Indonesia, US navies conduct disaster handling exercise

Antara News, Thursday, July 29, 2010 19:28 WIB

Ambon, Maluku (ANTARA News) - The United States and Indonesian navies held a joint exercise on Wednesday on the handling of natural disasters in integrated ways, a spokesman said.

The exercise which involved about 40 personnel from the Indonesian Defense Forces (TNI), the United States Navy (USN) and Maluku`s Search and Rescue (SAR) team lasted one day, spokesman of the US hospital ship USNS Mercy T-H 19 for Pacific Partnership 2010 Affairs, Daniel Bernardi, said.

"This exercise is held to provide knowledge on how to handle a natural disaster in an integrated way because a natural disaster in one country is different from that in another one," Bernardi said.

So, he said, if a natural disaster happens in a country, rescue workers sent to help mitigate the victims can provide assistance effectively because they already know how to handle it.

He said the joint exercise was divided into two sessions, one was on theories organized at the office of the Maluku governor`s office while the other one was field practice.

Bernardi said that during the Sail Banda event, the Pacific Partership 2010 held a lot of exercises, among others in the health field, emergencies and other types of exercises.

"We call the exercise SMET (Subject Matter Expert Training) which sometimes involve Australia, Singapore, Indonesia and the United States," he said.

The USNS Mercy is in Maluku on a Pacific Partnership 2010 mission and to support Operation Surya Bhaskara Jaya which is part of the international yachting event, Sail Banda.

The Pacific Partnership 2010 is an annual humanitarian program of the United States consisting of exercises on the handling of natural disasters in Indonesia.

Bangladesh, Indonesia, Iran top world disaster risk rankings

Google/AFP

PARIS — Bangladesh, Indonesia and Iran are the countries that are the most vulnerable to natural disasters, according to a study released on Thursday.

Asia's twin giants, China and India, join them in the 15 countries that, out of 229, are rated as "extreme" risk.

The Natural Disasters Risk Index (NDRI) is compiled by a British risk advisory firm, Maplecroft, on the basis of disasters that occurred from 1980 to 2010.

It draws on a basket of indicators, including the number and frequency of these events, the total deaths that were caused and the death toll as a proportion of the country's population.

Disasters include earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, storms, flooding, drought, landslides, heatwaves and epidemics.

"Poverty is an important factor in countries where both the frequency and impacts of natural disasters are severe," said Maplecroft's environmental analyst, Anna Moss.

"Poor infrastructure, plus dense overcrowding in high-risk areas like flood plains, river banks, steep slopes and reclaimed land, continually result in high casualty figures."

According to the NDRI's figures, Bangladesh has suffered more than 191,000 fatalities as a result of natural disasters in the past 30 years, and Indonesia a nearly equal number, the vast majority of which were inflicted by the December 2004 tsunami.

In Iran, the big vulnerability factor is earthquakes, which claimed 74,000 lives over this period.

India, ranked 11th, lost 141,000 lives -- including 50,000 to earthquakes, 40,000 to floods, 15,000 to epidemics and 23,000 to storms -- while the tally in China, rated 12th, was 148,000 lives, of which 87,000 were lost in the 2008 Sichuan quake.

Three G8 countries are considered "high risk," the next category down from "extreme."

They are France (17th in the overall rankings) and Italy (18th), which were hit by killer heatwaves in 2003 and 2006, and the United States (37th), whacked by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

The countries least at risk are Andorra, Bahrain, Gibraltar, Liechtenstein, Malta, Monaco, Qatar, San Marino and the United Arab Emirates.

Moss pointed to experts' warnings of the impact of climate change on rainfall. Disruption of weather patterns is predicted to lead to more frequent and bigger episodes of drought and flood.

"Our research highlights the need for even the wealthiest countries to focus on disaster risk reduction," she said.

Related Article:

Indonesia Ranks as Second-Riskiest Place in World for Natural Disasters

After the Aceh Quake, Mud Volcano Causes Concern

Jakarta Globe, Nurfika Osman, April 26, 2010

A new undersea mud volcano is erupting off Aceh following a massive earthquake there earlier this month, a 15-member geological assessment team sent to the province has confirmed.

Officials, however, were quick to add that the new volcano was unlikely to pose a threat.

“Based on our visual observations, the volcano is not dangerous. But we are going to conduct an in-depth analysis this week of the samples we collected, so we will have a definitive answer,” said Ridwan Djamaluddin, director for mitigation and regional development at the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT).

Ridwan said the volcano, located near Banyak Island off the coast of Singkil district, was currently 30 meters in diameter and eight meters tall.

Local residents have claimed the seabed in the area has risen dramatically since the 7.2-magnitude earthquake on April 7.

Before the quake, the waters around Gosong Turak reef were 20 meters to 30 meters deep, but now were just five, said Mufliadi, a Banyak Island resident.

Villagers have reported seeing an undersea fissure spewing out mud and rocks, and are worried an undersea volcano could be forming, he said.

Mufliadi said the phenomenon was first noted a week after the earthquake by a fisherman who had been trawling for sea cucumbers in the waters around Pailana Island, just off Banyak Island.

“He was shocked and came back to tell us what he had seen because that site is a prime fishing spot for local fishermen,” but now there are no fish there, Mufliadi said.

The geologists, who traveled to the province last week at the request of Aceh Governor Irwandi Yusuf, confirmed there were no fish in the area.

“The fish around the area have gone and the water has become turbid,” Ridwan said, adding that the water temperature had risen from 27 degrees Celsius to 32 degrees.

To prevent worried residents from fleeing the area, Ridwan said the team would work quickly to analyze the samples it had collected.

“We still have to conduct an in-depth analysis of this,” he said, adding that if the mud and rocks contained methane, it would be dangerous.

Related Articles:

Undersea Anomalies in Aceh to be Studied

Fearful Aceh Islanders Tell of Massive Sea Change in the Wake of Earthquake

Scientists Discover Underwater Asphalt Volcanoes