Indigenous Institutions and Their Role in Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience: Evidence from the 2009 Tsunami in American Samoa

Posted on Feb. 13, 2014

In 2009, three earthquakes struck the South Pacific Ocean, causing a tsunami that struck the U.S. island territory of American Samoa less than 12 minutes later

Because of this tragedy, the National Disaster Preparedness Training Center—a FEMA Training Provider—developed the first FEMA course on tsunami awareness (AWR-217), and subsequently has delivered the course in American Samoa. In addition, the understanding of the important role that indigenous knowledge plays in disaster risk reduction and resilience has lead Dr. Andrew Rumbach (University of Colorado Denver) and Dr. Dolores Foley (University of Hawaii at Manoa) to recently publish an article titled, “Indigenous Institutions and Their Role in Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience: Evidence from the 2009 Tsunami in American Samoa.” To view this article, please click here.