Responding to a Tsunami - a Case Study from India

December 26, 2004, the East Coast of India reverberates with church bells ringing, vendors selling their wares, children's voices, all oblivious to the fact that an unprecedented disaster, in the guise of a tsunami, was about to befall them. When a disaster of such magnitude hits a community, altruism triggers the need to get involved, and so the locals did. The Villagers and Administration in the State of Tamil Nadu, India, swung into action and responded splendidly to the disastrous happenings that fateful day. Documented here, are their ad hoc groupings, organizations and structures that appeared out of thin air and adequately managed tasks delivered by a disaster of such extreme magnitude. This book hopes to reach the administration of coastal towns and villages in India and around the world as well as to practitioners of emergency management. It hopes to serve not as a guide book or as an agenda to disaster response, but rather a documentation of emergent structures that made the aftermath of the disaster manageable. This work is not an end in itself but hopes to make strides in the right direction toward a better understanding of emergent phenomena in the wake of disasters.