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ASIA VULNERABLE TO NEW ORLEANS-STYLE TRAGEDY
By Shingo Ito, AFP
Haveeru, Maldives, September 8, 2005
KOBE, Japan, Sept 7 - Hurricane Katrina should be a wake-up call that
a similar cyclone or typhoon could strike Asia, which is home to nearly
90 percent of the world's natural disasters and has major vulnerabilities,
a researcher said Wednesday.
Some 30 typhoons build annually in the Pacific, the latest one drenching
stretches of Japan this week, and 25 to 30 cyclones are whipped up each
year in the Indian Ocean.
"The devastation of Hurricane Katrina is a lesson to be learned
for Asia, which suffers from more natural disasters than any other region,"
said Masaru Arakida, senior researcher at the Asian Disaster Reduction
Center, which was set up in Kobe, Japan following its major 1995 earthquake.
"It would be no surprise if a cyclone or typhoon of a similar scale
to Hurricane Katrina hits Asia and triggers a similar tragedy sometime
in the future," Arakida told AFP.
Asia has stepped up disaster prevention measures since December's massive
tsunami catastrophe, with Indian Ocean nations installing warning systems
for the seismic waves and teaching survival methods.
But Arakida said much of the continent did not have the infrastructure
in place to prevent a much more common disaster.
He said Asia should learn from the example of New Orleans and assess
whether cities have enough protection to hold off the waters.
Floods each year swamp swathes of Asia's developing countries, with 400
killed this summer when parts of Mumbai was submerged.
"There is much room for improvement in anti-disaster measures in
China, while the Philippines, prone to various kinds of natural disasters,
should also boost prevention measures further," Arakida said.
But he said there were also risks for rich cities such as Tokyo, which
is partly under sea level but has entrusted nature for protection as peninsulas
separate Tokyo Bay from the Pacific Ocean.
"Even Tokyo can easily fall victim," he warned. "We cannot
deny possibilities that tens of thousands of people could be killed or
injured if a strong typhoon hits the very areas below sea level in the
capital."
Some 89 percent of the people affected by natural disasters between 1975
and 2003 were from Asia, the world's biggest continent, compared with
7.1 percent in Africa and 2.9 percent in the Americas, according to the
Kobe center.
Of the Asian victims, 70 percent suffered the powerful winds and flooding
from typhoons, cyclones or seasonal monsoons in a continent also prone
to earthquakes and tsunamis.
In economic terms, Asia lost 374 billion dollars from disasters between
1991 and 2000, which does not include the catastrophic effect of last
year's tsunamis.
Floods have impacts on all 25 member countries in Asia except Singapore,
the center said, with China suffering enormous damage.
In 1931, China suffered what is considered the deadliest natural disaster
of the 20th century, the Yellow River floods that killed some 3.7 million
people from drowning, disease and hunger. Another flood in China in 1959
killed two million people.
More recently, up to 500,000 people died when a cyclone hit Bangladesh
in 1970.
http://www.haveeru.com.mv/?page=engdetails&id=5674
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