CASE STUDIES

• 1906

• April 18 at 5:15am

• lasted less than a minute, 7.8 Richter Scale

• earthquake ignitied several fires around the city that burned for 3 days. Every building was destroyed. IMPLEMENTED BUILDING CODES.

• buildings still in risky areas San Francisco Bay.

• 1989

• October 17at 5:04pm

• lasted 15 seconds 

• 6 killed, 671 injured

• 85,000 persons were adversely affected by earthquake damage to their homes

• $433,000,000

• 1,000 businesses lost, 310 destroyed.

• 17th January 1995, an earthquake struck Kobe, a heavily populated urban area in Japan. It measured 7.4 on the Richter scale and occurred as a result of plate movement along the boundary between the Philippines Plate, Pacific Plate and Eurasian Plate.
• 35000 people injured.
• Buildings and bridges collapsed despite their earthquake proof design.
• Buildings destroyed by fire when the gas mains fractured.
• 316000 people left homeless and refugees moved into temporary housing.

SHORT TERM

• People were evacuated and emergency rations provided.
• Rescue teams searched for survivors for 10 days.

LONG TERM

• Many people moved away from the area permanently.
• Jobs were created in the construction industry as part of a rebuilding programme.

• 8 October 2005, an earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale hit the Kashmir region of Pakistan. The earthquake was the result of collision between the Indian and Eurasian plates.
• Buildings collapsed.
• 79,000 people were killed.
• Landslides, and large cracks appeared in the ground.
• Broken sewerage pipes contaminated water supplies and spread disease.

• People died of cold during the harsh winter.

SHORT TERM

• The army and emergency services arrived to join the rescue effort.
• Tents were given out by charities.
• Aid workers arrived from abroad to find survivors and treat the injured.

LONG TERM

• Schools and hospitals were rebuilt.
• Building regulations were improved to reduce damage and the death rate in future earthquakes.

• This was a 7.0 magnitude earthquake .
• The USGS says this was the strongest earthquake to hit the area that is now known as Haiti since 1770.
• 61 reported dead and 180 people unaccounted for, mostly Haitian national staff according to UN numbers. (It is my opinion this number is way too low.)
• Porte-au-Prince's population is 2,000,000
• The Haitian government estimates 200,000 have died as a result of this sad incident. 1/21/10
• 2,000,000 people have been left homeless.
• 3,000,000 people are in need of emergency aid.
• January 20, 2010 - 5.9 magnitude aftershock that did little damage.
• $195 million dollars in aid has been received so far with another $112 million dollars pledged according to one report.

275,000 people were killed in fourteen countries across two continents, with the last two fatalities being swept out to sea in South Africa, more than twelve hours after the earthquake.
2. 40,000 to 45,000 more women than men were killed in the tsunami.
3. US $ 9.9 billion was originally estimated to be the value of economic, infrastructural and human development losses.
4. 141,000 houses were destroyed, which accounts for 47.9 percent of the total damage (BRR & World Bank, 2005)
5. Over 600,000 people in Aceh lost their livelihoods (in some cases only for a few months) including all those in the fishery sector and 30 percent of those in agriculture.
6. A 1,200km section of the earth’s crust shifted beneath the Indian ocean and the earthquake released stored energy equivalent to over more than 23,000 Hiroshima bombs.
7. Speeds of 500km/h were reached as the tsunamis radiated through the Indian Ocean. In the worst cases, the waves reached over
8. Tsunamis reached 20m in height at landfall in parts of Aceh. In other locations they spread 3 km inland carrying debris and salt water with them. The retreating waters eroded whole shorelines.
9. Within ten minutes of the earthquake, tsunami waves started to strike the Nicobar and Andaman Islands. Banda Aceh was struck within another ten minutes.
10. Within two hours of the earthquake, both Thailand and Sri Lanka had been hit. The east cost of India was hit shortly afterwards.
11. Three hours after the earthquake tsunamis rolled over the Maldives and more than seven hours after, hit the Somali coast.