Disaster mitigation and rehabilitation are needed in a fast and efficient manner in a country like India where most of the calamities occur in places which are rural or not well connected by transportation or communication. Recent spread of cellular phones and internet -both wired and wireless-have brought in new possibilities and open new dimensions in terms of alleviation of public duress. This study presents results of visual and oral communication formats used by different strata of people-politicians to engineers- visiting the site and the implication in terms of assessment of damage and possible rehabilitation, based on engineering modeling and analysis. Based on this, it may be seen that rehabilitation measures could vary significantly, depending on the vagueness and interpretation of visual data Fuzzy representation and the associated logic are found to be most effective in treating uncertainties and a suitable damage model is able to assess the damage and later suggest rehabilitation measures in literal terms, so that on-site adoption will be easier. © 2008 IEEE.