Field Surveys of Recent Storm Surge Disasters

In these ten years since 2004, there were more than ten big disasters in coastal area including six storm surge events and five tsunami events. The author performed post disaster surveys on all these events as the team leaders of survey teams. Based on those experiences, the author describes lessons of these events. Tsunami is now generally well known to coastal residents. Evacuation plans gradually become common for tsunami disasters. Storm surges arise more frequently due to strong storms but coastal residents are not well protected and not informed how to evacuate in case of surge emergency. From the field surveys conducted, it appeared that the damage depend on the geographical and social conditions of each of the areas that were visited by the author. It is now clear that such issues play important roles in disaster mechanisms. Therefore disaster risk management should carefully include local topography and social conditions of each area during the formulation of disaster prevention plans. In order to establish a reliable disaster prevention system, appropriate protection structures should be constructed, and these should be accompanied by a clear and concise evacuation plan for residents of a given area.