Response of residents at the moment of tsunamis - the 1992 Flores Island earthquake tsunami, Indonesia

The number of loss of lives due to the 1992 Flores Island tsunamis was about 1,000. The Maximum tsunami runup height 26.2m was measured at Kroko. At Babi island, reflected tsunami with the height of 5 to 7m attached teo villages so that every structure was broken and swept away. At Wuring, mooring fishing boats were easily carried to the dense - housing areas by tsunamis so that wooden-made houses were swept away by dominos. Through the questionnaire, tsunami characteristic and residents'behavior are also described. Most residents have no information on tsunamis. After looking at tsunami coming, they run away to safe places. Therefore, the disaster weak such as children and old people might fell victim to the tsunami disaster. As disaster lessons, spread of tsunami information such as local tsunami characteristics and refuge are very important to mitigate the damages in tsunami - prone areas (AU)

Are the news media responsible for the disaster myths? : A content analysis of emergency response imagery

Disaster research scholars and emergency planners have often contended that the news media play a major role in creating and perpetuating various myths of natural disaster response. These myths include widspread panic flight, psychological dependency and vicious competition for necessities on the part of victims and physical convergence for the purpose of looting by non-victims. The evidence which ties the news media to these myths of community breakdown is largely indirect. Survey data reveal a generalized belief among members of the public that the above enumerated behaviors are typical reactions of people faced with a sudden crisis. These data also indicate that the news media are the principal source of information about disasters for most people. Lacking are detailed analyses which document the extent to which the myths of community breakdown actually appear in news coverage of natural disaster events. The present study, which focuses on the reporting of four earthquake events by two Southern California newspapers, attempts to address this issue. The results, though preliminary, suggest that some caution is warranted in making the generalization that natural disaster coverage disproportionately conveys a breakdown imagery of communities facing a major natural catastrophe(AU)