Disaster Warnings on Remote Islands: From the Traditional to the Contemporary

Natural disasters such as tropical cyclones are commonplace in South Pacific island nations, including on remote islands within these remote countries. During a project on disaster response in a changing climate, warning signs and responses to them in remote island communities in Fiji and Tonga were investigated. On remote islands, people are well connected with their land and environment, and local ecological warning signs have existed and been relied upon traditionally. Knowledge about such traditional warning signs is still alive today, but diminishing as technology takes hold. Traditional warning signs are being overtaken by a reliance on warnings from the meteorological service on the radio. Many of the older people who hold most of the traditional knowledge perceive a lack of interest from young people in learning about those signs, because of the radio. However the ways in which young people are using the radio in are changing, which may make this form of warning message distribution less effective in the future. There are moves toward the use of mobile phone technology, especially in Tonga, for distribution of disaster warnings. In remote areas where mobile phone reception is less about being in the right general area than standing under the right tree, methods of locally spreading the news of any warning will remain vital. This presentation outlines knowledge of different types of warnings, their perceived reliability, how these are changing, and the responses to the warnings, on two remote island communities where sufficient warning is considered more important than the severity of an extreme weather event.