Disasters disrupt order. In restoring normalcy, information and communication networks may not appear as important as access to clean water, food and shelter.  But access to relevant and timely information and communication helps promote more efficient disaster response.  In order for information to be communicated, the underlying network must function. Similarly, the supporting soft infrastructure (e.g. institutions and policies) must be available and reliable.

The enhanced information processing and visualization capabilities of modern hardware and software can, by themselves, enable better documentation of the needs that have to be met, ranging from registries of the missing and injured, to medicines and food for the affected.  ICTs enable coordination of spatially separated actors, especially when a disaster has a geographically wide scope and when physical transportation systems may have been degraded.  ICTs can also give voice to affected people, in terms of empowering them in relation to the authorities.  Payment through mobiles has great potential in disaster relief.