Noticia(s) 19 de 51

Residents of the village of Nallavadu, Pondicherry on the east coast of India escaped December’s deadly tsunami after some quick-thinking, and forewarned, citizens managed to broadcast an alert of the oncoming waves.

After receiving a phone call from a relative in Singapore who had heard of the earthquake and resulting tsunami headed for India, villagers broke into the community centre set up by the  IDRC-supported M S Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) where a public address system used routinely to announce sea conditions to the fishermen was housed. 

The warning was successful and the entire village’s population of more than 3,500 evacuated the area in time.

Read the full article published in the Digital Review of Asia Pacific below:

Phone call saved scores of Indian villagers from tsunami
By Chin Saik Yoon in Penang, Malaysia. December 2004

Source: "Digital Review of the Asia Pacific"

The tsunami that struck the coastal communities of several Asian countries on 26 December has been made even more tragic as news begin to break of how a handful of technicians, monitoring the progress of the waves across the seas using the latest ICT systems, had found themselves unable to warn communities standing in harm's way.

This was not the case with Vijayakumar Gunasekaran, a 27-year old son of a fisherman from Nallavadu village, Pondicherry on the eastern coast of India, who works in Singapore. He had access only to a radio and television on the morning of 26 December. Vijayakumar followed the news of the earthquake in Aceh, Indonesia as it unfolded over the radio and television in Singapore. As the seriousness of the disaster in Aceh sank in he began to worry about the safety of his family living along the Indian coastline facing Aceh. He decided to phone home.

Muphazhaqi, his sister answered the phone. She told him that seawater was seeping into their home when he asked what was happening in Nallavadu. Vijayakumar realised at once that his worst fears were rapidly materialising. He asked his sister to quickly leave their home and to also warn other villagers to evacuate the village. "Run out and shout the warning to others" he urged his sister.

Her warning reached a couple of quick-thinking villagers who broke down the doors of the community centre set up by the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation where a public address system used routinely to announce sea conditions to the fishermen was housed. The warning from Vijayakumar, collaborated at this time by a second overseas telephone call from Gopu, another villager working abroad, was broadcasted across the village using the loud-speaker system. The village's siren was sounded immediately afterwards for the people to evacuate.

No one was killed in this village as a result of the timely warnings. Nallavadu is home to 500 families and about 3,630 people. While all lives were saved, the tsunami destroyed 150 houses and 200 fishing boats in the village.

[This report was first published at http://www.digital-review.org on 1 January 2005]

• Project: "Impact of Information Technology in Rural Areas (India)
  Phase I"
• Project: "Impact of Information Technology in Rural Areas (India)
  Phase II"
• Project: "Impact of ICTs on Poverty Alleviation in Rural Pondicherry (India)
  Phase III"

2005-01-04

Noticia(s) 19 de 51