Seeking Information after the 2010 Haiti Earthquake: A Case Study in Mass-fatality Management

Abstract

Purpose: The research investigated the information-seeking in mass-fatality management (MFM) by the people directly affected by the Haiti 2010 earthquake, which killed an estimated 316,000 people according to the government of Haiti (Brown & Delva, 2011), offered many lessons in MFM. The research defined MFM in seeking information and in recovery, preservation, identification and disposition of human remains. Information seeking is defined as “a conscious effort to acquire information in response to a need or gap in your knowledge” (Case, 2012, p. 5). “Information can save lives” asserts the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (2005, p. 9). Improved information seeking in MFM may alleviate suffering and accelerate community response, recovery, and resilience. Originality: The research is original and innovative because it is transdisciplinary at the intersection of information-seeking and MFM (Figure 1). I could not locate a single peer-reviewed paper on information seeking in MFM. One of the theoretical significance of the research is that it appears to be first literature on information-seeking in MFM.