused by a volcanic eruption wiped out an entire town in Colombia he locals call Nevado del Ruiz the ‘Sleeping Lion’. It hadn’t roared in 140 years, not since an eruption in 1845, which killed close to 1,000. But in the mid-1980s, there were stirrings and clear signs things were livening up, even more so in the months preceding the terrible night of Wednesday 13 November 1985. What was to be done about Nevado del Ruiz led to dillydallying, contradictory statements, indecision and mixed messages from an array of people – scientists, government members, journalists, religious leaders and business types. People born and raised in the vicinity acted too casually towards the Sleeping Lion and let experts tell them what to do, even if some of the advice turned out to be next to useless. Many brushed off or refused to believe their lives were in mortal danger until a wave of death approached at 12 metres per second. Colombian casualness in the face of danger might appear very puzzling to outsiders, but they are a famously stubborn nation and aren’t much keen on maybes and might happens. Centuries of political turmoil, political terror, blood feuds, death squads, civil war, class struggle and then the burgeoning rise of the cartels, as well as a seemingly superhuman tolerance for extraordinary levels of violence, means Colombians are granite-hard people whose way of life can take on the look of organised chaos or just plain old chaos. As one official dryly noted in the wake of the November disaster, after the chaos came more chaos. This time, however, the volcano changed the town of Armero forever.

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The volcanic mountain, which forms part of the Andes chain, looms over the borderland between Caldas and Tolima regions of Colombia. Although a clear existential threat to human and animal life, the people living in the valleys down below could readily ignore it because the benefits of the rich soil were so plentiful. And in the town of Armero, business was booming. For years and years, Nevado del Ruiz was nothing more than spectacular scenery to look at and with 20th-century technology and science, folk felt safe and firmly believed an eruption wouldn’t pose any significant risk. They were also repeatedly told that there was nothing to worry about. Therefore, everybody could get on with their lives and ride out whatever the volcano chucked their way. Founded in 1895 as San Lorenzo, the name change occurred in 1930, in honour of José León Armero (1775-1816), a man who fought for his homeland’s independence from the Spanish crown. Armero became an important economic hub, producing so much cotton it was known around the country as ‘Ciudad de Blanca’ (White City). The town was not some one-horse backwater, either; the place positively thrived, had all the accoutrements of modern civilisation and boasted the third largest population in the Tolima department (29,334). For the time, too, when successive Colombian governments were at war with the narco-traffickers, who’d turned the country into a virtual narcocracy, the grotesque levels of violence, assassinations reprisal killings and gang warfare that plagued other

THE ARMERO TRAGEDY

IN BRIEF Q Death toll: 23,000 Q Armero, Colombia Q 1985 On the evening of 13 November 1985, the volcanic mountain Nevado del Ruiz erupted, sending a series of lahars (mudslides) careening down the mountainside and into the unsuspecting population below. One town, Armero, was annihilated by the mud and almost the entire town’s population killed. The Armero tragedy, as it became known, is one of the world’s deadliest volcano eruptions.

Q Nevado del Ruiz is part of the Andes and sits on the border between Caldas and Tolima departments

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THE ARMERO TRAGEDY areas of the country seemed not occur in Armero. The crazy situations in Bogotá (which lay 80 miles to the east), Medellín and Cali seemed to be a world away from the verdant and prosperous climes of the White City. Given the economic importance of Armero and the municipal area, it’s curious more wasn’t done to protect the area and its prized assets. As part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, Nevado del Ruiz lies 300 miles south of the Equator. Yet glaciers sit atop it and around the upper slopes, the runoff from these powers going down into such rivers as the Lagunillas, Cauca and Magdalena and its tributaries. When the volcano erupted on

i

ARMERO THE GHOST TOWN In July 1986, just seven months on from the disaster, Pope John II made a trip to Armero, as part of his tour of Latin American countries. He afterwards dropped by Lérida, a town turned refugee camp, where survivors had made their homes and set about attempting to pick up the pieces of their broken lives, the wounds still raw and the grief choking them. People were left severely traumatised by their experiences – entombed in hot mud and the realisation that their loved ones had been consumed by the mudslide. Pope John Paul II’s visit to the town submerged by mud was restricted to 30 minutes, due to fears Nevado del Ruiz may erupt once again. He touched down in a helicopter and led a short prayer. “These children of yours, father of kindness, fell like wheat into the depths of the Earth to germinate the resurrection of the dead. Father, rich in mercy, ease the suffering of so many families, dry the tears of so many brothers, guard the loneliness of so many orphans. Implant in all of them spirit and hope so that suffering is turned into gladness and death, through faith, becomes the seed of new life.” Not long after, Armero was declared a national cemetery and holy site. Today, it is a ghost town visited by those who wish to pay their respects to the dead and tourists curious about what happened all those years ago. What structures survived the deadly lahars exist as ruins, empty shells, vague impressions of a formerly thriving community. What once were happy homes now appear like something out of a post-apocalyptic sci-fi movie, debased and skeletal. Nevado del Ruiz still threatens towns and villages in the region, the glaciated ice around it could once again unleash hell upon the population.

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13 November, parts of the glaciers and snow melted and formed a deluge, which rapidly formed into four lahars which, mixed with rock and clay as it barrelled down the mountain, snaked into the river valleys below. The lahars built in mass, power and speed. Two lahars rocketed into the Lagunillas and destroyed a natural dam formed the previous year when a landslide filled a canyon. It lay nine miles upstream from the White City. Broken free, this torrent of mud, rock, fallen trees and other objects headed straight into Armero’s path. The upper and lower parts of the town were submerged in hot mud. In the latter months of 1984, seismic activity at the site of the volcano began to draw scientists into studying it. Mountaineers reported tremors and geologists increasingly became concerned, as they set about studying the fiery chasm. In December 1984, two earthquakes measuring 3-4 on the Richter Scale were felt. Other signs included ash and sulphur deposits on top of snow and the development of a new smaller crater at the summit. Experts came from other Latin American countries, the US, Switzerland and Italy. All said the same thing: this volcano is going to blow. Sulphur dioxide emissions were reported at 5,000 tons per day and in the late summer of 1984 (September), tremors caused rockfall, with huge boulders blocking one river. On the 11th floor of a bank in the city of Manizales, an observatory received data from volcanologists, which connected to the government in Bogotá. Newspapers began to pick up on the story, with reports starting in local rags such as Manizales’ La Patria in February 1985. On 4 May 1985, more harmonic tremors were recorded. These are typically associated with upward magma flow. The Colombian Geological Survey team monitored the tremors and left convinced an

eruption was highly likely. International geologists advised the Colombians on what to do and what necessary measures to take, including using scientific monitoring devices, such as seismographs. They also suggested creating impact maps and other risk evaluation assessments. But for all the expertise and opinion, there was a decided lack of effort to coordinate properly any of the implementations that would save lives, infrastructure and the economy of the region. In July 1985, the Volcanic Risk Committee (Comité de Estudios Vulcanológicos) was formed, which set about educating the population and making risk assessments. But Caldas and Tolima department governors decreed that they would work out their own emergency plans, rather than come together to form a joint operation. On 21 September 1985, El Tiempo newspaper printed an article examining the prospect of Nevado del Ruiz erupting and how it could lead to disaster, expressly stating that Armero could well vanish if a lahar struck. These proved to be prophetic words. The government was listening, certainly, but how seriously it listened was debated in the days and months following 13 November, when accusations and recriminations were slung around in the press. The situation was undoubtedly worsened by guerilla movement M-19’s assault on Colombia’s democracy, and the siege at the Palace of Justice in the days leading up to the eruption meant that President Betancur had his eye off the ball. Citizens became increasingly worried about the volcano and the dam at Cirpe, which contained half a million cubic metres of water. They were not oblivious to what was going on around them – they felt the tremors, understood that scientists were studying the volcano and that their government

“The government was listening, certainly, but how seriously it listened was debated”

Q Relief workers attempting to rescue survivors of the disaster. Locals and fellow Colombians felt the government did not do enough

M-19 VS THE GOVERNMENT In the space of 12 days, Colombia experienced two extraordinary national disasters. Just before Nevado del Ruiz wiped out Armero and other towns in its wake, the Colombian government headed by Belisario Betancur was embroiled in a 28-hour siege with Marxist group, M-19. The siege had been spearheaded by drug lord Pablo Escobar and others

facing extradition charges to the USA. They paid $5 million to M-19 and ordered that on 6 November, the guerilla group go into the Palace of Justice and destroy all governmental files on the narcotraffickers. Eleven court officials were murdered, 35 rebels were killed, and 48 soldiers lost their lives in the battle. Colombians were still reeling from the

was formulating a plan of some kind. The mayor of Armero, Ramon Antonio Rodriguez, requested an evacuation of the White City, but the residents were not so keen to abandon their homes and lives. Nevado del Ruiz might well erupt, but how severely, people asked. Plus, the logistics of forcibly removing 29,000 people was never on the cards because that isn’t the way of life in Colombia. It would lead to trouble and violence. Caution was ill-advisedly thrown to the wind because all Ameritas – the nickname for the town’s populations – were receiving mixed messages from the experts. Mayor Rodriguez sought assurance from government officials that the volcano was nothing to worry about, even when the signs of eruption were ominous. According to an LA Times report, dated 5 December 1985, Mayor Rodriguez made such a nuisance of himself to the governor of Tolima department, the official stopped taking his calls and refused any attempts to make appointments to further discuss the threat posed by Nevado del Ruiz. Mayor Rodriguez would later perish in the tragedy. One survivor described the impact of the lahars as “the world screamed”. Until mid-afternoon, the town went about its business as usual, though ash began to flutter down from the sky after 15.06pm, when a phreatic eruption occurred. People went to work, came home, ate dinner, watched football on television and went to sleep. The time of the event – with many people tucked in and settled for the evening – is one reason the death toll was so high. But officials assured the disruption to their lives wouldn’t be great and, if lahars did form, the

bloody drama at the Palace of Justice in the capital of Bogotá when the volcano began its eruption. The Armero disaster united Colombians across the political spectrum and across all classes. Rich and poor donated blood, clothing, medicines and manpower to help stricken people out in the sticks. President Betancur and his ministers

result would be of no great magnitude. As the ash sprinkled the town, Armeritas were told to shut their windows and not to worry too much. But instead of a trickling stream coming into town a few feet deep, Armero was sucker-punched and delivered a knockout blow by an unstoppable wave of sludge rocketing at rates between ten and 30 kilometres per hour at ten metres high. First came a surge of water, then the mud. People out in the streets were carried off to their deaths. Those who managed to survive did so by clinging onto debris. The suction power of the mud meant that citizens fought for dear life but couldn’t extract themselves. Others were simply pulverised by the sheer force of the lahar. Electricity pylons and phonelines were swept up in the mudslide, the twisted metal and wood beams

Q Nevado del Ruiz, November 1985 – the same month it erupted and killed thousands. Scientists warned authorities it was ready to explode

visited the region to help coordinate the rescue operations. The 1980s was an extraordinarily violent era for the South American nation. Despite the murders and general mayhem brought about by the cartels and government responses, the Armero disaster was a rare occurrence of the country coming together and momentarily forgetting its daily woes.

further adding to the fatal mix. Plunged into the darkness, the roar of millions of tons of dislodged earth and melted glacier water drowned out human cries for help, the sobs of the slowly dying, the quiet whispers of those stricken insensible. News went out that Nevado del Ruiz had unleashed mayhem, but help did not arrive until the early hours of 14 November. For six to seven hours in the immediate aftermath, the townsfolk were forced to take care of themselves, as roads and bridges in the area had been taken out by the lahars, making ground access extraordinarily difficult. The first helicopter to arrive saw a sea of mud where a town once had been. The pilot described a scene of complete and utter devastation to colleagues back at base camp. The rescuers – the early days saw a joint team of Red Cross and the

THE ARMERO TRAGEDY

OMAYRA SÁNCHEZ REMEMBERED In the 20th century, photojournalism came into its own. Many photographs became iconic: the Hindenburg in flames; the Spanish Civil War soldier suspended in air having caught a bullet; the Buddhist monk performing an act of self-immolation. These images are unforgettable. Before the Armero disaster, Omayra Sanchez was just an ordinary young teenager living a humble life in rural Colombia. Photojournalist Frank Fournier transformed the girl into an international icon of human tragedy. Fournier won the World Press Photo 1985 accolade, for his famous shot of 13-year-old Omayra, titled ‘The Agony of Omayra Sánchez’. The look in her bloodied eyes pierces the soul, her withered hands wrinkled by the muddy water, so much so they appear bloated, almost claw-like, as they hold on to the collapsed wooden beam. Her face speaks of a quiet dignity and acceptance of a tragic fate. As the image went around the world, there accompanied with it a great misunderstanding. Were photojournalists more interested in human suffering than helping to alleviate it? Why intrude upon a person’s private agony? Why did nobody think to help the poor girl? The sad fact of the matter is Omayra was beyond all help, given the circumstances of the rescue operation and the peculiar position her body was in, with knees bent and in the vice-like grip of a fallen – and sunken – collapsed structure. Omayra’s legs had been pinned down by concrete and despite best efforts, rescue workers realised they could not remove her successfully without performing an amputation procedure they couldn’t carry out. To stop from drowning, a tyre helped provide buoyancy and she was able to float in what was putrid water. But as the hours rolled on, she began to rapidly fade. She reached the point of no return and began to hallucinate about a school exam. Doctors present at the scene decided the best course of action was to allow this brave girl to surrender to the only option available. After 60 hours of mental and physical torture, Omayra Sanchez passed away on 16 November. Her grave is visited to this day, with tourists paying their respects as if to a saint.

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Q Devastation caused by the mudslide. Bodies and the remnants of what once was a hardworking farming community are scattered around

Colombian Civil Defense working together – faced a mighty ordeal because mud is naturally soft, and it threatened to sink any large objects that rested on its surface. The temperature of the mud, too, had caused severe burns to survivors and those left alive needed immediate medical attention. As the hours passed, corpses began to rise to the surface and the overwhelming scale of the tragedy hit search and rescue workers, who quickly realised that many were beyond saving. Victims were also scattered over a huge area, as the lahars swept people away for miles and miles. Heavy rains furthered the ordeal of the aftermath. As the days went on, survivors were airlifted to surrounding villages and towns such as Guayabal, Mariquita and Lerida. Entire families were killed, parents lost their children, and children lost their parents. The incident left many youngsters orphaned and subsequently split from their surviving siblings. The complete lack of a centralised disaster plan fed into the general sense that Armero happened not because of Nevado del Ruiz, but a flow of human errors. Even in the wake of the

disaster, contradictory statements by government officials plagued rescue efforts and caused deep hurt. A few days on from the search and rescue effort, Rafael de Zubiria, the Minister of Health, went on national radio and told the country that efforts were being wound down because the stench at Armero was unbearable and there were slim chances of finding anybody alive. The town would be turned into a national cemetery. After an outcry – because hearing the mission was calling it quits after only days led to mass outrage – a spokesperson for President Betancur, Victor Ricardo, who was leading the national emergency committee, fired back that de Zubiria’s comments were complete nonsense and the rescue effort was not shutting down. Yet rescue workers were told to board choppers and forbidden from returning to the area. As the sun hardened the mud in the day and temperatures plunged at night, victims would die from exposure or their wounds. Volunteer workers were angry and dismayed by the call, telling the media they could hear the cries of survivors at night, hauntingly breaking the silence of the darkness.

FACTS 5,321m The elevation of Nevado del Ruiz

THE MISSING CHILDREN They’d be in their 30s and 40s, today. Not those lost in the mud, but the 200-plus children who families reported missing. Over 30 years later, many families cling to the desperate hope that, somehow, through some miraculous chain of events, their sons and daughters lived through the nightmare. As the hot mud smashed into her town, one survivor, Gladys Primo, watched in total horror as her two young children were swept away by the flow. Stuck in mud up to her waist, Gladys was unable to locate Jesús Manuel (seven) and Nubia Isabel (six). But neighbours swore blind they’d seen the pair in the days after, and to this day the search continues. There are over 200 cases of missing children post-Armero. Never declared dead, it was as if they’d vanished into the air, erased by the lahar and its ruinous course down from the mountain. In the days that followed, Colombian authorities acted quickly to rehouse

12 3

The rating of the eruption on the Volcanic Explosivity Index

27,000 acres of land was disrupted

310

miles – distance of the volcano from the Equator

23,000 people were killed across four majorly affected towns

35 million How many metric tons of material the volcano ejected

85% of Armero was consumed by the mudslide

Q A horse trapped in the mudslide, which was up to four metres deep. Those caught in its wake were left with little chance of survival

30+

countries contributed to the relief effort

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© Getty Images

The cost of surviving a tragedy is gigantic, for nothing is ever the same again. Surrounding towns became refugee camps, which put extra burdens on those places, and resentments developed. People lost homes, family members, every possession they ever owned and in the wake of the disaster, a lack of mental healthcare and support groups led many to lose their minds, sinking into deep depressions, stuck forever in November 1985, a crippling inability to move on breaking their spirit. Many turned to the bottle and hard drugs in order to forget. Families could not bury their dead or mourn properly, as bodies were officially unaccounted for. Some refused point blank to give up hope, leading to years and years of mental anguish and sometimes delusion. A place can be set at the dinner table for a missing person, their personal effects kept, as if in safe-keeping for their imminent return, a sort of stasis is maintained, a communion, a continuing dialogue. They are temporarily ‘gone’, but one day shall return and the heart of the family restored. Over 30 years later, the mental and physical scars of Armero have still not healed.

orphaned children. Perhaps they did so too quickly, resulting in displaced children whose parents survived but were somehow unable to track them down. The Armando Armero Foundation was set up to help families search for their missing loved ones and for years petitioned the government to release information it held on adoptions related to the disaster. In 2016, two sisters were reunited in front of the gathered media. Jaqueline Vásquez Sánchez and Lorena Santos (Suly Janeth Sánchez) were separated during the relief effort, their parents’ bodies were never found. They were mistakenly placed with different families and forced to live apart for decades. When Lorena made an appeal video with the Armando Armero Foundation, Jaqueline got in contact, a DNA test was taken and came back positive. But for singular stories of reunification, there are sadly hundreds still waiting, still hoping.

metres per second – the rate at which the mudslide travelled

HURRICANE ANDREW

IN BRIEF Q Death toll: 65 Q Florida/US Gulf Coast/Bahamas Q 1992 Ripping through the Bahamas, Florida and along the Gulf Coast, Andrew was one of the most destructive storms in history. Winds at times topped 170mph. Homes, military bases, whole towns felt Andrew’s wrath. Over $27 billion of damage was done, the clean-up lasting long after Andrew had been and gone. Yet, amazingly, the death toll was small compared to the amount of destruction.

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HURRICANE ANDREW

HURRICANE ANDREW Seldom has there been a Category Five ‘perfect’ storm. Hurricane Andrew was one of history’s most destructive t had all started so quietly, but not for long. A Category One hurricane was expected, but these invariably blow through the southeastern US and Gulf Coast during hurricane season. They’re about as regular as rainfall in an English summer. What nobody seemed to expect was for Andrew to morph from a gardenvariety Category One into a mercifully rare Category Five. Or to do it in around 24 hours. The results in southern Florida alone were staggering, and the devastation almost unheard of; nearly 70 people dead, with thousands more injured or traumatised. Tens of billions of dollars worth of property destroyed or damaged. Nearly 200,000 people made homeless. Hundreds of thousands evacuated from their homes. Months, then years, of reconstruction. What a difference a day makes. On 16 August 1992, what would become Hurricane Andrew was just another tropical depression moving in from the central Atlantic. These aren’t unusual to the area; they are often closely monitored and tracked in case they intensify into something worse. At first just an ordinary weather front, this one became something much, much worse. Most of the region’s hurricanes are Category One or Two, potentially dangerous and often destructive, but not unusual. Category Fives, on the other hand, are very rare beasts. They’re far more destructive, posing the most serious threat to life and property. Meteorologists had a tough task on which thousands of live depended; guess (as accurately as possible) when, where and if Andrew was going to strike. The job for emergency planners was even tougher; estimate what level of damage Andrew would cause depending on where it struck and respond effectively. At that point they didn’t know what they would have to deal with, how bad it

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would be or if Andrew would even hit land. What they did know was that they couldn’t assume it would dissipate or pass them by. It didn’t. Warning the public was even trickier. If meteorologists forecast a hurricane that didn’t happen or did less damage than was expected, they might be seen as alarmist. If, on the other hand, they forecast something less severe than actually happened, they’d be accused of incompetence. All they could do was watch, wait and try to predict what would happen, hopefully in time to make plans. The speed at which the tropical depression became Hurricane Andrew surprised everybody. On 23 August, Hurricane Andrew hit the Bahamas. This wasn’t unexpected, and the Bahaman government had prepared well for its arrival. Granted, some $250 million of damage was done, but surprisingly only four people died. That might have caused lessening fears among the population of Florida, where Category Fives are rare. More reassuring was Andrew diminishing to Category Four status while over the islands. Again, the news of its diminishing power seemed like a relatively good omen. The good news didn’t last. Andrew regained strength, rising again to a Category Five, still speeding toward South Florida like a bullet. If it kept its strength and course then the locals were facing a very rough ride. If, on the other hand, it blew itself out or shrunk to Category Two or Three, this was less of a nightmare scenario. As Andrew approached Florida, warnings were issued, and locals began preparing as best they could, but Andrew was simply too powerful a force of nature. Forecasters were predicting tides of up to 14 feet, with rainfall of anywhere between five and eight inches along Andrew’s track. State governor Lawton Chiles officially declared a state of

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HURRICANE ANDREW THE BAHAMAN BREAKDOWN The United States wasn’t the only area to suffer the fury of Hurricane Andrew. Often overlooked, the Bahamas took a severe beating as well. First striking North Eleuthera, Andrew also ripped through New Providence, North Andros, Bimini and the Berry Islands. Some places suffered near-total destruction. In one village over 50 per cent of the buildings were destroyed, and every surviving building was damaged. Current Island had 30 houses before Hurricane Andrew. Afterwards, only six remained. In the Bahamas as a whole, 800 homes were destroyed, leaving some 1,700 people homeless. Bahaman infrastructure also took a battering. Transport, fishing, water, communications, agriculture and sanitation all felt the rare fury of a Category Five. Power and phone lines were wrecked. Crops were destroyed by screaming winds and drenching rainfall. The water supply was affected, while many roads became unusable, littered with fallen trees and debris. Most of the Bahamas saw damage and destruction to one degree or another. Wreckage was strewn over the islands, often far from where it originated. But despite the chaos, the authorities were as wellprepared as they could have been. Forewarned by satellites tracking their emergency measures, while imperfect, performed as well as could be expected. As in the US, the destruction was severe, but the death toll (four people in total) was surprisingly low. The British government quickly provided emergency aid. Royal Navy destroyer HMS Cardiff, then stationed in the region, provided whatever assistance it could. Canada, the US, the United Nations and Japan also helped. Despite their own immense responsibilities and demands from every quarter, the American Red Cross still delivered 100 tents, 100 rolls of plastic sheeting and 1,000 cots. Sound preparations, calm action and international co-operation undoubtedly did a great deal to protect the Bahamas from Andrew’s worst excesses. Q Hurricane Andrew hovers over the Bahamas

“It ripped through Elliott Key and Homestead” 118

emergency, activating one third of Florida’s National Guard units. Almost 1.2 million people were evacuated (some forcibly), probably helping to account for astoundingly low death toll of 65. This amount is certainly a tragedy, but without the evacuation it could have been a great deal higher. Across nine counties, 142 emergency shelters were opened to the public, providing temporary shelter for at least 84,340 local residents. In addition to local people, some 20,000-30,000 tourists were in southern Florida, mostly in and around the Florida Keys in Monroe County. With a devastating storm fast approaching, the large tourist population posed an additional problem. Could the shelters accommodate both residents and tourists? Then it came, even harder and faster than expected. Hurricane Andrew hit Florida on 24 August. Still a Category Five, it ripped through Elliott Key and Homestead with devastating effect. In only a few hours it blasted through Florida into Louisiana and Mississippi, affecting areas as far away as West Virginia, Georgia and Texas. Florida, however, bore the brunt of nature’s fury. As those who could leave left, those who chose or had to stay braced themselves for the

US’s worst hurricane since Labor Day in 1935. That had been bad; Hurricane Andrew would be considerably worse. Southern Florida felt Andrew’s fury for only a few hours. As residents hurried out of the area or huddled in their homes, almost unimaginable chaos reigned. Like the breath of an angry god, Andrew scorched across the state. Entire trailer parks were ruined, with tens of thousands of mobile homes just picked up and blown away. Local people, desperate for news and advice, found themselves relying largely on local meteorologist Bryan Norcross at WTVJ-TV. Other TV and radio stations, less well prepared, saw their broadcasting towers snapped like twigs and reduced to piles of tangled wreckage. Norcross, on the other hand, had spent the previous couple of years looking into back-up options for keeping the public informed. Even while Andrew did its worst, Norcross was still able to do his job for 23 hours straight. Electrical power was lost in many suburban areas, pylons, cables and electricity poles going the way of the broadcasting towers. Zoos and animal breeders found their animals escaping amid the chaos. The Everglades suffered a huge influx of

HURRICANE ANDREW

FACTS 4

Hurricane Andrew is ranked as America’s fourth most intense hurricane

65 63,500

Floridians died from the effects of Hurricane Andrew

Local journalists seldom become pivotal characters in huge stories like this. Norcross, then Chief Meteorologist with TV Station WTVJ-TV, found himself in the eye of the storm. His coverage could have centred on the death and destruction caused by Hurricane Andrew, but didn’t. During 23 consecutive hours on air he spent at

least as much time comforting local people, offering sound, practical advice and up-to-date information for anyone needing it. Norcross was hailed as a ‘hero of Hurricane Andrew.’ Tracking the hurricane as it ripped through Florida and further afield, Norcross was well-prepared for its arrival. When the National Hurricane

Centre lost its radar feed, Norcross kept them informed as Andrew swept across the state. He dispensed advice to viewers and listeners by taking questions live, his calm style and reliable advice undoubtedly calming fears and saving lives. Norcross was as prepared as he could be for Hurricane Andrew’s

Burmese pythons – an invasive predator in a very delicate ecosystem. Homestead Air Force Base, built far stronger than most places, was among the first to be wrecked. Most aircraft and personnel had already been evacuated, but some remained. The others returned to a base wrecked almost beyond repair. Aircraft had been scattered around like toys tossed by an angry child. Runways were strewn with wreckage. Even with the runways cleared, a mobile control tower had be delivered as a stop-gap. Other places, less strongly built, fared even worse. While trailer parks were demolished in minutes, thousands of permanent buildings were also wrecked or severely damaged. Many South Florida residents returned to badly damaged homes or none at all. Businesses suffered. In the immediate aftermath, looting was a problem in some areas. Fearing looters would steal anything Andrew hadn’t already destroyed, many evacuees spray-painted messages on their homes and businesses, unambiguously warning that looters would be shot. After devastating southern Florida in mere hours, Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi were next in Andrew’s sights. Fortunately, Andrew had spent much of its power over Florida and the Bahamas. Storm warnings were issued from Mobile, Alabama all the way to Freeport, Texas. Oil rigs were evacuated in the Gulf of Mexico. Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards followed Lawton Chiles’ lead, declaring a state of emergency. Across southern Louisiana around 1.25 million

arrival, but he doubts whether Florida is as well prepared for the next one. Citing weakening of Florida’s building codes and over-reliance on technology vulnerable to Category Five hurricanes, he stated bluntly; “If we have a significant storm, the Government cannot deal with it quickly.”

people either fled or were evacuated from their homes. As Andrew whirled through Louisiana, some 23,000 homes were damaged and almost 1,000 destroyed. Louisiana’s trailer parks fared better than Florida’s, as only around 1,900 homes were torn apart and scattered. Across southern Louisiana, 15 tornadoes added to the damage, and the death toll, spawned in conditions created by Hurricane Andrew’s passage. Around $1.56 billion of damage was caused, along with a surprisingly low death toll of 17, with at least 75 people injured. Louisiana had fared infinitely better than Florida, but damage and casualties remained serious. Inland, rivers flooded as tides rose. Animals died in their tens of thousands, their homes destroyed alongside those of their human neighbours. Evacuating oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico proved to be a wise precaution. As Andrew blasted across the Gulf, 241 oil and gas sites had been damaged and 33 of the Gulf’s rigs wrecked. It wasn’t a crippling blow, but Gulf oil production was set back for years to come. Damage in Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia was comparatively minor compared to that in southern Florida. As Andrew blew itself out, the trail of destruction steadily diminished. Reconstruction across the Bahamas, Florida and Gulf Coast would take years. It would cost almost $30 billion to repair or replace what an uncontrollable, unpredictable, terrifying force of nature had taken mere hours to destroy. The dead, however small their number, remain irreplaceable.

Andrew destroyed over 63,500 houses, incredible damage over a vast area

$27.3 million America’s worst until Katrina, Andrew did $27.3 billion of damage

124,000 In addition to the homes destroyed, 124,000 were damaged

282

The highest wind speed (in kph) measured

7

Hurricane Andrew is ranked as America’s seventh most costly Atlantic hurricane

11.1 billion US Federal aid to victims eventually totalled this amount of dollars

177,000

Throughout the affected area, 177,00 people were left homeless

250 million Damage in the Bahamas was a relatively light $250 million

© WIKI; Getty; Alamy

BRYAN NORCROSS – HURRICANE HERO

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VARGAS TRAGEDY

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VARGAS TRAGEDY

VARGAS TRAGEDY VARGAS STATE, VENEZUELA, 1999 In December 1999, torrential rains caused flash floods, debris flows and mudslides that destroyed thousands of homes and collapsed the state’s infrastructure. Many people and homes were never seen again, swept out to sea or buried in tonnes of mud.

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TANGSHAN EARTHQUAKE Q The widespread devastation of the 28 July 1976 earthquake is evident in this image of Tangshan City

IN BRIEF Q Death toll: 242,000 Q Tangshan, Hebei province, China Q July, 1976 The Tangshan earthquake is believed to be the one of the deadliest in history in terms of casualties, with at least 242,000 deaths and injured at least 700,000. Measuring between 7.8 and 8.2 in the Richter scale, the quake occurred in the pre-dawn hours when most inhabitants of the city and environs were sleeping, compounding the number of killed and wounded.

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TANGSHAN EARTHQUAKE

TANGSHAN EARTHQUAKE On 28 July 1976, the industrial city of Tangshan, China, and the surrounding region were devastated by a tremendous earthquake

T

angshan, a modern, industrialised city located 110 kilometres east of Beijing, capital of the People’s Republic of China, is known by many today as the ‘Brave City of China’. That bravery was born of catastrophe. At 3.42am, in the pre-dawn darkness of 28 July 1976, Tangshan and the surrounding region were subjected to one of the most devastating earthquakes in recorded history. The so-called Tangshan Earthquake measured between 7.8 and 8.2 on the Richter scale and levelled this coal mining centre, home to approximately 1 million people. The quake’s devastation was exacerbated by several prevailing conditions. It struck while most people were asleep in their beds rather than outside working in fields or traversing the city’s streets. Adequate building codes that might have prevented multi-storey structures, roads, bridges, factories and dams from collapsing were nonexistent. Disaster response protocols were primitive at best, and in the throes of the Cultural Revolution, the Chinese government stressed self-reliance and refused overtures of assistance from the outside world. Throughout history, China has endured the misfortune of being geographically located in the grasp of numerous tectonic plates. Seismic activity is common on the Asian continent and in the western Pacific rim, and the 1976 Tangshan earthquake was determined to have resulted from the shift of the Amurian Plate and the Eurasian Plate along the 40-kilometre length of the previously unknown Tangshan Fault, a component of the Cangdong fault system near

its intersection with the Yin Shan-Yan Shan mountain massif. While the Tangshan quake is recognised as probably the most deadly in terms of lives lost in modern times, it remains second to the most devastating temblor in history. In 1556, an earthquake said to measure approximately 8.0 on the Richter scale struck Shaanxi province in northwestern China. That horrific event is believed by scholars to have killed 830,000 people in its initial shock, subsequent tremors, and the flooding, fire and landslides that followed. An impact area of some 1,300 square kilometres was affected as structures built of wood and other natural materials were levelled. On 16 December 1920, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake spread devastation across seven provinces in north central China. Rivers were seen to change course, and mountainsides collapsed in roaring landslides. About 200,000 were killed. The Haiyuan earthquake was felt in distant locations such as Norway, and the village of Sujiahe in Xiji County was buried under dirt, rock and rubble. The 2008 earthquake that struck Sichuan province in southwestern China measured 7.9 on the Richter scale and killed approximately 87,000 people, while another 10 million were left without homes. The Sichuan earthquake caused roughly $86 billion in damages, compounding the misery of the people as 10,000 school children were believed to have died while sitting in their classrooms. The disaster led to widespread calls for reform, better building code enforcement, and accountability for corrupt individuals who took

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TANGSHAN EARTHQUAKE

financial kickbacks and were believed to have been responsible for constructing shoddy structures that led to greater loss of life. The Tangshan earthquake wrought devastation across a wide swath of northern China. Damage was sustained in Beijing, and massive destruction occurred in the major port city of Tianjin on the Bohai Gulf. Still, the threat of catastrophic earthquakes was nothing new to the people. According to Chinese records, Tianjin had experienced 1,902 temblors in just over 600 years between 1345 and 1990. As recently as 1966, as many as 8,000 had died in Xingtai County, Hebei province, in a strong earthquake. While the 1966 event was a catalyst for earthquake preparations, the process was slow. The Office of Earthquake Matters was established under the auspices of the Chinese Academy of Sciences after the Xingtai quake, and a Central Task Force of Earthquakes was created following a 7.4-Richter quake in Bohai Bay in 1969. In 1971, the government created the Chinese National Earthquake Bureau (CNEB), but it was not until 1980, four years after the Tangshan disaster, that the Chinese developed their own measure of earthquake strength: the Chinese Seismic Intensity Scale, or Liedu Scale. In 1998, the CNEB was renamed the Chinese Earthquake Administration. Probably the greatest impediment to the establishment of these agencies was the focus of the nation on the Cultural Revolution that spread political unrest and upheaval across China from 1966 to 1976. Earthquake preparedness, therefore, lagged, and the inevitable would lay bare its shortcomings. In February 1975, a 7.3-Richter earthquake hit Liaoning, prompting the government to distribute the Jing-Jin Region Criteria

Q Those few buildings left standing after the Tangshan earthquake were uninhabitable due to structural instability

for Inspecting Industrial and Public Buildings, specifically to address structural susceptibility to earthquake damage in Beijing and Tianjin. Other directives followed. Nevertheless, the nation remained acutely vulnerable to another cataclysmic earthquake. Somewhat primitive in its approach, an earthquake preparedness system was established throughout the countryside. Consisting of monitoring stations scattered around the country, it depended on the reporting of the common people, rural and urban, to recognise obvious or subtle indications of an impending earthquake. These unskilled individuals were expected to use their five senses in spotting a particular seismic event and reporting these

ENFORCING THE LAW In the wake of the catastrophic Tangshan earthquake, the criminal element surfaced, preying on the displaced and their property. Criminals looted, robbed, raped, and even murdered innocent victims of the disaster. The Chinese authorities moved to crack down on criminal activity. Security police and militia were posted at various locations to prevent looting and other offences. The remnants of public buildings were cordoned off, and infrastructure, from highways to powerplants, was placed under heavy guard. Steps were taken to minimise ‘political crimes’ as well, quieting the voices of dissent or criticism of the government. First, the authorities strengthened investigative procedures. This was followed by a cooperative union of the Public Security Bureau and the courts to handle cases swiftly and efficiently. The people were warned to be on the lookout for criminal activity and encouraged to inform on those they suspected. Two weeks after the earthquake, a group of prisoners was

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tried for counter-revolutionary activities as well as “smashing, looting and raping”. Two more groups followed in rapid succession, and of these 367 accused, 26 were found guilty of the most egregious crimes and executed immediately by firing squad. The harsh penalties meted out were meant as a warning to the general population. Nearly 10,000 cases were brought before the courts in the aftermath of the disaster, and 129 criminals were said to have turned themselves in to authorities. Large amounts of stolen property were recovered, and about 9,100 perpetrators were said to have “confessed” their crimes. Organisations that were deemed criminal in nature were publicly identified and denounced in order to encourage the people and strike fear into the hearts of the “enemy”. Amid these efforts, authorities also began the difficult task of inspecting individual residences to determine the number of dead and the number of individuals residing in particular locations.

Q When the Tangshan earthquake struck, buildings were turned into rubble in a matter of seconds

TANGSHAN EARTHQUAKE

FACTS 242,000 655,000

The death toll from the Tangshan earthquake was horrendous

700,000 Hundreds of thousands were injured to some degree

7.8-8.2

Estimates of the Tangshan earthquake Richter scale magnitude vary

FIGHTING THE SPREAD OF DISEASE The Tangshan earthquake occurred during the hot and humid month of July, and the Chinese government realised that the spread of disease was a direct threat to the recovery operations. Sewage systems ruptured, pipes collapsed, wells were contaminated, and perhaps most disconcerting, the bodies of the dead began to decompose rapidly in the sweltering conditions. The People’s Liberation Army took on primary responsibility for removing the dead. Bodies were

gathered as quickly as possible, and directives mandated that they should be buried eight bodies deep in graves at least five kilometres from the city itself. The depth of the graves was prescribed at a minimum of one metre. Dense clouds of flies and mosquitoes were controlled with countless sorties by aircraft that sprayed vast areas, reducing the number of insects substantially. Public sanitation became a tremendous concern, as 18 different infectious diseases were

detected during the earthquake’s aftermath, including dysentery, typhoid, encephalitis and influenza. Inoculation programs were established, particularly to safeguard children. More than 2,600 toilets were built in Tangshan as 40,000 vehicles engaged in removing 70,000 tons of garbage and sewer sludge. Around the countryside, 3.4 million people worked to remove 4 million tons of garbage and dredge over 200,000 metres of sewers.

“Unskilled individuals were expected to use their five senses to spot a seismic event” findings to the stations. Naturally, the efficiency of the network was questionable, and the Tangshan earthquake came and went without adequate warning despite the eyes and ears of the populace. Few residential structures were built to withstand even moderate earthquakes, and this was particularly true in rural areas. There were no specific design-and-build standards for residences. Increasing the susceptibility of the region to great loss of life and property was the simple fact that the infrastructure was built atop alluvial soil, inherently unstable and prone to liquefaction. Few buildings of any kind stood securely on bedrock. Residents of the Tangshan area reported strange occurrences in the days leading up to the earthquake. Well water levels reportedly rose and fell substantially on three separate occasions. Small fish became restless in their aquariums and seemed

to want to jump out. Rats and other animals that usually were active nocturnally were seen in large numbers moving in broad daylight without much concern related to human contact. Livestock refused to eat. One well, located in a small village, began to spew gas on 12 June, more than two weeks before the catastrophic event, and the phenomenon occurred again on 25 and 26 July. Similar incidents and early warning signs were observed in Beijing and Tianjin. In addition, Wang Chengmin of the State Seismological Bureau Analysis and Prediction Department issued a warning on 16 July 1976, during a conference specifically addressing the likelihood of a severe earthquake occurring in the Bohai region of northern China. Sixty municipal representatives and scientists attended the conference, and Administrator Wang Chunqing of

80,000

Thousands of people died with the initial shockwaves

2,000 Great loss of life occurred when Tangshan’s largest hospital collapsed

14-16

The earthquake itself lasted only a few seconds

10 billion

The estimated cost of the Tangshan earthquake in Chinese yuan

9,500

Approximately 9,500 square kilometres of the surrounding area endured severe quake intensities

400 Energy 400 times greater than the Hiroshima atomic bomb was unleashed

3.42am

The earthquake struck in the early morning while most people slept

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TANGSHAN EARTHQUAKE THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE The zeal of the Cultural Revolution and the ruling Gang of Four remained prominent during the aftermath of the Tangshan earthquake, inculcating the population with a continuing fervour for political and social reform. One survivor remembered crawling battered and bloody from the rubble and saying to himself, “Only Chairman Mao can save us!” The denunciation of political opponents remained active, and some politicians even downplayed the horror of the natural disaster in comparison to the revolution. Mao’s fourth wife, Jiang Qing, was reported to have declared, “There were merely several hundred thousand deaths. So what? Denouncing Deng Xiaoping concerns 800 million people.” The Communist Party of the city of Tangshan and the surrounding district organised ‘propaganda cars’ to move through the streets as they could and express to the stricken population the sincere sympathy of Chairman Mao and the Party Central Committee in Beijing. The virtues of the communist system were regularly emphasised as the

slogan “Man can conquer nature!” was often heard. The Cultural Revolution stressed the return to pure communism and the eradication of Western influence; therefore, the people were told that their self-reliance was of the utmost importance. Assistance from outside nations was rejected, and the true extent of the disaster remained shrouded in mystery outside China for years. Estimates of the number killed continued to vary widely as the government considered such statistics a matter of national security. Hua Guofeng, installed as Chaiman of the Communist Party in October 1976, visited the Tangshan area in August and used the opportunity to be photographed encouraging workers. He applauded the efforts of the people and was able to solidify his position as a prominent figure in the revolutionary government. A Gang of Four slogan rang, “Be alert to Deng Xiaoping’s criminal attempt to exploit earthquake phobia to suppress revolution!”

Qinglong County noted his comments: “There is a strong possibility of a magnitude five earthquake from 22 July to 5 August 1976, in the Tangshan region. A magnitude eight is also likely to occur in the second half of 1976. Preparations should be made immediately.” Wang Chunqing and leaders of Qinglong County had already taken the probability of a major earthquake in the region seriously, and the prediction of Wang Chengmin validated preparations that had been underway for months. As a result, casualties in Qinglong County were far fewer than elsewhere. It came in a swift wave of destruction. Before dawn on 28 July 1976, the relatively few inhabitants of Tangshan who were stirring awake recalled seeing flashes of electrical light in the eastern sky. Some compared it to the rising of a ‘red sun’. Others saw lights of various colours and remembered seeing balls of fire. Then a loud roar was heard. It persisted for some 30 seconds. On its heels came the dreadful shaking of the ground, which lasted only 14 to 16 seconds. The epicentre of the 7.8-8.2 Richter scale quake was located in the southern part of Tangshan at a shallow depth of only 11 kilometres. Its shock was felt up to 1,100 kilometres away. A 120-kilometre fault line rupture extended from southeast to

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northwest of Tangshan, and approximately 9,500 square kilometres were affected to some degree. On the Chinese Liedu Scale, Tangshan suffered category XI, or extreme, damage. The cost of the destruction is estimated at 10 billion yuan. At 6.45pm, a devastating aftershock measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale inflicted further damage. The aftershock was centred on the city of Luan and Ninghe County about 70 kilometres northeast of Tangshan. Rescue efforts were already underway, and the tremor seriously delayed those operations. Roughly 85 per cent of the buildings in Tangshan were destroyed or heavily damaged. Many people died in their beds. Others struggled to free themselves from the piles of rubble that moments before had been their homes. “I was a soldier in Tangshan,” remembered one man. “I was a survivor and a rescuer. We had to dig through the debris to search for people with our hands. Many of the rescuers seriously injured their hands, and many had cuts so deep you could see the bones.” Dazed and bloodied survivors wandered the streets. Others cried pitifully for help, buried under mounds of rubble and wreckage. “I was sleeping in a small room with my wife and children when the earthquake started,” a resident remembered. “We broke a window and managed to get outside. On the street I saw lots of damaged houses and dead

bodies.” Still another recalled, “Lots of vehicles leaving Tangshan were carrying injured people and dead bodies. When I reached the city centre it was dawn. I knew Tangshan very well, but I could hardly recognise it. It was unimaginable.” In the Chinese calendar, 1976 was the year of the dragon, a harbinger of difficulties to come. For a decade, the country had been embroiled in the Cultural Revolution under Chairman Mao Tse-tung, a movement to purge society of Western influence and preserve ‘true communism’. Leaders, including the influential Deng Xiaoping, were ousted from power. The so-called Gang of Four, led by Mao’s wife, emerged and then itself was toppled from prominence. Later, Hua Guofeng assumed the role of Communist Party Chairman and was eclipsed by the resurgent Deng Xiaoping. The Tangshan earthquake struck seven months after the death of Zhou Enlai, longtime premier and ally of Mao, whose cult of personality reached its zenith during the Cultural Revolution. Mao himself was on his deathbed; he died in September. But propagandists urged the victims of the natural disaster to be self-reliant. The regime refused aid from the outside world and responded in a disorganised manner that undoubtedly caused the death toll to rise and the recovery period that followed to lengthen.

TANGSHAN EARTHQUAKE

Q Rescue workers strain to remove rubble and reach the injured in the aftermath of the earthquake

Q This image of a smashed railroad car was one of the first of the Tangshan earthquake devastation to reach the West

In the immediate aftermath of the quake, the survivors used any available tools to extricate the injured and dead. Hospitals were levelled, and makeshift medical facilities were erected. Clean drinking water and food supplies were marshalled for distribution as local leaders tried to cope with the immensity of the disaster. The central government responded rapidly to the catastrophe, but the difficulties in reaching the stricken areas and providing aid were immense. At least 160,000 families were rendered homeless and 4,000 children were believed orphaned overnight. The People’s Liberation Army was conducting military exercises in the region, and 100,000 soldiers plunged into the rescue effort. Military aircraft flew in food and medical supplies. In Tianjin, the government established the Headquarters for Resisting the Earthquake and Relief Work. The

mobilisation also included at least 30,000 medical personnel and 30,000 construction workers. Although repair and reconstruction began almost immediately, roads and rail lines had been heavily damaged. Water reservoirs were cracked and contaminated. Temporary shelters were needed for the population, but industrial infrastructure was given priority. As late as 1982, some survivors were still living in these dwellings. The recovery was arduous, but Tangshan emerged a new and vibrant city. Today, its population is roughly double that of 1976, and each year ceremonies are held to remember those lost in the great earthquake. As a result of the Tangshan disaster, the Beijing government issued its first code of building standards for earthquake resistance. Other major earthquakes have occurred since, but memories of the Tangshan tragedy will never fade.

“Central government responded rapidly to the catastrophe, but the difficulties in reaching the stricken areas were immense”

PREPARED IN QINLONG COUNTY

The Tangshan earthquake was said to have toppled 180,000 buildings in Qinglong County, China, but remarkably not a single life was lost in the area to the catastrophe, although one individual died of a heart attack shortly afterward. What accounted for the stark contrast in Qinglong compared to the rest of the Tangshan area? The United Nations Global Program for the Integration of Public Administration and the Science of Disasters investigated during 1995-96 and discovered some extraordinary information. In 1974, the Chinese government issued State Council Document No 69, urging a heightened state of earthquake preparedness with a warning that a temblor of magnitude six or greater on the Richter scale was possible in the near future. Document No 69 advocated educational programmes and awareness of the warning signs of an impending earthquake. In response, Qinglong County government officials established more than 450 observation stations at the village and commune levels. Volunteers monitored seismic activity, water levels, animal behaviour, and changes in electrical currents and magnetic fields. Qinglong County initiated a programme to alert the populace. More than 14,000 posters were placed in public areas, over 70,000 booklets were distributed, and the State Seismological Bureau presented slide shows on preparedness more than 120 times. The energetic 21-year-old Wang Chunqing was named administrator of the local preparedness programme. He attended the State Seismological Bureau conference in July 1976, during which scientist Wang Chengmin warned of the probability of a major earthquake in northern China. When he returned, Wang Chunqing reported on the conference and delivered updated information from monitoring stations to leaders in Qinglong, who took immediate action. Tents were set up for temporary housing by 26 July. An estimated 60 per cent of the residents, or 470,000 people, moved out of their homes by that date. Those who chose to stay in their homes were instructed to leave doors and windows open to assist in extricating themselves after the quake. The Communist Party of Qinglong County issued an earthquake advisory and utilised a previously planned agricultural conference as a platform to spread the word. Public address systems and telephone exchanges were also used. A monitoring station report dated 24 July stated that well water had become muddy and was not drinkable. A group of students from monitoring stations insisted that the date for a workshop in local schools be moved up. It took place on 27 July, one day before the earthquake. Despite the destruction of property, the county’s preparedness eased the recovery and served as a model for the future.

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© Getty, Alamy

Q The Tangshan Earthquake Memorial Wall is inscribed with the name of every victim of the earthquake

THE BLACK DEATH

THE BLACK DEATH The terrifying true story of the outbreak that crippled the world

IN BRIEF Q Death toll: 75-200 million Q Worldwide Q 1346-1353 (European peak) Europe’s population fell by 30-60 per cent and took three centuries to recover. Spread by rats, symptoms included, fever, vomiting, respiratory problems and boils in the armpit and groin.

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THE BLACK DEATH fter enjoying generations of sunshine and warmer climes, Europe had undergone an unprecedented population boom that saw more people living on the continent than ever before. At the turn of the first millennium there were 24 million people in Europe, and by 1340 this had reached 54 million. Entire countries were straining at the edges of their farmlands and eating into the forests, and the availability of food was beginning to reach the limits of population support. A dire evil, however, stalked the land, just as the Little Ice Age began, and a century later Europe’s population had plummeted to 37 million. The true origins of this bringer of death are unknown, though many people believe it emerged in south-east Africa centuries ago and crept along the Nile to the Eurasian continent. This monster scurried on a million legs through the dank holds of ships, grain-stuffed silos and mills, filthy streets and docks slick with grime – and much worse in the years to come. It sprang from the backs of great black rats, borne in the blood of fleas infected with Yersinia pestis, and thrived in the blood-flecked sputum of the plague’s violently coughing victims. It wept from the bulbous, stinking sores that erupted in people’s groins and armpits. It struck fiercely and mercilessly, bringing down towns in a matter of days, erasing families in mere hours. While we now call this great pandemic that swiftly brought Europe to its knees in the mid14th century the Black Death, it was known by a different name at the time – the apocalyptic moniker, Pestilence. With the Hundred Years’ War sweeping western Europe and conflicts with the unstoppable Mongolian Golden Horde in the east, famine beginning to crippling countries whose populations were at the limits of sustainability, and then sickness swiftly following – bringing with it death – the people of the world knew that Pestilence was upon them, and many feared the apocalypse drew near… Pestilence is shrouded in mystery, and even now researchers still debate the exact components of the beast and the path it took across the continent. What is certain is that it originated in the eastern end of the continent, and worked its way through the Mongolian Empire before piercing Caffa (now Feodosiya in Ukraine), Sicily and southern Europe, reaching peak strength as it smashed into France and England. Scientists agree that its main weapon was bubonic plague, a bacterial disease carried by infected fleas that fed on the black rats ubiquitous to the continent, but were also known to dine on other types of rodents, rabbits and, sometimes, larger mammals like cats. The bacterium itself – Yersinia pestis – was a rather nasty piece of work; it would infect the blood of fleas and then cause a buildup of old

A

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THE BLACK DEATH blood and cells within the proventriculus (a valve preceding the flea’s stomach). This blockage meant that when a hungry flea tried to bite its next victim, the high pressure in its stomach would force some of the ingested blood back into the open wound, along with thousands of bacterial cells that had accumulated in the proventriculus. This swarm of Yersinia pestis would then drain along the lymphatic tract of the victim from the source of the bite down to the nearest lymph node. Once there, the bacteria would proceed to colonise the lymph node so entirely that it would swell, stiffen and ooze a rancid pus. Since most people were bitten on their legs, this would usually be the lymph node in the groin. These enlarged lymph nodes, known as buboes, were the main sign of Pestilence; ugly and painful, they ranged from the size of a grape to a fat orange and they made any movement unbearable. Before the appearance of the buboes though, victims would have a slight warning. Flu-like symptoms would appear first, swiftly followed by a high fever. Within a day or two these would be joined by ‘God’s tokens’ – small circular rashes, also called roses – that would spread over the body and particularly around infected lymph nodes. Caused by weak blood vessel walls and internal haemorrhaging, they were a sure sign that you didn’t just have a nasty cold, as noted by Shakespeare: ‘the tokened pestilence where death is sure’. Things tended to move quickly once the buboes had boiled up through the skin. Diarrhoea and vomiting would ensue, as would often septic shock due to the buboes bursting, with respiratory failure and pneumonia wiping up the last sops of life. Within two weeks, four out of five people who contracted the plague died. Agnolo di Tura del Grasso, a chronicler from Siena, Italy, captured the terror of the time well: ‘I do not know where to begin describing its relentless cruelty; almost everyone who witnessed it seemed stupefied by grief. It is not possible for the human tongue to recount such a horrible thing, and those who did not see such horrors can well

“It was a staggering loss in this age of arable farming, where the majority of the country’s wealth lay in the land” be called blessed. They died almost immediately; they would swell up under the armpits and in the groin and drop dead while talking. Fathers abandoned their children, wives left their husbands, brothers forsook each other; all fled from each other because it seemed that the disease could be passed on by breath and sight. And so they died, and one could not find people to carry out burials for money or friendship.’ In the face of Pestilence and the approaching end-times, King Philip VI of France commissioned the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Paris to deduce the source of the evil so that it might be eradicated. The findings of these professors

Q A plague doctor from the early1600s

KILL OR CURE A number of herbal treatments were thought to be effective against the Black Death. Sufferers were regularly prescribed, depending on their income, solutions of ground emeralds or potions made from the crushed shells of newly laid eggs mixed with chopped marigolds, ale and treacle. Another effective curative was urine – two glasses a day was thought to fend off disease. Treatment of the buboes was a trickier affair. In their terror, people believed they could draw out

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Pestilence by holding bread against the boils and burying it – or, more incredibly, by strapping a live hen to the swelling, rinsing and repeating. Physicians later discovered that lancing buboes, draining the pus and applying poultices was relatively effective in the early stages. Such poultices usually consisted of tree resin, white lily root and then dried human excrement, arsenic or dried toad, depending on availability. Less extreme ointments were mixed from cooked onions, butter and garlic,

while bloodletting through leeches or incisions and the application of clay and violets was also practised. For the most part, since the Black Death was allegedly miasmatic, the best preventative measure was thought to be carrying pouches of sweet herbs and spices (or balls of perfume called pomanders), and burning them in your home. Most felt their only options were to fast, pray and join the Flagellants to pay penance for their sins, or to kill suspected witches.

did not bode well, for they ascribed the tragedy to the conjunction of Saturn, Mars and Jupiter in Aquarius, and to the position of Saturn in the House of Jupiter – and nothing could be done to challenge the will of the cosmos. At the time, Jupiter was believed to be the source of warm, humid vapours, while hot, dry Mars was thought to ignite them. These pestilential vapours were thought to form a thick, stinking smog of sickness known as a miasma, which was compounded by the sulphurous eruptions of volcanoes and wrathful power of earthquakes. Believed to be the main culprit of the Black Death, people gave up bathing (as it opened the pores to miasma), barricaded themselves in closed rooms hung with thick tapestries to block out the poisoned air and took to carrying nosegays and pomanders to avail themselves of the evil stench. None of this would save them though. In 1346, amid reports from the east of biblical plagues – rains of frogs and serpents, hail, stinking smoke and thunder – the Mongols of the Golden Horde attacked Caffa – an island port off the north coast of the Black Sea. The horde laid siege to the city and were all set for a protracted campaign when the Black Death struck them in the back ranks. Suddenly, their army was dying and the siege began to fall apart. What followed is the first known incidence of biological warfare: about to pull back and return to the east, the horde first gathered up the diseased bodies of their dead and catapulted them over the walls of Caffa. Instantly, Pestilence struck Europe, and though it took around 15 years to cross Asia it would destroy Europe in less than five. As the horde went home, defeated, the Black Death ran around the coast of the Black Sea and straight through the Byzantine Empire (south of modern Bulgaria). By 1347 – just as Joan of England, of the House Plantagenet, was departing Britain to marry Prince Pedro of Castile and form a political alliance – it had arrived on the Mediterranean and struck Messina in Sicily. Here, frightened peasants were beginning to realise that the monster attacked by sea and had started to refuse ships at the port, but it was a case of too little, too late. Trading ships from Genova and Constantinople carried the plague to the Italian mainland, where it ran up and down the infected rivers, canals and walkways. By 1348, 600 people were dying each day in Venice; Rhodes, Cyprus and Messina had all fallen. The invasion gathered pace and then punched up into the heart of Europe, striking down 60 per cent of Marseille’s population and half of

THE BLACK DEATH

1351

EXTENT OF AREA REACHED BY BLACK DEATH 1346

1349

1347

1350

1348

1351

AREA UNAFFECTED NO RELIABLE DATA

In its death throes, the plague threw itself into eastern Europe with abandon. By this time, however, the worst was over. Half of Europe had died and the survivors – whether serf, squire or churchman – found themselves working the fields in ever-colder seasons.

1350 The Black Death hits Sweden and begins to complete its clockwise circle from the Mongol steppes east of the Black Sea, through southern Europe and into the north.

1346

1349 Believed to be poisoning wells, Jews are driven out of every country as the Black Death consumes central Europe, now reaching from the coast of Scandinavia to Morocco. Poland provides a home to the stricken Jewish population, while in London the death rate is now 300 souls each day.

The Black Death is brewing in the heart of the Golden Horde, the north-western chunk of the disintegrated Mongolian Empire, which stretches from the Black Sea deep into modern Kazakhstan and Russia. Struck down as they lay siege to Caffa, the invaders launched the diseased bodies of their dead over the walls.

1348 Southern Europe is overrun with Pestilence. A swathe of plague-lands stretches from the west coast of Spain to Bucharest, with fingers of disease pushing up into France and Britain. Bordeaux burns and the mainland is caught up in a frenzy of religious penance for God’s wrath.

1347 Spreading along the sea lanes and coastal trade routes of the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, plague sends ships thronging with bacteria into Constantinople, Crete, Sicily, Sardinia and south France. People blame cursed ships and the foul air they bring, but fail to spot the rats.

WHEN PESTILENCE STRIKES

FLU HITS

GOD’S TOKENS

BUBO BREAKOUT

VOMITING

SEPTIC SHOCK

The Black Death begins like a bad cold, with aches, pains, chills and a fever setting in.

Just a few hours later, circular red rashes begin to appear around infected lymph nodes.

Within a day or two, the lymph nodes blacken and swell almost to the size of oranges.

Severe fluid loss, including blood, accompanies and exacerbates all the bloating buboes.

Two to three days after infection, septic shock and pneumonia often hit the victim.

RESPIRATORY FAILURE Weakened under the assault, the body’s central systems begin to shut down.

DEATH Usually within two to four days, Pestilence conquers the host. Many dead were left in the street.

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THE BLACK DEATH

Paris’s. The bewildering death toll was so high that the mayor of Bordeaux even set fire to the port, in a remarkably prescient move considering the fact that serpents and smog were more feared than rats at this stage. Britain fared little better at the time. Arriving on the south coast of England in 1348 – primarily through ports like Bristol, Weymouth and London – the Black Death was to claim 50 per cent of the population and reach a height of around 300 souls each day in London by spring 1349. It was a staggering loss in this age of arable farming, where the majority of the country’s wealth lay in the land. Acres and acres of golden cornfields were left without farmers to sow or plough them; knights and churchmen subsequently found themselves working in fields by the sweat of their brows – and this led to the growth of the new yeoman class, as serf-less landowners were forced to rent their estates to the surviving farmers, whose labour was now in high demand against crippling inflation and who became independent for the first time. This freed up capital and made society more economically mobile, possibly leading to the birth of a kind of proto-capitalism, but it also led to the ‘lost villages’.

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As well as being depopulated through disease, the estates of the rich also succumbed to the fat dowers of widows who were entitled, for life, to a third of their dead spouse’s income. With the death rate increasing and ageing spinsters gobbling up inheritances, young lords were as out of pocket as the poor and stood no better chance against Pestilence. While the chronic overpopulation in England before the Black Death meant that there was no initial effect on the labour market, by the next generation – the 1370s – there was a critical shortage. This led to the British government passing increasingly stringent regulations aimed at holding down rising wages, and ultimately to the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381. The same was true elsewhere in Europe, with the effects of the Black Death also leading to the Jacquerie in France (1358) and the Revolt of the Ciompi in Italy (1378). Despite the reassurance that the clergy provided, religion was powerless against the Black Death. Churchmen, who were often the closest thing to a doctor, were forbidden to dissect the bodies of God and so could not perform autopsies to learn the exact causes of death. Priests afraid of the plague refused to administer last rites, and urged people to confess to each other. Funeral rites were similarly

abandoned, with corpses stacked several layers deep with a smattering of earth between each row, and entrepreneurial peasants began to gather and bury the dead for a fee. Eventually, the clergy refused bodies entry into cities and, since death had become such a constant companion, ordained that no funeral bells were to ring. In 1348, however, a much greater religious threat abounded. The Brotherhood of Flagellants rose up in Germany and led 1,000-strong marches through the country for 33 and a half days at a time (to mark the Saviour’s years on Earth), brutally whipping themselves with iron-studded belts of leather to display their penance to God and earn protection from his wrath. They had something of a rockstar status and many people reached out to catch the sacred drops of blood that spattered from their holy wounds. By 1349 the movement had petered out – falling prey to a bandwagon effect that led to too many misfits and vagabonds exploiting the Flagellants’ notoriety – but the effect it had on public sentiment was grave. The reinforcement of extreme Christian ideology in the face of the apocalypse inflamed anti-Semitism across Europe and the Jews were persecuted like never before.

THE BLACK DEATH “The plague had claimed an estimated 40-50 per cent of the European population – that’s around 20 million people” the monster itself was winding down. Pestilence reached Sweden in 1350 and, by the time it got to Russia, the plague had all but passed in France and England. Historians have never reached complete agreement on what exactly stopped the disease from continuing to burn through the population, though quarantines, slightly better hygiene and the reduced number of people travelling back and forth through Europe – as a result of mass depopulation and a growing fear of infective trade routes – are all thought to have played a role. The plague had claimed an estimated 40-50 per cent of the European population – that’s around 20 million people. By way of comparison, the Spanish flu that followed the end of WWI in 1918 claimed

50 million lives. Never before or since has such a potent infection wracked the continent. Unaware of the true nature of the monster, many believed the Black Death was a miasmatic illness, caused by noxious, pestilential fumes in the air. As such, posies were carried and incense burned in homes, people forwent bathing (as it opened the pores) and even splashed themselves in urine to bolster their natural protection against external fumes and vapours. Some historians believe that the Great Fire of London (1666) – which wiped out the black rats – was the only thing that saved England from succumbing to the plague entirely. It took Europe centuries to fully recover, and those who survived believed they had witnessed the apocalypse.

Q Funerals for plague victims would often be performed at night to limit contact with other people

© SPL; Getty; Alamy

Associated as they were with the mystical Kabbalah (and black magic), the 2.5 million Jews living in Europe at the time were prime suspects for witchcraft and nefarious deeds. Having been strong international merchants in 1000, they were in a period of decline that would ultimately lead to their replacement in economic terms by Italian merchants by 1500. Divided and wandering across Europe, they were accused of brewing poisons and then infecting wells with disease. False confessions under torture, such as that of Agimet the Jew during the plague’s peak in 1348, didn’t help matters, and on Valentine’s Day of 1349 in Strasbourg 2,000 Jews were burned in a cemetery. The crime was repeated in other cities across Germany and Switzerland, prompting a mass Jewish migration across Europe. It was to Poland that they fled, as King Casimir was in love with a Jewish woman and so opened the borders of his country to his lover’s kinsmen, where they would remain until the devastation of the Holocaust. Yet while the Jews were fleeing death and destruction at the hands of humans,

133

THE CALIFORNIAN WILDFIRES

IN BRIEF Q Death toll: 43 Q California, USA Q 2017 A combination of weather events, from flooding to high winds, caused a destructive series of wildfires that flattened communities across California. They caused billions of dollars of damage, and left numerous families bereft in the run-up to Thanksgiving and the festive season. Today, the cities affected are still in the process of mourning and rebuilding.

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THE CALIFORNIAN WILDFIRES

THE CALIFORNIAN WILDFIRES High winds and subsequent wildfires caused devastation and death just as Californians were preparing for the season of Thanksgiving

T

he fires burned through days and nights, flames licking at whatever they came across – trees, shrubs, buildings, people. From the Oregon border all the way down to San Diego, just north of the Mexican border, nothing seemed to stop them – not even mountains. It was the tail end of 2017, an autumn and winter when the acrid smell of smoke was hard to get out of your nostrils, and where fear pounded in your heart as to when, not if, the fires would reach your own home, and your own family. The wildfires that devastated California in this year numbered around 9,000 - thousands of separate fires that, by the time they were brought under control, had destroyed over a million acres of land. They would devastate over 10,000 buildings, and by the end, 43 people would have lost their lives. The scorched terrain across the state would

bear testament to a horrific couple of months in the state’s recent history. The year had started off not with fire, but with rain. Californians watched as heavy rain – their wettest winter in nearly a century – pounded their towns and homes, but with little sign of panic. The state had been in a severe drought status before, and so the rain was welcome. Yet it kept pouring, and flooding inevitably resulted. Roads and highways fell apart – the flooding eventually caused some $1 billion of damage to them. In January alone, the Russian River, flowing across Sonoma and Mendocino counties, rose three feet above its flood stage; electricity supplies were lost, and communities were evacuated in the worst hit areas. There was no ‘normal’ weather; it seemed that the state was either very dry, or very wet. Yet the flooding meant that the drought conditions

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THE CALIFORNIAN WILDFIRES

MONEY NO OBJECT Many Californians lost property and possessions in the wildfires of 2017, and the fires did not distinguish between rich and poor. One family was particularly unlucky; in October 2017, Antonio Wong, a 50-yearold doctor, fled from his home in Santa Rosa with his wife Pratima and their son, then aged 19. Shortly afterwards, it was burned down as the Tubbs fire moved through the area. The Wongs owned another house in Ventura, which was being rented to members of the US military. As the Wongs tried to deal with losing their home, in December, they then found out that their Ventura home had also burned down, a victim of the Thomas fire. Celebrities were affected by the fires as well. As the wildfires headed closer to Los Angeles in early December, the homes of actors including Gwyneth Paltrow and Reese Witherspoon were evacuated; Rupert Murdoch’s estate, also evacuated, was damaged by smoke. The LA suburbs of Mandeville Canyon and Brentwood were particularly affected, and roads and an interstate through the area were closed. Actress Eva Longoria issued a warning on social media about the fires, and encouraged people to evacuate – luckily, she was in New York at the time, but her brother, who was staying at her LA home, had to leave.

eased, and that there would be little risk of fires – frequent in the state. Some, however, realised that the wet conditions didn’t guarantee against fire. Firstly, California is known for its fires; every year, there are around 5,000 wildfires reported in the state, and the loss of land from these fires is inevitable. Most can be managed and put out because they are fairly isolated, however; but if numerous wildfires broke out simultaneously, that would be a different matter. Now, though, flooding caused its own problems – and this was more fire-related than might be expected. Wet conditions had quickly led to new plant growth, and the National Interagency Fire Centre warned that when the rain stopped and everything dried out, grassfires were likely to occur, with this new plant life acting as tinder. The warning was a prediction, and it came true. Just before 10pm on 8 October, a new fire, named Tubbs, started to the north of Santa Rosa in Sonoma County, and by 1am, the first deaths on the outskirts of the city had been reported. At 3am, the fire reached the city limits, and soon it would wreak havoc in Santa Rosa itself. Santa Rosa was a major city within the state’s northern ‘Wine Country’, but it became infamous for the impact it took from the wildfires. Many of the 175,000 residents had a feeling the fire was on its way, monitoring the wind speed and direction, and rapidly becoming wary of the fierceness of the wind, which brought with it smoke from prior destruction, and gusted at more than 60 miles an hour. By 3am, the neighbourhood of Coffey Park was burning orange against the night sky; several hundred homes would soon be destroyed in this part of the city alone, leaving it flattened, and eventually destroying over 3,500 homes and businesses. Deaths also, sadly, started occurring; one fatality was a 76-year-old woman, Carol Collins-Swasey, who died in her house at Coffey Park in the early hours of that morning. Many of those who died were older individuals who had little chance of escaping their homes quickly; others who were less mobile, such as wheelchair-user

A FIREFIGHTER’S BRAVERY Firefighter Cory Iverson was 32 years old, and had everything to live for. He had a two-year-old daughter, Evie, and his wife, Ashley, was pregnant again – he would soon be a father of two. The Iversons lived in San Diego, where Cory worked for Cal Fire (the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection) as a Fire Apparatus Engineer. On 14 December 2017, Cory died while fighting the Thomas fire in the hills above Fillmore in California. He died of thermal injuries and smoke inhalation in the blaze, after having

136

been surrounded by localised fires that started in strong winds. When he was taken to his native San Diego to be buried, accompanied by California Highway Patrol officers, other firefighters lined the route of his cortege, over 200 miles from Ventura to San Diego. Then, at a service held at Rock Church in San Diego to honour Cory’s life, attended by thousands, those present heard that a shy child had grown up to be a determined young man, who always put others first. Cory had originally worked as a volunteer firefighter, and

Q A firefighter keeps watch as the Thomas wildfire burns near Carpinteria, California on 11 December 2017

Q Firefighters in Ventura salute as the body of Cory Iverson passes them en route to his home town of San Diego

then, in 2009, had got a job in Cal Fire’s Riverside Unit. He was quickly promoted to a prestigious team of helicopter firefighters – these crews being dropped into situations armed with saws and hand-tools to try and stop fires where water was not an option. Cory then worked in the Angeles national forest before being promoted to engineer a year before his death. On the night he died, he had ensured his team got out of the blaze safely, even though that decision left him stranded and cost him his own life.

THE CALIFORNIAN WILDFIRES

“As the fires took hold, rumours started that they had been caused by an illegal immigrant”

FACTS

43

people died as the result of the October fires

8,000 firefighters fought the Thomas fire at its peak

$180

billion is the predicted total cost of the wildfires

308,000

acres of land were burned in December

192 citizens received non-fatal injuries during the fires

11

million people were impacted by the wildfires

53,000 people in Napa and Sonoma had no power

Christina Hanson, 27, were similarly unable to avoid the flames, and died. And as they slept, or struggled, or died, the flames continued whooshing parallel to the ground, acting more like water than fire, a rapid moving of danger that was hard to avoid. Many of the homes in this part of California are located close to wildland, and the fires made their way from trees to homes with ease. Tubbs was just one in a series of fires that started in the northern part of the state, with some 250 wildfires forming a veritable firestorm, in turn causing chaos and horror. By 10 October, it was being reported that an area eight times the size of Manhattan had already been destroyed, with the Atlas Peak fire in the eastern Napa region having burned across over 40,000 acres with only a small portion of it successfully contained. Roads were

being shut down, and hundreds of people had been reported missing. Just six days later, 90,000 people had evacuated their homes across northern California, and more than 200,000 acres had been destroyed. 43 people died; most of the fatalities came in the first 48 hours of the fires. Many broke out overnight while people slept. As the fires took hold, rumours started, forcing one local sheriff to take action. It was reported that rather than weather conditions being responsible for the fires, they had all been caused by an illegal immigrant. Moral panics about immigration caused an innocent man to be blamed for a natural phenomenon, and Sonoma County sheriff Rob Giordano had to react publicly, blasting the rumours that his office had arrested the man for this alleged arson. In a perhaps poor choice of words, the sheriff

30

detectives were tasked with locating missing people

245,000 acres of land were burned in October

230,000 people were evacuated

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THE CALIFORNIAN WILDFIRES

Q Smoke plumes rise from the city of San Diego during the Cedar fire of 2003

A WILDFIRE HISTORY The state of California has had a long history of wildfires. This is thanks to the area’s weather – typically dry, windy and hot conditions from March to October. Such conditions are perfect for wildfires. Some, of course, are easily combatted but others, as the 2017 fires illustrated, can be devastating to property, animals and people alike. In September 1889, the Santiago Canyon Fire burned some 300,000 acres in southern California. In this year, there had been less rain than usual, and numerous Santa Ana winds. Press reports stated that the fire had started in a shepherd camp within the Santiago canyon, and that 50,000 sacks of barley at a nearby ranch rapidly burned, encouraging the spread of the flames until nearly all of the county was affected. Thousands of sheep died, and many farmers’ livelihoods were destroyed. News of the blaze reached the United Kingdom, where it was reported that “terrible forest fires, following upon the drought, are raging in the outlying parts of California. The damage done to property is already very great, and the fires are still burning”. Amazingly, no fatalities were reported. Proper records of wildfires started to be kept in 1932, and these show that before Thomas destroyed parts of Ventura and Santa Barbara counties in December 2017, the largest Californian fire had been Cedar, which occurred in San Diego county in October 2003. Believed to have been started in the Cleveland National Forest by a lost hunter, it was first reported south of Ramona in the central part of the county. Those living in Wildcat Canyon and Muth Valley had very little notice of the fire, and on the night of 25 October, 12 people living in these settlements were killed. Overall, Cedar killed 15 people and damaged or destroyed nearly 3,000 buildings. Cedar is the largest man-made fire in the state’s modern history.

138

Q Firefighters watch the Thomas fire make its way along Highway 101 on 7 December 2017

stated that the rumours were ‘inflammatory’ – and completely false. The spate of wildfires was a disaster – but the rumours had been spreading like another wildfire until the sheriff poured cold water on them. Over the course of October, fires burned in northern California, one trail of fires in a corridor running north from San Francisco, and another further east, north-east of Yuba City and up towards Chico. In Napa and Sonoma, valuable wineries were destroyed and vines that survived were left useless, their grapes damaged by smoke. On 14 October, the Sonoma County authorities stated that 22 people had died within their county alone. The same day, two more deaths were reported in Napa County. Trying to calculate fatalities was not easy, though, and estimates varied as the press and authorities struggled to make sense of the various rumours and stories. The fires had only been partially contained by this point. Many individuals had lost their homes, and businesses their premises. Evacuation zones had been established, forming barricaded areas guarded by police. Those whose homes came within the evacuation zones had to find alternative accommodation in hotels or motels, giving them even more financial worries. Firefighters were working hard to try and put out the fires, but more were needed, and so firefighters from other areas were drafted in to help. From north to south, west to east, firefighters arrived in California, with Washington, Oregon and Arizona crews among those helping out. Over 1,000 fire engines were needed. Not only were the firefighters working hard, but police were also being utilised to help maintain law and order in panicked times,

and to monitor the evacuation zones, and medical staff were needed to deal with the inevitable injuries and, sadly, deaths. Search teams, including volunteers, sought out those still missing amid the devastated communities hit hardest by the fires, whose blocks and neighbourhoods were now little more than rubble. No wonder that people were on edge. These volunteers and emergency service staff wheezed and coughed through difficult, smoky, conditions to try and save those at risk. Meanwhile, many residents – whether in their own homes or emergency accommodation after being evacuated – woke up each morning and looked out of their windows, trying to ascertain how strong the winds were, in what direction, and sniffing to see if they could smell fire, or acrid smoke. The fires were dying down by the end of October, but Californians, who had seen so many of these wildfires over the previous years and decades, knew not to be complacent. The Sacramento Bee, a local newspaper in Northern California covering the state capital, warned on 24 October that the state’s “fire season hasn’t ended, not by a long shot”. Fires continued to burn, albeit on a smaller scale than before, but high temperatures and equally high winds were predicted, and meteorologists were concerned that there was the potential for new fires as autumn turned into winter. Those predictions were to come true in a season that should have been the object for celebration. Instead, celebrations turned to concern, and further tragedy. It was now just a few weeks until Christmas; in California, residents had just celebrated Thanksgiving and were giving thanks that the

THE CALIFORNIAN WILDFIRES THOMAS RUSHES IN It was on 4 December 2017 that the

not stop the destruction that

acres of Ventura and Santa Barbara

Thomas fire became a wall of fire

Thomas rapidly wreaked. However,

counties in a week, becoming

that threatened the west coast of

many property owners refused to

the largest wildfire in California’s

California. Originating as small brush

leave, even as they watched Thomas

modern history within this space

fire, to the north of the city of Santa

burning on the hillside behind their

of time. Local people watched

Paula, within a week it had become

homes. They cited the fact that they

as the winds continued to reach

larger than New York City, with only

had lived in the area for a long time,

40mph the following week, while

20 per cent of it contained. Two

and had seen fires blaze nearby

temperatures remained high, up to

days after it started, the only civilian

before, as reasons why they did

the lower 80s Fahrenheit.

Thomas fatality occurred; however,

not feel the need to evacuate. The

It should have been the rainy

this was not a death in the fire itself.

authorities, however, continued to

season in California by this time,

Virginia Pesola died in a car crash

differ, putting in place mandatory

but it would turn out to be the

while trying to flee the fire.

evacuation orders in both Santa

driest period in this area on record

Barbara and the neighbouring

– and residents of the two affected

Ojai Valley and Los Padres National

Ventura county. By the Monday,

counties had to wait until early

Forest, and at its fastest, the fire

nearly 94,000 people were subject

January 2018 for the rains to finally

was moving at an acre every second.

to these orders.

come. These caused their own

By 13 December, it had reached the

wildfires were subsiding. Then, however, the winds picked up again – specifically, the Santa Ana winds that are so conducive to spreading wildfires. These strong, very dry, winds start inland as high-pressure air in the Great Basin region of the US, a region encompassing part of Oregon and California, but blow towards coastal areas. Santa Ana winds are known as ‘devil winds’ for good reason. They don’t start fires themselves, but their cool, dry gusts are infamous for creating perfect weather conditions for fires, and then helping to spread the flames, and that’s exactly what they did in 2017. During December, fires were concentrated around the Los Angeles area, from Lilac in the south, to Thomas and Rye north-west of the metropolitan area. The fires were spread from inland towards coastal cities and lands – towards San Bernardino, Long Beach, Los Angeles and Ventura. The Thomas fire, in Ventura County, was particularly ferocious. Starting on 4 December, it had initially whipped through the downtown area of Santa Paula, some 50 miles from Los Angeles, and settled idyllically in the midst of orchards, which had given it the title of ‘citrus capital of the world’. It then swept on to the coastal city of Ventura, as San Buenaventura is usually known, and caused thousands to evacuate their homes both in the city and across the wider Ventura county, as stories abounded of flames that risen 100 feet in the air. The Ventura governor, Jerry

Thomas, which was named after

problems, creating flash floods and

edge of the city of Montecito in

Thomas Aquinas College in Santa

mudflow. By the time the rains

Santa Barbara county, an affluent

Paula, near where the fire was first

came, 129 houses in Santa Barbara

place, but one where money could

spotted, burned through 230,000

county had been destroyed.

Brown, quickly declared a state of emergency on the morning of 5 December, warning that the fire there was “very dangerous and spreading rapidly”. The Ventura River that runs through the city was of little benefit to the residents, as the fires combatted the buildings it came across with little regard for those living or working within them. Those residents who didn’t evacuate were left with their own challenges; there were widespread power losses, affecting nearly 200,000 people in Santa Paula and across Ventura county. In the early hours of 5 December, a separate fire had also started in Sylmar, situated between the counties of Los Angeles and Ventura. Rapidly covering thousands of acres, the smoke it produced could be seen from the heart of LA and made the air quality so poor locally that Sylmar’s residents were warned to stay indoors. Now, Los Angeles had become circled by flames, the view of fire amid the mountains of California hard to look away from; it was magnetic, drawing your eyes to the rich colours and the sheer awful beauty of the view. It was dangerous, destructive, yet hypnotic. It created awe, but also panic, as locals shouted of the ‘real life apocalypse’ facing them. By 19 December, the Thomas fire, which had swept through Southern California, had become the third largest fire in the state since records began in the 1930s. It had destroyed hundreds of thousands of acres, and burned over 1,000 buildings. It was

“It was magnetic, drawing your eyes to the rich colours and the sheer awful beauty”

also still burning, with less than half the fire being contained, and there were warnings that it would not be fully contained until January. Several thousand firefighters were engaged simply on trying to contain the fatal flames, which had obliterated neighbourhoods that lay in its path. The fires finally died out as 2017 turned into 2018, but their devastation had a huge financial, physical and mental toll on the communities that had been affected. The Californian wildfires had burned up an area larger than any city outside of LA; the cost of fighting the fires had reached $110 million, and damages were estimated to be over $10 billion by the time the Southern Californian fires had started in December. The American media devoted many column inches to recording the scenes of devastation wrought by the fires. By the end of January 2018, over 200,000 people had fled their homes and over 1 million acres of land were burnt. Today, rebuilding continues in California. In Coffey Park, residents are still waiting for a major rebuilding project to get going, and many homeowners have already sold their destroyed plots. In Ventura, the city’s ‘Thomas Fire recovery statement’ makes clear the area’s desire to see good come out of the devastation, seeing the opportunity to rebuild communities in a better way than before, giving them a strong identity and enhancing neighbourhoods. Fire debris damage and removal programmes work to clear sites where homes once stood, before new homes take their place. But for the people who lived here, and saw their homes destroyed, they face a long process to get back to normality.

139

© Getty; WIKI; Alamy

Thomas made a rapid meal of the

THE GREAT KANTO EARTHQUAKE

IN BRIEF Q Death toll: 140,000 Q Honshu, Japan Q 1923 The Great Kanto Earthquake devastated cities like Tokyo and Yokohama, and even moved a statue nearly 40 miles away. Its anniversary is marked each year as an annual Disaster Prevention Day as a result of this natural disaster’s impact – it resulted in the greatest damage sustained in pre-war Japan, and over 100,000 people were never to be seen again.

140

THE GREAT KANTO EARTHQUAKE

THE GREAT KANTO EARTHQUAKE It lasted less than ten minutes, but as a result of one earthquake over 100,000 people died

ater, many of those affected tried to calculate how long the shock had lasted. Some said four minutes; others said ten. What was known, though, was that the earthquake shock had been large – it would later be estimated that it reached a magnitude of 7.9 on the Richter scale. The aftershocks of this severe earthquake lasted far longer – several hours of panic, injury and death. It was just before midday on Saturday 1 September 1923, nearly lunchtime, and many Japanese households were engaged in making meals using their cooking stoves. As the earthquake hit, these stoves were overturned, causing fires to spread and burn down rooms, then houses, then streets. Tarmac melted, and some people found their feet stuck on the liquid tarmac, unable to move as the fires bore down on them. A tornado of fire set aflame to the former army clothing depot in central Tokyo; thousands of people had taken shelter there in order to find safety from the earthquake – instead, they were burned to ashes. If that wasn’t enough, the quake also caused a 40-foot high tsunami near Kamakura, whose waves engulfed thousands of people that had been enjoying the view of the sea immediately beforehand. 1920s Japan had been a place of opportunity and commerce, with its cities – such as Yokohama and Tokyo – offering an attractive environment for businessmen and entrepreneurs, and where political ideas could be freely discussed. The cities were sometimes overwhelming places full of different scents and sights, where old and new collided, cacophonies of noise only metres from peaceful, quiet places made for contemplation. The

L

poor resided in their wooden homes, living largely traditional lives, while nearby the rich lived in their mansions, working out how to earn more money. There was a regular pattern to these city dwellers’ lives, a monotony borne of security and optimism. This optimism, and the regular pattern of life, was now rent asunder. All the clocks in Tokyo stopped. The telephone lines went down. The water mains collapsed, and although the Imperial Palace survived, together with much of the Yamagote district, two thirds of the city were said to have been completely destroyed, mainly the result of some 50 fires that broke out immediately afterwards. Several foreign embassies, including the British Embassy, were also burned down. In Yokohama, the entire city was destroyed, as the earthquake had resulted in a tidal wave; in addition, the quake had caused oil tanks to explode, leading to major fires. Other towns, including Yokosuka, Atami, Ito and Mishima, were also reported to have been destroyed. In Tokyo, however, it was the Kanto district that was particularly hard hit, the quake virtually obliterating it. The downtown areas of Honjo, Fukagowa, Shitaya and Nihonbashi were wrecked; significant buildings such as several princes’ residences, the bridge entrance to the Imperial Palace, the Bank of Japan, two hospitals, the Uyeno Railway Station, and the Imperial University, were all destroyed. However, while many government offices were damaged, the courts of justice and the Tokyo Station survived with minimal damage – although the Tokaido railway line was badly damaged in several places. The ability of the Japanese media to report on the quake was also affected – all newspaper

141

THE GREAT KANTO EARTHQUAKE

THE KOREAN MASSACRE There was panic in the streets of Tokyo and Yokohama immediately following the earthquake, and a desire to blame someone for the devastation that had been wrought. Rumours rapidly spread among a scared population that Koreans living in the affected areas were rioting and causing damage. One American woman refused to rejoin her Tokyo-based husband, as she had been scared by stories of ‘thousands of Korean prisoners pillaging and killing on the roadside’. Another onlooker reported having seen pillagers armed with knives and demanding the valuables of passers-by, killing those who refused. It was easy to blame outsiders for both the rioting and even the fires that had caused such devastation after the earthquake. Even though most Koreans in Japan were law-abiding, they became an easy scapegoat. Chaos ensued when the Japanese – including the army and police, but also ordinary residents – retaliated, armed with sticks and swords, beating Koreans to death, or stabbing them with their swords. On 2 September, the day after the quake, one man saw 250 Koreans tied up on a fishing junk in the dock at Yokohama. Oil was poured over the boat and lit, subjecting them to an agonising death. Other Koreans were reported to have been lynched or bayonetted. Some of the Japanese vigilantes were unable to tell who was Korean and who was not, and so, in the lawlessness of the quake’s aftermath, many Chinese and Japanese people with regional accents were also killed, in the mistaken belief that they must be Korean. It’s estimated that some 700 Chinese resident in Japan were killed at this time. Although the Japanese government, which sought to minimise its country’s violence and accounts of it in the foreign press, stated that only around 200 Koreans had died, it’s believed that the true figure is nearer 6,000.

offices outside of the Tokyo Nichi Nichi Shimbun and Hochi newspapers were destroyed. The British press – which took almost a week to report on the quake – noted that at this time, Tokyo was ‘still without newspapers’ and that the city was receiving foreign news by means of telegrams sent by Reuters to Osaka, which were then forward to Tokyo in an army aeroplane. Once the foreign newspapers learned of the disaster, many abroad launched relief programs and sent expressions of sympathy to the stricken nation. Meanwhile, in Japan, the cabinet met in Nagasaki to organise temporary accommodation for refugees – military barracks were requisitioned, and the homes of Japanese millionaires were opened to house the newly homeless. In addition, army engineers were ordered to build new temporary barracks in open spaces, including in the garden of Tokyo’s Imperial Palace. A Japanese relief fund had soon collected millions of yen to help those affected, but the banks had to limit the amount of money it would let account holders access – people were only allowed to withdraw a maximum of 100 yen. Misinformation was rife, understandably given the lack of surviving newspapers. Initially, the elderly Prince Matsukata and Prince Shimadzu were reported to have been killed in the earthquake, only for it later to be reported that they were still,

Q A monument to the victims of the 1923 Korean massacre stands in Yokoamicho Park, Tokyo

“Homes of millionaires were opened to house the homeless” 142

Q In Tokyo, people walk past the ruins of buildings destroyed in the Great Kanto earthquake

in fact, alive (Matsukata would die just ten months after the quake at the age of 89). It was stressed, though, that although many reports in the Japanese press – such as in the Osaka newspapers – were inevitably inaccurate, one thing is certain: the sufferings of the citizens of Tokyo had not been overstated. A search party noted that only 40,000 residents remained in Yokohama, the rest being either dead or having fled to safer places; and a steamship arrived at Kobe within days, laden with 2,500 refugees. In England, companies with offices or representatives in Japan were mainly concerned with their own fortunes. Messrs Alfred Herbert Ltd, for example, which had branch offices in Tokyo, Yokohama and Osaka, reported three days after the quake that it was still “without news as to the effect of the earthquake upon their own particular interests.” It had tried to cable its Japanese offices, but with no result, although another company received a cable stating that “all Europeans” in both Tokyo and Yokohama were believed to be safe. But it was impossible to get communications directly from either of these cities, and most messages were sent from Osaka or Kobe, and were not regarded as totally reliable. By the end of September, one British casualty had been confirmed – a Mr GS Niven from Penzance,

THE GREAT KANTO EARTHQUAKE

FACTS 2

700 patients in the Tokyo University Hospital were killed

90

per cent of homes in Yokohama were damaged or destroyed

A POSITIVE SPIN A year after the disaster, the Japanese government issued a collection of stories to mark the anniversary. These were nearly 100 tales submitted by individuals affected by the events, and they were named ‘heartwarming’ (‘Taisho shinsai giseki’, or ‘The Taisho era Collection of Heartwarming Stories’) by a government keen

to emphasise the good qualities of its population. Therefore, the collection concentrated on personal heroism, help and rescue, stressing the courage of the Japanese population in the face of adversity. The collection also presented an image of government as helping the Japanese people through the disaster, providing aid and support.

These stories presented an image of the earthquake and its aftermath not only to Japanese readers, but to those around the world, and so served a political as well as ‘heartwarming’ purpose in their narratives. This narrative was certainly different to the image of chaos and rioting suggested in some

working for the Asiatic Petroleum Company, was killed in Yokohama. His wife, who it was reported had worked for the Western Union Cable Company in Penzance until her marriage, had to travel to Kobe with her baby on learning of her husband’s untimely death. The price of Japanese goods rocketed in the aftermath of the earthquake. Britain’s press reported the “surprise sequel” to events, which could not really have been a surprise. British cold medicine producers were reporting huge increases in the price of menthol, with imports having doubled in cost from 40 shillings and nine pence a pound, to 85 shillings. Camphor also went up in price by ten pence a pound in the aftermath of the events, but soon went back down to its normal price. The insular newspapers welcomed its recovery in price, as “camphor keeps the moths away”, but the selfobsessed stories pointed towards the damage this natural disaster had done to Japanese industry and its economy. A wide swathe of Honshu island was affected by the quake and its aftermath – and other natural phenomenon resulted. The volcano on the uninhabited island of Kojima, 30 miles from Tokyo in the Sea of Japan, erupted. It was reported that “most of the volcanoes are now in action” around Japan. The tsunami-stricken Kamakura, an hour south of Tokyo, was submerged, while smoke bellowed from the volcano on Izu Oshima, 75 miles away.

of the foreign newspaper coverage immediately after the earthquake; but neither was entirely accurate, and while the Japanese government was trying to rewrite history to an extent, the newspapers admitted that their own stories were less than reliable because of the lack of communications with affected areas.

“There was food rioting in Tokyo” Unfortunately, not all people reacted well in the chaos of the aftermath. There was food rioting in Tokyo, and several people died in the fighting. The police were called on to try and re-establish law and order, armed with swords to quell the rioting. The sympathy expressed by foreign countries – such as in France, where a day of mourning was held in Paris on 6 September, with flags flown at half-mast and all theatres and cinemas closed for the day – were well-meaning, but did little to help Japan’s stricken cities on a practical basis. Soon it was clear that this earthquake had surpassed the damage of its predecessor, an earthquake in Japan in 1856, which had killed 100,000 people in the Yedo area. Yet, as with Yedo, the areas affected in 1923 were rebuilt and recovered. Today, Kamakura is again a popular tourist destination, with its sandy beaches attracting significant crowds every summer. Yokohama is once again Japan’s second largest city after Tokyo, a major port and significant commercial centre. Meanwhile, Tokyo again has its crowds, bustle and bright lights. Memories, however, are long, and Japan’s 21st century residents know never to be complacent, as what once happened could occur again.

700

patients in the Tokyo University Hospital were killed

570,000 houses were destroyed in quakeaffected areas

38,000 people were killed in Tokyo’s former Army Clothing Depot

500

girls were killed as they worked at a factory

8

out of Tokyo’s 15 districts were at least partially destroyed

60% of Tokyo’s population was left homeless by the quake

6,000

Koreans were killed in retaliation for alleged rioting

1.9 million people were left homeless after houses were destroyed

143

©Getty; Alamy

Q In the rubble of a collapsed office building in Tokyo, men desperately look for survivors

 





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