The impact of the 26 December 2004 earthquake and tsunami on structures and infrastructure

A field investigation of the 26 December 2004 south east Asia earthquake- and tsunami-affected areas in Thailand and Indonesia was conducted. The objective of the study was to evaluate the effects of the event on buildings, bridges and infrastructure. The effect of the tsunami on structures and infrastructure produced surprising behaviour with several new lessons to learn. Failure of critical infrastructure such as bridges, harbour docks, hospitals and communication systems delayed search and rescue operations and relief efforts, which increased the suffering of the survivors. The causes of structural failures due to the earthquake included soft story, strong beam–weak column designs, short columns, deficient beam–column joints, non-ductile detailing, unreinforced masonry and inadequate construction quality. It is concluded that it is necessary to design critical structures and important infrastructure to survive tsunami effects. Well-designed and constructed structures with attention to details and no significant additional cost survived the earthquake and the resulting tsunami with minimum damage.