In this case study, Ruijun Lei discusses the events of and response to the Great Alaska Earthquake of 1964. In describing the management of the event, Lei highlights the resilience of local communities and the effective grassroots disaster relief efforts initiated in Alaska following the Earthquake.
Since the disaster took place before the digital age, radio broadcasts and newspapers were two crucial ways in which information on the disaster was communicated. Lei comments on how Alaska’s terrain and destructions caused by the earthquake posed further challenges to disaster communication.