| Disaster Impacts: immediate damage | health | basic needs | environmental damage | economic impacts |
Two weeks after tsunami waves flattened the coastlines around the Indian Ocean, the death toll in 11 countries in Africa and Asia has passed 150,000. The devastation on Indonesia’s Banda Aceh province is by far the worst. Hardest hit in the province was the island of Sumatra, which was closest to the 9.0 magnitude quake. With Sumatra Island completely inundated, the island area totally destroyed, fewer than five buildings or foundations now remain. At least one bridge was destroyed and one of the two others sustained serious damage. All that was left of most houses was their tin roofs. |
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Tens of thousands are still missing and threatened by disease from the December 26th earthquake that impacted 11 nations, and the death toll continues to rise as more bodies are found and identified each day. Estimated Death Toll by Country
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| Because it is the middle of the rainy season in Indonesia, continual downpours complicate the relief efforts, intensify the chaos and further demolish and wash away the already damaged infrastructure of roads and bridges and houses. Aid groups have begun to construct temporary camps that could potentially house up to 500,000 people while new, more permanent communities are built. However, because of the massive scale of the disaster, aid officials say they may have to feed as many as 2 million survivors for six months. The goal of our studio is to provide a framework to facilitate these recovery efforts, using our background in design, planning and environmental issues. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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The mosques that still remain on the northern tip of Sumatra Island now function as temporary camps and health clinics. Many people fled to the mosques after the earthquake in hopes of finding shelter and refuge. The center image above illustrates typical structural damage caused by the tsunami. The image above, right captures the hour the tsunami struck the town of Banda Aceh. |
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