Care or Cry: Three years from Cyclone Gonu. What have we learnt?

OBJECTIVES: This article examines and evaluates the history of natural disasters in Oman and presents the health care response to cyclone Gonu, and highlights the health care lessons learnt from the Cyclone as narrated by frontline personnel and it puts forward some practical recommendations for health care policy makers in order to strengthen the health care disaster preparations to combat future natural and man-made disasters.
METHODS: The lessons presented in this article are based on the reflections of frontline health care personnel who witnessed Cyclone Gonu. The reflections of experience collected as a part of a qualitative 17 semi-structured interviews conducted in Oman between December 2009 and January 2010.
RESULTS: The study found that the lessons from passes events went by un-noticed and exposed some serious fragmentation in the coordination of different governmental sectors involved in emergency management and that there was no well-planned mechanism of alert and warning dissemination to people and communities.
CONCLUSION: Overall, the major lessons that learnt from Cyclone Gonu would have been very useful if they had been taken into consideration and implemented during the health care response to cyclone Phet.