The Tsunami Crisis in Indonesia - Essay Example

Crisis Management Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 Tsunami Emergency Management Systems 4 Data and Information Collection 9 MediaCoverage and Response to a Crisis 11 Evaluation of Post-Tsunami Recovery 12 Conclusion 12 References 13 Introduction The earthquake and the subsequent tsunami on 26th of December in the year of 2004 made Indonesia experience great physical loss and damage of human life along with huge amount of material loss. Almost every village was wiped out, and the remaining of the wreckages hampered the relief attempt from entering into isolated regions and conveying supplies of water and food. The March 28 earthquake that followed few years later complicated the matter further and made things worse. Prior to most recent calamity on March 28, 2005 after the earthquake on the Nias Island, number of lifeless as well as those missing because of tsunami ranged to at least 219,000, with other 500,000 rendered homeless. Contrasting with other affected nations, UN said that Indonesia is the only nation where the aid retort is immobile in the preliminary emergency and also in the recovery phase. Few regions inside the district and remote islands were absolutely disjointed with wreckages across entry roads as well as aircraft landing regions. Severe damages were experienced at 1.3 million buildings and homes; 4 fuel depots and 8 ports; 85% of water and also 92% of sanitation system; and 120 km of paths as well as 18 bridges. The World Food Program was expected to feed 500,000 people who were relocated or affected in Indonesia in February, the figure went up from January assessment of 330,000. Health threats were also extremely high, although plenteous measures were in place through local and also international medical squads were kept on the different locations (The Evergreen State College, 2005). Tsunami Emergency Management Systems The comparatively short timeframes after the impact of Tsunami made it a tricky challenge both for the emergency communications as well as management organizations and also for the people who had to respond in the recovery of the people. This has been confirmed that for majority of the damages occurring in recent history, information, which was necessary to prevent devastation, was obtainable at only few of the levels. However, in most of the cases information was either detained by those in accountabilities who were unsuccessful to take action or by those lacking the power to take action, who didn’t share this with those which could have. Apparently, in the case of rapidly-growing incidents like a tsunami, the advantages of automated resolution gates can be readily visible. On the other hand, from the analysis it can be uncovered consequently that there are lots of reasons why this doesn’t happen and life-critical results are still created by individuals. Tsunami warnings to vacate must be specific and timely to the local authorities who have to make fast decisions in short span of time. Risk awareness and also behavior following one warning pursues a normal series of operations like hear-confirm-understand-believe-personalize-respond. In the case of earthquake, the risk, normally known in a spatial sagacity, remains intangible in anticipation of an incident that actually happens. The challenge is going to motivate institutions and individuals to act previously for alleviating the devastation of the incident and to make a prior program for recovery. Huge storm scenarios like hurricanes should be tracked more cautiously to track information. The risk announcement challenge is to forecast the location and timing of landfall as well as the expected impacts rooted in tidal surge and wind speed. The comparatively lengthy lead times serve people or authorities time to make a decision on what activities to take e.g. shelter preparation or order specific regions evacuated but in most of the cases, landfall assumptions are erroneous and emigrations often are sighted, in hindsight, as needless. Floods carve up a parallel with major hurricanes such that the incident should be trailed from early hours in its formation and risk announcement challenge turns out to be one of forecasting flood level at different locations and also times as well as the sufficiency of local flood control measures in order that accurate direction should be offered. It is true that all of natural vulnerability creates a scarcity of time for the relief and rescue operation and crisis management team. An industry or individual has to put an effort through the perception-behavior series and also come to a normal choice as to when to act. Tsunamis on the other hand, want that the time between perceptions and choice should be compacted; in few cases to just some minutes or even less than that. In this observation, risk communication which requires to be entrenched in tsunami warning system additionally be similar to that worked in building as well as airplane migration and also abandon ship situations. For these cases, time is one of the core issues and undue indication could guide to death or injury. This will be a significant thought when designing the last communication edge for a tsunami warning method. The receivers of information have to understand the memorandum, believe this, and take action at once to search for safety. Places of relief have to be pre-identified as well as available inside a short space. A crucial requirement will serve accurate information on when to take action, where to depart, and how to find the appropriate information. The thing that was absent on December 26, 2004 was not the accurate information about a possible tsunami; but missing was a system in Indian Ocean basin to search out the creation of tsunami and to inform public of threat, and to converse information on what to act in absence of the valuable information. The dynamic and chaotic environment caused series of deaths which could have been avoided by the system. Life emergency scenario needs an exceptionally rapid measurement of the condition. The rapid inception of tsunami indicates that the migration process requires being self-organizing and self-initiating. The sufficient amount of time is the main constraint for top-down command-control. Even though there is challenge to improve the situation, people continue to display their capability for taking actions as can be seen from the events of 40th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences in 2007. The event and its discussion exemplify following four steps: 1) Interdiction / Prevention (Can the incident be avoided?) 2) Advance Warning (Can the incident be predict as well as a warning elevate?) 3) Hazard-resistant structure (Can the crashed structures or systems be intended with enough robustness to oppose unusual loadings?) 4) Rapid Response as well as Recovery (Does the method possess enough resilience to get better quickly?) In the present scenario, it seems to be quite unlikely that the state of technology and knowledge concerning natural risks could be prohibited. The only path to keep away from the risk is to keep away from the location where these hazards are occurring. Given that fishing, tourism, and other ocean-based actions play a significant role in the country, and also the tourism plays an increasing role in economies of Indian Ocean surrounded nations, this is implausible that future incidents will be kept away from this method. Nevertheless, it has been shown, emerging and current technology serves important opportunities to elevate an alarm of an imminent tsunami and also broadcast a warning to regions at risk for giving them time to take necessary actions for prevention. An ocean-based emergency warning system (EWS) for Indian Ocean will turn out to be employed in not too-distant future in spite of enduring maters of national security as well as information sharing between the affected groups. Some of the complexities involved in intercontinental information allocating in Humanitarian Assistance/Disaster Relief (HA/DR) have been well recognized. These comprise the information reliability professed to have national safety implications, information standardization, communication incompatibilities as well as interoperability, and also the inherent complexities of synchronizing the actions of several organizations with numerous missions and also cultures of international peripheries. For the method to be purely effective, these complexities will be required to be dealt with direct and pre-event cooperation. Such cooperation is general in HA/DR processes are possible with a need of intra-national and inter-national efforts. The UNESCO and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission have formed a concept centered on “coordinated network of national systems and capacities” for the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System (IOTWS), beneath which every nation would be accountable for issuance of warning within its own territory. Like a “network of national systems and capacities”, it is a mixture of several systems, not similar thing as single detection as well as warning network. Eventually, however, as facility is extended, this method might work well with the powers that will be charged for controlling these systems, organizes data collection as well as issues warning to one. However, it may be hard to attain if the charges of improvements of national works are considerably different. To give an example, even though there are thousands of free-floating and moored data floats and thousands of land-based ecological stations across the world as well as in excess of 50 ecological satellites tracking the globe with each providing millions of data sets, majority of these cannot contact with their counterparts. In future with the anticipation of individual technologies being incorporated in an inclusive method there will be continuous effort for preventing blind spots and scientific vagueness (Little & Et. Al, n.d.). Community connections should be cleared as relationships are compulsory to develop, maintain, and implement an efficient end-to-end tsunami warning method. A tsunami warning hub can merely be successful if the warnings it creates; reach individuals on danger and are simple to know and react to. To make sure the key effective communiqué of warnings, staffs of the tsunami warning hub must build trusted partnerships between international industries, organizations, governmental agencies, community leaders and businesses, as well as local people prior to any warning to be issued. The purpose of local governments and local communities is to improve community education as well as outreach equipments with the purpose of creating more efficient tsunami warning methods. A tsunami warning method will not be efficient unless end users of warning identify how to act with the given information. This local understanding and consciousness can merely originate from proactive education and community partnerships and also outreach works before warnings are subjected. Effective education as well as outreach can fruitfully be accomplished by nurturing partnerships between governments and local communities which can facilitate the tsunami warning hub by educating people about warning methods and the ways of reaction. There are certain ways for government and local communities to make the warning center much effective. The ways which can be useful are as follows: Tsunami warnings can only be effective when the listeners receive and understand the warning memo. Community partnership should be build up before the event, because it helps to create warning system which is effective in reaching to the majority of public. Partnerships with media are needed for effective warning system. Existing communication strategies and models should be used to effectively and quickly reach target listeners. A single message can’t reach to everybody in a community. Messages and also message deliverance strategies have to be specialized as well as assorted at same time (Ucar Community Program, n.d.). Data and Information Collection The essence of data and information collection is greatly felt in the periphery of crisis management. Few of the measures are as follows: Warning centers basically possess three key sets of data and also information compilation needs for collecting seismic as well as sea level figures, obtaining event related information from the government agencies and public, and also share figure and products by way of other warning hubs. Crucial seismic and also sea level figures have to be established quickly at warning hubs which are to be employed by users in warning procedures. So, data collection communique plans are critical for the success of warning method. Warning hubs can use support observational data systems and support communications channels to make sure a vigorous warning plan. The most important data collection way is WMO-directed Global Telecommunications System (GTS). Messages on GTS might be binary, alphanumeric, or pictorial. Every message must obey the rules to a pre-defined arrangement. Sea level figure is sustained by GTS, although seismic data can be acquired via internet and devoted circuits. There are huge data networks as well as communications ways, warning hubs require automating data collection. Simultaneously, questioning structures for gages can be simple to adjust on taking off for the period of an event. The International Federation of Digital Seismic Networks (IFDSN), the International Monitoring System (IMS) and USA-led Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS), and of the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization are few of the important parts of vigorous Global Seismic Network (GSN). GSN data are obtainable via internet or by leased lines. GLOSS (Global Sea Level Observing System) data are obtainable by the GTS (Meteorology Education & Training, n.d.). Media Coverage and Response to a Crisis Media coverage is a very much essential tool for response to a crisis like Tsunami. Throughout humanitarian retort efforts, the mass media acts as the most important informational conciliator informing policy makers, donors, as well as the non exaggerated public. A short of professional benchmarks inside the present journalism culture, politics of media rights, and media manipulation through governments has vague reporting on gentle crises could put a harmful effect on reaction efforts. Gentle response associations must presume a proactive, principal role in management as well as giving out of information with individual and with policy makers, donors and also the public. This will require working with media partners, as well as discovering innovative process of the mass communication. A multi-stakeholder, supportive communication proposal can help to develop media participation, and strap up the media as knowledgeable and credible communication equipment for retort efforts. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and support workers gives the attention to the Tsunami crisis to which they are assigned to react, and time and again let mediators inform their story. It is important to distinguish the significance of conversing with each other, providing a voice to beneficiaries of tragedy relief, as well as creating strategies to functionally determine the characteristically uncoordinated and tense relationship between aid workers and mass media (Lobb & Mock, n.d.). Evaluation of Post-Tsunami Recovery One of the matters in the community-based damage awareness and is common to lots of the tsunami exaggerated nations in terms of crisis management is the accessibility and quality of the information for disaster therapy and planning, counting information on shipping systems, communications, as well as break out routes in case of a normal disaster. Post-tsunami migration plans were performed in few communities but failed in others. The short of hazard risk insurances as well as risk shifts exposes coastal societies more in danger. At Tamil Nadu in India, the government is pioneering incentives for introduction of an insurance policy for crisis management. Conclusion The tsunami crisis has created a consciousness for locally based crisis management planning. Most of the coastal regions have etiquettes for flooding and storms, but did not have dedicated program for any tsunami event. In Indonesia, government and local communities are taking some of the immediate steps to improve program at various administrative stages (Coastal Resource Center, 2006). References Coastal Resource Center, 2006. Post-Tsunami Relief and Reconstruction for Sustainable Coastal Department. The University of Rhode Island. [Online] Available at: http://www.crc.uri.edu/download/Workshop_Proceedings_March06.pdf [Accessed June 10, 2010]. Little, R. G. & Et. Al., No Date. Socio- Technological Systems Integration to Support Tsunami Warning and Evacuation. University of Southern California. [Online] Available at: http://www.usc.edu/schools/sppd/keston/documents/Socio-TechnologicalSystemsIntegrationtoSupportTsunamiWarningandEvacuation.pdf [Accessed June 10, 2010]. Lobb, A. & Mock, N., No Date. Abstract. Dialogue is Destiny Managing the Message in Humanitarian Action. [Online] Available at: http://pdm.medicine.wisc.edu/Volume_22/issue_5/lobb.pdf [Accessed June 10, 2010]. Meteorology Education & Training, No Date. Tsunami Warning Center Reference Guide summary for Tsunami Warning Center Staff. International Multi- Hazard Early Warning Systems. [Online] Available at: http://www.meted.ucar.edu/hazwarnsys/comprehensive_summary.htm [Accessed June 10, 2010]. The Evergreen State College, 2005. Tsunami in Indonesia. Indonesia Overview. [Online] Available at: http://academic.evergreen.edu/g/grossmaz/RYKISSJR/ [Accessed June 10, 2010]. UCAR, No Date. Community Connections. Chapter 9. [Online] Available at: http://www.meted.ucar.edu/hazwarnsys/twcrg/Chapter9.pdf [Accessed June 10, 2010]. Read More