Almost 1,400 people are confirmed to have died in the earthquake and tsunami that struck Sulawesi last Friday. Although rescue teams and supplies are reaching survivors in Palu, many in surrounding areas remain desperate for clean water and food. Disasters are sadly familiar in the world’s fourth most populous nation: Indonesia sits on the Ring of Fire and its thousands of islands are strung across hundreds of miles of ocean.
This makes disaster risk planning particularly essential, including through the preparation and maintenance of earthquake-resistant buildings and infrastructure and warning systems. There are reports that parts of the tsunami alert system were not working; that some areas did not have sirens; and that the quake felled transmission towers, so text message warnings were not transmitted. But at least as important may have been the fact that people were not prepared.
Continue reading...from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2y7eLYM
via
0 Comments