On Dec. 26, 2004, a massive tsunami blasted across the Indian
Ocean, cutting a swath of destruction through communities in
Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and India that claimed a
staggering 230,000 lives. As Japan approaches the first
anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami of
March 11, 2011, are there any lessons to be learned from the
2004 catastrophe? Complaints in Japan about the slow progress of
reconstruction and arguments over improving disaster resilience
are familiar battles in other tsunami-devastated communities.
Such places have also confronted grandiose plans and good
intentions that are not always in sync with local needs and
desires. Reports from the field and personal observations
suggest that in some cases the NGO response to the March 11
disasters has not been as effective as it might have been. That
appears to be because of inadequate coordination, turf battles,
misplaced priorities and insufficient local input — problems
that were also evident in Tamil Nadu following the