Role of information in disaster management

On the morning of 26 December 2004, Vijayakumar Gunasekaran tuned into the morning news in his home in Singapore – in time to hear reports of an enormous wave engulfing the north-western shores of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. As the scale of the catastrophe sank in, he began to fear for his family in the fishing village of Nallavadu, on India’s Tamil Nadu coast. He reached for the phone and called his sister, telling her of the wave and urging her to evacuate: “Run out and shout the warning to others,” he said. She dashed outside and grabbed a couple of villagers, who broke into the community centre which housed a public address system, normally used to announce sea conditions to fishermen. They broadcast the warning to evacuate just in time. The tsunami destroyed 150 houses and 200 boats in Nallavadu, but all 3,630 inhabitants escaped with their lives. Early warning is the clearest example of how information can save lives in the face of disasters. But information is also a vital, and often neglected, resource for vulnerable people after the event. When people have lost their livelihoods, their homes, their friends and family to disaster, they are often desperate for some form of certainty. Accurate information on the fate of loved ones, on where to go for official assistance, or on the relief and recovery plans of aid organisations can be more important to traumatized survivors than material aid. More: Developments Magazine.

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