India is safe from any tsunami threat at the moment, but we can learn many lessons from the way the Japanese have dealt with what The Japan Times called "the wrath of Mother Nature".
The NY Times ran a slide show that gives an idea of the extent of damage. In one picture, planes and cars sat amidst the debris at Sendai airport, with its covered with mud after the tsunami had receded. Airports, harbours and railway stations stopped operations the moment the earthquake and tsunami struck. But within hours, the Japanese channels announced that the airports had reopened for operations.
Japan's nuclear reactors remain shut down, and people in the vicinity of one have been evacuated as its cooling system had stopped working. The country's tsunami alert system helped thousands move away from the coast to higher areas. Clearly, much thought and foresight goes into disaster management in Japan.
In India, a tsunami of this scale would have meant several thousand deaths, and a tragedy of much greater proportions. In 2004, when tidal waves came crashing, 2.8 lakh people died in the Asia-Pacific region, 2.2 lakh in Indonesia alone. The death toll in India was suspected to be 18,045. How does Japan manage to keep its disaster deaths low? What is it that Japan knows that the rest of the world doesn't?
For one, Japan enforces strict building laws. (This may come as a surprise to builders in India, who routinely violate municipal and zoning laws). Japan is a seismically sensitive area, and has, over the years, prepared for eventualities such as Friday's. As The New York Times reported, "From seawalls that line stretches of Japan's coastline, to skyscrapers that sway to absorb earthquakes, to building codes that are among the world’s most rigorous, no country may be better prepared to withstand earthquakes than Japan… Had any other populous country suffered the 8.9 magnitude earthquake that shook Japan on Friday, tens of thousands of people might already be counted among the dead. So far, Japan’s death toll is in the hundreds, although it is certain to rise."
Is India better prepared for a tsunami, post-December 2004? Yes, according to the Deccan Herald, which said the country's "robust tsunami warning system" was standing it in good stead. The tsunami warning centre in Hyderabad "can not only issue alerts to India but every neighbouring country within 10 minutes of any big quake, capable of triggering a tsunami."
India does not bother too much about building earthquake-resistant homes. But Japan has taken its earthquake proneness seriously. As the NYT said, "Over the years, Japan has spent billions of dollars developing the most advanced technology against earthquakes and tsunamis. The Japanese, who regularly experience smaller earthquakes and have lived through major ones, know how to react to quakes and tsunamis because of regular drills — unlike Southeast Asians, many of whom died in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami because they lingered near the coast."
India has spent Rs 125-crore tsunami to set up the warning centre at the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services, and has predicted 25-30 major earthquakes in the last three years.
“So far we are 100 per cent right and have not issued any false alert,” INCOIS director Sateesh Shenoi told Deccan Herald. India does not face any threat from the 8.9 earthquake in Japan even though the scientists at the centre are monitoring the ocean waves round-the-clock.
In Japan, a man had a panic attack when the earthquake began. Even as the tremors continued, and the ground was shaking, an ambulance came to his help, an eyewitness told an American newspaper. Such readiness in times of crisis sets the Japanese apart from the Indians.
With trains shut down, thousands milled around the stations in Tokyo, prepared to spend the night on the platforms and in their offices. Passengers stood in orderly queues for taxis, and many stored up on food that they said they would share with their colleagues.
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