ALL NATURAL HAZARDS. Capacity for intelligent emergency response, recovery and reconstructionis is essential for community resilience. Presentation courtesy of Dr Walter Hays, Global Alliance for Disaster Reduction

1. LOCATION

2. LESSONS LEARNED FROM
PAST NOTABLE DISASTERS
PART I: MEXICO

3. NATURAL HAZARDS THAT PLACE MEXICO’S
COMMUNITIES AT RISK
HURRICANES
GOAL: DISASTER
RESILIENCE EARTHQUAKES
ENACT AND IMPLEMENT TSUNAMIS
POLICIES HAVING HIGH
BENEFIT/COST FOR FLOODS
COMMUNITY RESILIENCE
VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS
LANDSLIDES

4. MEXICO CITY: MEXICO’S
MEGACITY CAPITOL

5. RISK ASSESSMENT
ACCEPTABLE RISK
•NATURAL HAZARDS
•BLDG. INVENTORY RISK
•VULNERABILITY UNACCEPTABLE RISK
•LOCATION
GOAL: DISASTER
MEXICO’S RESILIENCE
DATA BASES
AND INFORMATION COMMUNITIES
POLICY OPTIONS
• PREPAREDNESS
HAZARDS: •PROTECTION
GROUND SHAKING
GROUND FAILURE •EARLY WARNING
SURFACE FAULTING
TECTONIC DEFORMATION
•EMERGENCY RESPONSE
TSUNAMI RUN UP •RECOVERY and
AFTERSHOCKS
RECONSTRUCTION

6. TOWARDS DISASTER RESILIENCE
RISK ASSESSMENT
• VULNERABILITY
• COST
• EXPOSURE
NSTURAL
EXPECTED POLICY
HAZARDS
• EVENT LOSS • BENEFIT
ADOPTION
•CONSEQUENCES
POLICY ASSESSMENT

7. HURRICANES
MEXICO IS AT RISK FROM HURRICANES
FORMING IN THE ATLANTIC,
CARIBBEAN, AND GULF OF MEXICO AS
WELL AS IN THE EASTERN PACIFIC

8. CAUSES
OF
DAMAGE
WIND PENETRATING
BUILDING ENVELOPE
UPLIFT OF ROOF SYSTEM
FLYING DEBRIS
STORM SURGE
HURRICANES
IRREGULARITIES IN
“DISASTER
ELEVATION AND PLAN
LABORATORIES”
SITING PROBLEMS
FLOODING AND LANDSLIDES

9. HURRICANE DEAN
THE FIRST NORTH ATLANTIC
HURRICANE OF 2007 CAUSED
DEVASTATION FROM
CARIBBEAN ISLANDS TO MEXICO
A CATEGORY 2-3 STORM ON 17 AUGUST
2007
A CATEGORY 4 STORM ON 18 AUGUST 2007
A CATEGORY 5 STORM ON 20 AUGUST

10. LESSONS LEARNED ABOUT
DISASTER RESILIENCE
• ALL HURICANES
• WITHOUT
ADEQUATE
PROTECTION, HIGH
VELOCITY WIND
WILL LIFT THE
ROOF OFF OF
MANY BUILDINGS.

11. LESSONS LEARNED FOR
DISASTER RESILIENCE
• ALL HURRICANES
• PROTECTION
MEANS THAT YOU
UNDERSTAND THE
RISKS ASSOCIATED
WITH HIGH
VELOCITY WIND
AND PLAN IN
ADVANCE.

12. COORDINATED PLANNING BY USA,
MEXICO, AND CANADA
• President Bush met with the
leaders of Mexico and Canada on
Monday, August 20th to continue
coordinated planning of mutual
assistance before the arrival of
Hurricane Dean.

13. PEMEX OIL AND GAS
PLATFORM IN GULF OF MEXICO

14. LESSONS LEARNED ABOUT
DISASTER RESILIENCE
• ALL HURRICANES.
• DISASTER-
INTELLIGENT
COMMUNITIES USE
TIMELY EARLY
WARNING BASED ON
CRITICAL INFORM-
ATION TO IMPROVE
THE ODDS FOR
SURVIVAL.

15. PATH OF DEAN: 20-21 AUGUST
2007

16. ADVANCE PREPARTIONS IN
THE GULF OF MEXICO
• The Gulf has 4,000 multi-million
dollar oil and gas platforms and
facilities that are at risk from
hurricane Dean’s strong winds and
high waves.
• Hurricanes in 2004 and 2005
flooded oil refineries, toppled oil
rigs, and cut pipelines.

17. ADVANCE PREPARTIONS OF
FACILITIES AT RISK IN THE GULF
• Pemex, Mexico’s oil company, began
evacuating 13,500 workers from its oil rigs
in the Gulf of Mexico on Monday, August 20.
• Petroleos Mexicanos evacuated all 18,000
offshore workers and shut down production
rigs on the Bay of Campeche.
• This action resulted in a loss of revenue
from daily production of 2.7 million barrels
of oil and 2.6 billion cubic feet of natural gas

18. FOOD AND WATER GONE;
CANCUN, MEXICO: AUGUST 19

19. REMEMBERING WILMA, TOURISTS
LEAVE CANCUN: AUGUST 19

20. 50,000 TOURISTS LEFT MEXICO
BY AUGUST 20

21. CHETUMAL: TAKING SHELTER
IN A SCHOOL; AUGUST 20

22. HURRICANE DEAN AT
LANDFALL: AUGUST 21
• Hurricane Dean made landfall at
Majahual, Mexico as a category 5 storm
with winds of 165 mi/hr.
• Just before landfall, Dean had a
minimum central pressure of 906
millibars, the third lowest pressure
after the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane in
the Florida Keys and Hurricane Gilbert
in 1988.

23. HURRICANE DEAN’S
LANDFALL: AUGUST 21
• Hurricane Dean’s landfall at Majahual,
a port popular with cruise liners, was
“good luck” for the people of Mexico.
• This location was a sparsely populated
coastline that had already been
evacuated, so none of the major
resorts took a direct hit, and after a few
hours, dean became a CAT 2 storm.

24. MAYANS AT RISK: AUGUST 21
• Hurricane Dean threatened the
Yucatan’s most vulnerable people —
the Mayans, who have not benefited
from tourism or oil production.
• They are poor, living simple lives, in
wooden slat houses susceptible to
wind damage that are located in low-
lying areas prone to flooding.

25. LOCATION OF MEXICO’S MAYAN
COMMUNITIES

26. IMPACTS IN MAJAHUAL
• Hundreds of homes collapsed in
Mexico’s second busiest cruise ship
destination.
• Steel girders collapsed and wooden
structures splintered from the force of
the wind.
• About one-half the concrete dock
washed away in the storm surge.

27. MAJAHUAL LANDFALL: 270 KM/HR
(165 MI/HR) WINDS; AUGUST 21

28. CHETUMAL: FLOODING ON
AUGUST 21

29. BACALAR: FLOODING; AUGUST
21

30. HURRICANE DEAN’S SECOND
LANDFALL: TECOLUTLA, MEXICO

31. THE SECOND LANDFALL IN
MEXICO: AUGUST 22
• Hurricane Dean crossed the Bay of
Campeche and made a second landfall
as a category 2 storm on Wednesday,
August 22.
• Landfall was at Tecolutla, a fishing
town in the state of Veracruz on the
Central Mexican coast, about 660 km
(400 mi) from the border with Texas.

32. PRESIDENT FELIPE CALDERON
VISITS CHETUMAL: AUGUST 22

33. STORM SURGE AND HEAVY
RAINFALL: AUGUST 22
• Hurricane Dean’s storm surge flooded
Ciuidad del Carmen, a town of 120,000,
with waist deep sea water.
• Heavy rain fall accompanying Dean,
now a category 1 storm, caused rivers
to rise rapidly in a region that
experienced flooding and landslides in
1999.

34. MAYAN COMMUNITIES
SEVERELY IMPACTED
• Mexico’s Mayan communities have
survived many damaging storms and
centuries of oppression, but surviving
Hurricane Dean’s impacts on their
livelihood was one of their greatest
challenge ever.
• The greatest impact was NOT the
thousands of destroyed Mayan homes,
but the loss of food.

35. EARTHQUAKES
EARTHQUAKES LIKE THE
SEPTEMBER 19, 1985 QUAKE OCCUR
MAINLY AS A RESULT OF
INTERACTIONS OF THE COCOS AND
NORTH AMERICAN PLATES

36. SUBDUCTION: COCOS AND
NORTH AMERICAN PLATES

37. LESSONS LEARNED FOR
DISASTER RESILIENCE
• ALL NOTABLE
EARTHQUAKES
• PREPAREDNESS
PLANNING FOR
THE INEVITABLE
GROUND
SHAKING IS
ESSENTIAL FOR
COMMUNITY
RESILIENCE.

38. CAUSES
OF
DAMAGE
INADEQUATE RESISTANCE TO
HORIZONTAL GROUND SHAKING
SOIL AMPLIFICATION
PERMANENT DISPLACEMENT
(SURFACE FAULTING & GROUND
FAILURE)
IRREGULARITIES IN ELEVATION
EARTHQUAKES AND PLAN
“DISASTER TSUNAMI WAVE RUNUP
LABORATORIES”
POOR DETAILING AND WEAK
CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS
FRAGILITY OF NON-STRUCTURAL
ELEMENTS

39. LESSONS LEARNED FOR
DISASTER RESILIENCE
• ALL NOTABLE
EARTHQUAKES
• PROTECTION OF
BUILDINGS AND
INFRASTRUCTURE
IS ESSENTIAL
FOR COMMUNITY
RESILIENCE.

40. SCHOOL: MEXICO CITY; M8.1
QUAKE, SEPTEMBER 19, 1985

41. MEXICO CITY-- 400 BUILDINGS IN
OLD LAKE BED ZONE DAMAGED

42. HOTEL REGIS: COLLAPSE

43. TSUNAMIS
M8 SUBDUCTION ZONE
EARTHQUAKES USUALLY GENERATE
TSUNAMIS

44. TSUNAMI HAZARD
• TSUNAMIS ARE LONG-
PERIOD WATER
WAVES CAUSED BY
THE VERTICAL UPLIFT
OF THE OCEAN
FLOOR DURING A
M8.0 OR GREATER
EARTHQUAKE.

45. CAUSES
OF
DAMAGE
HIGH VELOCITY IMPACT OF
INCOMING WAVES
INLAND DISTANCE OF WAVE
RUNUP
VERTICAL HEIGHT OF WAVE
RUNUP
INADEQUATE RESISTANCE OF
TSUNAMIS BUILDINGS
“DISASTER FLOODING
LABORATORIES”
INADEQUATE HORIZONTAL
AND VERTICAL EVACUATION
PROXIMITY TO SOURCE OF
TSUNAMI

46. FLOODS
FLOODS ARE TYPICALLY
ASSOCIATED WITH STRONG
THUNDERSTORMS OR HURRICANES

47. 70 % OF MEXICO’S TABASCO
STATE UNDER WATER: NOV 2, 2007

48. CAUSES
OF RISK
LOSS OF FUNCTION OF
STRUCTURES IN FLOODPLAIN
INUNDATION
INTERACTION WITH
HAZARDOUS MATERIALS
STRUCTURE & CONTENTS:
FLOODS DAMAGE FROM WATER
DISASTER WATER BORNE DISEASES
LABORATORIES (HEALTH PROBLEMS)
EROSION AND MUDFLOWS
CONTAMINATION OF GROUND
WATER

49. VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS
EXPLOSIVE VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS
ARE ASSOCIATED WITH SUBDUCTION
ZONES.

50. ACTIVE VOLCANOES

51. EXPLOSIVE VOLCANOES OCCUR
IN SUBDUCTION ZONES

52. ERUPTION OF POPOCATEPL
PLACES MEXICO CITY AT RISK

53. CAUSES
OF RISK
LATERAL BLAST
PYROCLASTIC FLOWS
FLYING DEBRIS
VOLCANIC VOLCANIC ASH
ERUPTIONS
LAVA FLOWS
CASE HISTORIES
LAHARS
TOXIC GASES

54. LANDSLIDES
LARGE VOLUME LANDSLIDES ARE
TYPICALLY ASSOCIATED WITH
EARTHQUAKE GROUND SHAKING
AND HURRICANES RAINFALL

55. LANDSLIDE FOLLOWING HEAVY
RAINS IN MEXICO: JULY 2007

56. CAUSES
OF
DAMAGE
SITING AND BUILDING ON
UNSTABLE SLOPES
SOIL AND ROCK SUCEPTIBLE
TO FALLS
SOIL AND ROCK SUCEPTIBLE
TO TOPPLES
SOIL AND ROCK SUCEPTIBLE
LANDSLIDES TO SPREADS
SOIL AND ROCK
CASE HISTORIES SUSCEPTIBLE TO FLOWS
PRECIPITATION THAT
TRIGGERS SLOPE FAILURE
SHAKING
GROUND SHAKING THAT
TRIGGERS SLOPE FAILURE

57. LESSONS LEARNED FOR
DISASTER RESILIENCE
• ALL NATURAL
HAZARDS
• CAPACITY FOR
INTELLIGENT
EMERGENCY
RESPONSE IS
ESSENTIAL FOR
COMMUNITY
RESILIENCE.

58. LESSONS LEARNED FOR
DISASTER RESILIENCE
• ALL NATURAL
HAZARDS
• CAPACITY FOR
RECOVERY AND
RECONSTRUCTION
IS ESSENTIAL FOR
COMMUNITY
RESILIENCE.