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Tehran thunderstorm: an unexpected success story

14 March 2015

ABBAS OSTAD TAGHIZADEH

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Tehran, The capital of Iran

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General information

Tehran, Iran.

Iran administrative divisions

Tehran General InformationKey Information

Province Tehran

Latitude 35 40 N

Longitude 51 26 E

City 1500 km  (579 sq mi)

Urban 686 km (265 sq mi)

Elevation 1200 m (3,900 ft)

Population(2006) about 11,000,000

Density10000/km 

(25,899/sq mi)

Time zone 3.5 GMT

District 22

Sub District 155

Neighborhood (Mahalleh) 375

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Introduction

• On Monday afternoon 2nd June 2014 at 17:30 local time (9:00 a.m. U.S. EDT) an unexpected thunderstorm of speed as high as 118 km/h hit Tehran.

• This thunderstorm plugged the city into darkness for hours, affected the citizens and damaged properties

Thunderstorms

• Thunderstorms are kind of severe unstable weather with gusty, locally generated horizontal winds associated with lightning, thunder, often with rain, and sometimes with hail.

• Previously, Tehran had not experienced a similar event.

Meteorological changes

• The temperatures suddenly dropped from 33.83 centigrade at 16:10 to 18.46 at 18:10.

• The air humidity rose from 14.2 % to 68.4% (54.2%changes).

• The wind speed suddenly increased at 17:00 and only during 20 minutes reached to 118 km/h.

Meteorological changes

Human Impacts

Property impacts

Response phase

• Tehran emergency operation and command center was organized.

• Rapid assessment and emergency response teams started to manage the event.

• One hundred electricity response teams, 15 search and rescue teams, Emergency Medical teams and municipal teams were involved in response phase.

• Finally after six hours about 24 response phases were finished and the city entered to recovery phase

How this disaster made Tehran more resilient

Lessons Learned

1. Strengthening HSE regulation

• 87.5% of deaths and at least 77.5% of injuries occurred by fallen buildings material or fallen trees.

• Unsafe construction process could explain a part of reasons.

• Despite insurance of HSE- MS in construction industry, It was not well settled.

• Now Tehran has more implemented HSE System. • Education of construction workers (urban planners,

architectures, civil engineers) is mandatory now.

2. Public Education and Preparedness plan

• When thunderstorm was blowing, the people were running and walking in streets and the cars were moving.

• Since this kind of disaster was unusual in Tehran, the people were not educated and prepared for it.

• After this event, Tehran developed a comprehensive public education plan for disaster prevention and education and will implemented it in the next years.

3. Investment on CBDRM

• Pictures showed that the citizens were waiting until the responders arrived and opened the ways.

• This event emphasized that community based disaster risk management approach and promotion of social responsibility is a necessity for disaster risk management.

• Tehran is planning to increase the number of Volunteers group in the next 5 years.

4. Investment on early warning systems

• This storm showed that the weather notification and early warning system in Iran needs to improved and clarified for responders.

• There were no appropriate forecasting equipment and software as well as early warning systems.

• Iran Parliament deployed more budget for Iran’s meteorological system to improve and use advanced now casting and early warning systems.

5. Disaster recovery Fund

• This thunderstorm highlighted absent or inefficient mechanisms of risk transfer and loss compensation in local governance level.

• Tehran City Council issued an act to provide Disaster Recovery Fund. Based on this act, part of annual budget of Tehran municipality will be saved in a fund and allocated for compensating the property losses in possible future disasters.

• Moreover, the local authorities are obligated to insure citizens against disasters.

Conclusion

• Every disaster shows the failures of the management systems and provokes for new plans to reduce further risks.

• Both managers and the community are expected to be prepared for, respond to, and recovery from all hazards.

• To make cities resilient to disaster, public education, community participation, inter– disciplinary collaboration, appropriate and strict rules and regulations for disaster risk reduction and management are essential strategies.

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Email: ostadtaghizadeh@gmail.com