Based on the survey of aid organizations and agencies which conducted international humanitarian assistance for relief and restoration of the disaster caused by Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar in May 2008, this paper identifies which information is searched and how it is collected in relief and restoration stages of a disaster recovery scheme.
During the relief stage of the Cyclone Nargis disaster, a series of information was collected to plan and implement assistance activities, such as a degree of the damage, needs of assistance, activities by other organizations and their coordination, geographic, socio-economic details of the affected areas (i.e. areal background information) and scientific analysis of physical processes which caused the disaster. In the restoration stage, assistance activities were coordinated on a sectoral basis, and therefore sectoral appraisal of needs for assistance appeared in demand, in addition to the all information required in the relief stage. Areal background information was required not only in the restoration stage but also in the relief stage.
Regarding the collection processes, the information was obtained through two UN organizations, namely, Myanmar Information Management Unit (MIMU) and United Nations Cluster Leads, local networks, Websites and reconnaissance to the affected areas. It is worth highlighting that the UN organizations played particularly important roles among them. The collection processes of the information in the relief stage are categorized into ‘local network type', ‘home-country type', and ‘reconnaissance type'. In the restoration stage, the information was collected from both the same sources as those in the relief stage and local news media. Websites were revealed to be a useful and functional medium for sharing information both in the relief and restoration stages. Some organizations, particularly ones categorized as ‘home-country type', searched information away from affected areas in the relief stage. In the restoration stage when the local internet infrastructure was restored, Websites became a commonly important source of information for assistance activities.

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