Geography 2152F/G Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Nuclear Meltdown, Love Canal, Eastern Canada
14 Feb 2019
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Geo 2152 – Week 2 Lecture
1
Documenting Disasters
• Maintaining databases on disaster events can be difficult. Why?
o Disasters can co-occur (hurricanes cause floods, earthquakes cause landslides, etc.)
o Mortality can be difficult to count (famine, drought, epidemics)
o A general lack of census taking (in developing countries)
Identifying Disasters
• Some people may consider certain events to be disasters while other people may not.
• Examples:
o Eastern Canada 1998 Ice Storm (disaster)
▪ No power for 4 days in the middle of winter in Eastern Ontario and Quebec (in the middle of January)
o Walkerton tainted water (disaster)
▪ Water supply was contaminated, 7 people died for E. coli poisoning from the manure in the fields
o Canada/U.S. 14-hour power blackout
▪ 2003 – widespread blackout, 100 million people were without power
o Love Canal toxic waste spill (disaster)
▪ Near Niagara Falls, chemical spill in the canal, lead to birth defects
o Three Mile Island nuclear meltdown
▪ Meltdown in Pennsylvania in the 1970s
• Therefore, a specific definition of a disaster has been developed.
Defining Disasters
• What events officially qualify as a ‘disaster’?
• A threshold has been developed by the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED):
o 10 or more deaths per event (OR)
o 100 or more persons affected (injured, homeless, etc.) (OR)
o Government declaration of disaster (OR)
o Plea for international assistance
• Droughts can be considered to be economic hazard for developed countries but a huge problem including
deaths for developing countries
• Exceptions to the CRED threshold:
o For droughts or famines, at least 2000 persons affected
o For technological, 5+ deaths per event
Disasters and Statistics
• Statistical data is reported in absolute terms (number of casualties, billions of dollars in damage, etc.)
• The impact of losses is felt differently from one place to the next.
o Example:
▪ 10 fishers lost in a remote village of 200 people versus 10 factory workers in a city of 200,000
o Therefore, statistics must be placed in a community/regional context
Media & Disasters
• The media tends to concentrate on:
o Human interest (ex. Ratings)
o Visual impact
o Events close to home (proximity to the area of interest) (ex. Hurricane Florence)
o Prioritized according to North American perspective
• In a study by Adams (1986), in terms of media attention, the death of one North American = the deaths of:
o 3 eastern Europeans 9 Latin Americans
o 11 Middle Easterners 12 Asians
Geo 2152 – Week 2 Lecture
2
Disasters and Impacts
• Impacts vary greatly by disaster type.
• Example:
o Earthquakes tend to cause more deaths
o Floods affect more people (homelessness) but
have fewer casualties
• Droughts only causes economic losses (agriculture)
in developed countries but they can lead to famine
in developing countries
• Technological disasters are more likely to occur in
industrialized countries.
Disaster Impact Trends
• Most impacts have increased over time:
o Property damage
o Economic losses
o Persons injured
o Deaths
• Impacts have not increased in equal proportions.
• Economic losses have increased at a faster rate than deaths
Increase in Impacts
• Why are disaster impacts increasing?
• Why are developing countries more affected?
• Answers to these questions can be found through case studies.
o Example:
▪ Haiti Earthquake (2010)
Haiti Earthquake
• Haiti has been the poorest country in the western hemisphere for many
years.
• The M7.0 earthquake occurred on Jan. 12, 2010.
• It is one of the worst natural disasters in history: the death toll was over
160,000.
• The epicenter was 25 km from Port-au-Prince (the capital city). Most
buildings in the city were destroyed.
o A similar earthquake happened in New Zealand but there
were no deaths because they are developed, Haiti is
developing not developed
• The earthquake occurred along a transform fault.
• The destruction was enhanced by poor construction materials and a
lack of building codes.
• Buildings in Japan, BC or San Francisco are built to withstand such impact
• Landslides affected slums in the hillsides surrounding the city.
o A lot of the deaths were caused by the landslides associated with the quake
• The 2nd floor of the presidential palace collapsed as did the prison allowing 4000 inmates to escape.
• Slums surrounding big cities, no standards for these buildings
Document Summary
1: maintaining databases on disaster events can be difficult. Documenting disasters: disasters can co-occur (hurricanes cause floods, earthquakes cause landslides, etc. , mortality can be difficult to count (famine, drought, epidemics, a general lack of census taking (in developing countries) Some people may consider certain events to be disasters while other people may not. 2003 widespread blackout, 100 million people were without power. Love canal toxic waste spill (disaster: near niagara falls, chemical spill in the canal, lead to birth defects, three mile island nuclear meltdown, meltdown in pennsylvania in the 1970s. Therefore, a specific definition of a disaster has been developed. For droughts or famines, at least 2000 persons affected. Statistical data is reported in absolute terms (number of casualties, billions of dollars in damage, etc. ) The impact of losses is felt differently from one place to the next: example:
