Short-term and long-term physical, environmental, and economic impacts of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami

On March 11, 2011, a massive earthquake of magnitude 9.0 hit the northeast coastal areas of Japan. This earthquake, commonly called as Tohoku earthquake, generated massive tsunami wave resulting coastal inundation in Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima Prefectures, and most importantly, nuclear meltdown of Fukushima nuclear plant. Hence, this triple disaster (earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear) killed so many people. As of August 10, 2015, 15, 892 people are killed, 6,152 people are injured and 2,573 people are still missing¹. About 124,664 buildings were completely devastated whereas 274,641 buildings were partially collapsed having significant impacts on other infrastructures as well. This disaster damaged 116 bridges, 4,198 section of roads, 29 segments of railways and induced 207 landslides in the affected region.

The striking difference of this earthquake is the nuclear power plant crisis. After the Chernobyl disaster in 1984, this event created heated debates about the dependency of energy supply on nuclear power. Also, concerns were raised worldwide regarding the safety standards to combat such mega events. Krausmann and Cruz (2013)² studied the impacts of earthquake and tsunami on chemical industry where they concluded that this event dramatically highlighted the vulnerability to natural hazard triggered technological (Natech) accidents of a well prepared countries like Japan and suggested to revisit the current practices and policies to safeguard surroundings from such facilities. The same report highlights the disproportionate impact of chemical industries in the different location within the affected region. For instance, no lives were lost in Chiba industrial complex while four people were killed in Sendai refinery.

The hazardous materials released from the many damaged industrial installations posed in some cases an immediate threat to the population due to toxicity or flammability or created medium to long terms concerns due to possible chemical contamination of the soil or groundwater. A study to assess the immediate impacts of tsunami on coastal taxa composition and richness of macrobenthic animals before and after events conducted by Urabe et al. (2013)³ shows that 30-80% of taxa indigenously inhabiting intertidal flats disappeared after the tsunami in Sendai Bay and Sanriku Ria coast. Also, the arsenic contamination was found exceeding the safety standard by 25 times². In the direct aftermath of the disasters, chemical contamination was not a priority issue but there is a question remain about the fate of chemical hazardous substances that were released to the land and water during the earthquake and tsunami.

The mega disaster had huge impacts on economic sector. Kajitani et al. (2013)⁴ estimates that 16.9 trillion Japanese Yen (US$ 211 billion) was lost in direct damage making it the costliest disaster on the record. The author estimates after one year of the event the lost is 2.9 trillion Japanese Yen in insurance payouts and 17.7 trillion in response and recovery (table 1 and 2 below)⁴.

Mainly, fisheries and agriculture, manufacturing, retail trade, and tourism were heavily impacted. Loss of supply chain and disruption in the power supply were primary factors to contribute for the losses. In addition to damage to many facilities, the resuming of industrial operations was hampered by aftershocks, tsunami alters, evacuation of personnel, lack of utilities (water, electricity), damage to infrastructures (berths, roads etc.) and in some cases by a shortage of raw material.

Although, Japan is considered one of the best countries in terms of disaster preparedness, this earthquake highlighted the lacunae of disaster preparedness in the country. The event suggests us to  prepare for the expected as well as unexpected outcomes of any natural disaster.

References:

¹National Policy Agency of Japan, Emergency Disaster Countermeasures Headquarters http://www.npa.go.jp/archive/keibi/biki/higaijokyo_e.pdf (Assessed on September 7, 2015)

²Elisabeth Krausmann and Ana Maria Cruz (2013) Impact of the 11 March 2011, Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami on the chemical industry. Nat Hazards, 67:811–828

³Urabe J, Suzuki T, Nishita T, Makino W (2013) Correction: Immediate Ecological Impacts of the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake Tsunami on Intertidal Flat Communities. PLoS ONE 8(10) doi: 10.1371/annotation/61f59d8c-7ee1-4288-8571-16a00321c92a

⁴Yoshio Kajitani, Stephanie E. Chang, and Hirokazu Tatano (2013) Economic Impacts of the 2011 Tohoku-Oki Earthquake and Tsunami. Earthquake Spectra: March 2013, Vol. 29, No. S1, pp. S457-S478.