Factors influencing tsunami life safety were examined using 1,153 witnesses in the tsunami-inundated areas in the 2011 Tohoku-oki earthquake and tsunami. It was found that evacuation starting time, evacuation location conditions, age and occupation had the greatest influence on survival. Moreover, the data for 101 localities were employed to estimate the fatality rate as a function of the tsunami height, arrival time, evacuation distance, elderly fraction of the community (percentage of people over 65 years old) and types of topography (ria coast versus flat plain). The results provide lessons that communities threatened by tsunami need to develop integrated disaster preparedness, taking into account evacuation behavior, refuge siting, the topography, and community age distribution.
Category 5 Typhoon Haiyan (known as Yolanda in the Philippines) made landfall in the Philippines on the 8 th November 2013 at almost the peak of its power, devastating the islands of Leyte and Samar, amongst other places. The present paper analyses the degree of awareness and preparedness of the islands of Samar and Leyte in the Philippines against storm surges prior to the arrival of typhoon Haiyan. The analysis was based on field surveys and interviewed with a variety of local residents and officials conducted during field surveys in the months after the event. One of the key problems identified during the interviews was how people were not able to clearly conceptualize the concept of storm surge. Despite receiving storm surge warnings it appears that many residents and local authorities "under-estimated" the event and thought that they could evacuate at a later stage or during the storm itself. The results clearly highlight the need for better education and for development strategies in the region to focus on improving the resilience of local inhabitants.
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