Journal of Extreme Events

On September 5 2017, a Category 5 Hurricane, named Irma, struck the Caribbean island of Sint Maarten causing destruction and loss of life across the territory. This paper presents a household survey and the main findings related to vulnerability and risk to extreme weather events in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma. The post-disaster context posed challenges in relation to data collection, determination of sample size and timing of the fieldwork. The survey was conducted using a combination of face-to-face interviews and web-administered questionnaires. This method proved useful in achieving a better coverage of the study area as well as obtaining a greater overall response rate. With regards to the timing of the survey, it was found that a period of six months between Hurricane Irma’s landfall and the field data campaign was adequate in terms of availability of resources and emotional distress of respondents. Data collected in the survey was categorized into general household information, hurricane preparedness and reaction, and risk perception/awareness. Survey findings show that the factors that increased vulnerability and risk on the island include a high tenancy rate, low insurance coverage, lack of house maintenance, disregard to building regulations (particularly on leased lands), low evacuation rate, not receiving a clear warning, and lack of preparation. The factors that reduce vulnerability include high hurricane awareness at a household level and high tendency of rebuilding houses with comparable quality to houses that can sustain hurricanes. Finally, recommendations are provided that could potentially reduce communities’ vulnerability and risk to hurricanes, and lessons learned in conducting household surveys after disasters.

This study examines how three types of extreme events (heat waves, droughts, floods) are mentioned together with climate change on social media. English-language Twitter use during 2008–2017 is analyzed, based on 1,127,996 tweets (including retweets). Frequencies and spikes of activity are compared and theoretically interpreted as reflecting complex relations between the extreme event factor (the occurrence of an extreme event); the media ecology factor (climate-change oriented statements/actions in the overall media landscape) and the digital action factor (activities on Twitter). Flooding was found to be by far the most tweeted of the three in connection to climate change, followed by droughts and heat waves. It also led when comparing spikes of activity. The dominance of floods is highly prevalent from 2014 onwards, triggered by flooding events (extreme event factor), the climate science controversy in US politics (media ecology factor) and the viral power of celebrities’ tweets (digital action factor).

This paper focusses on the recent tsunami in Indonesia and the factors led to the mass killing. We also discussed the failure of early warning systems, steps, methods, and technologies, in general, to improve the early warning systems in the future to mitigate the loss of lives and property during these impending disasters. We believe that this paper is timely as Indonesia has seen one of the worst tsunamis in recent years and the threat is still on. Hence, we stress the importance of improving and strengthening the existing early warning systems.

An increasing number of instances in extreme weather events over the global oceans have deepened the concerns on the impact of climate change. The frequency of extreme weather events is also seen to increase attributes to climate change across the globe. In the Indian context, there has been about 285 reported flooding events over the period from 1950 to 2017 that affected nearly 850 million people with many causalities. As the global oceans become stormier, the effects are seen in rising sea level and infrastructural facilities. Major flooding events are caused by tropical cyclone-induced storm surge and associated breaking waves. These extreme weather events coupled with sea level rise have serious repercussions on the coastal vulnerability. Also recently, there is an upsurge in the intensity and tropical cyclone size that forms over the North Indian Ocean region that brought attention among the scientific community. The worst possible scenario of extreme water level can occur when the time of storm surge occurrence coincides with the astronomical high water. This review paper provides a comprehensive overview on the research developments and efforts made in ocean wave modeling in particular for the Indian seas. As per the Fifth Assessment Report of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the role and influence of ocean surface gravity wave in the climate system are considered to be very important. At present, numerical models are widely used and that can be used to hindcast and forecast the wave characteristics over both regional and global ocean basin scales. A detailed overview on the observational techniques is listed along with the historical perspective and recent developments in wind-wave modeling for the Indian seas. Recent developments in computing technology and advanced numerical techniques have made it possible to solve the complex problems in coastal science and engineering using state-of-the-art numerical models providing realistic estimates, cost effective and having immense potential in operational weather centers. This review also deals with some of the important issues and future directions in wind-wave modeling studies such as improvements required in momentum transfer, bottom dissipation, and rain–wave interaction effects that require detailed understanding and concentrated efforts.