Tilly and the Tsunami

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Disaster Education Increases Community Resilience

Ditulis oleh Azrina Binti Sobian. Posted in The Star

Have you ever heard the story of a girl named Tilly Smith? In December 2016, Tilly and her family went to Phuket, Thailand for a Christmas holiday. She was ten then. On 26 December 2004, while enjoying her holiday at the Maikhao Beach, Phuket, she sensed something was not right. The water was bubbled and swelling, the tide went out of the sudden and Tilly remembered that the sea was fizzing. Tilly freaked out and shouted that tsunami is coming. She learned about tsunami in her geography class two weeks before coming to Thailand. Tilly's action saved about 100 peoples and because of that she was once called the "angel at the beach."

Tilly's experienced teach us about the important of disaster education. It is imperative for the society to learn about every aspect of disaster education, starting from the understanding of different types of disaster to learning about the numerous ways to safe life. The learning process should be carried out in the school system or through informal education for the mass people. Regardless of the medium of learning, disaster education should be implemented immediately since the catastrophic disaster will strike without any notice.

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Disaster education is important because not only it raises public awareness of disaster but it will also provide useful knowledge on disaster. The students and the general public could learn about various kinds of disaster or the signs of disaster. At the same time, disaster education helps community disaster preparedness. Finally, learning about disaster will facilitate the community to act accordingly in any disaster event. At the end of the day, all of these will strengthen community disaster resilience.

Community disaster resilience refers to the ability of the community to face the catastrophic disaster events and their capability to rebuild their lives to pre-disaster situation. Besides the ability of a community to "bounce back" (i.e. resume its normal functioning) as per pre-disaster condition, community resilience also involve the capacity of the community to "bounce forward" after any disaster event. Thus, education is seen as one of the important factors to enhance community resilience.

Malaysia is regarded as a fortunate country (particularly, Peninsular Malaysia) which is not vulnerable to major natural disasters such as earthquakes and hurricanes. However, Malaysia is exposed to other types of catastrophes such as floods, droughts and haze. Flood, particularly monsoonal flood, is one of the major natural disasters in Malaysia. Areas such as Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang, Perak, Johor, Sabah and Sarawak often hit by this type of flood.

On December 2014, most of these areas were hit by a massive flood. The National Security Council Malaysia (NSC) confirmed that the massive flood, or popularly called the Bah Kuning, that hit Kelantan was the worst in the history of the states since 1967.According to the council’s report, the water level of Sungai Kelantan at Tambatan DiRaja, which has a danger level of 25 metres, reached 34.2 metres in 2014 compared to 29.7 metres in 2004 and 33.6 metres in 1967.

The 2014 flood episode thought us that being better prepared, especially at the community level, is crucial. As community is the "first responder" in any disaster, they should be well-prepared to face the calamity. Preparedness is part of disaster education. In terms of Malaysia, site-specific disaster education program is crucial. In other words, disaster education is vital especially for those communities prone to disasters. The education program must not be done in ad-hoc manner. A well-organized and consistent disaster program is essential in order to enhance the over all community disaster resilience.

In reality, preparing the community to face any disaster event through education is vital. The preparedness effort is natural in the life of any person. Even in Islam, making a systematic preparation or arrangement before any disaster event is strongly recommended.

In the Quran, the story of the Prophet Yusuf's a.s. preparation of disaster (famine) is very enlightening He interpreted a king's dream that there will be seven years of abundance and the land should be properly cultivated. This will produce an excess of good harvest, more than the people need and the excess should be stored. Following that seven years of abundance, there will be seven years of famine and during which time the excess grain could be used. He also advised that during the famine they should save some grain to be used for seed for the next harvest. Prophet Yusuf a.s. also added that after seven years of famine, there will be a year during which water will be plentiful. If the water is properly used, grapevines and olive trees will grow in abundance, providing the community with plenty of grapes and olive oil. (Yusuf, 12:46-49)

The story teaches us that disaster preparedness is important. In Malaysia, carrying out a disaster preparedness program, be it in term of education, technology advancement or food storage, is essential and should be strongly encouraged.

source :

http://www.ikim.gov.my/index.php ... ommunity-resilience

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Tq for sharing tt