Data processing for earthquake victims in Greece

The fact that public administration can use computers as an administrative tool has been discussed by many authors. But nobody has previously tried to organize a data processing centre in a deserted city with a chaotic situation prevailing following a catastrophic earthquake. And the problem became more interesting because of the urgency with which a fully automated local administration, a successor of the traditional one, had to be established in order to support restoration and rehabilitation. In this paper, a successful data processing response to the needs of the Messinia prefecture services is briefly described. Emphasis is given on the steps taken to overcome the obstacles that such a situation is likely to raise.