CENTER FOR EXCELLENCE IN DISASTER MANAGEMENT & HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE USINDOPACOM Foreign Disaster Response in the Indo-Asia-Pacific June 1991 – June 2019 WWW.CFE-DMHA.ORG Contents About the Center for Excellence in Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance ...3 Introduction ...........................................................................................................................4 June 1991 – Philippines: Mount Pinatubo Eruption ..............................................................6 April 1991 – Bangladesh: Cyclone Gorky (Marian) ............................................................10 January 2001 – India: Gujarat Earthquake .........................................................................16 December 2004 – Indian Ocean Earthquake and Tsunami ................................................18 October 2005 – Pakistan: Kashmir Earthquake .................................................................25 February 2006 – Philippines: Leyte Landslide ...................................................................29 May 2006 – Indonesia: Yogyakarta Earthquake .................................................................33 April 2007 – Solomon Islands: Tsunami .............................................................................37 November 2007 – Bangladesh: Cyclone Sidr.....................................................................39 May 2007 – Myanmar: Cyclone Nargis ..............................................................................43 May 2008 – China: Sichuan Earthquake ............................................................................47 June 2008 – Philippines: Typhoon Fengshen .....................................................................49 August 2009 – Taiwan: Typhoon Morakot ..........................................................................52 September 2009 – Philippines: Tropical Storm Ketsana ....................................................54 September 2009 – Indonesia: Padang, Sumatra Earthquakes ..........................................57 October 2010 – Philippines: Typhoon Megi ........................................................................61 March 2011 – Japan: Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami .....................................................62 October 2011 – Thailand: Floods .......................................................................................68 December 2012 – Philippines: Typhoon Bopha .................................................................70 November 2013 – Philippines: Typhoon Haiyan .................................................................74 March 2014 – Malaysia: Search for Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 ...............................79 USINDOPACOM Foreign Disaster Response in the Indo-Asia-Pacific June 1991 – June 2019 1 December 2014 – Philippines: Typhoon Hagupit ...............................................................82 April 2015 – Nepal: Earthquake..........................................................................................85 May 2015 – Rohingya Sea Migration .................................................................................91 April 2016 – Japan: Kumamoto Earthquakes .....................................................................93 November 2016 - New Zealand: Kaikoura Earthquake ......................................................95 May 2017 – Sri Lanka: Floods ............................................................................................99 June 2018 – Thailand: Cave Rescue ...............................................................................103 September 2018 – Indonesia: Sulawesi Earthquake and Tsunami ..................................107 Appendix 1: Other USINDOPACOM Foreign Disaster Response (FDR) Support (Due to very limited information available on the following USINDOPACOM responses, a list and brief summary is provided in the Appendix) a. July 1990 - Philippines: Earthquake b. September 1990 - Philippines: Heavy Rains and Mudslides c. January 1995 – Japan: Great Hanshin Earthquake (also known as the Kobe Earthquake) d. January 1998 – Hebei Province, China: Earthquake e. November 1999 – Vietnam: Floods f. December 2004 – Luzon, Philippines: Typhoons and Tropical Storms g. 2007 – Philippines: Legazpi Typhoon Recovery Disclaimer This report has been prepared in good faith based on open-source information available at the date of publication. While making every attempt to ensure the information is relevant and accurate, CFE-DM does not guarantee or warrant the accuracy, reliability, completeness or currency of the information in this publication. ISBN 978-1-955429-25-2 2 Center for Excellence in Disaster Management & Humanitarian Assistance About the Center for Excellence in Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance Overview The Center for Excellence in Disaster Management & Humanitarian Assistance (CFE-DM) is a United States (U.S.) Department of Defense (DOD) organization that was established by U.S. Congress in 1994. The Center is a direct reporting unit to U.S. Indo-Pacific Command and is located on Ford Island, Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii. CFE-DM was founded as part of the late Senator Daniel K. Inouye’s vision. The Senator had witnessed the effects of Hurricane Iniki that struck the Hawaiian Islands in 1992 and felt the civil- military coordination in the response could have been more effective. He set about to establish CFE-DM to help bridge understanding between civil and military responders, and to provide a DOD platform for building Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance (DMHA) awareness and expertise in U.S. forces, and with partner nations in the Asia-Pacific. While maintaining a global mandate, the Asia-Pacific region is our priority of effort and collaboration is the cornerstone of our operational practice. Mission CFE-DM increases the readiness of U.S. forces, civilian and military counterparts, and international partners to respond globally to foreign humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations through civil-military coordination, training, information sharing, and regional planning. Vision CFE-DM exists to save lives and alleviate human suffering by connecting people, improving coordination, and building capacity. Contact Information Center for Excellence in Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance 456 Hornet Ave JBPHH HI 96860-3503 Telephone: (808) 472-0518 https://www.cfe-dmha.org Report prepared by: Alan Aoki Applied Research and Information Sharing Branch (ARIS) Center for Excellence in Disaster Management And Humanitarian Assistance (CFE-DM) USINDOPACOM Foreign Disaster Response in the Indo-Asia-Pacific June 1991 – June 2019 3 Introduction Worldwide, the Indo-Asia-Pacific is the region most prone to disasters. Natural disasters in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region have killed 2 million people, or 57 percent of the global death toll from disasters, since 1970. The number of people killed annually in the region has averaged 43,000. The deaths were primarily due to earthquakes, followed by storms and floods. The region is home to 60 percent of the world’s population but is disproportionately affected by disasters, with some 88 percent of the region’s population affected. People in the Indo-Asia-Pacific are five times more likely to be affected by a natural disaster than in other parts of the world.1 Because of the frequency and intensity of disasters in the region, the United States Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM, formerly known as U.S. Pacific Command or USPACOM prior to May 2018) was called upon to support at least 36 foreign disaster responses in the region from June 1991 to June 2019. This does not reflect every significant or major disaster that struck the region. In the majority of cases, the U.S. government is able to respond to most U.S.-declared foreign disasters with civilian response assets and funds. The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) only assists the US Agency for International Development (USAID)/Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) in around 10% of US-declared foreign disasters on average annually. However, those events are usually major disasters where affected nations’ resources are overwhelmed and civilian and military response capacity have been exceeded, thus the support of unique foreign military assets are requested.2 Of note, U.S. military forces have been called upon to support disaster relief efforts in the USINDOPACOM Area of Responsibility (AOR) each year since 2004, when the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami struck the region, affecting more than a dozen countries and leading to the deaths of some 230,000 people. For that disaster, around 35 foreign nations contributed military assets to assist with the massive response efforts. Around 30,000 military personnel were called upon to assist in total. The U.S. alone contributed nearly 16,000 military personnel to aid in the response. This report looks at U.S. military foreign disaster response operations in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region, and provides a brief summary of each event and the accompanying response from U.S. forces. The report is general in nature and meant to give an overview of USINDOPACOM and overall DOD efforts, but some details may not be covered due to length constraints. As such, it is not possible to cover every aspect from every crisis in this document. There are 29 summaries of U.S. military response to foreign disasters in the region discussed in the main body of the report. The majority of these are major