Post tsunami rescue operation long answer
Answers
Answered by
4
Helicopters for plucking stranded survivors off rooftops and search teams with dogs to locate those who do not drown will be urgently needed in Japan's coastal communities, according to an expert on post-tsunami rescue.
The torrent of churning seawater, thickened by debris and mud, will have battered and smothered those caught in its path, leaving dead bodies and only a few fortunate enough to have escaped on to tall buildings or higher ground.
"It's like a mudslide," explained Anna Walton, of the UK aid agency Merlin who worked with emergency response teams in Sri Lanka after the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami. "It picks up rubble and mud as it forces its way inland.
"It will kill and a few people will get trapped in it. You don't have many injuries in a tsunami; you have a high death rate. In earthquakes, you have lots of injured survivors; with a tsunami it can be more fatal. There's a train missing in Japan as we had in Sri Lanka, where 2,500 people were engulfed on one railway journey; they all died. In a tsunami, there's a body of water that sustains the flood. Those who survive climb trees or get up on to stable, taller buildings.
The torrent of churning seawater, thickened by debris and mud, will have battered and smothered those caught in its path, leaving dead bodies and only a few fortunate enough to have escaped on to tall buildings or higher ground.
"It's like a mudslide," explained Anna Walton, of the UK aid agency Merlin who worked with emergency response teams in Sri Lanka after the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami. "It picks up rubble and mud as it forces its way inland.
"It will kill and a few people will get trapped in it. You don't have many injuries in a tsunami; you have a high death rate. In earthquakes, you have lots of injured survivors; with a tsunami it can be more fatal. There's a train missing in Japan as we had in Sri Lanka, where 2,500 people were engulfed on one railway journey; they all died. In a tsunami, there's a body of water that sustains the flood. Those who survive climb trees or get up on to stable, taller buildings.
Similar questions