CHAPTER 2
The Process of Disaster Management
Practices from Disaster—Affected Countries
Md Nurul Momen
Department of Public Administration, University of Rajshahi, Rajshahi, Bangladesh
Introduction
Natural disasters have profound reoccurring effects on the future direction of human life on the planet. Having reviewed the contemporary literature on natural disaster, itis found that the impact of recent disasters is very much different compared to the disasters that occurred in prehistoric times. Even after knowing the dangers of unplanned development, many states still allow some projects to operate in the disaster-prone areas, which threatens the environment and social livelihoods. For example, every year on the Indian subcontinent cyclones take place, but it is an unfortunate reality that the states of the region have many commercial development projects in the coastal areas. As a result, this had a devastating effect during the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami of 2004 in which 283,106 people who lost their lives (Pinkowski 2008a). On a particular note, environment and social livelihood can be saved through the concerted efforts that help to achieve the target of successful disaster management and help mitigate and reduce the potential casualties and destruction of property, or lessen the magnitude of destruction of natural resources, as humans depend on nature. To address the issues, it essentially requires proper planning and preparedness mechanisms that may help us to avoid and mitigate potential losses and other consequences of disasters.
Many national and international experts, and bodies, in regard to climate change, are quite concerned about the future impact of disasters. Therefore, the states along with other Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships (MSPs) have to take huge responsibilities to employ a better plan of action in order to save lives and property. Pinkowski (2008a) explored the devastation of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire that caused 700 deaths. Thirty-five years prior, 1871, a similar level of destruction occurred when fire engulfed up to 4square miles of the center of Chicago, which resulted in the killing of hundreds of people. Despite the disaster, in both cases the states successfully developed a plan of action to reconstruct the infrastructure in both cities; however, they introduced strict regulatory frameworks. For example, introduction of improved building codes, improved construction equipment in order to encounter the possible risks of disaster, better preparedness plans for minimizing disaster losses, and obviously establishing better early warning systems (Pinkowski 2008a).
Johnson and Olshansky (2016) found that after devastating earthquakes, the government of China and New Zealand established a unit called “recovery management and policy creation.” They added that after the 1995 and 2011 earthquakes, Japan strictly followed coordination among the concerned agencies at the national level, but also encouraged some decentralized functions across the different levels of government and organizations. More to the point, India, Indonesia, and the USA adopted decentralized approaches after large disasters (Johnson and Olshansky 2016). Given the nature of the objective of the chapter, it requires to solicit accounts of knowledge from some deliberately selected countries involved with the disaster management process, which presents their perspectives and shows us some lessons and opportunities to fix long-standing disaster management challenges.
Operationalization of Concepts
In general, a disaster risk may bring injuries, loss of life and damage to resources, thus it hampers social services and economic activities, and has negative impacts on the natural environment. No doubt wherever mankind lives in the global village, they are being threatened by different kinds of either natural or man-made disasters. Over the years, natural disasters have occurred with an increased level of frequency in the world, thus an impact on a greater number of loss of lives and destruction of property. Therefore, it is the responsibility of all countries to address the vulnerabilities of human beings due to consequences of disaster. When it comes to the definition of disasters, the Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) defines it as
Situation or event, which overwhelms local capacity, necessitating a request to national or international level for external assistance; an unforeseen and often sudden event that causes great damage, destruction and human suffering. Though often caused by nature, disasters can have human origins (CRED 2007).
On a particular note, data shows the cruelty of disasters in that more than 226 million people on the planet are affected by natural disasters every year, and in 2010 alone, 373 natural disasters caused the death of 226,000 and affected the livelihood of 207,000 (Withanaarachchi and Setunge 2014). In another study conducted by the United Nations found that natural disasters caused death of more than 600,000personsand severely damaged the economy in the last two decades (Chan 2015). It is worth mentioning that 90 percent of these deaths occur in poor countries (CRED 2016) where limited resources put pressure on disaster mitigation.
An Exploration of Vulnerability
In a presentation in the sixth Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC, Robert P. Watson, chair of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), operationalizes vulnerability as the extent to which a natural or social system prone to sustaining damage from climate change (IPCC 2000). To explain it more precisely, Misomali and McEntire (2008) see the concepts from two perspectives: mapping proneness to disaster, and insufficient capability in regard to disaster preparedness. When it comes to defining proneness to disaster, IPCC and other scholars, especially Misomali and McEntire (2008), usually relate it to one’s risk or vulnerability. For example, individuals residing in the coastal areas are more prone to hazards caused by cyclone or any other forms of storm. On the other hand, another perspective of vulnerability relates to the insufficient capability that corresponds to an emergency entity’s incapacity to respond to and recover from a disaster. To further explain the phenomenon, state agencies involved in disaster preparedness become vulnerable, when it is established that they lack the capacity to deal with natural disasters.
Theoretical Lenses
It is important to note that there has been a shifting in the paradigm on the approach of disaster management that is called “Risk reduction.” The main argument of the said approach directs the safety and protection of people and property, thus consequently helps to the achievement of sustainable development. While the traditional approach in disaster management is mainly focused on rescue and relief efforts (Quyyum 2015), it is the duty of every government to immediately provide relief and rehabilitation assistance alongside other nongovernmental organizations and international organizations.
However, approximately 60 million people in the world today are currently displaced and/or have lost their livelihood due to many reasons, for instance, political violence, climate change, natural disasters, and economic development. Of these vulnerable people, 30 percent are supported by humanitarian aid organizations through different programs, but the remaining70 percent have to manage their own shelters. In 2015 it was estimated that shelter for displaced individuals requires 1.8 billion US dollars, but only a quarter of the amount was covered (Hendriks et al. n.d.).
No doubt, disasters make serious impacts on disaster-prone countries, which disrupt social and economic activities, and endanger the livelihood of the affected families and communities. When it is thought that a natural disaster is inevitable or going to happen, it means that it goes beyond the capacity of humans to face it. In these contexts, it requires mapping out the relationship between disasters and vulnerability. It is commonly perceived that sudden disasters that cannot be effectively handled by emergency response agencies, but its severe impacts can be significantly lessened by adopting different mechanisms of disaster risk reduction. So, meaning that natural disaster may not be prevented even in an advanced technology-based country, but a developed framework in disaster management may have an effect on lives and resources, thus less destruction. However, due to the inevitable nature of disasters, the local community accepts the danger of future disaster. Given the context, all of the countries now attempt to take some initiatives for a sustained capacity strengthening, and institutional competence of the concerned agencies and empower people to stay in local disaster-prone places. Note also that the power of resilience after a disaster among the affected communities occupies the center stage in the recent debates and discussions on disaster management.
As stated earlier, there has been a paradigmatic shift in disaster management approach (Jenkins 2015), in the past it only focused on the recovery phase after the disaster. Now, it turns into a multidimensional disaster management approach that combines different strategies, and participation of community at the local level. Furthermore, it is now increasingly realized that every stakeholder in disaster management process requires mapping out the disaster risks and consequences that help them in the fight against disasters and risks. When talking about the disaster risks, Sonny (1999) focused on some reasons of risks due to flawed development plans, which often results in occurrence of different types of disasters. More to the point, the new paradigm emphasizes not only the reasons of disaster occurrence, but also the enhanced capacity to handle and reduce the extent of future disaster risks (Medury 2008).
However, integrated disaster management strategy was introduced for the first time at a conference held on May 23 to 27, 1994 and adopted in Japan through the Yokohama Strategy and plan of action for a safer world. The said strategy and plan of action originated from within the framework called as the International Decade for Natural Disaster Risk Reduction (IDNDR). For achieving the target of vulnerability reduction, it emphasizes a sustainable solution by pointing out that “disaster prevention, mitigation, and preparedness are better than disaster response” (Medury 2008). Furthermore, there has been a recent effort in changing the disaster management approach, for instance, building the resilience power of concerned authorities and affected communities through proper diagnosis of their current status of vulnerabilities and capacities. Note also that traditional top-down approach to dealing with disasters have not shown much success in the past. This suggests the requirement of a community-based and bottom-up approach that helps to specify particular needs and strategies for disaster risks at the local level.
After 6 years of the Yokohama Strategy in 2000, the International Strategy of Disaster Reduction (ISDR) declared an objective of putting power into resilient communities in facing natural disasters. The ISDR in its declaration strongly considered the adoption of appropriate disaster risks reduction strategies in order to facilitate sustained economic growth and development. To them, these strategies and initiative can reduce the magnitude of human suffering, and lessen the impact of a disaster on the economy. For building disaster-resilient communities, active participation of vulnerable families and communities is required in every stage of the implementation strategy. The question is why do we need to strengthen the capacity of local communities? In reply, itis pointed out that local communities act as the first responders to any unanticipated dangers before seeking any other external assistance. If local communities in disaster-prone areas are conscious about the future possibility of disasters, this enables them to deal with possible threats and face them effectively. Hence, for reducing the disaster vulnerabilities of communities, different stakeholders apart from national government are required to identify and analyze the deficit of strengths and capacities of who are at risks and explore the different types of vulnerabilities among the affected community at various levels (Medury 2008).
It is important to note that there are some natural disasters that are not easy to predict such as underwater earthquakes, but through analyzing earlier data it is possible to generate an idea where they are most likely to happen. However, recently, the capacity to identify the location of future earthquakes has significantly developed, since the number of seismograph stations across the globe has been increased (350 in 1931 increased to 8,000) (Pinkowski 2008b). Furthermore, the tremendous changes in satellite images, improvement of local warning stations and measurement instruments in the last two decades have also increased the effectiveness in alerting the resident population. Thus, it helps to enhance the ability and provide quick messages to any sort of future natural disasters in coastal communities. On the other hand, academicians and experts recommend introduction of curriculum on disaster management in educational institutions, and training and awareness programs to local communities in disaster-prone areas is another lesson learned from many case studies. This helps to train affected people in the appropriate behavior indifferent forms of storms, as well as increasing knowledge on warning signs. The disaster awareness activities and new curricula in educational institutions is a continuous process and guided by a sound disaster management policy, laws and regulations, and also importantly, requires sufficient resources to execute the strategy and plan of action.
On the other hand, for a sound disaster management practice, no weak housing can be sustainable in the extreme force from a powerful natural disaster, so a well-designed strong infrastructure can provide shelter to affected communities. Given the context, it is suggested that public infrastructure should serve multiple uses including serving as shelters to the affected communities, or as a storage point of disaster relief and supplies, and even can be used as an information center for the local communities. Hence, public infrastructure in the disaster-prone areas requires strict building codes so that it can survive even in severe disaster conditions. Furthermore, the so-called development approaches in the coastal areas endangers the natural resources and livelihood. For instance, destruction of mangrove forests due to port development that put the coastal residents at greater risks from different kinds of storms. Therefore, it is suggested that coastal restoration projects would be invaluable to protect against tidal surges. For doing so, environment requires replanting mangrove forests, and banning any projects from further destruction of natural resources (Pinkowski 2008b).
Disaster Management Practices in the Global Perspectives
Vulnerability occurs due to many factors such as demographic patterns (for instance, poverty, growing population) that have contributed to vulnerability in disasters. Note also that other factors such as lack of emergency preparedness and weak emergency management institutions, and incapacity of local communities also trigger vulnerability in disasters.
Emergency Preparedness
Absence of emergency preparedness is a frequent policy failure that has been experienced across the globe, and even in technologically advanced countries. Misomali and McEntire (2008) found that in Malawi, heavy rainfalls cause flooding, as a consequence, people suffered a lot in the monsoon period. As a part of the responsibility, the government of Malawi had not been successful in institutionalizing a better disaster preparedness system before the incident that could have minimized human suffering or that could have adequately prepared for imminent flood conditions. It is not only the case of Malawi, in most cases the government reacts after the flooding, but human loss and suffering has already been observed. It is argued that a reactive approach in disaster management always fails to reduce the vulnerability of people and loss of property. Failure in emergency preparedness is also observed even to the countries where science and technology has reached advanced levels. For example, in the case of Hurricane Katrina 2005, the city of New Orleans government faced an experience that never occurred to them in the recent past; therefore, they had not taken emergency preparedness to the level of being hit with a massive and record-breaking strength of hurricane (Misomali and McEntire 2008).
On the other hand, an important cornerstone of emergency preparedness begins with an access to local healthcare institutions of each country. In this process, there is an importance of improved health sectoring in terms of health care services and quality of health care to all affected patients during the disaster event it may face. Although it is being claimed by health care institutions that tremendous improvements have taken place in their services, hospital preparedness for the local community is still far from the reality after a catastrophic event (Powers 2008). For example, it has been reported that the hurricanes of Katrina, Wilma, and Rita; in the Northeast caused widespread power outages and the man-made disaster of 9/11 presented a bad experience to healthcare services and challenged the US healthcare system for emergency preparedness during disasters (Cagliuso et al. 2008).
However, emergency management in the United States covers four important aspects: disaster preparedness, disaster response, organizing recovery, and disaster mitigation. These phases are considered as a cycle and interrelated, as one phase actually moves to the next (Cutter and Gall 2006). Under emergency conditions, it is essentially required to achieve the ability to deliver all needed emergency support in the affected areas in due time. Experience has shown that in the developing countries resources are scarce initially for disaster response. However, in many cases of storms, drinking water and other supplies may arrive days to weeks later, when the local community is beginning to recover based on supplies from other sources. In some cases, a further complication is where necessary instruments are held up in transportation (waste) and sit idle (Moeller 2008). For example, in the 2010s devastating Haitian earthquake, relief and recovery efforts came under fire in the media and independent research, as immediately after the disaster it failed to reach out to most affected Haitians due to logistical challenges and breakdown of the traffic control system at the Port-au-Prince airport. That condition compelled cargo aircraft to turn away, as the population became frantic. Hence, it could be said that ambiguous and chaotic relief effort costs more lives needlessly, because in the emergency situation relief workers are confused over where to take the relief aid and where to distribute it safely.
Hence, maintaining situational awareness is a key to emergency preparedness that assists the protection and safety of the public in managing catastrophic disaster. However, situational awareness is defined as an understanding and comprehension about the current environment, and projection from a disaster (Moeller 2008), if there is any inability to comprehend and relate situational awareness at any place that may lead to disastrous results. Therefore, it is suggested to put extra effort and sound policy into maintaining a focused situational awareness in emergency disaster responses to help manage hazards. For instance, it is reported that mangrove forests in Thailand protected buildings from damages and reduced significantly the causalities during the tsunami of December 2004. Sand dunes in Sri Lanka’s national parks considerably lessen the quantity of seawater from penetrating inland (Pinkowski 2008b). On the other hand, the government of Bangladesh has decided to move forward with the construction of coal-based Rampal power plant near to the largest mangrove forest in the world (Sundarban); however, UNESCO and other national environment experts have already raised concerns about the proposed project and asked the government to reconsider it.
Building Indigenous Capacities
No doubt, all disasters are local, hence, disaster preparedness and its recovery should start with local communities. In many countries around the globe communities have their own indigenous knowledge and skills to cope with future disasters. Rural communities in many African countries face acute shortages in food production due to drought, but they have been successful in preventing famine by employing a number of strategies (Medury 2008), As a strategy, in the northern part of Ghana, young men travel to southern part during the dry season in order to find part-time employment opportunity in the cocoa-producing areas of Ashanti or the Ivory Coast. In Mozambique, in the province of Zambesia, as a specific effort during the dry season to combat food shortages, affected groups are used to changing the regular diet items, and reducing the amount of food intake (Medury 2008).
Apart from that, local communities bring and use traditional insights and age-old beliefs and knowledge in handling disasters. From the earlier research, many a time local wisdom has proven useful especially in disaster preparedness. In some counties a strong wind blowing from the eastern side and the unexplained sound of thunder from the direction of the sea means the likelihood of a cyclone. For predicting floods, communities in the flood-prone areas make an assumption of the likelihood of future flood by looking at the color of clouds, and most importantly, to the cloud formation. For example, in Nepal, during the monsoon period, people may observe the level of water in the river, as they apply traditional beliefs and intuitive power in perception to see any strange changes in regard to the formation and the level of water. The intuitive power of observation helps communities to gain preparation time as to when to evacuate their homes for safety, and collecting necessary items (Medury 2008).
It is noteworthy that individual decision-making before disaster is different due to varying prior experience and culture, gender, and the reliability of warning signals (Cutter and Gall 2006). However, there have been differentiated impact of disasters on men and women primarily in developing countries, since women are a disadvantaged group regarding access to job, and access to decision-making. Thus women are largely excluded in society and have minimal control over resources. Note also that physical and psychological vulnerabilities of women are present in society. It is important to note that a gender-friendly approach was lacking in disaster management policy, but it is now gradually being adopted in the policy framework in many countries in their disaster and emergency planning for preparedness, response, and recovery. The growing role of women is undeniable, as they can help male members in disasters. Women in general, discharge multifaceted roles and functions in disaster situations, in providing primary health care to their own family members, and attempt to fulfill the needs of three necessary commodities in life such as food, water, and fuel (Medury 2008).
Flooding is a common natural disaster in some parts of Bangladesh. During the flood, the role of women is evident in safe food handling, storage, and preparation for their family members. For example, it is observed that in Faridpur district, women securely store puffed rice and dried coconuts in suitable locations in case of food shortages. Quite interestingly, this kind of food has long durability and fulfills the requirement of sufficient energy during the disaster. Women in the flood-prone areas also make sure that daily necessary items including some clothes and sets of sleeping beds are kept very carefully so that the other family members can use them for several days when the level of floodwater further rises (Medury 2008).
After the devastating tsunami, many women’s organizations at the local level in India have initiated programs and activities toward strengthening resilience at the community level. These women were the survivors of the tsunami. Along with the government, and the NGOs, the women’s groups voluntarily trained other disaster-affected families in society on how to enhance adaptive power and recovery processes. An NGO, Sanghamithra Service Society, working in the coastal region of Andhra Pradesh formed a community disaster preparedness team. Initially, due to cultural dogma the men had been hesitant to let women join these teams, but a moral argument came from the women’s group that preparedness plan was important for the safety of their own families and communities during disasters. Once a group of “disaster preparedness team of women” is formed, they themselves had been involved in organizing disaster preparedness and response training to other people in different areas (Medury 2008).
There is another justification of community-based approach for post-disaster reconstruction. Johnson and Olshansky (2016) found that after the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, it forced Indonesia to introduce a community-driven approach for reconstruction purposes, which is called Community-Based Settlement Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Project. At the beginning, due to the largescale of its impact on the country, some opposed the idea of community-based approach. Although it was adopted as an experimental project, it became a highly successful strategy for reconstruction in Indonesian disasters over the past decade (Johnson and Olshansky 2016).
Coordination and Collaboration in Disaster Management
Immediately after a disaster, the most persistent challenge in disaster response is that no one is in charge of dealing with it. For example, in the immediate aftermath of the Gujarat earthquake in 2001, there was a desperate need for coordination and collaboration to ensure speedy relief distribution among the affected people. Upon the request of the government of Gujarat, large-scale relief commodities and supplies reached the point for distribution, but it was observed that there were lapses in the coordination between government institutions and national and international NGOs (Moore et al. 2007). Hence, strong and inclusive coordination and collaboration in disaster management among different stakeholders at the local level should become an important agenda in the disaster management framework and convention.
On the other hand, technological advancement in early warning systems facilitate and support agencies involved incoordination in the disaster preparedness process for the State of Hawaii (Prizzia 2008). For effective disaster preparedness, it requires a proper understanding and knowledge of various categories of disasters, and its policy of how to connect involved agencies as regards coordination and collaboration. It is already argued that there is a need for continuous training in disaster management that supports coordination and collaboration at the local levels (Prizzia 2008). More to an empirical case, a major challenge emerged after Nepal’s earthquake of 2015 that effective disaster management efforts require proper data collection, and its effective utilization for sound planning, monitoring, evaluation, and feedback. It is quite interesting to note that Habitat for Humanity Nepal (HFHN) have recently initiated mobile and web GIS system to the disaster-prone areas for helping out to the affected communities during the recovery and rehabilitation stages.
Technologically developed early warning systems and remote sensing have contributed significantly to the course of disaster management in reducing casualties and destruction of properties and also helped with the appropriate decision-making of the disaster management authorities. In an empirical study conducted by the Commission of the African Union in 2008, it has been reported that sub-Saharan Africa has the highest mortality rate due to droughts compared to any other regions in the world (van Aalst et al. 2013). Van Aalst et al. (2013) also point out that the 2011 famine crisis in Africa exemplifies how existing early warning systems failed to avert famine. Millions in sub-Saharan African countries, mostly in Somalia, suffered from hunger, and hundreds of thousands died.
However, classical organizational theorists have always argued for a supportive structure and functions in order to bring solutions of many of the coordination complexities. Famous organization theorist Luther Gulick explains,
Wherever many men are thus working together the best results are secured when there is a division of work among these men. The theory of organization, therefore, has to do with the structure of coordination imposed upon the work-division units of an enterprise. (Gulick 1937, cited by Prizzia 2008, p. 81)
The above observation was seen in the case of Hurricane Katrina, which still remains the deadliest natural disaster in the history of the United Sates. Data shows that Hurricane Katrina caused almost 1,200 deaths in states including Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Apart from that the storm caused hundreds of thousands of people to be reported homeless or displaced, and tens of billions of dollars of worth in economic losses. This unprecedented failure of response to disasters forced the government and various organizations to form several inquiries committees, and a session on special hearing was organized by the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. One of the most important findings was explained as “Political Appointments, Bureau Chiefs and Federal Management Performance,” it says that before and after the storm government executives performed better in handling emergency management than the politically appointed heads of agencies (Prizzia 2008).
A success story is the case of Sichuan Province in China. In 2008 after a magnitude 7.9 earthquake caused the death of 69,226 people. As an immediate response, China’s Premier Wen Jiabao, introduced the Post-Earthquake Reconstruction Planning Group (Johnson and Olshansky 2016). The mission of the formed group was to maintain a quick recovery for the affected people and their livelihood. Within2years of the incident, all housing repair was successfully completed. Two million new units of rural housing, 290,000 units of new urban housing were constructed (Johnson and Olshansky 2016). This success was only possible because the central government made recovery apriority on the national agenda, and officials were held accountable for their actions in regard to reconstruction plans.
Apart from contributing relief and assistance to disasters, the international community can do very little for saving lives, if they are not familiar with the affected local areas, or are notable to comprehend the actual needs of the affected people or the uninformed local culture. However, financial support from the international community is definitely important for reconstruction, medical assistance for primary aid, and in the recovery stages necessary commodities such as food and water. But it is important to make a note that the assistance received from the international community has to be coordinated with local offices and their efforts. The approach of working collaboratively has to be coordinated and maintained with the hierarchy of authorities; otherwise, disaster management efforts may suffer. Another example of complexity of coordination problem has been found in the case of the December 2004 tsunami. There was, however, a great deal of anomalies during the relief and rehabilitation phase due to the lack of coordination after the Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2004 (Pinkowski 2008b).
Local Demographic Characteristics
According to the United Nations (UN), a large number of the population live below the poverty line (US$1/person/day) (Murray et al. 2012). Poverty increases the risks of proneness to disasters. It is proven that poverty increases vulnerabilities in coping with a natural disaster in diverse ways. For example, poverty-stricken people must live in poor housing conditions with inadequate resources to effectively respond to a disaster. The poor do not have adequate resources for the construction of quality housing, therefore they are more likely to experience destruction of their homes. In many instances in the coastal areas, poor people are not able to protect their home, which increases the likelihood of loss of life, injury, or destruction.
It is also plain to see that vulnerability usually occurs when there is tremendous pressure to accommodate an increased population, and land is unduly sacrificed for their accommodation. It is observed that “flood plains and unstable hillsides become sites for housing, often informal and low-quality housing, because there is no other land available at reasonable cost, sufficiently close to employment opportunities” (Misomali and McEntire 2008, p. 28). For example, on June11, 2007 heavy rainfall during the monsoon period caused huge mudslides in the second largest city in Bangladesh, Chittagong, which killed 128 people (Rubel and Ahmed 2013) and injured thousands. However, environmental experts blamed the government of Bangladesh for its failure in taking any stern action against those who cut into the hill illegally.
Furthermore, a special feature of demographics, such as growing population and rapid urbanization, is that it increases vulnerabilities of these groups to disasters. More to the point, when people reside in densely populated areas, there is a higher possibility of catastrophic consequences from natural or man-made disasters. It is plain to see in the event of September 11, 2001 wherealmost3,000 people were killed after a hijacked airplane (Bell 2018) struck the South and North Twin Towers in New York City.
Strong Disaster Management Agencies
Australia has developed disaster risk management by employing different strategies that include campaigning for disaster risks awareness, improving warning systems and its awareness, disaster information sharing between government and the citizens, developing integrated long-term disaster plans, and sufficient budgetary allocation for disaster risk management (Murray et al. 2012). It is worth mentioning that a weak emergency management institution at the local level hampers the disaster management process. For example, Hurricane Katrina in the United States provides glaring empirical evidence of how a weak local government institution might be ineffective in handling emergency preparedness plans. For instance, the city of New Orleans government had evacuation routes and maps for the affected people, but it became clear immediately after the storm that the plan did not work well (Misomali and McEntire 2008). Both the print and electronic media supplied images of affected people waiting in their own buildings to be evacuated, although there were a lot of buses parked in the school. People expressed dissatisfaction over the services of the buses, because these buses did not arrive before the storm, thus, they were not able to avail the opportunity of evacuation plan. It is plain to see that local officials failed to synchronize the evacuation plan, and also failed to provide early messages to the affected people on when and how they could take bus services and support (Misomali and McEntire 2008). This situation indicates the failure of New Orleans government for a safe evacuation before the storm. In essence, a country may have a good written strategic preparedness plan, but it will not bring about any success stories in emergency operations, because it does not have much time and effort put into it in advance to ensure the emergency evacuation plan works.
Conclusion and Lessons Learned
The worst consequences of a natural disaster occurs in a social context where vulnerabilities and lack of resources challenge disaster preparedness and disaster mitigation. Hence, it is very important to properly understand the complexity of actors and factors involved in planning and implementing disaster management. It requires an organized efforts and sharing information and knowledge at different levels on disaster management strategies that will help for the future disaster management practices. In conclusion, strategies for preventing loss of life, injuries, and destruction of property resulting from the natural disasters requires participation of the local community at all levels. This will create a disaster-resilient society, but they must fully understand the disaster preparedness plan, and apply it in their own disaster-prone areas. Community and other stakeholders involved in emergency management should mobilize their efforts and spend time at the local affected areas in order to help any response efforts in the process of disaster management. However, keeping the lessons of the past disasters in mind, all countries in the world should develop better response and recovery strategies for future plan of actions.
References
Bell, C. 2018. “The People Who Think 9/11 may Have Been an ‘Inside Job’.” British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Trending, 1 February, 2018. https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-42195513
Cagliuso, N. V., Sr, E. J. Lazar, A. N. Lazar, and L. J. Berger. 2008. “Hospital Emergency Preparedness.” In Disaster Management Handbook, ed. J. Pinkowski, Chapter 18, pp. 370–83. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group. Public Administration and Public Policy/138 (A Comprehensive Publication Program).
Chan, M.2015. “U.N. Study: Natural Disasters Caused 600,000 Deaths Over 20 Years.” Time Newsletters, November 23, 2015. http://time.com/4124755/natural-disasters-death-united-nations
CRED (Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters). 2007. “Annual Disaster Statistical Review: The Numbers and Trends.” [Online] http://www.preventionweb.net/files/1080_Annual20Disaster20Statistical20Review202006.pdf
CRED (Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters). 2016. “Poverty & Death: Disaster and Mortality 1996-2015.” UN office for Disaster Risk Reduction, 12 October 2016. https://reliefweb.int/report/world/poverty-death-disaster-and-mortality-1996-2015
Cutter, S. L., and M. Gall. 2006. “Hurricane Katrina: A Failure of Planning or a Planned Failure?” In Naturrisiken und Sozialkatastrophen, eds. C. Felgentreff and T. Glade, Chapter 27, pp. 1–20. Columbia, SC: Hazards Research Lab, Department of Geography, University of South Carolina.
Hendriks, E., Ir., M. Basso, D. Sposini, L. Ewijk, and H. Jurkowska. n.d. Self-built Housing as an Alternative for Post-disaster Recovery. Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands. https://www.ethz.ch/content/dam/ethz/special-interest/conference-websites-dam/no-cost-housing-dam/documents/Hendriks_Paper.pdf
IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). 2000. “Presentation of Robert Watson, Chair, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, at the Sixth Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.” The Hague, November 13, 2000.
Jenkins, S. 2015. “Resilience: The New Paradigm in Disaster Management—An Australian Perspective.” World Journal of Engineering and Technology 3, no. 3, pp. 129–39.
Johnson, L.A., and R. B. Olshansky. 2016. After Great Disasters: How Six Countries Managed Community Recovery. Cambridge, MA: Policy Focus Report, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, pp. 1–76.
Medury, U.2008. “Toward Disaster Resilient Communities: A New Approach for South Asia and Africa.” In Disaster Management Handbook, ed. J. Pinkowski, Chapter 16, (pp. 338–53). Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group. Public Administration and Public Policy/138 (A Comprehensive Publication Program).
Misomali, R., and D. McEntire.2008. “Rising Disasters and Their Reversal: An Identification of Vulnerability and Ways to Reduce It.” In Disaster Management Handbook, ed. J. Pinkowski, Chapter 2, pp. 20–34. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group. Public Administration and Public Policy/138 (A Comprehensive Publication Program).
Moeller, B.J. 2008. “National Incident Management System: Bringing Order to Chaos.” In Disaster Management Handbook, ed. J. Pinkowski, Chapter 17, pp. 358–67. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group. Public Administration and Public Policy/138 (A Comprehensive Publication Program).
Moore, M., H. R. Trujillo, B. K. Stearns, R. Basurtodavila, and D. Evans. 2007. “Models of Relief Learning from Exemplary Practices in International Disaster Management.” Prepared for RAND Center for Domestic and International Health Security WR-514, pp. 1–262.
Murray, V., G. McBean, M. Bhatt, S. Borsch, T. S. Cheong, W. F. Erian, S. Llosa, et al. 2012. “Case studies. In: Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation.” In A Special Report of Working Groups I and II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), eds. C. B. Field, V. Barros, T.F. Stocker, D. Qin, D. J. Dokken, K. L. Ebi, M. D. Mastrandrea, et al., pp. 487–542. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Pinkowski, J. 2008a. Disaster Management Handbook. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group. Public Administration and Public Policy/138 (A Comprehensive Publication Program).
Pinkowski, J. 2008b. “Coastal Development and Disaster Preparedness: The Delusion of Preparedness in Face of Overwhelming Forces.” In Disaster Management Handbook, ed. J. Pinkowski, pp. 4–15. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group. Public Administration and Public Policy/138 (A Comprehensive Publication Program).
Powers, R.2008. “Issues in Hospital Preparedness.” In Disaster Management Handbook, ed. J. Pinkowski, Chapter 30, pp. 562–69. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group. Public Administration and Public Policy/138 (A Comprehensive Publication Program).
Prizzia, R. 2008. “The Role of Coordination in Disaster Management.” In Disaster Management Handbook, ed. J. Pinkowski, Chapter 5, pp. 76–96. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group. Public Administration and Public Policy/138 (A Comprehensive Publication Program).
Quyyum, M. A. 2015. “Managing Disasters Scientifically.” The Daily Star (An English Daily Newspaper), March 31, 2015. https://www.thedailystar.net/op-ed/managing-disasters-scientifically-74645
Rubel, Y. A., and B. Ahmed. 2013. “Understanding the Issues Involved in Urban Landslide Vulnerability in Chittagong Metropolitan Area, Bangladesh.” http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1418959/1/Final%20Report_Yiaser_Bayes_Bangladesh.pdf
Sonny, J. 1999. “Fundamentals of Disaster Risk Management: How are Southeast Asian Countries Addressing this?” In Risk, Development and Disasters: Southern Perspectives, University of Cape Town, Department of Environment and Geographical Sciences.
Van Aalst, M., J. Kellett, F. Pichon, and T. Mitchell. 2013. “Incentives in Disaster Risk Management and Humanitarian Response.” Background Note for World Development Report 2014, Red Cross Climate Center and Overseas Development Institute, pp. 1–20.
Withanaarachchi, J., and S. Setunge. 2014. “Influence of Decision Making During Disasters and How It Impacts a Community.” In 10th International Conference of the International Institute for Infrastructure Resilience and Reconstruction (I3R2), 20–22 May, 2014, pp. 176–88. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University.