Katrina and the Thai Tsunami: Public Health Water Quality Aspects

The South East Asian Tsunami in Thailand and Hurricane Katrina in the United States were natural disasters of different origin but of similar destruction and response. Both disasters exhibited synonymous health outcomes and similar structural damage from large surges of water, waves, and flooding. A systematic discussion and comparison of the disasters in Thailand and the Gulf Coast considers both calamities to be similar types of disaster in different coastal locations. Thus valuable comparisons can be made for improvements in response, preparedness and mitigation. Pre-storm conditions, disaster impacts and response, and lessons learned for both cases are discussed. Assessments are made regarding health, environmental impacts, water and wastewater issues and data availability/evaluation. Based on the experiences gained opportunities to enhance disaster preparedness through research are presented.