Introduction


You have spent 50 minutes on Monday February 9, 2009  watching a video on the tsunami generated by the December 26, 2004 earthquake.
On Friday February 11, 2009 you saw a video on the disasterous Tangshan earthquake of 1976.

This 2004 earthquake and subsequent tsunami had disastrous effects on the immediate area. Infrastructure was destroyed and thousands of lives were lost. The video discussed preparations that have been made along the Pacific Rim that if applied in the Indian Ocean, could have prevented such a large loss of life.

The Tangshan earthquake of 1996 destroyed the industrial city of Tangshan.

Assignment

Your assignment is as follows:

1. Focus on one of the disasters

2. Select an item of interest, e.g.,

    Emergency relief
    Effectiveness of international aid
    Impact of disaster on national economy
    Impact of disaster on global economy
    Impact of disaster on local political system
    Media presentation of the disaster
    Rescue
    Prevention of damage through early wardning, proper building design, pre-planned emergency response.
    Security

3. Provide an outline of a presentation that would focus on one of these items.

    Think of planning a PowerPoint presentation on your chosen focus.  Although limited in time, an oral presentation must be carefully planned.
    The outline would consist of

       Objective
       Items to be presented
       Discussion/ conclusion

    For each of the items in your outline, provide a paragraph, or at least several sentences of substance to focus your thoughts.

    If this is a good presentation, one may eventually write a detailed in-depth briefing paper (note only the detailed outline is required now)

    Finally, a bibliography is required.  You must cite sources as magazines, news articles, video, internet, etc.  However, not all sources can be in the Internet


The purpose of this assignment is to have you think of what can be done to prepare for a specific natural disaster.