Tehran thunderstorm: An unexpected success story

Abstract

On June 2, 2014, a local thunderstorm winds of speed as high as 118 km/h hit Tehran, capital of Iran. This thunderstorm plugged the city into darkness for hours, emotionally affected the citizens, and damaged properties. Based on Tehran Disaster Mitigation and Management Organization meteorological station, the temperatures suddenly dropped from 33.83 to 18.46 centigrade within 2 h and the air humidity elevated from 14.2% to 68.4%. This thunderstorm resulted in eight deaths, 81 injuries (63 male and 18 female and an estimated property damage of about $40 million at the official exchange rate.). More than half (58.5%) of the injuries were caused by multiple trauma. Shortly after thunderstorm stop, Tehran emergency operation and command center was mobilized for rapid assessment and emergency response to the event. One hundred electricity response teams, 15 search and rescue teams, and emergency medical and municipal teams were involved in response phase. After 6 h, about 24 response phases were accomplished and the city entered to recovery phase. This storm highlighted the challenges of need for harmonized individual and organized organizational participation, necessity for education of people through mass media and training all construction workers, and vulnerable parts of Tehran megacity during a disaster period.