HOTEL POLICY MANUAL
TITLE: TSUNAMI DIVISION: Rooms-Health Club
No: 6 – Eyewitness Interview Questionnaire CROSS REF. (Policy #):
PREPARED BY: Stewart Hodsoll – Health Club & No. of Pages: 5
Recreation Manager
APPROVED BY: Adrian Rudin General Manager
DISTRIBUTED TO: General Manager, Resident Manager and all Health Club Staff
Write down the basic general information, with enough detail as it might be needed, and
report it to the emergency teams and the International Tsunami Information Center
(ITIC).
The report of this survey will help ITIC to make recommendations for future
tsunami disaster mitigation measures.
EYEWITNESS INTERVIEW QUESTIONNAIRE
I. BASIC INFORMATION
Interviewer's name: ________________________________________________
Position (if Hotel/Resort Staff): _______________________________________
Service: _________________________________________________________
Date and time of interview: __________________________________________
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Interviewee's name: ________________________________________________
Address: ________________________________________________________
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Profession: _______________________________________________________
Place name (town, village, colony, topographic): __________________________
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(Locate on maps or air photos)
Where was the interviewee during the earthquake and the tsunami? (a hill, a
house, a boat, etc.) ________________________________________________
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Eyewitness Interview Questionnaire
II. TSUNAMI INFORMATION
What was the situation before the tsunami? (Meteorological conditions, sea-level,
light conditions, sounds or noise, etc.
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Arrival time of wave(s)?: ____________________________________________
Local time - from clocks, TV programmes, etc.: __________________________
By feeling - time between main earthquake shock and wave arrival ___________
(note that an aftershock may come between the main shock and the tsunami
arrival time)
Nature of first wave arrival? ___________ (Interviewer may ask, e.g., if water
went out first; but this can be a leading question - try to get witness to describe
water behavior without leading them on): _______________________________
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Eyewitness Interview Questionnaire
How many times did water rise? (How many waves were there?) ____________
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How much time between waves? _____________________________________
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Did the water completely withdraw and came back again? __________________
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What was the relative size of the waves? (Which one was largest, etc.)?: ______
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(Blank page for Additional Comment).
What did the wave(s) look like? e.g., calm, slow flooding (like a fast tide); like a
river, like a swell (with white cap, like a breaking wave), like a wall (bore). ______
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From what direction did the water come?_______________________________,
In which direction did it go? __________________________________________
Describe any sounds or noise associated with the tsunami waves before the
arrival? And at the time of arrival? e.g., like a drum, like thunder, like an airplane,
like rain, like a car, like a river, no sound. _______________________________
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What changes in the land surface did the tsunami make? Places where there
was erosion? (What did it look like before?), _____________________________
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Places where it left sediment (deposits)? (What did it look like before?)________
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Eyewitness Interview Questionnaire
Identify rocks, debris, houses, ships, etc. moved by tsunami (where were they
before?) (Make a drawing if necessary) ________________________________
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Casualties due to the tsunami:
Note: To avoid discrepancies in fatality number counting, it is agreed that we
consider as Tsunami Fatalities ONLY those people who die as a direct or indirect
action of the waves (i.e., trying to run away from the wave, being in a boat who
rolled and plunged extremely, due to shifting cargo on a boat, drowned in the
water, severely impacted by debris carried by the waves, from tsunami-induced
heart attack). Do not count people who have been killed in the clean-up
operations, or sickness from contaminated water or exposure, or other illnesses
(i.e., washed away by the wave into a snow bank and died of exposure,
evacuated to a cold hill side for the night and died from freezing, intoxicated by
drinking polluted sewage water).
Number of: a) deaths______, b) missing_______, c) seriously injured______, d)
minor injuries_______
Ages of victims__________________________
Sex of victims: ______ % male, _____% female ______
Property damage due to the tsunami:
Number: a) swept away_______, b) totally destroyed______, c) partially
destroyed_____, d) flooded______
Damage to cars, ships, port facilities, roads, agricultural fields, etc: ___________
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Health effects since the events: diseases, changes in water quality/availability,
etc. _____________________________________________________________
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Eyewitness Interview Questionnaire
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Area inundated by tsunami: Indicate physical points (e.g., on houses, trees,
fences) to which water rose; maximum distance inland water reached (locate
physically) _______________________________________________________
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Precaution and evacuation:
Did you have knowledge/expectation that a tsunami would come, before the
event? __________________________________________________________
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Experience of or knowledge of previous events? _________________________
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What preparedness actions have you taken well before the tsunami? _________
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And after the tsunami? _____________________________________________
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