{"47329":{"#nid":"47329","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Community Education \u0026 Planning Cut Death Toll in Samoa Tsunami","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ECommunity-based education and awareness programs minimized the death toll from the recent Samoan tsunami, though there are still ways to improve the warning and evacuation process, according to a team of researchers that traveled to Samoa last month.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe team, funded by a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant, collected data Oct. 4 through Oct. 11 to document the impacts of the category 8.1 earthquake and the ensuing tsunami that occurred on Sept. 29. They examined flow depths, run-up heights, inundation distances, sediment depositions and damage patterns at various scales.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022In addition to timing -- the fact that the tsunami struck in the daylight morning hours when most people were on their way to work or school -- tsunami education, awareness and evacuation exercises really contained the death toll,\u0022 noted Hermann Fritz, one of the principal investigators and an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. \u0022The technical solution doesn\u0027t always work for coastlines near the epicenter with less than 30 minutes between earthquake and onslaught of the tsunami. Earthquakes with durations of more than 30 seconds serve as a natural warning, resulting in a spontaneous self-evacuation.\u0022 \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003ENearly 190 people were killed in the tsunami, with the majority of deaths reported in Samoa, a country governing the western part of the Samoan Islands in the South Pacific Ocean. The two main islands of Samoa are Upolu and Savai\u0027i. American Samoa, a territory of the United States southeast of Samoa, is comprised of main island Tutuila, the Manu\u0027a Islands, Rose Atoll and Swains Island. The Samoan government estimates the total damage from the tsunami at $147 million.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe team\u0027s survey circled all of the main Samoan islands and spanned 350 kilometers from Ofu in the east to Savai\u0027i in the west. The researchers learned that the tsunami impact peaked at Poloa near Tutuila\u0027s western tip and Lepa at Upola\u0027s southeast coast. Maximum run-up heights reached 17 meters at Poloa, and inundation distances and damage were recorded at Pago Pago, more than 500 meters inland. The harbor at Pago Pago, well-protected from ordinary storm waves, is vulnerable to long-period tsunami waves.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EIn addition, researchers noticed a marked difference between the evacuation process in Samoa and American Samoa. While most villagers in Samoa knew to rapidly evacuate after experiencing an earthquake, only a month earlier they had been told that cars help with evacuations, a deadly directive since most roads run parallel to the beach.\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022Many perished trapped inside cars waiting in congested small roads or in long lines behind vehicles stopped by landslides or debris on the road,\u0022 said Costas Synolakis, principal investigator and professor of civil engineering at University of Southern California. \u0022I have been on more than 20 tsunami field surveys, and in many ways this was one of the most surprising in terms of how carnage varied over fairly short distances. This was also the first time we noted what we suspected: misinformation kills.\u0022 \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EEmile Okal, a seismologist and professor of earth and planetary sciences at Northwestern University, conducted approximately 120 interviews with tsunami survivors in 70 different locations around Tutuila and Upolu. He found that most people were educated about tsunamis and knew how to react because of community-based educational programs, not ancestral stories. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022The last significant tsunami in Samoa occurred in 1917 and was very similar in seismology to the Sept. 29 tsunami. Surprisingly, no one I interviewed said they knew of family members being in a similar situation,\u0022 Okal observed. \u0022Since the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and the 2007 Solomon Islands tsunami, there has been a concerted effort on the part of the local government in American Samoa to post signs and conduct evacuation drills in some Samoan communities. Many villages were completely destroyed, so I am impressed that the death toll was not larger. The bottom line is education worked.\u0022\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EWhile Synolakis agreed that the death toll was probably minimized due to educational efforts, he said there is still a lot of progress that can be made. While working in the field on Oct. 7, the team experienced a real tsunami warning and witnessed first-hand the tremendous confusion and disorganization that followed. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0022Although there are warning signs along the beaches in American Samoa, there is no information about where the evacuation routes are,\u0022 he said. \u0022It\u0027s also just as important to let people know when it\u0027s safe to come back as it is to warn them. We definitely have our work cut out for us.\u0022\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThe collected field data serves as benchmarking and validation of numerical tsunami models with wide-ranging applications including forecasting, warning and sediment transport. The researchers will present their findings at special sessions at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting in San Francisco this December. Brief publications summarizing the immediate results will follow in research journals. \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EThis survey was partially supported by the Pacific Earthquake Research Center (PEER).\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EResearch News \u0026amp; Publications Office\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nGeorgia Institute of Technology\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n75 Fifth Street, N.W., Suite 314\u003Cbr \/\u003E\nAtlanta, Georgia  30308  USA\u003C\/strong\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EMedia Relations Contacts\u003C\/strong\u003E: Nancy Fullbright (912-963-2522); E-mail: (\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:nancy.fullbright@innovate.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Enancy.fullbright@innovate.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E); Eric Mankin (213-821-1887); E-mail: (\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:mankin@usc.edu\u0022\u003Emankin@usc.edu\u003C\/a\u003E); Megan Fellman (847-491-3115); E-mail: (\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:fellman@northwestern.edu\u0022\u003Efellman@northwestern.edu\u003C\/a\u003E).  \n\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWriter\u003C\/strong\u003E: Nancy Fullbright\n\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":[{"value":"Survey Team Visited October 4-11 to Assess Impact"}],"field_summary":[{"value":"Community-based education and awareness programs minimized the death toll from the recent Samoan tsunami, though there are still ways to improve the warning and evacuation process, according to a team of researchers that traveled to Samoa last month.","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"The September 29 Samoa tsunami showed the value of education"}],"uid":"27303","created_gmt":"2009-11-05 01:00:00","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:03:45","author":"John Toon","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2009-11-05T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2009-11-05T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"47330":{"id":"47330","type":"image","title":"Tsunami damage","body":null,"created":"1449175107","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 20:38:27","changed":"1475894442","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:40:42","alt":"Tsunami damage","file":{"fid":"101188","name":"tpy40014.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/tpy40014_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/tpy40014_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1822954,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/tpy40014_0.jpg?itok=B6OvFcP6"}},"47331":{"id":"47331","type":"image","title":"Somoa shipyard","body":null,"created":"1449175107","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 20:38:27","changed":"1475894442","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:40:42","alt":"Somoa shipyard","file":{"fid":"101189","name":"tgu40014.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/tgu40014_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/tgu40014_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1776017,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/tgu40014_0.jpg?itok=2B667vuK"}},"47332":{"id":"47332","type":"image","title":"Interviewing eyewitnesses","body":null,"created":"1449175107","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 20:38:27","changed":"1475894442","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:40:42","alt":"Interviewing eyewitnesses","file":{"fid":"101190","name":"tfv40014.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/tfv40014_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/tfv40014_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1724119,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/tfv40014_0.jpg?itok=jlfcqy4J"}}},"media_ids":["47330","47331","47332"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.ce.gatech.edu\/fac_staff\/faculty-listing\/research-interests\/?active_id=hf31","title":"Hermann Fritz"},{"url":"http:\/\/www.cee.gatech.edu\/","title":"School of Civil and Environmental Engineering"}],"groups":[{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"}],"categories":[{"id":"145","name":"Engineering"},{"id":"154","name":"Environment"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"5770","name":"Earthquake"},{"id":"1432","name":"education"},{"id":"7754","name":"evacuation"},{"id":"170900","name":"Samoa"},{"id":"347","name":"tsunami"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ENancy Fullbright\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EResearch News \u0026amp; Publications Office\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:nancy.fullbright@innovate.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EContact Nancy Fullbright\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E912-963-2522\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["nancy.fullbright@innovate.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}