India and Tsunami Recovery: Government Officials Think Back

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The stories which stand out tell of an administration that had to think on its feet; of the generosity of the human spirit; of a huge logistical effort; and of teamwork and commitment despite confronting an incomprehensible challenge.

These stories hold many lessons. When the walls of water crashed onto the shore, it was a normal Sunday morning. Women traded in fish on the jetties, children played cricket on the sands, grandmothers sunned themselves, and most officials were away on vacation. As it was the day after Christmas, the sea-facing Vellankanni Basilica was thronged by pilgrims from all over the country.

Immediate response

"The first reports I heard were of people fleeing the coast in the hundreds of thousands and rushing inland," says Dr. J Radhakrishnan, the government official now in charge of Nagapattinam district, who was further inland when the disaster struck.

"I couldn't imagine what had happened." What was worse, the mobile phones wouldn't work, and a heavy rain had set in.

More than 6,000 people died just along a short 10 kilometer stretch of coast in India's Nagapattinam district. Most were women and children, who couldn't escape the walls of water. Another 200,000 people in the district were affected.

As Radhakrishnan set out to investigate the cause of the terror, he found people were stunned, roads washed away, downed bridges, and trawlers flung across highways, cutting off some of the worst-hit areas. Only one ward of the hospital was able to deal with the constant stream of injured pouring in.

"The sheer scale of the tragedy only sank in the next morning," he recounts.

Local woman standing in front of her temporary shelter.

Swinging into action

Though they had never before encountered a disaster of such a dimension, the government officials swung immediately into action. They made it a point to be visible to stem any possible panic. An extensive relief effort was launched, with the help of the hundreds of non government organizations arriving on the scene.

One of the worst tragedies took place outside the old Church at Vellankanni, revered by people of all faiths. Families were washed away, as holiday crowds milled around impromptu markets. Seeing the helpless orphans at Vellankanni, S. Ganesan, a local official, determined to go on and help all those he possibly could despite having lost his own wife. "I threw myself into relief work," he says. "It helped me to bear my loss."

Bodies were strewn all over, both human and animal. They had to be dealt with, as the hot and humid climate made it an imperative to prevent the outbreak of an epidemic.

Another immediate concern was to provide food, shelter and medical assistance to the hundreds of thousands of traumatized survivors, some too numb to comprehend what had happened.

But, feeding the large numbers of people spread over a large area was not easy.

"Everyone who could had fled," recalls Prabhakaran, the district relief official from Cuddalore district. "Who was to cook, and where were we to get the stoves and gas for this?"

Using ingenuity and quick thinking, with wireless as the only means of communication, they arranged for food to be cooked in large quantities and brought in from the neighboring districts. "For weeks later, I kept 5000 food packets ready at hand as one no-one knew when the need would arise," Prabhakaran says.

As relief camps sprang up in marriage halls, schools, and cyclone shelters, volunteers helped pile bodies into mass graves after the consent of families and community. Photographic and video records had to be kept to help identify the dead, as shaken people hunted desperately for missing loved ones.

	New homes being built.

Round the Clock

Some one thousand government officials and staff worked round the clock in the Nagapattinam district. "Our day started at 6.00 am and went on till late every night. No-one stopped, no matter how tired they were," says Radhakrishnan's deputy.

Ambulances were rushed in and teams of doctors and nurses from other areas helped immunize survivors against disease.

As the water supply was in danger of being contaminated with animal carcasses, the municipal supply was cut off. Bottled water was brought in with relief materials, and tankers supplied camps with water.

The hot climate made sanitation extremely important. Bleaching powder was sprinkled widely to disinfect large areas.

Control rooms monitored the distribution of relief materials, using a combination of phones, wireless, and ham radio facilities for tracking what was needed and where.

In Nagapattinam, the worst-hit district, the administration coalesced into eleven teams comprising of medical and police officers, utility personnel, and fire and rescue officials, each led by a senior government official. The teams were able to decide most things on the spot as each had been equipped with adequate funds. Senior officers camped out in the district to oversee operations and to ensure the seamless flow of relief.

In the camps, traumatized survivors were counseled, with local volunteers being trained in how to continue the counseling on a broader scale. Missing persons' cells were established and a website set up to track the dead, injured and missing.

"By 31 December, almost all the bodies had been recovered and buried. Water and electricity was restored, there was no looting or rape, and there was no outbreak of disease," Radhakrishnan says.

Boats destroyed by the tsunami are now being re-built.

Relief coordination

As vast quantities of relief material poured in by road, rail, and air, managing the supplies and ensuring each item reached where it was most needed, was a huge challenge. Any delay would have meant more suffering. Inventories were therefore maintained on line. It was an experience says C. Kamaraj. "I was told to go and take charge of relief operations at the main warehouse in Chennai. There was no brief on what was to be done. We simply took it from there."

In the districts, tasks were assigned to non government organizations (NGOs), according to their expertise. For 60 days, the administrators met every evening with the NGOs to take stock of the situation. "This was not a competition," Radhakrishnan says. "Teamwork was essential."

"Building confidence among a shaken people through a strong and visible government is also important to help them stay calm," he adds, "It helps them to know that they are being looked after. And each person's request, howsoever small, is important."

When asked what could have been done better with the benefit of hindsight, he says: "Perhaps the teams could have been formed a day or two earlier."

The teams have also learnt some important lessons. Relief atlases, with the names of all providers of relief services, would be of immeasurable help in major emergencies. Mapping areas with the details of who lives where and does what would assist the administration in assessing community risk.

But "disaster is not a statistic" Radhakrishnan says. " Ultimately, it is the humaneness of the approach that matters." And from the numerous tales which are told, it's clear many believe the response did rise to the occasion.