Tsunami Relief Efforts: A Personal Account

Collaboration is key when dealing with disasters. A medical doctor offers guidance from her experience in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean.

Published June 1, 2005

By Sheri Fink, MD, PhD
Academy Contributor

During two months working in Thailand and Indonesia after the tsunami, I was struck by the many ways that science and technology was employed during the disaster recovery process, although not without controversy and complications. Geospatial imaging information guided aid workers to highly populated disaster zones, but not all countries immediately released the sensitive information. Instant cell-phone messaging allowed disease surveillance specialists to track emerging infectious outbreaks across widespread areas, but not all health workers reported their cases.

One of the most interesting applications of science was in the field of forensics. In Thailand, the tsunami stole the lives of an estimated 3,442 Thai nationals and 1,953 foreigners, many of them European tourists. While tsunami victims’ bodies were buried or cremated in countries with fewer tourists, identification teams from more than two dozen countries showed up in Thailand to identify the victims, using techniques ranging from forensic anthropology to genetics. Most of the experts worked on the verdant grounds of a massive Buddhist temple known as Wat Yan Yao.

Quickly, however, a problem emerged: Each team had its own standards for evidence collection. Brendan Harris, a young volunteer from Vancouver, Canada, provided assistance to the teams, heaving waterlogged bodies onto mortuary tables in the first weeks after the tsunami. “There are a lot of arguments going on about how to deal with the bodies,” he said.

Collaboration is Imperative during Crises

Clad in hospital gowns, masked and gloved, the foreign teams at first focused their efforts on Caucasian-appearing bodies. That left Thai forensic scientists and dentists to photograph, examine and take fingerprints and DNA samples from Asian-appearing bodies, or bodies where decomposition had wiped away all traces of race. The result was two separate identification efforts, one foreign and one Thai, proceeding within earshot of each other. A month after the tsunami, the Thai and foreign teams had established completely different computer databases and were not sharing information crucial to identifying the missing. With only roughly 1,000 bodies identified, family members of the missing were distraught.

Ultimately the scientists realized that they had to work together. The foreign teams and the Thai interior ministry formed the Thai Tsunami Victim Identification Center, adopting protocols based on Interpol standards. The Center’s members committed to identifying all recovered bodies, regardless of nationality.

Scientists cautioned that the identification process could take many months, but expressed hope for what had become one of the largest international disaster identification efforts in history. “I have no doubt this will be a very highly successful system,” said DNA expert Ed Huffine, of Bode Technology Group in Springfield, Virginia. “This is developing a world response system to disaster. And it’s beginning a standardization process that uses all forms of forensic evidence, where DNA will play the leading role.”

The Need for a Crisis Response Network

A laboratory in Beijing, China, offered to test all victims’ DNA samples for free. Weeks later, scientists were surprised when the Chinese lab, and eventually several labs in other countries, had difficulty deriving usable DNA profiles from the degraded DNA in tooth samples. By the end of March, more than three months after the tsunami, the Victim Identification Center had put names to only an additional 1,112 bodies, the vast majority of them matched exclusively through dental records. Only three IDs came exclusively from DNA.

Continued disagreements and frequent personnel turnover have plagued the identification center, which insiders refer to as “a mess.” The disappointing experience has pointed out the need for better preparation and coordination among multi-national forensics experts responding to disasters.

Just as the World Health Organization plays a coordinating role for diverse groups of health professionals working in disaster and conflict zones, so, too, an international organization is needed to coordinate disaster victim identification teams. Such a group would be wise to standardize not only technical procedures, but also ethical principles – including the impartial treatment of bodies of all nationalities and races.

Perhaps most importantly, family members of the missing, who have the largest stake in the outcome of identification efforts, should be offered both full access to information and decision-making representation in any future crisis. It is crucial that their preferences and belief systems count.

Also read: The Science Behind a Tsunami’s Destructiveness

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