preparing for disasters

1. • Course : HSS F363: Disaster and Development
• Instructor: Mohan Kumar Bera
Lecture 21
Date: 14th November, 2022

2. Disaster Preparedness

3. Disaster management cycle
Source: NDMA

4. Preparedness
• Preparedness is a strategy to minimize hazards’ adverse
effects through effective precautionary measures that
ensure a timely, appropriate, and efficient organization
and delivery of response and relief action.
• The goals of disaster preparedness are knowing what to
do in a disaster’s aftermath, knowing how to do it, and
being equipped with the right tools to do it effectively
09-12-2022 4
@ Mohan Kumar Bera

5. • Government preparedness
– Government preparedness actions may be grouped into following
general categories: planning; exercise; training; equipment; and
statutory authority.
1. Planning:
• Indicates detail about the responsibilities and strategies in
disaster management
– Direction and control
– Notification and warning
– Evacuation
– Communications
– Public works
– Public information
– Search and rescue
09-12-2022 5
@ Mohan Kumar Bera
Preparedness

6. – Emergency medical services and mass care
– Mortuary services
– Security and perimeter control
– Inclusion of military resources
– Transportation
– Traffic control
– Relief
– Short- and long-term recovery
– Financial management
– International coordination
– Volunteer management
– Donations management
– Vulnerable populations
09-12-2022 6
@ Mohan Kumar Bera
Preparedness

7. 2. Exercise
• Preparedness exercises allow those involved in emergency
and disaster response to practice their roles and
responsibilities before an actual event occurs.
• Exercises not only prepare the individuals to carry out their
duties but also help to find problems in the plan in non-
emergency situations.
– Component of a comprehensive exercise program
• Drill: It is a controlled, supervised method by which a single disaster
management operation or function is practiced or tested.
– Drills are most effective when they mimic real-life situations
09-12-2022 7
@ Mohan Kumar Bera
Preparedness

8. – Tabletop exercise: It is designed to allow disaster management
officials to practice the full activation of the emergency
response plan within the confines of a controlled, low-stress
discussion scenario.
– Functional exercise: It is the tests and practices of disaster
managers’ capabilities by simulating an event to which they
must respond.
– Full-scale exercise: The full-scale exercise is a scenario-based
event that seeks to create an atmosphere closely mimicking an
actual disaster.
09-12-2022 8
@ Mohan Kumar Bera
Preparedness

9. 3. Training
• Disaster response officials are more effective if they
are trained to do their jobs
• Training concentrates on following activities
– Evacuation
– Mass care
– Mass fatalities management
– Debris management
– Flood-fighting operations
– Warning coordination
– Spontaneous volunteer management
– Hazardous materials
– Cyclonic storm response
09-12-2022 9
@ Mohan Kumar Bera
Preparedness

10. – Urban and wilderness search and rescue
– Radiological response
– Crowd control
– Response to terrorist attacks
– Wildfire and wild land fire response
4. Equipment
• The development of tools and other equipment to assist in
disaster management
• Fire suppression equipment
• Rescue equipment
• Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
• Disaster medical care
• Public warning and alert systems
09-12-2022 10
@ Mohan Kumar Bera
Preparedness

11. • Public preparedness
– Public preparedness can be considered actions taken to
empower ordinary citizens to help themselves, their families,
their neighbours, or complete strangers.
– A prepared public must be emphasised on the skills that allow
them to perform specialized actions such as search and rescue,
first aid, or fire suppression.
– Public preparedness includes public education
• It is also called risk communication, preparedness education, social
marketing, and disaster education—is the backbone of any effective
public preparedness effort
09-12-2022 11
@ Mohan Kumar Bera
Preparedness

12. – The main goals of public education are
• Awareness of the hazard risk
• Behavior
– Predisaster risk reduction behavior
– Predisaster preparedness behavior
– Postdisaster response behavior
– Postdisaster recovery behavior
• Warning
– Awareness
• The media as a public educator
• Literacy and public education
• Language of public education
• Cultural understanding
• Poverty or the effects of poverty
• Class structure
09-12-2022 12
@ Mohan Kumar Bera
Preparedness

13. • 10 Steps to Disaster Preparedness
– Be ready at home
– Be ready at work
– Know your community’s
– Learn about agencies and roles
– Find mitigation funding
– Conduct a risk assessment
– Inform your plan with statistics
– Plan for all types of risks
– Understand continuity of operations (COOP)
– Research NGOs
Source: http://cdmsmith.com/en-US/Insights/10-Steps-to-Disaster-Preparedness.aspx
09-12-2022 13
@ Mohan Kumar Bera
Preparedness

14. Disaster Response
09-12-2022 14
@ Mohan Kumar Bera

15. Disaster management cycle
Source: NDMA

16. Response
• The response function of emergency management
includes actions aimed at limiting injuries, loss of life,
and damage to property and the environment that are
taken prior to, during, and immediately after a hazard
event.
• Response is the most complex of the four functions of
emergency management, since it is conducted during
periods of very high stress, in a highly time-constrained
environment, and with limited information.
• During response, wavering confidence and unnecessary
delay directly translate to tragedy and destruction.
09-12-2022 16
@ Mohan Kumar Bera

17. Response
• The task of limiting injuries, loss of life, and further
damage to property and the environment is diverse.
• Response includes directly address the immediate needs
of first aid, search and rescue, and shelter
• Rescue includes systems that to coordinate and support
such efforts.
– Response involves the rapid resumption of critical infrastructure
(such as opening transportation routes, restoring
communications and electricity, and ensuring food and clean
water distribution) to allow recovery to take place, reduce
further injury and loss of life, and speed the return to a normally
functioning Society.
09-12-2022 17
@ Mohan Kumar Bera

18. Response
• Three types of response actions have been taken during
the pre-disaster period
– Warning and evacuation
• If a warning system has been established, the public may have time to
make last-minute preparations or evacuate away from the area, move
into personal or established community shelters, or take other
protective actions in advance of the hazard’s arrival.
– Pre-positioning of resources and supplies
• Depending upon a country’s size, responders, equipment, and supplies
are dispersed across the area prior to disaster recognition.
• Advance warning of the disaster allows officials to transport those
supplies into the affected site before hazard conditions
• To further simplify pre-positioning, many countries have created easily
transportable disaster equipment kits for items such as pharmaceutical
and medical supplies, food, clothing, and shelter.
09-12-2022 18
@ Mohan Kumar Bera

19. Response
09-12-2022 19
@ Mohan Kumar Bera

20. Response
• Last-minute mitigation and preparedness measures.
– Actions taken in last hours limit the hazard’s consequences.
– For instance, before a flood, sandbags may be used to increase
the height of levees or to create barriers around buildings and
other structures.
– Windows and doors may be boarded up or shuttered before a
windstorm.
– Vaccines and other prophylaxis may be used to minimize
infection rates with epidemics.
– The public may be reminded of stockpiling and other
preparedness actions they still have time for (such as purchasing
extra water, food, batteries, and candles).
09-12-2022 20
@ Mohan Kumar Bera

21. Response
• Response during post-disaster
– Once disaster response begins, the first priority is saving lives.
– Response prioritises in Assessing the disaster; Treating
remaining hazard effects; Providing water and food; providing
shelter; Fatality management; Sanitation; Security; Social
services; Resumption of critical infrastructure; and Donations
management
• Response activity includes search and rescue, first aid, and
evacuation, may continue for days or weeks, depending upon
the disaster’s type and severity
– Search Rescue
– First aid medical treatment
– Evacuation
– Coordination
09-12-2022 21
@ Mohan Kumar Bera

22. Response
– Disaster assessments
• Situation assessment or damage assessment determines impacts of
the hazard.
– Situation assessments can help determine the geographic scope of the disaster, and
how it has affected people and structures
• Needs assessment involves gathering data on the services, resources,
and other assistance that will be required to address the disaster
– Provision of water, food, and shelter
– Sanitation
– Safety and security
– Critical infrastructure resumption
• Transportation systems (land, sea, and air)
• Communications
• Electricity
• Gas and oil storage and transportation
• Water supply systems
• Emergency services
• Public health ● Continuity of government
09-12-2022 22
@ Mohan Kumar Bera

23. Response
–Resumption of noncritical infrastructure
• Education
• Prisons
• Industrial capacity
• Information systems
• Mail system
• Public transportation
• Banking and finance
–Emergency social services
• Providing service to deal with stress and trauma
–Donations management
–Coordination
09-12-2022 23
@ Mohan Kumar Bera

24. Response
• The disaster declaration process
– The disaster declaration is a way for governments to
acknowledge that response resources have become
overwhelmed and to announce that additional
assistance is required and, likewise, requested.
– The legal mechanisms established to guide how
disaster declaration takes place depend upon the
nation’s form of government and the rules outlined in
any established emergency operations planning.
09-12-2022 24
@ Mohan Kumar Bera

25. Ongoing assessment approach for rapid-onset disasters
Pre-disaster Post-disaster
When
possible
First 10
hours
12-36 hours (&
then, as
needed)
7-15 days 30-60
Days
3
months
Assessment
type
Forecasting &
early warning
Disaster (early)
notification
More detailed
disaster needs
assessment
Ongoing monitoring of situation and needs
Information
needs
Collect and
disseminate
early warning
information
(especially for
flash floods,
tsunamis, storms,
volcanoes, forest
fires, etc.)
Alert
headquarters
• Disaster type,
date
• # casualties
reported
• # properties
damaged
and type of
damage
• Immediate
emergency
priority needs (e.g.
search & rescue,
first
aid)
Assessment team
• Disaster
magnitude
• Geographic area
affected
• Detailed
assessment of
needs and
resources and
other responders
• Define
intervention for
ensuing weeks
and months (if
necessary)
Continued monitoring and assessment
• Ongoing situation, responseand needs
• Changes in status and needs
• Need for longer-term assistance and rehabilitation
(after 3 months)
• Plan of action for assistance to continue past 3 months
Disaster needs assessment reporting