A comparative analysis of large-scale flood disasters

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to analyze and compare the human suffering exacerbation processes in the coastal metropolitan areas of Nagoya, New Orleans and Metro Manila caused by 1959 Typhoon Isewan, 2005 Hurricane Katrina and 2009 Tropical Storm Ondoy, respectively, in order to understand disasters. The research method applied was firstly to create a timeline of each disaster process with disaster responses by referring to newspapers, literature, and others, then the facts were categorized with similar social conditions and government responses to establish a hypothesis. Field surveys were conducted to verify the hypothesis. The research outcome shows the human suffering exacerbation processes of these three large-scale disasters can be seen that the pattern of the process is the same; however, the duration and content of each disaster are quite different. These differences mainly depend on social backgrounds, disaster subculture, and disaster management by local and national governments. Based on the above research findings, a useful view for disaster investigation and disaster management is clarified, along with the possible contributions of disaster countermeasures’ timeline development, especially for the disaster management in metropolitan areas.