Disaster preparedness inthe South Pacific

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A Paper presented at the South Pacific Disaster Preparedness andRelief Seminar, Suva, Fiji, in September, 1976.

By JAMES LEWIS, Dister Research UnitUniversity of Bradford /CommonwealthSecretariat.

EARTHQUAKES

The earthquake which occured in Novem-ber 1970 at_Madang in what was then Nor-thern New Guinea, was recorded at a mag-nitude of 7.1 on the Richter Scale, and ef-fects of it were felt over an area of 10,000square kilometres. Its damage was assessedat the time at almost $A1,750,000. Taking ac-count of inflation that sum would now be$A2V2 million. Many landslides causeddamage to buildings, services and crops anda submarine cable was broken; 15 peoplelost their lives.

On September 14, 1953, Suva and South-East Viti Levu of Fiji experienced an ear-thquake which was followed by a tsunami.The earthquake was felt over an area of 340square miles and registered 6.75 on theRichter Scale. There was much damage toproperty and 60 miles of trans-Pacific sub-marine cable were carried away by a giantslide of the ocean floor. Suva wharf, badlydamaged by hurricane in 1952 was severelydamaged for a second time; the accom-panying tsunami, 50 feet high at the reefand generally six feet high thereafter,

created a 15-foot wave at Kadavu, killed twopeople and wrecked many boats.

In June 1917, an earthquake on Upolu,Western Samoa, registered 8.3 on theRichter Scale and caused considerabledamage to buildings in Apia, causing fires,creating landslides and initiating a tsunamiwhich demolished a sea wall at Lotofagaand flooded houses and plantations.

TSUNAMIS

A tsunami initiated by a Chilean earth-quake in 1960 created sea waves of bet-ween one and two metres in height along thecoast of Bouganiville, New Britain andmainland coastlines of Papua New Guinea.

Another tsunami to affect San Christobalhad a recorded wave height of between fourand 20 metres and destroyed 18 villageskilling 50 people.

A tsunami in 1930 in the Ninigo Islandgroup of Papua New Guinea caused wavesup to ten metres high, wrecked villages andkilled 11 people.

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In 1895, a wave two metres high struckBuna Bay in what was then East Papua andkilled 26 people.

But what is said to have been the mostdisastrous tsunami yet known in Papua WewGuinea resulted from the volcanic explosionof Ritter Island in 1888 and has been com=—pared to the overwhelming tsunami whichfollowed the Krakatoa (Indonesia) eruptionof 1883, one of the world's worst disasterevents: waves up to 12 metres high resulted.

In the Cook Islands, a tsunami in 1926swept right over the island of Palmerston.

ACTIVE VOLCANOES

In the Solomon Islands in 1971, thevolcanic island of Tinakula erupted and lavapoured down from the peak for two months;the population of 160 had to be evacuated.

The population of Manam Island had to beevacuated in 1958 for eight months whileflows of hot lava solidified to depths of 50feet, and 12-inch deposits of ash ruined sub-sistence gardens.

Probably one of the most catastrophicvolcanic eruptions of recent times occurredin Papua New Guinea for six months in 1951when Mount Lamington sent an avalancheof hot lava sweeping down its slopes with'hurricane force velocities.' Ninety squaremiles were devastated and secondary'micro' disasters were caused by theflooding of lava-blocked rivers, mud flowsand disrupted roadways and river crossings.Five thousand people had to be evacuatedand another 4000 people died.

In 1937, an eruption of Mount Matupi ad-jacent to Rabual of New Britain caused theevacuation of Rabaul which was then thecapital city and seat of the government ofNew Guinea.

In 1945, the island of Niuafo'ou in Tongawas severely damaged by volcanic eruptionand considerable damage was done toproperty and crops. Nearly all of govern-ment headquarters on the island wasdestroyed including a wireless station, coprasheds, lighters and £20,000 worth of copraawaiting shipment. The entire population of1300 was evacuated to the island of Eua inthe South (but by 1971 half of them hadreturned).

Niuafo'ou was previously volcanically ac-tive in 1929 when one town and a third of thecultivated land on the island were com-pletely destroyed.

In Western Samoa, Mount Matavanu onSavai'i erupted intermittently for six yearsbetween 1905 and 1911 damaging plantationsand crops and causing evacuation of manyvillages.

Earthquake, volcanic eruption and tsunami belong to agroup of seimically generated or tectonic disturbanceswhich result in disaster. A second and equally significantgroup are those disasters caused by atmospheric distur-bance.

HURRICANES

One of the earliest records of serious ef-fects of hurricane comes from the CookIslands where a coasting schooner waspicked up and carried inland over coconutpalms at Rarotonga in 1846.

In 1883, it is recorded that a hurricane atApia, Western Samoa, carried seven shipson to the shore and that a 'slight'earthquake occurred at the same time.

One of the most severe hurricanes in Fijioccurred in 1929 and caused serious damageon Vanua Levu, Rotuma, Mokogai and Gau.Several trading vessels were lost, 12 peopledied, crops suffered and there is a contem-

Mount Lamington in Papua New Guinea eruptedon 21 January, 1951, throwing a gas column40,000 feet above the crater.

porary estimate of £60,000 worth of struc-tural damage at Labasa (that would beF$132,000 at today's prices).

In 1931, Labasa was again severelydamaged by hurricane which also destroyedLautoka and 200 lives were lost in sub-sequent flooding.

More recently in 1960 on Niue, a hurricanedemolished 750 of the 850 houses on theisland, which again suffered severehurricane damage in 1968.

In 1961, Tonga suffered extensive damageon the islands of Vava'u and Ha'apai wheresubsistence and export crops sufferedseverely, housing was damaged, two people

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On April 18, 1926, the fishing village ofHoapiuoaLanding, Hawaii, was wiped out when the lavastream from Mauna Loa engulfed it. Thisremarkable aerial shot shows the flow, 50 feethigh and 1500 feet wide, approaching the village.

died and 8,000 others required emergencyshelter.

Two tropical storms struck WesternSamoa in 1966 and 1968 causing severedamage to crops and long term reductionsto agricultural exports.

Winds of 100 mph occurred in a hurricanewhich severely damaged port facilities atHoniara, Solomon Islands in 1967 and a num-ber of villages were also destroyed.

• In 1971, the Solomon Islands were againstruck by hurricane 'Ursula' at Santa Annaand all houses on that island were destroyedleaving one person dead, and 2,500 homeless.

But it was in October 1972 (earlier thanthe usual hurricane 'season') that onehurricane formation, hurricane 'Bebe', af-fected at least four countries. The island ofFunafuti, the principal island of Tuvalu, wasthe first to be almost completely destroyedby 'Bebe'. With winds reaching 180 mph, 95per cent of all houses (all but two) on theisland were destroyed, and 700 people weremade homeless; all generating and radio

equipment was destroyed, five people werekilled, four fishing vessels were wreckedand a large section of the coral reef was lif-ted and carried on-shore. On the islands ofFiji, 'Bebe' was the worst hurricane for 20years. Over 4000 bures and 2500 houses weretotally or partially destroyed with another1100 bures and houses slightly damaged and120,000 people made homeless (a fifth of thecountry's population) and in need ofemergency feeding for six months. Eighteenpeople were killed. Airports were closed andout of action, bridges collapsed, roads werebroken, telecommunications were disruptedand water pipelines fractured. 'Bebe' wenton to cause lesser damage in the islands ofTonga and on Niue.

Before there had been anywhere nearenough time to recover from hurricane'Bebe', Fiji suffered hurricane 'Juliette' inApril 1973, destroying almost 14,000 buresand houses and having a disastrous effect onthe lives of 160,000 people (35 per cent of thecountry's population). 'Juliette' went on toTonga and caused severe damage to crops,housing, schools and churches on sevenislands and in 17 villages.

In December of the same year (1973),hurricane 'Lottie' struck Kadayu and theSouthen Lau group of Fijian islands anddestroyed 1400 homes and 40 schools. Fifteenthousand people had to be rationed and

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10,000 of them experienced their secondhurricane in eight months. Two inter-islandships were lost and 74 people were drowned.

The Lau group of islands were againstruck by hurricane 'VaT in January 1975destroying 75 per cent of homes, severelydamaging 25 schools, and causing 22,080-people to be rationed for six months. Tenthousand people suffered their third serioushurricanes in less than two years.

DROUGHT

Drought has been by comparison a gentlerand slower disaster event but capable ofcomparable disruption and deprivation. Inthe Gilbert Islands 1916-1917 had a seriousperiod of drought during which exports ofcopra were severely reduced.

Another period of drought is recorded(amongst others) for 1934 when 'foodproducing trees practically ceased toproduce and an outbreak of beri-beri and thelack of fresh food killed a number ofnatives.'

It is interesting to note that a period ofdrought during 1973 and 1974 ended a seasonof particularly high coconut production af-fected by the high rainfall of 1972-1973 — nodoubt drastically increased by hurricane'Bebe.' The ending of one disaster for somewas brought about by another disaster forothers.

I have recently attempted to assess thetotal losses from all disasters over the ten-year period of 1966-1975 for the ten membercountries of the South Pacific Bureau forEconomic Co-operation (Lewis, 1976). Byadjusting a summation of recorded lossesover this period to allow for inflation, a totalof $A37.5 million resulted. That is ap-proximately ten dollars for each man,woman and child now in those ten countriesand represents an annual average loss percountry of $A0.375 million, which is 1.15 percent of the average GNP at market pricesfor 1973. To these assessments of primaryloss must be added assessments for secon-dary losses caused in particular byevacuation and migration resulting from orexacerbated by natural disasters.

The overall resulting interruption,debilitation and postponement of plans fordevelopment are another important area ofsecondary loss that has yet to be examinedin detail. Another factor is the increase inthe amount of development since earlierdisaster occurances and the present, and thecorresponding increase in disaster lossesthat would accrue now in similar events dueto increased development. As developmentincreases so does vulnerability to lossesfrom disaster.

These were some of the results of disaster

occurrences in the South Pacific. As thispaper was being prepared an earthquakewith a magnitude of 7.1 occurred in Irian,Jaya, the neighbour of Papua New Guinea,killing 443 people and leaving 3,000 peopleunaccounted for. Two other earthquakes oc-curred in -Indonesia in the same months andanother in July 1976, an earthquake ocurredbetween New Hebrides, New Caledonia andFiji on August 2 and an earthquake in theCelebese Sea on August 16 sent a 15-ft.tsunami into the South coast of MindanaoIsland of the Philippines killing at least 2,000people and leaving as many homeless.Japan experienced its worst typhoon in 15years in September. Such events are thusnot events of a distant past but are with usall the time. We can sadly be sure of themand other disaster events occurring in thefuture.

The brief descriptions I have given havebeen retrospective. They are a summary ofsome of the effects of some past events.How are we to anticipate disaster events ofthe future that we know will occur and howare we to mitigate their effects. What isdisaster? and wfeat, therefore, -is prepared-ness?

The first part of my question may seemfacile. We of the South Pacific know whatdisasters are already. But I am going tosuggest that it is insufficient to think ofdisasters entirely in terms of the naturalphenomena which initiates them. What wehave tended to take for granted in our at-titudes to disaster is that they affect us —they affect people. Without people there can-not be a disaster. There can certainly be them a n i f e s t a t i o n o f e x t r e m e n a t u r a lphenomena, but an earthquake under thesea or the volcanic eruptions of anuninhabited island does not cause a disaster(assuming there to be no tsunami which isexperienced elsewhere!)

A hurricane in Suva in 1958 caused this damageto coconut trees planted in sandy soil.

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This is not a mere academic observationbecause it follows that if people are anecessary constituent for disaster then thecondition and situation of those people, theirsocio-economic environment that is, is assignificant, when we come to assess disasterpotential, as is the natural phenomenon it-self (Baird et al, 1975);—Extreme naturalphenomena are the disaster agent. Disasteroccurs where the agent meets a vulnerablehuman settlement (Baird et al, 1975).

Attention to disaster occurrence by theworld press and television and bymonitoring systems encourages all of us, asoutsiders to situations being experienced byothers, to consider disasters as single eventsof one kind or another. The potential victim,on the other hand, the insider in hisvulnerable settlement, finds himself in acontinual state of risk from disasters of alland whatever kind all of the time. His lossand deprivation is assured at each oc-currence but the degree of that loss relatesto his condition and situation rather more Iwould suggest than to the type of thenatural event. In any case he is affected inmuch the same way, in terms of hisdeprivation, whatever 'type' of disaster hasoccurred. In human terms as well as socio-economic values, 'disaster' is common fromwhatever the cause.

Natural events which lead to disaster aretherefore an extreme manifestation of aday-to-day situation. Vulnerability to disasteris the degree by which a community is at risk toextreme natural phenomena which it has not thecapacity to absorb (Westgate 1976). It is day-to-day therefore because:

1. The state of hazard condition is con-tinuous.2. Disaster potential is conditioned by thesocio-economic condition of settlementswhich is subject to adjustment continually.

Furthermore, the taking of precautionsagainst disaster occurs before the disasteroccurrence, but more realistically becausethere will usually have been previousdisasters, precautions take place betweend isas te r s . There fore , and th i rd ly ,precautions have to be continuous and day-to-day as:

3. Precaution is the manifestation ofawareness of the continual hazard state.

Precaution for disaster is therefore anaspect of planning and is part of what hasbeen called predisaster planning or just sim-ply precautionary planning.

Precautionary planning is the policy of im-plementation over time which sets as its objectivethe mitigation of the effects of disaster by a com-prehensive co-ordination of indigenous resourcesand infrastructure (Westgate, 1976). As an ap-plied science precautionary planning has

been developed to answer the need for aprecautionary strategy against the results ofdisaster events, the probability of which isknown. It takes as its base the premise thata government has a responsibility to do allin its power to protect life and property ofits people, to safeguard their health andwelfare and to provide public servicesessential to the national well-being and com-mensurate with the nation's capacity(Lewis, 1975).

It is important to emphasise here that justas the disaster potential is conditioned bythe socio-economic condition of a settlement,so is the capacity for taking precautions.The relationship of disaster impact anddisaster precautions with the developmentprocess is now therefore clearly apparentand there are now two approaches,simultaneous and not alternative ap-proaches, to precautionary planning. One isto attend to the needs of settlements as theyexist now. The other is to take steps toreduce the vulnerability of future set-tlements or the vulnerability of developmentthat has not already taken place. To under-take either one without attention to the otherwould be an inadequate response.

This is important because if the socio-economic condition is to be changed then thedevelopment process must be aware ofdisaster potential and its own capacity toreduce or exacerbate that potential.Development has within its power thecapacity to reduce vulnerability in the longterm (Baird et al, 1975). This capacity toreduce vulnerability in the long term is aprincipal part of what has been called'disaster prevention'.

Disaster prevention may be described asmeasures designed to prevent naturalphenomena from causing or resulting indisaster.

Although it is a term I use daily, I find itdifficult to accept until clarified by ananalogy to preventive medicine. It seems tome to be presumptious in the extreme, evenin the terms of which I have described thedisaster process, to assume the capacity tototally prevent disaster. Mitigation is to mea more appropriate explanation of this im-portant part of precautionary planning.

Disaster preparedness may be describedas action designed to minimise loss of lifeand damage, and to organise and facilitatetimely and effective rescue, relief andrehabilitation in cases of disaster which can-not be avoided.

Disas t e r prevention and disasterpreparedness, relief and rehabilitation goclosely together to form the comprehensiveconcept of precautionary planning. Ac-tivities under these headings can be relatedto the time phases of a disaster occurrence.These phases are:

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Prevention, Warning (where any ispossible), Strike, Emergency, Relief,Rehabilitation and Reconstruction.

These phases are of variable and indeter-minate time and diffuse in operation andthey will vary according to location and todisaster.

In relating the activities of precautions tothese time phases, it is clear that some canbe carried out in preparation for a disasterthat will occur in the near future, whileothers, these for relief and rehabilitation,cannot be carried out until the disaster hasoccurred and actual conditions are known.

Precautions to be taken before disaster oc-currence can be related to two principalareas. First, land use and building construc-tion which have been called physicalprecautions. Secondly, those precautionsrelating to the preparation of warnings, thepromulgation of warnings and associated ad-vice to achieve a desired and most effectivere sponse , attention to pa r t i cu la r lyvulnerable communities or individuals andthe provision of emergency shelter, feedingand first aid. These have been called socialprecautions (Lewis, 1975b), and include thep r e p a r a t i o n of in format ion for ad-ministrators, the public and for schools.This second group are aspects of disasterpreparedness.

So prevention and preparedness are thetaking of precautions beforehand, which canbe classified as:

Physical precautionsSocial precautionsContingency planning.

Relief is the execution of activities, pre-identified within the precautionary planningprocess, to restore bodily needs to disastervictims. These bodily needs are:

Treatment of woundsPotable waterEdible food

Simple shelterWarmthSanitation

The first three examples of first aid,water and food are immediate bodily needsand are required in order to stop furtherloss of life. They belong to the Emergencyperiod. The latter three examples ofemergency shelter, warmth and sanitationare the commencement of a process torestore temporary facilities without whichserious secondary loss would occur. Thesebelong to the phase of Rehabilitation.

A particularly significant aspect of con-tingency planning is the identification andassessment of indigenous resources (Lewis,1975a). In any location there will be resour-

ces of supplies and materials for normal useby governments and the private sectorwhich, when scheduled and precoordinatedwith information on ownership, accessibilityand payment will be a most important andimmediately effective local relief source. Itis unlikely that all would be lost in thedisaster occurrence, there will be usefulareas adjacent to the area most severelyhit, which is why this principle becomes par-ticularly valuable in a regional or sub-regional grouping of islands or islandgroups.

The activities of the reconstruction period,w h i c h f o l l o w s those of rel ief andrehabilitation, are devoted to the permanent

This is typical of the wreakage among Samoanhouses when a hurricane struck on 29-30 January,1966.

provision of housing and the restoration oflife-support systems, and supporting ser-vices of water, power, sewage disposal,transport and communication. This is anecessarily much larger period and is thephase during which precautions for sub-sequent disaster can and must be incor-porated.

The activities which relate to each ofthese phases of operation can be furtheranalysed and identified and related to rolesfor personnel in government and non-gover-n m e n t o rgan isa t ions . Thus an ad-ministrative structure, initiated and co-or-dinated by government, consisting mostly ofexisting roles and responsibilities, canemerge as a programme precautionaryplanning to be applied and executed inwhole or in part. The whole programmemust be first identified so that sectoral ormono-disciplinary activity can proceedwithin and as part of the whole withoutresulting in counter-productivity or incom-

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patibility. What is important to emphasise isthat the programme emerges from within atnational, provincial and local levels andbecause it is based on an analysis ofphysical and administrative resources it isimmediately commensurate with what isavailable.

Further and critically "Important con-sideration of indigenous resources leads meto mention the most valuable resource ofall: the skills, innovation and resour-cefulness of people. If this powerful resourceis not to be overwhelmed and lost it seemsto me to be of paramount importance forthe adaptability of relief aid. which can beexpected sooner or later to be considered asa matter of policy as part of the preplanningprocess. We hear a lot nowadays of how aidprogrammes have increased, rather thandecreased, dependency. The same is true ofrelief aid, and the dangers of unplannedrelief-aid are even more real. In a sense it isconsideration of indigenous resource inreverse, not in terms of capacity to provide,but in its capacity to absorb outside sup-plies.

The countries of the South Pacific candemonstrate a considerable awareness anda considerable degree of preparedness direc-tly related to devastating disaster experien-ces — some of which I have described. Mostsignificant has been the estabishment of aRegional Disaster Fund by the ten-countrymember South Pacific Bureau for EconomicCo-operation (SPEC) based in Suva. Thefund was commenced by a donation fromthe republic of Nauru and is contributed toannually and equally by member govern-ments and additionally by neighbouring orinterested governments and organisations. Itwill be used as oil for the machinery ofregional, sub-regional and national in-digenous relief; it is itself an aspect ofprecautionary planning and a catalyst formany other aspects. It is the first fund of itskind to have become established and is astriking example of initiative with enormouspotential from within the region.

The working guidelines for the fund arecontained in a Pilot Study Report (Lewis1976) which has recently received accep-tance by the SPEC Committee. The appliedscience of precautionary planning fornatural disaster is still in its infancy. It canbe no more than five years old. We are allstill feeling our way in spite of the attentionsbeing paid to the problems of disasterthroughout the world. World attention therenow certainly is, and interest and activityhere in the problems caused by disaster inthe countries of the South Pacific is a sig-nificant part of that world attention. Worldattention is a reciprocal process betweenregions, and between nations, and betweenorganisations of the world. The countriesand organisations represented in the SouthPacific I see as essential partners of thisprocess.

REFERENCESBAIRD, A. ,O 'KEEFE, P., WESTGATE, K.,

WISNER, B. (1975). Towards an Ex-planation and Reduction of DisasterProneness. Occasional Paper No. 11,Disaster Research Unit, University ofBradford.

LEWIS, J. (1975a). Proposals for a Working Methodof Indigenous Resource Co-ordination asPart of a Predisaster Plan. OccasionalPaper No. 3, Disaster Research Unit,University of Bradford.

LEWIS, J. (1975D). A Study in Predisaster Planning.Occasional Paper No. 10, League ofRed Cross Societies / DisasterResearch Unit, University of Brad-ford.

LEWIS J. (1976). A Report of a Pilot Study toEstablish Guidelines for the Managementof a Regional Fund to Provide Insurancefor Natural Disaster. CommonwealthSecretariat/South Pacific Bureau forEconomic Co-operation/DisasterResearch Unit, University of Brad-ford.

WESTGATE, K.N. O'KEEFE, P. (1976). SomeDefinitions of Disaster. OccasionalPaper No. 4, Disaster Research Unit,University of Bradford. c

NEW COCOA FERMENTRYIN FIJI WILL BE CHEAPER,QUICKER THANKS TO

LOCAL MATERIALSA new cocoa fermentry being built at

Logani, in the Bau district will mean aquicker and cheaper turnover of dried cocoabeans for the farmers in the area. TheMinistry of Agriculture in collaboration withthe District Administration and RuralDevelopment is building the drier tostreamline cocoa bean processing in theCentral Division.

Mr. Ray Paris, a V.S.O. attached to theCommissioner Centcal Division, is super-vising construction of the project financedby a $1,500 grant under New Zealand aid.

Commenting on the project, Mr. Parissaid: "On approval of funds, we selected asite and made arrangements for work tobegin. We are using voluntary labour fromcocoa farmers. Timber will be the mamstructural component; about 75 per cent willbe local unsawn timber from nearby areasand about $250 worth of sawn timber. Theuse of local material will help cut downcosts immensely. Final cost is estimated at$1,100."

The capacity of the drier will be aboutfive tons which will be more than adequatefor the maximum demand at the height ofthe cocoa season anticipated in the area. Itwill be simple and will have a timber ovenfire.

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