Tsunami 2004 : A wave of sorrow swept over us

O

n December 26, 2004, a massive underwater earthquake off the coast of Indonesia's Sumatra Island rattled the Earth in its orbit. The quake, measuring 9.0 on the Richter scale, was the largest one since 1964. Dozens of aftershocks with magnitudes of 5.0 or higher occurred in the following days. But the most powerful and destructive aftermath of this devastating earthquake was the tsunami that it caused. The death toll reached higher than 220,000, and a lot of properties were destructed.

During this period communication and technology was used to present information, share information and aware people.

                                                                                                                                                           

This tragic incident the SE Asia Tsunami gives examples of presenting information in different ways, some are:

v     Specialist blogs which were set up immediately after the disaster to help focus relief efforts and give news.

v     Bulletin boards, many people logged on to internet bulletin boards to get more information on their family friends who were missing.

v     Emails which were sent on websites reassuring that people were safe.

v     Text messages.

                                      

Information was shared quickly because modern communication services were used; people with mobile phones were able to send text messages to their relatives as quick as possible, letting them know that they are fine. Also such methods were very useful in finding people, for example: Giske, a Norwegian real estate investor, and his Thai wife had been enjoying the holidays in Thailand, and after being separated during the tragic incident, their phones were very useful to inform each other that they are safe.

Plus, Websites such as BBC received about 30,000 emails related to the incident.

More over there was greater interaction between individuals and

organizations; this was mainly done through radio channels, certain websites such as BBC and CNN, and blogs where discussions were held, and any latest news or information was shared.
People all over the world are brought together via the internet, this incident proves this point, because after this incident lots of people all over the world started interacting through emails, blogs and bulletin boards. This method of communication was rather used to aware people about the incident and find out about lost families and friends.

Modern communication services were used rather than older ones this is because such methods are much easier and faster to use. For example if there were no mobile phones or internet services, it would be very difficult to aware family and friends, who may be far away from you, about what’s going on.

Such methods also helped people in emergency situations, for example to contact medical and relief systems to help the people injured.

Such methods helped with the repair of infrastructure and property, because without communication and technology, things would have been a lot more difficult.

Now, there are tsunami warning systems which feature multiple lines of communications, including e-mail, fax, radio, telex and sirens. These systems enable warnings to be sent to the emergency services, armed forces, and civilian populations. Systems need to be set in place to ensure that such messages, when received, are acted upon.