LESSONS LEARNED FROM PAST NOTABLE DISASTERS. PART I: MEXICO

1. LESSONS LEARNED FROM PAST NOTABLE DISASTERS. PART I: MEXICO Walter Hays, Global Alliance for Disaster Reduction, Vienna, Virginia, USA 

2. LOCATION

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

4. MEXICO CITY: MEXICO’S MEGACITY CAPITOL

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

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

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 ELEVATION AND PLAN “DISASTER LABORATORIES” SITING PROBLEMS FLOODING AND LANDSLIDES

9. HURRICANE DEANTHE 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 TIMELYEARLY 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 SHAKINGIS 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 AND PLAN EARTHQUAKES TSUNAMI WAVE RUNUP “DISASTER 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 BUILDINGS TSUNAMIS FLOODING “DISASTER 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: DAMAGE FROM WATER FLOODS WATER BORNE DISEASES (HEALTH PROBLEMS) DISASTER LABORATORIES EROSION AND MUDFLOWS CONTAMINATION OF GROUND WATER

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

50. ACTIVE VOLCANOES