Comparing the 2004 Indian Ocean and 1993 Hokkaido tsunamis

Deadliest Tsunami

The Indian Ocean Tsunami on 2004 was one of the worst that the region has ever experienced over a very long period of time. It reached a magnitude of 9.0 and originated from the Indian Ocean at the North West coast of the Indonesia island of Sumatra. There were waves of up to 15 meters in height and the waves travelled to distances of up to 5,000 kilometers inland with sufficient force to cause damage and kill people (National Geographic News, 2005).

There were a total of eighteen countries that were significantly affected by this tsunami namely: Indonesia, Thailand, India, Sri-Lanka, Malaysia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Maldives, Reunion Island (French), Seychelles, Madagascar, Mauritius, Somalia, Tanzania, Kenya, Oman, South Africa and Australia (George Pararas, 2005a). As of February 10, 2005 the death toll that had been accurately taken tolled to 226,566 people. This death toll was an underestimation as the demography of this region was poor with several islands like the Nicobar, Maldives and some at the east coast of Africa being a remote that the death toll might have not taken into account these regions hence, the total death toll was estimated to around 300,000 people at the end of it.

The Tsunami had a profound effect on infrastructure with the worst casualty being Indonesia. Apart from 127,774 people being killed, 655,000 people being displaced from their homes, there were a total of 110 bridges that were destroyed, 5 seaports were destroyed as well as considerable damage felt in two airports. A massive 82% of all the roads in Indonesia were severely damaged (George Pararas, 2005a). In other areas like Banda Aceh (capital city of Northern Sumatra), the city was totally destroyed and thousands of people killed, a neighboring city of Leupung was completely destroyed with only around seven hundred people surviving. Gleebruk, a village to the south west of Banda was totally obliterated, Tounom town was also destroyed leaving only 10,000 people out of 18,000 people. Calang was also destroyed with a paltry 30% surviving the tragedy and all the major infrastructure destroyed. Sameulue island was also grounded 90% of all the buildings, as well as the neighboring island of Nias that had all the infrastructure destroyed.

In Thailand the Indian Ocean tsunami the effect was massive as well with beachfront hotels, houses as well as other infrastructure destroyed with a recorded death of 5,313 people and 4,499 missing people. In India the situation was no better with 16,000 people reported dead and at least 6,000 missing. Some islands in Indian were completely obliterated, with some like Trinket split into two, in Tamil Nadu city the entire coastal villages were destroyed.

Sri-Lanka also suffered the wrath of the tsunami with naval base being submerged and train with 1,600 people onboard being derailed from the course leaving only 300 people alive, this was due to a wave that travelled 2 kilometers inland. A total of 50,000 people died in the aftermath of the tsunami.

The remaining areas were minimally affected with some areas recording as low number of deaths as one person like in Kenya or no death at all like in Australia. In such areas, minimal destruction of property took place, some just having the anchored boats destroyed or slight flooding in the beach hotels.

The Hokkaido (1993) tsunami was way lesser in scale and destruction as compared to the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004. The magnitude of the earthquake that occasioned it was 7.8, it is estimated that 239 people only died. A total of 558 houses were destroyed in the aftermath that was estimated at $600 million in destroyed property (George Pararas, 2005b). There waves to the height of 10 meters that crashed the coastal lines.

The relatively low destruction of property can be attributed to the lower magnitude of the earthquake that caused the tsunami hence occasioning a relatively less violent Tsunami. There were however some areas like Monai that the entire villages were destroyed, Aonea where gas lines were destroyed and gas storages occasioning a fire that did majority of the destruction of the remaining infrastructure.