Community resilience in response to the 2010 tsunami in Chile: The survival of a small-scale fishing community

Abstract

This paper examines the role of community resilience during the emergency response after the 2010 Chile earthquake and tsunami. El Morro – a fishing community that managed to survive the tsunami in the Talcahuano region – is used as a case study. Despite the magnitude of the catastrophe and the mistaken tsunami warning, there were no reports of casualties. We conducted qualitative research over a six-month period consisting of: semi-structured interviews; observation; informal conversations; documentary and social media review; to explore the resilience capacities and resources that were activated in the community to cope with the disaster. Our findings show that community resilience played an important role during the response period, especially in the absence of external aid. Communities are not merely passive victims of disasters, they are active agents. Resilience capacities such as sense of community, local knowledge, social capital, organisation, cooperation, and trust contributed to the survival of the entire community during the first days after the disaster. The lessons from the El Morro community can be useful for improving emergency management and disaster response in small-scale communities.