Well Christmas for Layton City got a tad wet and windy after a freak storm rolled through the City causing mass flooding and even a tornado.
The Imperial Management of Emergencies Agency reported that a EF1 tornado had touched down south of Onehunga and proceeded west through open country before dissipating near Layton City International Airport. However, the severe rains accompanying the tornado had caused mass flooding in the east with the storm water systems unable to cope.
Weather Observation analyst Bill Duncan said storms were not uncommon in Layton City as the Summer rolled on with a few producing a few tornadoes usually out to sea (Waterspouts). Having one touch down on land is unusual however, the Civil Defence system by IMEA worked as it was meant to. Of course the flooding in the east will need to be dealt with after the Foggy Heights Canal again breached its walls causing flooding in Evergreen Heights and Orchard Square.
Layton City Department of Transport reported that minimal damage to infrastructure was reported with a rail line and section of State Highway 20 damaged by the tornado but quickly repaired.
Citizens are hoping the rest of the Summer holidays are not as intense as the Christmas Day tornado. I think we can all count ourselves lucky the sucker missed the airport by mere metres.
Okay first lesson with the Tsunami, ONLY HIT THE BUTTON ONCE! The cool down timer and the arrival of the wave does take a long time as in towards six hours of game time being simulated. I accidentally hit the button twice and got a double tsunami which in real life does happen depending on the quake and amount of wave trains it generates.
Early Warning System works
As part of the IMEA (Imperial Management of Emergencies Agency) planning I had laid out a network of Tsunami buoys to detect any waves while deploying radio masts City-wide to give out early warning alerts.
A tsunami buoy
A large radio mast
Sure enough while I was checking out the City Centre as it was a weekend afternoon meaning LOTS of shoppers and tourists the buoys picked up a wave (well two) and the radio masts started sending out the alerts.
So I trigger the evacuation systems and you hear the wailing of sirens across the City alerting people to head to the bunkers – apparently.
People really didn’t start moving until the wave was beginning to break over the sea walls THEN people started moving. Remember I have capacity for 172,000 in a city of 242,000!
The double wave started its trip through the City Centre, Downtown, Airport and Newmarket before heading up one of the rivers meeting the wave from a second entrance.
The result? Surf’s up:
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Included is the disaster response which was extremely prompt with the choppers and later the trucks when the water cleared.
How far would the Tsunami go?
What I was interested to see and equally afraid of was how far would the wave travel up an estuary on one side and the west coast on the other. The estuary is a threat as it leads to the main industrial complex and both nuclear power stations that power the City. The western coast that feeds into another estuary leads to the main airport and to Manukau City Centre and its industrial complex.
The western coast got hammered and it wasnt until the wave met some canal walls that were part of the storm water drainage system did the wave’s reach begin to dissipate. As for the estuary the wave travelled up the waterway causing moderate flooding along the shore. The wave did manage to travel far enough upstream to have the wave reach one of the nuclear plants but only cause very minor flooding. The wave totally faded out before reaching the port while also dissipating well before it could hit Manukau.
The western side
The aftermath?
120,000 people were in the bunkers while 22,000 out of 242,000 were killed in the double Tsunami (9% loss). The City Centre and Downtown were hit but Newmarket which houses the leisure district was effectively wiped out.
The IMEA response teams were prompt and I was able to release the Citizens from the bunkers a short while later.
Infrastructure was hit with subway stations, power transmission, parks, emergency services and schools taken out but thanks to IMEA being fast restoration of those services was prompt.
The Rebuild
By morning the damage could be very easily seen. Newmarket looked like it had a bomb go through it while the City Centre and Downtown also took some damage mainly to infrastructure. The IMEA response units had been through all the infrastructure facilities meaning I could rebuild them very quickly. While with the urban development side about 85% had been seen too and could start rebuilding.
Priority was to get the crematoriums, fire stations and stations back open to avoid a secondary disaster and get the flow of goods and people moving fast.
Once they were built I went back to get everything else.
Resilience
There were several factors that helped Layton City through a double Tsunami with 9% loss of lives. Yes we had the buoys, masts, bunkers and IMEA but things like the storm water infrastructure was able to pump out the flood waters very fast meaning water was not lingering.
The main industrial complex was never touched as wasn’t one of the nuclear power stations (the other was but very minor flooding that did not cause the reactors to SCRAM). The main water and sewer pumps were also not affected either so the emergency tanks were not needed this time around.
So with main power and water still available the City was able to function (although limited until the infrastructure was fixed) and the industrial complex providing materials for the rebuild.
Busses and heavy rail proved to be the most resilient in the disaster. Once the waves have swept through the busses began operating again straight away with freight and passenger trains not far behind. The subways and tram lines did need extensive rebuilds before they were operational again.
But it shows the resilience in transit modes especially after a disaster. The busses and trains were able to move thousands of evacuated people back home (unless their home was destroyed and a night in the bunkers) while freight trains moved goods and materials to their cargo hubs as part of the rebuild effort.
Evacuated citizens waiting for the trains back to the City Centre after the Tsunami
Already people are moving back and homes and businesses will be rebuilt. Layton City did extremely well with the disaster and its subsequent response. But heck citizens were slow to the bunkers. Next time let’s try to get a few more people there.
So I got the Natural Disasters DLC for Cities Skylines. Once the mods were updated by their developers (to my massive thanks) I was able to load up Layton City (my grand city of 243,000 which is HUGE for Cities Skylines) and give the new DLC a whirl.
Now I do have the Rainfall mod that properly simulates rain and storm events which means run off and managing storm water effects. This means inlets, detention basins, outlets and pumps throughout the city to move the storm water. So events that trigger flooding like storms, tornadoes and the Tsunami will have their dynamics alters compared to NOT having the rainfall mod.
Preparing for disaster
So before letting a disaster rip (including sodding forest fires that spawn off every time the Rainfall mod lets loose a storm) we need to place down some disaster management items.
Radio towers, sensors (earthquake and tsunami), Deep Space Radar, Weather Radar, fire watch towers, bunkers, disaster response buildings, helicopter depots for fire, medical and police, water storage tanks and a depot to send out vacuum trucks to suck up flood waters. All needing to be placed and strategically.
I decided to create three centralised disaster response management centres that each have enough bunker capacity for 120,000 people. Scatter some more bunkers around the city and we have capacity for 170,000 out of 243,000. Of course police and fire helicopter depots are more scattered around the City for various reasons.
Post disaster the three disaster response centres (Imperial Management of Emergencies Agency) in total can deploy 12 search and rescue helicopters as well as 40 ground units. The IMEA’s were already tested with two small urban forest fires popping up that had caused destruction to some of the urban area. I was quite pleased in the responses and the pace of the rebuild.
So I thought given Layton City is a coastal city how about letting a Tsunami rip? Well I did with very interesting results. Needless to say the three IMEA Centres worked brilliantly as did a stroke of planning brilliance.
Nuclear Disaster?
Layton City is powered by four nuclear reactors and a two-unit gas-fired power station. Given Fukushima I did wonder how the nuclear stations would cope with the Tsunami in Layton City. Would the City suffer 95% losses as other Cities Skylines cities have with the 1-2 Tsunami – nuclear knock out?
Well you will see in the next post as well as the disaster recovery operation (and why rail is king).
In the meantime some photos in the lead up to the Great Layton City Tsunami Disaster:
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The slide show also contains a meteorite strike, a sink hole and a building going over as tests.
After spending a few days tracking down the mod causing the game to crash (was the Rush Hour mod which is being updated) I loaded both Neo Layton City (as a test) and Layton City (current city) to give Cities Skylines Natural Disasters a whirl.
Conclusion?
Takes Civil Defence to a whole new level. I say new level as I have the Rainfall Mod that simulates actual storms, lightning, flooding and storm water systems. Given Layton City is on flat land the gravity system is a tad useless without pumps to force the water along. It also means flooding where I have not yet placed the pumps.
So with the Rainfall Mod I get not only flooding (the new vacuum trucks do a good job removing flood waters) the lightning now triggers off sodding forest fires (the Lightning Rod policy is enabled so rare for a building to catch fire) and that is before I even manually trigger off a severe storm in the disasters tab. And with Layton City a green city (lots and lots of urban forests) that means rolling out the Weather Radar, watch towers, and fire helicopter bases pretty much straight away.
Otherwise for everything else it comes down to planning and management. So what needed to be rolled out:
Radio masts to send out civil defence warnings
Disaster Response Building for search and rescue, and cleaning of rubble
Vacuum pump depot that sends out trucks to suck up flood waters then return to the depot to discharge that water into the sewerage system
Water storage tanks to store water in case demand exceeds supply for a wee bit or a freshwater pump is disabled for whatever reason
Freshwater outlet – okay this one is a tad useless
Fire helicopter base for those choppers with monsoon buckets
Police helicopter base for the Eagle in the sky
Medical helicopter base for airlifting the injured especially when roads are cut off
Space Radar (you can figure that one out)
Earthquake monitors (I do have hills in the background of the city)
Tsunami buoys given the City Centre and Downtown are exposed fully to the coast
Bunkers (either 1,000 or 10,000 capacity) for when your home was munted and needing a place to stay until the rebuild OR trying to outrun that tornado
Establishing the watch towers, buoys, earthquake sensors, radio masts and radars is pretty straight forward. Everything else for a city (236,000) the size of Layton City actual management gets very tricky very fast.
So the strategy is to establish three (two are set up so far) Imperial Emergency Management Centres (think FEMA) where the respective helicopter bases, Disaster Response Building and four 10,000 bunkers that act as centralised Civil Defence points. This gives me emergency capacity for 120,000 or half the city. Add in another couple of large bunkers out the inland fringes (Manukau and Lynch Heights ) and some smaller bunkers near major tourist points along the coast prone to the Tsunami and about 70% of the City is covered (bunkers can deploy evacuation busses along set routes to pick up citizens).
That leaves the pesky forest fires which needed a few more fire helicopter bases deployed City wide. Thankfully rivers, the two harbours and canals are scattered over the City so getting water is not an issue for the choppers.
Am I ready for a disaster? Who knows as limited experience with forest fires triggered by the Rainfall mod have been dealt with little losses to the urban areas. The one where the City would be most exposed is a Tsunami given Layton City is exposed to the ocean and is flat apart from a small area up in the hills where ore is mined. It would be a case how much time does the early warning system give to evacuate the City Centre, Newmarket and Downtown before the wave hits. The bunker facilities are limited in those three districts with a main IMEA centre further back inland.
None the less once the Network Extensions Mod is fixed allowing me to trigger disasters manually I will post pictures of the carnage and rebuild.
Meantime a forest fire from Neo Layton City and an IMEA Centre in Layton City:
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