Systems and know-how to warn about extreme weather are still spotty, experts say
KAPARATOTTA, Sri Lanka (AlertNet) - When they headed out into shallow waters that evening, the fishermen of the small village of Kaparatotta didn’t notice anything to cause alarm. The sky was a little cloudy, and the sea its usual boisterous self - not safe for a swim, yet nothing seasoned fishermen couldn’t handle.
But around 9 pm on Nov. 25, 2011, the ocean suddenly turned vicious. Within a few minutes, the small wooden boats with outboard engines, trolling just 1 to2 kilometers from shore, were being battered by waves as high as 25 feet.
Despite years having passed since the 2004 Asian tsunami that wracked Sri Lanka’s coast, and a government mandate to improve early warning systems in the country, the fishermen had no warning of the approaching storm.
“I have never seen anything like that, ever in my life,” said fisherman Thushara Jayaweera. “Those kind of waves don’t break mid-sea usually, but we were being tossed up like rag dolls.”
The several crew members on his boat tried to sail towards the shore, but the waves were too high and rough for them to make progress. Thinking they had met their fate, they turned back towards deeper waters – a decision that saved their lives.
Closer to the shore, Lamahevage Chandana tried to manoeuvre his small vessel through a huge wave.
“The moment we got over (it), the boat was flipped up and dropped down. It split in two like a matchstick,” he recalled.
He grabbed hold of an old buoy tied to one of the masts. He and his father-in-law survived in the swelling sea for over seven hours by hanging on to the buoy.
“We could see the shore all the time, but the sea was so rough no one could get to us. We prayed and waited,” he said.
Those on shore watched helplessly as their relatives and friends were thrown around at the mercy of the rough ocean. Sometimes when the wind died down, they could hear faint cries for help.
“You can’t describe it in words - it was a tragedy. Families were standing where we are today and watching their loved ones struggle,” said Thakshila Damayanthi, a young woman who is also an elected member of the local urban council.
By the next day, 14 fishermen were dead; 11 of their bodies were never recovered. Along Sri Lanka’s southern coast, a total of 29 people died and over 10,000 buildings were damaged by the winds, which weather specialists attributed to a sudden temperature rise.
Experts say a mass of hot air rose quickly north of Kaparatotta, causing cold air from the south to gust northwest - a weather phenomena that seems to have become more common in recent years.
WAKE-UP CALL
Fishing communities are increasingly convinced that disasters like this could be prevented with simple warning techniques, such as text message alerts.
“There has been so much talk about early warning since the tsunami, but when it is really needed, we get nothing,” Damayanthi said.
The tsunami was a wakeup call on the need for the introduction of early warning mechanisms in Sri Lanka, according to Mudalihamige Rathnayake, head of the geography department at Ruhunu University, close to Kaparatotta.
“Before that, there was no concept of early warning or disaster mitigation,” he said.
Several months after the tsunami, in May 2005, Sri Lanka passed the Disaster Management Act, which established the Disaster Management Centre (DMC), the first national body set up to oversee disaster mitigation and relief efforts. One of the center’s mandates was to monitor and issue early warnings.
Rathnayake told AlertNet that, in the past few years, Sri Lanka has experienced increasingly extreme weather, which appear to be linked with climate change and which is making early warning much more important.
“We have seen the trend of an increase in disastrous weather events,” he said.
Since June 2009, the South Asian island nation has dealt with four large floods, affecting over 2 million people. Early last year, eastern regions received a year’s worth of rain in just one month, heavily damaging the vital rice crop.
Instances of very strong winds have also increased due to sharp temperature increases, which cause hot air to rise, pulling in colder air that brings gusts over a concentrated area, according to Rathnayake.
UN HIGHLIGHTS WEAKNESSES
Yet, despite the growing need to be prepared for disasters, a U.N. assessment - ironically released the same week as the Kaparatotta disaster - found that Sri Lanka’s warning systems still need much improvement.
The report highlighted a lack of coordination between the various government organisations tasked with monitoring and providing information to the country’s Disaster Management Centre.
"It is critical to the efficiency of the process that scenario development, early warning and related actions should not be considered in isolation but as an integrated process," it said.
At least one government body - the National Aquatic Research and Resource Development Agency (NARA), which operates under the fisheries ministry - had knowledge of the sudden build-up of winds last November. Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Minister Rajitha Senaratne told parliament in the weeks after the storm that NARA had sent a warning to both the DMC and the meteorological department.
But DMC spokesperson Pradeep Kodipplili told AlertNet the centre “never got any official warning of any sort”.
NO BACK-UP BATTERY
Lack of preparedness was also evident on the ground. Damayanthi found that the local radio transmission station did not have a working back-up battery for its communications equipment when the power supply was disrupted by the high winds in Kaparatotta.
“You and I talk of early warning, but these guys had forgotten to charge the battery - that was what we were faced with that day,” she said.
The blame for not alerting the DMC has largely fallen on the meteorological department. But the U.N. assessment revealed the meteorological department also lacks the tools to accurately track developing weather patterns like the November storm.
"The Department of Meteorology of Sri Lanka does not have the capacity required to provide quantitative rain forecasts. Models currently used are assessed by the department as not fully reliable, and the information issued by the department is not detailed,” said the report. The department's radar equipment is now being upgraded.
Ruhunu University’s Rathnayake also noted that the general public has not been educated about how to respond to warnings.
“We need to build awareness on how to react to cyclones, floods or even droughts. Different disasters require different approaches,” he said.
Rathnayake’s research in the south has found that the tsunami’s vast devastation has created a basic level of home-grown savvy.
“People know that if a tsunami is coming you need to run away from the shore. But beyond that they know very little,” he said.
At least some of the damage caused by floods in recent years could have been avoided if proper warnings had been issued, he added.
On the shores of Kaparatotta, there is little optimism this will start happening any time soon.
“The tsunami was the signal for us to take natural disasters seriously, but we haven’t,” said council member Damayanthi. “I don’t think a small tragedy like (ours) will change anything.”
To see a video version of this story, please click here.
Amantha Perera is a freelance writer based in Sri Lanka. This story is part of a series supported by the Climate and Development Knowledge Network.
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