ABSTRACT
Two
Weeks That Changed
by
Lars Hernroth
The
Kristinebrg marine research station
450 34 Fiskebäckskil,
Sweden, a country far
away from the regions that are commonly struck by the violent forces of nature,
all of a sudden became paralyzed when two natural disasters hit Sweden and the
Swedish society within two weeks in December 2004 and January 2005. The tsunami
hit beaches where many thousands of Swedes spent their Christmas holiday. More
than 500 of them died, children lost their parents and parents lost their
children. Two weeks later, a severe storm hit southern Sweden in mid winter,
causing material damage, power failures and communication problems of a scale
and duration we had not experienced before. Sweden was in a state of chock. The
two events dramatically opened the eyes of the Swedish society, illustrating
our un-preparedness and vulnerability.
Now, almost two years
later, we experience a new attitude at almost all levels of our society. At
individual, local, regional and Government levels, measures are taken to
prepare for, to prevent and to mitigate the consequences of future disasters.
The Government has recently presented a bill for Parliament approval
"Co-operation in crisis - for a safer society" where organizational
and legal structures in situations of emergency have been revised and a
national programme for security related research has been proposed. At the
Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm a "Disaster Resilience
Centre" has been established with the aim of promoting, identifying and
compiling scientific knowledge related to natural disasters and to facilitate
the integration of this science into the development of our society. Both
initiatives strongly emphasize the necessity of international co-operation.