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Practice paper

Identifying the victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami: The role of the private sector

Joseph Scanlon
Journal of Business Continuity & Emergency Planning, 1 (3), 312-323 (2007)
https://doi.org/10.69554/FCEK2769

Abstract

Until the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, identifying victims of a mass catastrophe was done largely by police and forensic scientists who tried to match pre-death and post-death data from paper files. The tsunami brought computer databases into the world of forensic identification and led to major involvement from four private-sector companies from Canada, France, Denmark and Norway. Between them, the firms created a system to improve the handling of missing persons’ calls; an automated fingerprint identification system; a system to generate possible matches between pre and post-death data; and a state-of-the-art morgue in Phuket, Thailand. In the past, there has been private-sector involvement in mass death incidents — for example, most funerals are conducted by private firms — but the tsunami marked a major shift to a public-private partnership in an area that has generally been limited to police and forensic scientists.

Keywords: catastrophes; mass death; tsunami; private sector

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Author's Biography

Joseph Scanlon is Professor Emeritus and Director of NOT at the Emergency Communications Research Unit, Carleton University and President of Scanlon Associates Inc. He has been working in disaster research for 37 years. After graduating in journalism, public administration and political science, he worked for the Toronto Daily Star. He subsequently joined the faculty of the Carleton University School of Journalism. In 1970, he began to study rumours for Canada’s Defence Research Board, leading to his present interest in disasters. He has written more than 200 book chapters, monographs, case studies and articles and has lectured internationally. In 2002, he received the Charles Fritz Award for a lifetime contribution to sociology of disaster. His private firm specialises in emergency response.

Citation

Scanlon, Joseph (2007, May 1). Identifying the victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami: The role of the private sector. In the Journal of Business Continuity & Emergency Planning, Volume 1, Issue 3. https://doi.org/10.69554/FCEK2769.

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cover image, Journal of Business Continuity & Emergency Planning
Journal of Business Continuity & Emergency Planning
Volume 1 / Issue 3
© Henry Stewart
Publications LLP

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