East-West Center's Tsunami Relief Information: PDC Images

Images of the Great Sumatra Earthquake and Tsunami

The East-West Center is the managing partner of the Pacific Disaster Center (PDC) located on the island of Maui. The PDC develops partnerships and technologies supporting comprehensive disaster management. These before and after images of coastal areas affected by the December 26 earthquake convey the magnitude of the destruction. The massive earthquake generated a tsunami that claimed the lives of more than 150,000 people in Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Burma, Malaysia, the Maldives and Somalia.

The images are courtesy of Digital Globe's Quickbird satellite. Click on an image to view full-size.

Before	After
banda_aceh_grandmosque_june23_2004	banda_aceh_grandmosque_dec28_2004
banda_aceh_shoreline_before_june23_2004	banda_aceh_shoreline_missing_dec28_2004
srilanka_kalutara_beforeflood_jan1_2004	srilanka_kalutara_flood_dec26_2004

Since the December 26, 2004 Sumatra earthquake and associated tsunami devastated the Indian Ocean region, the Pacific Disaster Center on Maui, for which the East-West Center is the managing partner, has had an active role in the support of emergency management and humanitarian assistance operations within the region. Immediately following the earthquake/tsunami, the PDC launched an online information system providing satellite imagery and other information crucial to the relief and rebuilding efforts in the affected countries. Further to support these activities, the PDC has (a) placed four technical staff on the ground in the tsunami-affected areas (2 in Thailand and one each in Indonesia and Sri Lanka), (b) has deployed, in cooperation with the 10-nation ASEAN Committee on Disaster Management, a system that can automatically e-mail emergency managers in the event of significant future earthquakes detected in the region, and (c) is actively working with organizations in the region for the development and deployment of a multi-hazard early warning system to ensure that such a disaster does not occur in the future. The PDC's support will continue as the recovery and rebuilding process begins in the region to ensure the development of disaster-resistant communities in the region.

More data & information on the disaster is available at:

www.pdc.org

More sample Digital Globe Imagery is available at: http://www.digitalglobe.com/sample_imagery.shtml

Click here to sign up for Email Updates from the East-West Center

East-West Center's Response to the Asia Tsunami

Looking Back Over the Year and Moving Forward

Images of the Great Sumatra Earthquake and Tsunami