Information Management

Abstract

On 13 January 2001, the first of two devastating earthquakes struck El Salvador with a magnitude of 7.6 on the Richter scale. Exactly one month, and at least two thousand aftershocks, later, a second earthquake of 6.6 on the Richter scale struck. Combined, the earthquakes caused the deaths of more than a thousand people and injured at least eight thousand more. They also left more than 1 million people homeless (about a sixth of the population) in a country with the highest population density in the world. Economic losses were put at an estimated US$1.6 billion.

This chapter quotes extensively from Tomasini, Rolando and Luk Van Wassenhove. “Coordinating Disaster Logistics in El Salvador Using Humanitarian Supply Management System (SUMA).” INSEAD Case Study No. 10/2003–5145; and Tomasini, Rolando and Luk Van Wassenhove. “De-politicization of Humanitarian Supply Chain by Creating Accountability: PAHO’s Humanitarian Supply Management System.” Journal of International Public Procurement. Volume 4, Number 3, 2004.