Accomplishments in the South Coastal Thai Communities After the 2004 Tsunami in the Restoration Process, A Case Study in Ranong Province - Post-Tsunami Hazard: Reconstruction and Restoration - page 93

Andaman Coastal Research Station for Development, the recovery process went
very quickly and effectively due to the additional large funding support from both
university and the government. However, the story was totally different for such
small local communities such as the two villages in this study. Although the com-
munities received various supports from many organizations at the beginning, the
residents appeared to get back to their normal lives slowly, partly due to the lack of
wills caused by irreplaceable losses of lives in the family leaders who might be the
main taskforces for making a living in the families or the lost of their properties that
would take a long time for them to recover. In addition, after the tragedy, their lives
appear to change forever due to the changes in both environmental and social
aspects that surround them. The case studies of the restoration processes from these
two such small local communities are a good example for other typical small local
communities in Thailand that are not considered a high priority for the government
to put all the efforts in the recovery process such as those cases in the famous tourist
communities where full forces of support were provided by both government and
tourism industries (i.e. MFC 2014 ; Guidescenter 2005 ).
In order to help these communities recover from the losses due to a devastating
natural disaster in a short time, the government needs to:

- Provide enough emergency fi nancial support and personnel to the affected com-

munities at the earliest time to supply suffi cient immediate relief at the beginning
stage and to help in reconstruction of the communities at the later time.

- Need to let the victim participate in the restoration processes in order to corre-

spond to their needs as much as possible and to raise the appreciation of the
proved supports.

- Maintain the continuation of the support for physical, psychological and social

aspects until the affected residents in the communities can get back on their lives
as before the tragedy.

- Need to support the scientifi c studies of the Tsunami hazard that can be used for

disaster mitigation and planning, especially in the small, local communities.

- Maintain the awareness of the people for the danger of the natural disaster

through educational outreaches and drills. It is also very important to maintain
the critical facilities for the disaster monitoring and warning network such as a
tsunami warning system, tsunami shelters, and tsunami evacuation route maps.

In addition, for this specifi c case, the affected residents need additional supports
from many organizations to renew their careers. The supports include the ecological
and environmental studies in order to restore the environment especially for
rehabilitating damaged coastal ecosystems to enhance fi sheries to the original con-
dition. The alternative support can be introducing the new career paths in the marine
related occupation such as aquaculture as long as it still preserves the environment
especially for the mangrove forest and coastline. These kinds of supports can help
the affected residents to return to the villages and continue to live their normal lives.

Acknowledgement The authors would like to thank the personnel from the Andaman Coastal
Research Station for Development, Kasetsart University for their support during the fi eld survey. We