Tsunami Chronicles: Adventures in Disaster Management - Paperback

by Bill Nicol (Author)

Few natural disasters come bigger than the 2004 tsunami. It left a trail of destruction from one side of the Indian Ocean to the other. Hardest hit was Aceh in Indonesia's west where the tsunami killed almost a quarter of a million people and left half million homeless as it smashed into a strip of coastline 800 kilometres long and several kilometres wide. The global community rallied to help in the largest military deployment since World War II. It then spent billions rebuilding Aceh in one of the most challenging reconstruction programs of its kind. "Tsunami Chronicles: Adventures in Disaster Management" tells the inside story of recovery. Written by the Indonesian Government's senior advisor for tsunami recovery, Bill Nicol, it lays bare the tectonic political and managerial forces that swept along the rebuilding program with no less force than the tsunami itself. This is a powerful, first-hand narrative from a highly experienced journalist, author and consultant who played a pivotal role in the recovery operations. A series of six books in one book, "Tsunami Chronicles" offers rare and unique insights that will annoy some, anger a few, excite others and inspire many. It will appeal to anyone with an interest in international development and disaster recovery-humanitarian volunteers, aid workers, consultants, engineers, agency staff, institutional managers, policy makers and political leaders-as well as academics, students of management, business leaders and the general public.

Author Biography

Bill Nicol is an international journalist, author and consultant. He helped lead Indonesia's successful recovery from the Indian Ocean Tsunami of December 2004, the world's largest recorded natural disaster. An independent advisor, he has consulted to government and industry across a range of fields including national security, emergency management and organizational governance. He has also been an investigative journalist, current affairs reporter and political correspondent with a background in print, radio and television. He is the author of "Timor: The Stillborn Nation" (1978), later updated for East Timor's independence as "Timor: A Nation Reborn" (2002); "McBride: Behind the Myth" (1989); and "Negotiating A to Z" (2002). After completing Tsunami Chronicles (2013), he penned his more personal story, "The Writer: Memoirs of a Journalist, Author and Consultant", also due for publication in 2013.