Summary Report

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Summary Report

Summary Report
Preliminary Findings in India and Sri Lanka

Social Science Reconnaissance Team Members:

Havidán Rodríguez, Tricia Wachtendorf, James Kendra, and
Joseph Trainor

Disaster Research Center, University of Delaware
Emergency Management and Planning Program, University of North Texas
February 15, 2005

Within a month of the Sumatra earthquake and the tsunamis it generated, researchers from the University of Delaware’s Disaster Research Center (DRC) and the Emergency Management and Planning Program at the University of North Texas participated in an Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI, based in California) social science reconnaissance team, funded by the National Science Foundation, which traveled to some of the most affected areas in India and Sri Lanka. The Sea Grant College Program at the University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez also provided partial funding for this reconnaissance trip. The team engaged in a two week field research expedition that yielded important and perishable data on disaster preparedness, response, and recovery from this devastating tsunami. We also focused on issues such as community resilience, inter-organizational coordination, governmental response, and the distribution of disaster relief aid following these tsunamis. The goals of this multidisciplinary team were to: collect perishable data; identify communities and organizations that were particularly hard hit by these events; observe the extent to which engineered and non-engineered structures were damaged or destroyed by both the earthquake and the tsunamis; observe the methods that were being used to restore lifeline facilities (electrical and water systems) in the emergency period; identify local and state agencies as well as local and international NGO’s that are taking part in the recovery and relief efforts; and make contacts with disaster and emergency centers and other research centers in the affected nations. This effort served as an essential first step in developing long-term collaborative relationships that will contribute to a better understanding of the disaster’s social and physical impacts, the complexities of disaster response and relief across many nations that are coping with similar disaster problems at the same time, and issues that will affect the physical, social and economic recovery of the region in general.

Our reconnaissance trip yielded preliminary data which shows that communities in the impacted areas that we visited in India and Sri Lanka lacked the necessary warning systems and other resources, including public and organizational training and response, in order to generate effective preparedness and response initiatives to this event; this hampered the recovery process in many of these regions. More effective community capacity would have limited the disastrous impacts in lives and property. Indeed, beyond the death toll, the tsunami wrecked much of the community infrastructure available to assist those directly impacted. It is noteworthy that similar threats, challenges, and outcomes exist for communities across the globe, including coastal regions in the U.S.

The social science reconnaissance team was able to identify a number of core issues that merit future research and collaboration and that should be of primary concern in the effort to protect populations residing in coastal regions throughout the world, including the United States, from similar catastrophes. For example, we noted that community characteristics effected resilience to this disaster in a number of important contexts. Impacted areas included small fishing villages, towns, urban areas, and mixed communities where fishing villages were nested within more urbanized environments. Political and conflict conditions in the areas we visited varied, economic conditions also varied leaving some communities heavily reliant on one industry while others relied on several. These characteristics appeared to affect the ability of the communities to respond and recover from the tsunamis. Of additional interest was the observation that in many communities we noted a high level of social cohesion, but a varying degree of community involvement in recovery activities; some communities were actively engaged in immediate rehabilitation efforts while in others this was less common. The development of strategies aimed at fostering or encouraging community resilience to catastrophic disaster events are extremely important in furthering our ability to protect people.

Relocation issues also emerged as central to disaster recovery efforts. The extent to which relocation of communities and industries was possible in terms of land acquisition, community acceptance, and industry feasibility were in question. Pressures by industry, relocation distance, issues related to relocating communities reliant on the sea for livelihood, zone enforcement, and lack of available land were reported as challenges to governmental relocation efforts early in our discussions with community members. The feasibility of relocation and community decision-making are issues that transcend national boundaries, and are also relevant to the U.S.

Many of the residents in the communities we visited appeared to be living in a state of persistent uncertainty regarding when they would be able to resume their work, build new houses, procure locations for those houses, resume “normal” community rhythms, and even determine whether or not it was safe to return to the shore. They reported impacted sleeping patterns, increased stress levels, and interruption of daily activities. As an additional measure of uncertainty, there is a high level of skepticism regarding the extent to which the government will fulfill promises made regarding disaster relief aid.The construction of temporary shelters varied quite significantly from one community to another and between India and Sri Lanka. A diverse set of temporary structures were observed by the reconnaissance team, ranging from donated tents, makeshift tarp tents, thatched houses, fiberglass or aluminum roofing, to a combination of these materials. Concerns included the extent to which villagers found the shelters appropriate due to heat conditions and size as well as safety concerns (particularly for thatched shelters). Challenges in the provision of relief and recovery services were also noted. For example, in some instances, NGOs duplicated efforts or provided assistance not suited to the locale or to the varying population sizes. In other areas, we heard reports of some communities receiving a great deal of assistance while nearby communities reported receiving little or no disaster relief aid by the government or NGOs. In Sri Lanka, the ongoing conflict between the government and the Tamil Tigers generated a variety of concerns regarding how aid was distributed which made understanding the difference between political and disaster response issues complicated. Nevertheless, many communities indicated that the work and disaster relief aid generated by NGOs were extremely important and contributed to meeting many of their basic needs, including the repair of damaged boats and/or provision of new ones. Effective and continuous communication and coordination of local, government, and international NGOs is key to effective disaster response and recovery.