Japan is situated on an area that has several tectonic plates running through it, making the nation highly prone to earthquakes. One-tenth of the world’s earthquakes with a magnitude of three or higher are said to occur near Japan, where the earthquake danger exists throughout the country. On March 11, 2011, the Great East Japan Earthquake struck Japan with a magnitude of 9.0, leaving more than 20,000 dead or missing.
In addition to earthquakes, Japan is prone to other disasters such as typhoons and torrential rains that occur with yearly frequency.

Great East Japan Earthquake

Every year, September 1 is designated as “Disaster Prevention Day” in Japan, in order to raise disasters awareness and prepare citizens to deal with disasters. Disaster drills are conducted across Japan on this day, which coincides with the date of the Great Kanto Earthquake that struck Japan on September 1, 1923. It killed or hurt over 100,000 people.
Polyplastics also conducts large-scale disaster drills every year. Fuji City, which is home to our plants and laboratories, is situated near the predicted epicenter of a major earthquake that is forecasted to one day hit the Tokai region, and there are additional fears that such a quake could trigger the eruption of Mt. Fuji. These factors bring an extra urgency to the disaster drills.

Disaster drills conducted in the Fuji plant

We can personally prepare against an emergency by stockpiling supplies such as flashlights, radios and foods, and by securing furniture and electrical goods to prevent them from toppling over in shaking, as well as knowing emergency escape routes in advance.

These day-to-day measures can collectively make a difference in saving lives during an emergency.

In an effort to keep up with growth within the petrochemical industry, which has stimulated a multitude of employment opportunities for the local populace, the local authority has initiated the development of an integrated township Bandar Gebeng (Gebeng Town).

Spanning some 318 acres, Gebeng Town has all the makings of an ideal neighborhood. Easily accessible via the main Kuantan bypass and the Kuantan-Kemaman, Gebeng Town is located just minutes away from key areas such as Kuantan town and Kuantan Port, the alluring beaches of Cherating and the thriving petrochemical centers at the Gebeng and Kemaman Industrial Estates.

To be developed in the number of phases over a period of 20 years, Gebeng Town is a mixed development which comprises choice commercial and residential units, boasting of a wide range of amenities and facilities such as shops, police station, a recreational park, Kuantan Municipal Authority branch office and much more.

Gebeng Emergency Mutual Aid (GEMA) Chemical Emergency Exercise was conducted periodically that comprised staged emergency situation common to chemical and petrochemical industrial environment. The drill was conforming to the objectives of responsibility, upholding safety regulations, preserving the environment and maintaining the good health of the workforce and visitors to chemical and petrochemical plant in the Gebeng vicinity.

GEMA was first established, following a cooperative effort between the Kuantan Port Consortium (KPC) and various chemical and petrochemical plants in the area. Today, it comprises members from numerous government agencies in leading names such BP Chemicals, Bridero Price, Croyac, Eastman Chemicals, Kaneka Malaysia, KPC, Malaysian Oxygen, Mobil Oil, MTBE, Polypropylene, Shell, W.R. Grace Specialty, Flexsys Chemicals, BASF PETRONAS Chemicals and Polyplastics Asia Pacific Sdn Bhd.

Disaster means a catastrophe, a calamity or mishap, a grave occurrence, which causes a serious disruption of the functioning of a society, causing widespread human, material or environmental losses exceeding the ability of the affected society to cope with it by using only its resources.

Due to its unique geo-climatic conditions, India is one of the most disaster prone countries in the world. 24 out of 35 States and Union Territories are vulnerable to one or another geo-climatic disaster. Over 55% of landmass is vulnerable to earthquakes, 8% to cyclone, 5% to floods and 70% of the land under cultivation is vulnerable to drought.

Structural Measures:
a) Embankments
Embankments have been extensively used for protection against floods of important towns and lands. However, the embankments are now the best means of communication in the flood-prone areas and are being recklessly used for transportation of materials by tractors and other heavy vehicles. During floods, people escape to the embankments as temporary shelter and often wait at there till the situation settles down.

b) Water Shed Management
Timely cleaning, de-silting and deepening of natural water reservoir and drainage channels (both urban and rural) must be taken up.

c) Reservoirs
The entire natural water storage place should be cleaned on a regular basis. Encroachments on tanks and ponds or natural drainage channel should be removed well before the onset of monsoon.

d) Natural water retention Basins
Construct and protect all of the flood protection embankments, ring bunds and other bunds. Dams and levees can also be constructed which can be used as temporarily storing space to reduce the chances of lower plains getting flooded.

e) Buildings on elevated area
The buildings in flood prone areas should be constructed on an elevated area and if necessary on stilts and platform. However, complete flood control in terms of structural methods are neither economically viable nor environmental friendly. Therefore, there is a need for...

Non Structural Measures:
a) Flood Plain Zoning
Flood plain zoning, which places restrictions on the use of land on flood plains, can reduce the cost of flood damage. Local governments may pass laws.

Hong Kong has few natural disasters, no serious earthquake, no serious flooding, no tsunamis, no blizzard, no drought, no tornado….

If we said disaster, typhoon may be the only one of it.

Each year, averages of 30 tropical cyclones are formed over the NorthWest Pacific and the South China Sea. Of these, about one sixth would come close to the South China coast and pose a threat to Hong Kong. Because these cyclones usually hit Philippines and/or Taiwan first, when they arrived here, the strong gale would usually be weakened.

In order to alert the public about the arrival of typhoon and to reduce the damage and lose to the minimal, we have a typhoon warning system.

To deliver useful and effective meteorological services, Hong Kong Observatory was
established to provide weather forecasts and issue warnings to the public, the shipping and aviation communities, and different sectors of the society in order to reduce loss of life and damage to property, and minimize disruptions to economic and social activities during inclement weather.

Tropical cyclone warning signals are to warn the public of the threat of WINDS associated with a tropical cyclone. The Hong Kong Observatory provides detailed information on regional wind and rain to the public through a diversity of channels, especially the Internet. Members of the public should consider their own circumstances and level of acceptable risk when taking precautions in response to warnings.

• When the No.1 signal is issued, you should take the existence of the tropical cyclone into account in planning your activities and beware that strong winds may occur over offshore waters.

• When the No.3 signal is issued, secure all loose objects, particularly on balconies and roof tops. Secure hoardings, scaffoldings and temporary structures. Winds are normally expected to become generally strong in Hong Kong within 12 hours after this signal is issued. Winds over offshore waters and on high ground may reach gale force.

• When the No.8 signal is issued, complete all precautions before gales commence. Winds are normally expected to reach gale force generally in Hong Kong within 12 hours after No.8 signal replaces No.3 signal.

• When the No.9 or No.10 signal is issued, all precautions should be completed. Stay indoors and be away from exposed windows and doors to avoid flying debris.

Under the useful and effective meteorological services, Hong Kong citizen can
reduce loss of life and damage to property during typhoon.

	STANDBY SIGNAL NO. 1		STRONG WIND SIGNAL NO. 3
	NO. 8 NORTHEAST GALE OR STORM SIGNAL		NO. 8 NORTHWEST GALE OR STORM SIGNAL
	NO. 8 SOUTHEAST GALE OR STORM SIGNAL		NO. 8 SOUTHWEST GALE OR STORM SIGNAL
	INCREASING GALE OR STORM SIGNAL NO. 9		HURRICANE SIGNAL NO. 10

In recent years, we suffer from many kinds of disasters such as tornados, earthquakes, tsunamis and diseases that our medicines can not cure successfully. These disasters not only bring us uncountable lost of properties but also make millions people homeless. The most impressive disaster should be 2008 Sichuan earthquake and 2011 tsunamis happened in Japan. How can we survive from the tragedy depends on how we prepared before and what we do during it happens.

Fortunately Shanghai is not a place that environmental disaster likes to visit. On our history records, only a few small earthquakes happened in the past 50 years and none of them brought a vital damage. However, our government still allocates money on the protection. Every year, we can get the brochure from our residential committee to tell us how protect ourselves from earthquakes. Specially, in winter and summer holiday, some officers will be invited to school to teach students basic knowledge of disaster and how to avoid injured during it occurring. Our government also send their staff regularly to check whether the escape route is clear in living buildings as well as the fire extinguisher works or not. They also install most of buildings with fire sprinklers in case the earthquake causes the fire. Since 2008 Sichuan earthquake happened, escape maneuver is held every year and many residents take part in it. They follow the orders from the commanders, do the things they have been told to do and acting appropriately to protect themselves.

Although we can not stop disasters coming, at least we can alleviate damage and save more if we prepare well and know exactly how to protect ourselves.

K. S. Tsai of ME Section

The mudflows and landslides is a natural phenomenon based on geology. However, owning to the land of mountainside being over-developed in Taiwan, mudflows and landslides have already been disasters causing the casualties of human life, and great damage to buildings, bridges and the public works.

Taiwan is mostly mountainous island but with high density of the population. Therefore, some inhabitants live on mountainside or hillside. During the season of typhoon and heavy rainfall, the mudflows and landslides disaster happen so often in the mountain area, which causes the people's life and the property damage so seriously. In view of the fact that threat of the mudflows and landslides disaster, Taiwan government launches a succession of prevention measures.

From government officials, there is the system of disaster prevention developed to against mudflows and landslides based on national rescue law. Three important points cover disaster prevention, disaster response operation and restoration and reconstruction procedures.

For populace participation, the concept of mudflows and landslides disaster prevention community has been launched to disseminate the precaution against disaster and to tell related knowledge.  The impetus procedures aim at strengthening the knowledge and skill of populace against disaster including education guidance, environment diagnosis, community mobilization, and disaster prevention preparedness. Through easy games, elementary school teachers teach children to understand the importance of disaster prevention as well as the concept of environment conservation all over the country.

education of landslide

The national disasters bring terrible damages. For this reason, the practicable prevention measures should be prepared well in peacetime. By doing so, when the disaster occurs, we have ability to deal with it and to reduce the damage for community and personal remarkably.

Flood is natural phenomena that occurred in Thailand every year and cannot avoid this situation. The government & citizen find the method to decrease intensity and effect from losses. There are several measures to manage of flood such as improvement of river’s condition, using of structural measures, and etc.

The structural measures are following items;

1. Levers and Floodwalls, the purpose is to limit water flow velocity and to protect land against damage when flood occur in some part of river basin area. It is flexible to control and select river basin area. On the other hand, there will be problem about safety if the flood is larger than the floodwall.
   
   
2. Channel modification is helpful to decrease intensity of flood in the next time. The methods are adjusting and improving river to direct, deep and width in suitable size. Dredging canal and getting rid of aquatic plant and garbage. Paving surface of canal. Expanding bridge and passing pipe in order to un-obstructing the flow of water. Moving barrier of water.
   
   
3. By-pass floodways is a floodwall to decrease quantity of water in Main River and to increase capacity of draining water and to decrease high level of water during flood.
   
   
4. Retarding basins and flood storage areas, the advantage are to decrease quantity of flow of water in crisis and to use as emergency draining water source in case of draining water system in crisis.
   
   
5. Flood mitigation reservoirs, to store water and control flow of water so that it doesn’t pour too much into the lower level area.

Earthquake risk management system in China, has been established gradually in the past half century. It is a very complex process involving engineering measures and non-engineering countermeasures. The former, such as seismic design, played a great role in decades. The latter, such as legislation against earthquake disaster, has been emphasized recently.
Some disadvantages in this management system are pointed out as economy development, urbanization and reform from the planned system to the market system in the country. Some financial instruments, which are effective to promote the reformation, and the necessity and the possibility to adopt them in China are demonstrated emphatically.
Earthquake insurance, as one of the instruments, is a formal social device for reducing risk by transferring the risks of several individual entities to an insurer who agrees to assume, to a specified extent, the losses suffered by all of this kind of policyholders. However, the stricken area from a devastating earthquake is very large and uncertain in practice, insurers cannot charge to cover all of the insured losses in some cases, some of them will be insolvent or on the edge of insolvency.

earthquake insurance system

Another instrument, catastrophe insurance derivatives, such as catastrophe bonds (CAT bonds), initiated in the middle of 1990s in U.S. is being suggested to earthquake risk management in China as the supplement of earthquake insurance besides reinsurance now. From the engineering point of view, a proposal is offered that the methods to determine the earthquake property & life insurance rates and the annual coupon rates of CAT bonds should be combined with engineering seismic risk assessment. The combination of individual, public and international resources can implement broader earthquake risk management in China and will minimize losses from future earthquakes in a timely manner.