The ADRC's most recent e-newsletter contains the latest figures from
Gujarat (see below). The worst is obviously Bhuj with 8.5% of the
population killed and well over one-third physically injured. These
figures presumably do not record bodies still to be recovered and do not
include psychologically injured people, such as those too shocked to be
functional or those overcome with grief.
I cannot see any way of either creating or teaching a community to cope
with such human devastation. Surely neither response nor recovery
mechanisms exist which could adequately assist, irrespective of the
resources provided for them. Avoiding such calamity in the first place
must be the only sustainable way.
Will we ever convince society?
Ilan
Based on the table on the damage by city sent from NDM, ADRC added the
population and distance from the epicenter (23.40N, 70.32E) and summarized
as below.
City/Town Killed Injured Distance Population Direction
Range
Ahmedabad 738 828 240 A 2,876,710 E
Amreli 0 12 220 D S.E
Vadodara 6 42 320 C S.E
Bharuch 9 33 340 C 1,031,346 S.E
Bhavnagar 3 29 260 C S.E
Bhuj 12,781 54,239 50 C 150,000 S.W
Banaskantha 33 126
Gandhinagar 3 7 240 C E
Jamnagar 114 1,708 110 C S
Junagadh 8 75 210 C S
Mehsana 0 41 210 D E
Navsari 18 18 380 C S.E
Patan 37 407 190 D N.E
Porbandar 9 72 210 C S
Rajkot 337 2,033 130 B 559,407 S.E
Surat 50 154 350 A 1,498,817 S.E
Surendranagar 89 1,743 160 C S.E
Palampur 37 49 250 D
Others 4 38
Total 14,276 61,654
Range--A: >1,000,000 B: 500,000-1,000,000 C: 100,000-500,000
D: 20,000-100,000 E: 5,000-20,000 F: <5,000
The damage extends not only Bhuj (population; 150,000), nearest city from
the epicenter and Armedabad (pop; 2.87mil), which is the main city in the
Gujarat State (pop.44.23mil) but also Surat, which is more than 300km far
from the epicenter and some other cities/ towns far from the epicenter.
Within 100km from the epicenter, there are 6 cities/ towns which are not
listed on the table, besides within 300km, there are 29. In this
connection, the actual death tall may increase drastically.
Asian Disaster Reduction Center (ADRC)
3rd floor, IHD Bld. 1-5-1, Wakihamakaigan-dori, Chuo-ku, Kobe 651-0073,
JAPAN
Email: [log in to unmask] Phone: +81-78-230-0346 Fax: +81-78-230-0347
www.adrc.or.jp
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