Online Portal Coordinates Tsunami Relief

Source: Catholic Relief Services

An online information portal played an unexpected starring role in recovery from last year’s Asian tsunami, serving a vital need by harnessing available technology to overcome the enormous coordination challeges presented by such a widespread disaster. Created as an experiment, the portal quickly became a trusted source, where those involved in delivering emergency aid could be alterted to news and kept informed of rapidly changing situations in each country.

The portal provided a central reference point for listing staffing skills, posting digital images, and documenting evolving “best practices” being developed by emergency response teams in the field. Before long, the mantra in planning meetings for team members across thirty-one countries became, “Be sure you put that on the tsunami portal so everyone can see it!”

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