The Good Neighbor Disaster Response

Sept. 17, 2008— -- Armed with GPS devices, satellite phones and marine-band radios, rescuers have been fanning across the Texas coastline for days to reach the people who ignored evacuation orders to ride out Hurricane Ike from their homes.

As of Wednesday, the office of Texas Governor Rick Perry reported that 3,540 residents from coastal areas had been rescued by air, ground and water.

High-tech gadgetry certainly played a role in these rescues. But disaster researchers emphasize that, often, it's not sophisticated technology that makes the difference. Instead, they say, it's good, old-fashioned elbow grease and social relationships.

"Most search and rescue in disasters is decidedly low-tech," said Kathleen Tierney, director of the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado at Bolder.

"The hi-tech rescue by formal emergency response workers is a small tip of a very large emergency response iceberg," Tierney added.

Research around the world has shown that the people most effective in rescue efforts are those who are also victims of the disasters, she said.

Neighbors, family members and friends in the immediate vicinity of a natural disaster can rely on longstanding relationships and networks to figure out who didn't evacuate and where they might be located.

"Facing Hazards and Disasters: Understanding Human Dimensions," a 2006 study published by the National Research Council, highlights this phenomenon.

"Disaster victims are assisted first by others in the immediate vicinity and surrounding area and only later by official public safety personnel," the study says.

Referencing research by Eric Noji, a public health expert at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the study cited an example in Southern Italy in 1980. Following an earthquake, 90 percent of the survivors were extricated by untrained, uninjured survivors who used their bare hands and simple tools such as shovels and axes.

"After Hurricane Katrina, we saw that the Coast Guard responders received a lot of attention. But there were also private boat operators who came back to the area," Tricia Wachtendorf, associate director of the Disaster Research Center at the University of Delaware, told ABCNews.com.

"They knew the houses where people would have remained behind," she continued.

Hurrican Search and Rescue

If neighbors don't rescue fellow community members directly, they frequently give crucial information to formal emergency responders.

Captain Audie Nelson with the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department has been part of Hurricane Ike search and rescue efforts along the state's coastline. For the past few days, he and his colleagues have been focusing on the hard-hit communities on the Bolivar Peninsula.

Most people in the area evacuated, he said. But as his team searches for people who might have stayed behind, they are getting calls from residents who evacuated but are concerned about those who didn't."[They're calling] if they knew people who stayed for sure and they haven't heard from them or we haven't made contact," he said.

Brian Smith, a spokesman for Texas Task Force-1, an emergency response team that helped rescue 60 survivors on the Bolivar Peninsula, said, "We're constantly hearing how Texans are helping Texans as [search and rescue] efforts continue."

His task force also speaks to power of community involvement. Although it is advised by representatives of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and state agencies, it is composed entirely of citizens.

Most days, task force members are firemen, dog handlers, nurses or doctors. But in emergency situations, Smith said, "They change their T-shirts and go out as Texas Task Force-1."

To spur local disaster response, the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program trains civilians to provide immediate assistance. In 1993, FEMA made this program available nationwide and communities in 28 states have conducted CERT training.

But disaster researchers, such as Natural Hazard Center's Tierney, think more community training could still be done.

"People in the immediate vicinity know who their neighbors are, how many are in a household, [and] if they left or stayed," Natural Hazard Center's Tierney said. "They have the social ties to know before [formal] emergency responders ever arrive."