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As many as 283,000 people lost their lives in 2004's Indian Ocean tsunami. Perhaps the majority of these deaths could have been prevented if coastal communities had properly planned and prepared for a catastrophe of this magnitude.
This website, created as part of the Mission 2009 course at MIT, offers a proposal for the implementation of emergency response protocols in two Pacific basin countries, Micronesia and Peru.
Following the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami...
 Lack of coordination among the hundreds of support groups led to a delay in the delivery of aid to some of the affected areas, revealing the need for a clear chain of command and coordination among disaster relief NGOs.
Even after the direct threat had passed, many perished from
such diseases as cholera, diphtheria, dysentery and typhoid which spread rapidly due to a lack of sanitation facilities and fresh drinking water, emphasizing the need for a more affective medical response and a readily available supply of vital resources.
Our general objective is to equip the developing regions of Micronesia and Peru to be able to respond effectively in case a tsunami strikes. To this end, we have divided our task into several specific goals.
To develop a flexible chain of command.
To plan for the functionality of evacuee camps.
To improve medical infrastructure in at-risk areas to be able to provide emergency support.
To store food, water, and vital supplies beforehand at the local, national, and international levels; to plan to distribute these supplies to affected individuals in evacuee camps.
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