Analysing the Initial Emergency Phase during Operational Response of the 2025 Senyar Cyclone in Aceh, Indonesia

Sammanfattning

This study examines how Indonesia’s networked emergency response system performed during the first 72 hours of the Cyclone Senyar disaster in Aceh and what conditions influenced its reliability. Guided by a high-reliability network (HRN) perspective, this research investigates how coordination and collective capacity shape the system’s ability to maintain performance under extreme time pressure and multi-jurisdictional flooding. The study adopts a qualitative case study design with an abductive logic of inquiry, drawing on 15 semi-structured interviews conducted online between February and March 2026 with key municipal actors in Aceh Tamiang, North Aceh, and Pidie Jaya. Data were analysed using directed qualitative content analysis, combining deductive coding based on high-reliability organisation (HRO), high-reliability preparedness networks (HRPN), and HRN theories with inductive coding of emerging themes. The findings reveal a pattern of partial reliability: while the system did not collapse entirely, reliability was sustained primarily at the tactical and community level through local actors’ improvisation, autonomous decision-making, and community solidarity, whereas it broke down at the institutional and systemic level, where coordinated command, shared situational awareness, and collective preparedness were absent. Three clusters of conditions shaped this outcome: pre-existing structural fragility, crisis-activated breakdown in communication and preparedness, and compensatory mechanisms that mitigated but did not replace systemic reliability. The study concludes that an effective 72-hour response in Indonesia requires pre-established network-level conditions for cooperation and coordination. Future research should prioritise access to national-level actors not captured in this study and conduct a comparative study across different decentralised governance systems.