INDEPTH: DISASTER IN ASIA

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 378.

It's expected to take four years to rebuild much of the parts of south Asia that was hit by the Dec. 26, 2004 tsunami - longer in the hardest hit areas of Bandeh Aceh, Indonesia and Sri Lanka.

The disaster is believed to have killed between 176,665 and 184,378 people in Asia and Africa, more than half of them on Sumatra. Between 49,622 and 50,533 people remain unaccounted for around the Indian Ocean. The total number of dead may never be known because of the number of people swept out to sea.

As of March 9, 2005, 15 Canadians were officially listed as dead.

Meanwhile, finance ministers from the Group of Seven nations have agreed to suspend debt payments from countries hit by the waves. Canada had announced its intention to suspend debt payments on Dec. 30.

"I have never seen such utter destruction mile after mile," UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan told reporters after flying over Sumatra. "You wonder: Where are the people? What has happened to them?"

The South Asia tsunami -one of the world's worst natural disasters – struck in the morning of Dec. 26, 2004. At 7:59 a.m. local time, about 150 kilometres off the coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, two tectonic plates heaved under the sea along a 1,000 kilometre-long fault line. The result: a magnitude 9 earthquake - the most powerful the world had seen in 40 years.

Parts of the sea floor rose by about 10 metres, displacing hundreds of cubic kilometres of I seawater. That generated a tsunami - a series of huge waves that quickly fanned out across the Indian Ocean.

The waves moved so quickly, there was no time to sound the alarm. Walls of water slammed into coastal areasof Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India and - thousands of kilometres away - Somalia in East Africa.

The waves destroyed whatever lay in their path: from the built-up tourist resorts of Thailand to isolated fishing villages in Indonesia and Sri Lanka. Thousands of people were killed. The number of dead rose by the hour as the extent of the devastation became apparent.

On Dec. 29, 2004, military teams finally reached the west coast of the island's northern province - Aceh - about 150 kilometres from the quake's epicentre. They found thousands of bodies. Three-quarters of the coast had been obliterated.

By the first week of January, it was clear it would take years to rebuild across much of the stricken area. Some towns and villages were so badly damaged, they could no longer be inhabited

5 (b). Write out the highlighted phrases and words and make up your own report about the aftermaths of an earthquake in Japan using them and comments to the photos. Present your report to the class and participate in discussing your peers' reports using appropriate speaking strategies.

6 (a). Watch the fragment “Top 10 Most Infamous Natural Disasters of the Last 100 years” and fill the gaps in the passages below.

No. 5: 1976 Tangshan Earthquake. This _____________Chinese city was ________in the early morning hours of 28 July, 1976 by a huge _________followed by a _________7 ______just hours later. This was China's second _________earthquake after another that occurred in 1556. The Chinese government rejected help ___________and was heavily criticized for ignoring early _______by__________. The official ________ranges greatly from 242, 000 to___________.

No. 1: 1931 Central China Floods. Coming in at number one it's the deadliest natural disaster in modern history. When the Yellow, Yangtze, and Huai Rivers ______in 1931 millions of people dieв due to________, _________and________. The Yellow River is actually considered the ____________in a world since it has flooded over ________ times in the past________. While the __________of the 1931 event was tragic it has been suggested that up to ________of the Chinese population, roughly ________people, were ________in some way by this ________.

(b) Answer the following questions considering the whole fragment.

1. What aftermaths are taken as a criterion to rate the natural disasters? Do you believe they are the most important? Discuss it with your partner.
2. Who or what do you believe is responsible for a great death toll in the wake of the most natural disasters: nature, economic situation, government? Do you believe it is important for people to know the real scale of the disaster?
3. Which of the listed disasters impressed you most? Share with the group not naming the date and place. Let them guess which of the ten you mean.
4. What preventative measures would you suggest to avoid the aftermaths? Use appropriate chart in the WORD BANK of the Unit to consider natural disasters separately on your choice a according to the sample below:

7. Look at the map of the natural disasters hot zones of the world. Click on any zone you like and tell to the group about it.