Tsunami panels find officials failed to utilise information coming from public

Two panels present reports on aftermath of Asian disaster

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Two panels investigating the actions of Finnish officials in aftermath of the tsunami in the Indian Ocean in late December have found that officials did not succeed in collecting or utilising information that came from Finnish victims of the disaster or their family members.
      According to the board of inquiry headed by former President Martti Ahtisaari, none of the shortcomings actually cost lives.
      A separate working group examining communications in the aftermath of the tsunami found that eyewitness accounts were not systematically collected or passed on. Information that came from the public was also not taken seriously at first; both officials and the media primarily trusted official sources alone.
      Information given out by the ministry for Foreign Affairs stuck to official statements, which were contradicted by information from the media and the public, which later proved to be correct.
      These were seen as some of the reasons why news of the gravity of the disaster did not immediately filter down to Finnish decision-makers, and why emergency measures were not implemented sooner.
     
However, the board of inquiry led by Ahtisaari also found that most of the Finns who lost their lives in the disaster drowned in the immediate aftermath of the tsunami.
      While nothing that the officials could have done would have saved any lives, the board did find that the suffering of survivors and those bereaved by the disaster could have been eased by quicker action.
     
The study on post-tsunami communications found that technical glitches and other problems that emerged in connection with previous crises were repeated in this crisis as well. It was found that the Foreign Ministry’s readiness for action in the crisis situation was inadequate, and that shortcomings that had come to light on previous occasions had not been corrected.
      Also, existing guidelines on communications in crisis situations were not observed during the tsunami disaster.
      Communication between ordinary citizens worked well. However, officials failed to fully utilise SMS text messages, e-mail, and the Internet, even though these channels provided a direct link between Finns in the stricken areas and their families in Finland.
     
As little information was forthcoming from the ministry for Foreign Affairs, many relatives of Finns in the stricken area relied on a web site maintained by a Finnish diving club. The sukellus.fi website largely filled in the gaps in official information in the early stages of the crisis.
      Public institutions did not offer possibilities for exchanging information or for asking questions on their websites.
     
Communications expert Ullamaija Kivikuru notes that public institutions seem to be geared primarily for communications from the top down.
      "Officials are accustomed to communication through the media. In this kind of a situation, there should have been direct communication with the citizens. For instance, the interactive properties of the net were not utilised during the disaster", Kivikuru notes.
     
Recommendations of the board of inquiry led by Martti Ahtisaari include the establishment of a warning system that is always on duty. There are plans for EUR 1.7 million in funding for such a system in the autumn’s supplementary budget.
      The group also calls for legislation that would give officials quicker access to personal information of citizens, if needed for rescue, evacuation, and aid work, as well as for a basic plan of readiness to help rescue Finnish citizens in major disasters taking place abroad.
      The Foreign Ministry is also urged to better consider the risks of natural disasters, and to work more efficiently with officials of the Nordic Countries and the EU.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Report criticises actions of Finnish officials in tsunami aftermath (15.6.2005)
  Swedish tsunami report criticises Swedish officials, praises Finland (8.6.2005)
  Problems with funding delay identification of child victims of tsunami (12.5.2005)
  As many as 100 Finns could remain unaccounted for after tsunami (9.2.2005)
  Finnish forensic team leaving for Thailand (30.12.2004)

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