On November 11th, the 50th day after the Matai’an River overflow disaster in Guangfu, Hualien, Black Bear Academy held the first of its post-disaster forums.
This forum invited three deeply involved participants to share their frontline experience: Lin Li-Ching, who focused on emergency water and electrical repairs; Karen Yu, who worked on geographic information integration; and YuTin, who joined the front line as a medical volunteer.
The three speakers drew on their own experience, while I tried to organize the real conditions and challenges of the early post-disaster period around four themes: action, information, medical care, and mindset.
1. Information: Integrating and Bridging Gaps in Disaster Information
When the public learned from the news or social media that the disaster zone lacked workers and supplies, and decided to head there to help, the first problem they faced was incomplete information and unclear needs.
As a Taipei native who had “gone east” to Hualien, Karen sharply sensed the urgency of information integration. Because conditions were changing rapidly and roads were damaged, just getting manpower, supplies, and heavy machinery to the right locations was already an enormous challenge. Among the many local village chiefs, she found that the information each unit had on hand didn’t match up — they didn’t even know where resources were, what was needed, or who to coordinate with.
After identifying the area where she could contribute, Karen began gathering regional needs and realized that it wasn’t just the village offices that needed geographic information — every volunteer did. So a Google My Map with passable routes, supply points, medical stations, and broad task areas became a critical information hub for the disaster zone.
This map should have been a task the government coordinated as part of disaster response. But this disaster once again reminded us: when the government lacks the capacity or the will to integrate, civilian mutual aid often supports the grassroots better than official channels do.
The Difficulty of Mapmaking: “Accuracy” Matters More Than “Speed”
The disaster zone has two defining characteristics:
- Information is hard to update (roads blocked, communications disrupted)
- Information spreads faster than people and supplies can move
So any need, once made public, can be reshared so widely that it spirals out of control — “5 people needed” becomes “500 people show up” — which ends up dragging down the operation instead of helping.
“Guangfu Superman” later eased this problem with task lists and pre-registration; the mapping team, meanwhile, decided to display only broad, ongoing information, avoiding over-detailed guidance that could become outdated or wrong.
Meanwhile, the social platform Threads, while playing an important role as an information channel in this disaster, also caused chaos of various scales due to unverified information:
— Volunteers heading to unsafe or no-longer-needed locations
— Wrong information affecting military, police, and fire department operations
— Volunteers heading to a task site with anxious hearts, only to find the trip was for nothing
Because of this, Karen’s team adopted a principle of “only updating from trusted sources” — even sacrificing timeliness, they prioritized accuracy. In particular, frontline reconnaissance data came from Yutou (Tseng Ching-yu), keeping the map highly accurate.
The map became a useful relief tool because the team kept collecting feedback from volunteers and adjusted how information was presented around user needs. Combined with the team’s own high mobility, emotional stability, and strong empathy, they were able to keep the map effective amid the chaos.
2. Action: Support, Organization, and Task-Building in the Disaster Zone
Compared to information integration, Lin Li-Ching shared, from his own hands-on organizational experience, how “action” should be established in a disaster zone.
He emphasized that for an organization entering a disaster zone, the most important thing isn’t jumping straight into construction work, but first establishing clear tasks and goals.
In a disaster requiring large-scale support, the first priority is repairing and activating large public facilities — churches, schools, temples — turning them into supply stations, shelters, and command posts. Large hubs are the disaster zone’s main artery, able to hold volunteers, store supplies, park vehicles, and function as information and command centers. Without a hub, a large influx of manpower and supplies becomes a burden instead.
Forward Reconnaissance: The “Triage” of the Relief Process
Though his team focused mainly on water and electrical rescue, “scouting” wasn’t exclusive to that specialty. Reconnaissance teams with professional knowledge enter the disaster zone first, complete an assessment, and then the command center dispatches teams accordingly — this is the foundation of every mission.
Li-Ching’s team built a standardized reporting format:
- A close-up shot of the damage plus a wide outdoor shot
- The house number plus the electrical panel
- Two directional landmark photos
A small, specialized advance team functions like the triage officer in the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) system, rapidly grading needs so the command center can effectively allocate resources.
The same reconnaissance model showed up in other teams too: heavy equipment dispatch (Yutou, Momo), and Gang Lake Civil Defense Corps’s indoor renovation reconnaissance — all following the pattern of “assess first, then dispatch.”
Clear Missions Make Action Effective
Li-Ching pointed out that whether a team can create value in the disaster zone depends on whether the mission is clear and executable. Unplanned enthusiasm and large numbers of volunteers, however well-intentioned, often consume more resources than they contribute if there’s no division of labor or command.
He also observed that the real bottleneck in a disaster zone is often not manpower, but a lack of materials and tools. Without materials, a team can’t do the work — and the funding capacity behind those materials determines how far and how long a team can support the disaster zone.
Li-Ching’s two associations already had missions closely related to disaster relief in normal times, which let them mobilize immediately when the disaster struck. This is also a reminder for civil organizations everywhere: training and collaboration in normal times are what determine whether they can be effective when disaster strikes.
3. Medical Care: Harm and System Strain on the Post-Disaster Front Line
Large-scale disasters are often a stress test of a nation’s medical resilience. From the 921 earthquake, Typhoon Morakot, the Kaohsiung gas explosion, the Formosa Fun Coast fire, the Weiguan building collapse, the Taroko Express derailment, to this flood in Guangfu — Taiwan has built up mutual-aid capacity through crisis after crisis, but the medical system still faces structural problems.
1. Insufficient Medical Capacity: Evacuation Times Soar
According to YuTin, Guangfu originally had only one ambulance. After the disaster, with borrowed vehicles and military support, that reached a maximum of six — still not enough to handle the flow from nearly 20,000 volunteers in the disaster zone.
Evacuation transport time jumped from Hualien’s average of 8.54 minutes to over 40 minutes. When medical resources are scarce, it becomes critical for frontline medical staff to be able to judge which patients actually need to be evacuated.
2. Most Post-Disaster Patients Are Volunteers, Not Disaster Victims
Many volunteers suffered occupational and environmental injuries, including:
- Falls resulting in fractures and swelling/deformity
- Punctured shoe soles, electric shocks
- Large-area allergic reactions and eczema
- Heat injuries (improved after enforcing midday rest breaks)
There were also two pesticide poisoning incidents, a reminder for volunteers not to touch unidentified containers.
3. Regulations Become an Obstacle to Medical Mobility
What the disaster zone most urgently needs is cross-region medical support staff, but regulations mean that doctor volunteers who serve outside their registered region can face fines or even license revocation. As a result, the site could only rely on EMT volunteers for basic medical care, greatly limiting the medical capacity available.
Additionally, procurement of medical supplies is also restricted by regulation: the public wants to donate but doesn’t know what to buy, so volunteers often have to bring their own materials. The Charity Fundraising Act certainly helps prevent fraud, but it also frequently creates the awkward situation where “those willing to give money have nowhere to give it, and those willing to give effort still have to pay out of pocket.”
4. Political Interference Limits Professional Support
Under the Disaster Prevention and Protection Act and the Emergency Medical Services Act, Taiwan has disaster medical assistance teams. But per those same regulations, these teams can only be deployed when the local government proactively requests support. For a local government, activating that request is tantamount to admitting its own capacity is insufficient — which carries political pressure.
When “face” takes priority over professionalism, the state and neighboring counties may be ready to help, yet unable to step in smoothly.
4. Real-World Challenges and Problems
This flood in Guangfu exposed many long-standing structural problems that get magnified by a large-scale disaster. Challenges spanning resources, organization, regulation, and operating models are intertwined, meaning that even though civilian power is strong, it can’t reach its full effectiveness at the critical moment.
1. Money: The Most Real, and Most Sensitive, Post-Disaster Problem
Civilian donations were enthusiastic, but what the disaster zone needs isn’t just “items” — it’s complete solutions that actually solve problems.
For instance, some people donated gas stoves and water heaters, but nobody covered the cost of the gas cylinders, cylinder deposit fees, or piping materials needed to install them. Many volunteers are willing to put in the labor, but how much work gets done often depends on how many materials are on hand — and behind materials is the question of cash flow and funding.
Under Taiwan’s charitable system, many small support associations, despite their high flexibility, struggle to raise supplies or funds at scale due to strict fundraising regulations. Members of the public who want to donate also often hesitate because they can’t find a trustworthy channel that can act immediately.
2. Management: Loss of Control and a Vacuum After a Flood of Volunteers
In this disaster, the number of volunteers far exceeded what the disaster zone could handle. Yet organizations were afraid to manage them, and it was hard to manage them anyway — this became the biggest challenge.
Large organizations like Tzu Chi and churches have well-established systems, but they can’t directly command large numbers of “non-member” civilian volunteers — partly due to governance risk and accountability, and partly because the civilian volunteers themselves may not want to be absorbed into a system. The result was a flood of “spontaneous volunteers” on-site, but without task assignment or tiered management, energy was wasted, and even new chaos was created.
In addition, different professional organizations have different working habits, making cross-team collaboration difficult; supply management was also chaotic due to a lack of unified standards, with situations even arising where supplies piled up unused.
3. Law: An Invisible Ceiling Limiting Medical, Engineering, and Fundraising Capacity
Law is both protection and limitation.
- Medical volunteers who provide cross-region support may face the risk of “practicing illegally,” forcing genuinely capable medical professionals to hold back.
- Civilian engineering teams repairing the disaster zone must also deal with legal issues around licensing, insurance, and occupational safety liability.
- Donations and supply drives are governed by the Charity Fundraising Act, making it hard for small associations to quickly scale up their support capacity given the burden of financial transparency and fundraising legality.
These systems are reasonable in normal times, but during a disaster they often become key obstacles to civilian mutual aid.
4. Activating Support: Difficulty Getting Central and Out-of-County Professional Teams Involved
Resources like disaster medical assistance teams and out-of-county professional teams exist, but they can only be activated when the local government proactively requests support. Yet local governments are often reluctant to admit their own capacity is insufficient, due to “face.” As a result, even when the central government and neighboring counties are ready, professional support can’t smoothly get involved.
The accumulation of these problems has suppressed both the efficiency of post-disaster recovery and the capacity of civilian mutual aid.
Mindset: The Psychological Preparation and Attitude of Volunteers
Beyond the systemic and structural challenges, a volunteer’s own “mindset” is also key to whether the disaster site can operate safely and effectively. The speakers’ sharing this time revealed the psychological preparation a disaster-zone volunteer should have, and also pointed out why certain teams could keep their rhythm and provide stable support amid the chaos.
1. Take Care of Yourself First — Only Then Can You Take Care of Others
The disaster zone environment is harsh, draining enormous physical and emotional energy. Volunteers must understand:
Pulling back when you can’t go on, resting when you’re uncomfortable — that’s responsibility, not retreat.
Only when you yourself are stable can your actions last.
2. High Initiative and Observation
There’s no standard procedure in a disaster zone, and no one will always tell you what to do next.
The ability to observe, adjust, and fill in gaps on your own initiative is what separates a good volunteer from a chaotic one.
3. Understand Your Own Limits
Volunteers don’t need to be omnipotent. Understanding the scope of your own ability, and only taking on work you can safely handle, actually makes the overall operation more efficient.
Do your best on what you can do, and learn to let go of what you can’t.
4. Empathy: Starting From the User’s Perspective
Karen especially emphasized that empathy is the most important foundation for information integration.
A volunteer’s task isn’t “meeting every need,” but using limited resources to distill the most important, most urgent, most needed information.
5. Don’t Cling to Personal Contribution — Pursue “Eliminating the Need for Your Own Existence”
This is the standard NGO mindset:
If your presence is no longer necessary, that means the disaster zone is closer to recovery.
Withdrawing, merging, or handing off when necessary are all signs of a mature team.
6. A Familiar, Trusted Team
The environment is complex and conditions change in an instant — only a familiar team with good mutual understanding can keep a mission from being dragged down by emotion and misunderstanding.
7. Convey Correct Information, Even If It Offends People
The disaster zone has no room for ambiguous messages.
If wrong information would put someone else in danger, it must be corrected, even if it offends.
8. Small Teams, High Efficiency: Open Discussion, But the Leader Must Be Able to Decide on the Spot
The traits of a high-efficiency team are:
- Open to discussion
- Open to communication
- But when a real-time judgment call is needed, the team leader can decide immediately and bear the consequences
Clear decisions are what make fast action possible.
9. No One Should Be Left Behind
Volunteers, residents, and out-of-town teams are all part of the disaster zone.
Everyone’s psychological state, experience, and safety should be taken into account.
Conclusion
The government and civilian groups — including the self-organized training and civil defense groups that emerged after the mass recall movement — must, beyond their day-to-day preparation, also face up to reviewing and improving after large-scale disasters like this one, so that we can respond more properly the next time an unforeseen disaster strikes.