Geography Hazards Case Studies

Mt Njiragongo

Demographic Republic of Congo
2002
Along African Rift Valley
Volcanic eruption
developing country
Lava covered 1/3 of Goma including the runway meaning aid couldn't be brought in by air
around 350,000 people fled to neighbouring city Rwanda which became over populated and lead to looting
Shortage of supplies

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Mid Atlantic Ridge
Iceland
Volcano erupted under a glacier (phraetomagmatic) and lead to floods (jokullhaulp)
Massive ash clouds which made its way to Europe
International flights were cancelled and they lost £130m from closing the airport every day
High literacy rate and very well educated with high GDP
They responded quickly and there was no fatalities
Allowed them to develop there technologies and the ash cloud was tracked by the VAAC and IMO 24/7 to see its movements

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2010
poorest country in Western Hemisphere
the lacking infrastructure and overcrowding meant the death toll was extremely high and people were left homeless
the death toll was questioned as the government claimed it was more than it actually was to gain more international aid
the aid was delivered but it was not distributed correctly meaning people were without basic supplies and cholera outbroke
cholera killed 8,000 people
as it is a poor country they are still recovering from this disaster

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2005
first category 5 storm in the hurricane season in the Atlantic Region
they experience these often but the levees failed due to the soil it was built on meaning they broke and the water flooded straight through to Mississpi and Louisiana
Bush declared a state of emergency and to evacuate the area
destroyed everything in its path
they responded by developing the levee system and creating higher, stronger ones that may withstand the hurricane season

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2013
Hit Tacloban first and finally dissapated 5 days later in Southern China
The people were fatalists and had resilence
Lots of rural to urban migration so people were living in overcrowded areas so the poor people were the most affected
Japan responded by releasing 'Disaster Management in Japan' and they focused on increasing fire fighters and stronger buildings
They were critised for focusing on short term responses not a long term plan that could mitigate the impacts therefore they are focusing on plans that could do this however they are still on paper

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