Disaster Management Essay
When thinking about how to write a Disaster Management Essay, it’s important to consider the three steps involved: Preparedness, Response, and Recovery. If you’re unsure about what eac of these steps is, you can start by looking at the causes of natural disasters. In this essay, we’ll look at Preparedness and Response and what they mean for the future of our communities. We’ll also discuss how each of these steps can help communities better cope with natural disasters.
Natural disasters
Disasters are a significant threat to human society. These events can be caused by a variety of natural and man-made hazards, and can lead to significant disruptions of human activities. Many of these calamities cause significant property damage, destruction of environment, and loss of land, possessions, and lives. Disaster management refers to the process of organizing resources to lessen the effects of disasters and to deal with the aftermath. This cycle is commonly divided into four phases: mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery.
The number of lives and property lost due to a disaster depends on the region. Disasters are common in rich and developing countries alike, but their magnitude differs significantly. Poorer countries suffer greater property loss and lives than those in richer countries. Developing countries have higher destructive vulnerability, and their populations are generally more vulnerable to such disasters. However, they must also bear in mind that they have less capacity to manage natural disasters.
Despite these differences, natural hazards are common throughout the world, including conflict areas. Conflict-affected areas are vulnerable to disasters that affect entire regions. Likewise, in areas with weak state structures, disasters can be exacerbated by conflict. For example, the Somali government controls only a few blocks of the capital city. Hence, the country’s response to floods and droughts is limited. Further, natural disasters can occur in areas where the government is weak or inefficient.
States have a major role to play in funding natural disasters. They must be prepared to step in when local governments are unable to do so. These resources can include personnel and resources to respond to disasters, but also financial assistance. If the disaster is significant enough, states can request a presidential declaration, which makes federal funds available for state efforts. The federal government will then provide these funds to the state. This process is called disaster recovery funding.
Preparedness
There are different levels of preparedness, from the individual level to community-wide. Individual preparedness requires that an individual be ready to face any disaster, while community-wide preparedness involves working together to meet common goals and prepare for a common future. For example, a community could develop an early warning system for disasters and stockpile supplies to combat them. The federal government could also support interdisciplinary teams of experts to help communities prepare for emergencies. These teams might include experts from different fields, including geologists, structural engineers, city administrators, and communications specialists. Such teams would tailor their expertise to the needs of a community and provide training to respond to disasters. They might also promote cooperation between communities, including building a multijurisdictional team.
Physicians perceived themselves as more prepared than nurses in a study of emergency management during Hazm Storm Support 1436/2015. In addition, physicians tended to be more prepared to deal with disasters in their specialty. A study by Rassin et al. found that physicians perceived themselves as having more knowledge about chemical and biological disasters than nurses. Physicians in Jordan also had more extensive training opportunities, including participation in disaster drills and continuing education programmes.
In general, a disaster is a sudden, unforeseen event that disrupts a community. It results in significant physical and environmental changes. The human population suffers significant loss. In addition to economic and social damage, disasters disrupt the ability of the affected community to utilize available resources. Approximately ninety-five percent of all deaths during a disaster occur in developing nations. Hence, individuals and communities must take an active role in disaster preparedness to minimize the impact and maximize recovery.
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Response
In the United States, response to disasters falls into three phases: the pre and short-term phases. During the pre-phase, agencies focus on hazard mitigation and emergency preparation, and during the short-term phase, they help victims with medical needs, temporary shelter arrangements, and critical infrastructure restoration. The military is often involved in disaster response, and in the 90-day-after-disaster phase, agencies pivot toward recovery efforts, working with state and local governments to clear debris and reconstruct basic infrastructure. The government acts as an insurer of last resort.
The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction notes that natural disasters cause more than $US 1.3 trillion in damage, affect over 1.5 billion people, and result in about 700,000 deaths over the past decade. Natural disasters have a particular impact on poor, vulnerable, and marginalized communities, and local health departments often are at the forefront of the response. They are well-placed to address both immediate trauma and long-term health effects, which is why they are often the first responders. As a result, they can offer valuable insights into effective disaster response.
The United States is facing an unprecedented number of climate-related disasters, and the government is taking action to address these challenges. Disaster response efforts must maximize available resources and maximize existing skills and knowledge. The development of parallel warning systems in communities has saved lives and minimized damage and suffering, and has also led to improved use of humanitarian assets and the mitigation of more severe disasters. With more people living in urban areas, the risk of disasters increases exponentially.
During recent years, FEMA has taken action in reorganizing its National Preparedness Directorate. This office was responsible for conducting natural disaster damage and needs assessment. Various related actions are underway, including developing rapid field assessments teams, developing automated software, and exploring the use of aerial vehicles. The federal government should use its authority under the Stafford Act to aggressively respond to major disasters. Further, it should advise state and local governments on the available federal resources to aid victims in their recovery efforts.
Recovery
Representations of disasters play a significant role in shaping long-term outcomes for populations affected by disasters. Many of the ideas crafted around events and people can be exclusionary. In this literature review, we examine the representations of disasters to understand how they shape and influence social groups and their capacities for recovery. We consider the influence of social division on recovery and how we can promote creative visions for disaster recovery. The findings point to several areas of research that need further attention.
First, we must understand the concept of disaster recovery. The concept includes actions that are taken to address the effects of the disaster on physical structures and social services. Households need to restore and rebuild substantially damaged property. Businesses and government agencies must repair commercial and industrial structures. Critical facilities like hospitals, police and fire stations must be repaired or rebuilt. Other aspects of the built environment must be restored, such as transportation, electricity, and fuel. In this way, the recovery process can be more resilient and effective.
Moreover, disaster victims’ psychological conditions are typically not debilitating, and most people recover fairly quickly without psychological interventions. The greatest losses are often material resources and social networks, but these losses are not always insurmountable. Regardless of the type of disaster that struck, survivors may accumulate minor and major frustrations during the recovery process. These frustrations are particularly high for people dealing with bureaucracies. It is crucial to acknowledge that there are many unmet needs and that recovery processes must be responsive to these.
The type of assistance received by households determines how quickly they can recover. Some households are able to hire others to help them rebuild or rent their physical assets. Others have sufficient financial resources to start a new life. The level of recovery varies, and the degree of reliance on such resources may be substantial or insignificant. If these resources are lost, household recovery will be slow. Recovery may also be delayed or inequitable.
Importance
A disaster is an event that disrupts a community’s normal functions and causes economic, environmental, and material losses. These events are often caused by natural phenomena, but can also occur due to human-made circumstances, such as environmental contamination from chemical agents or bioterrorism. While no disaster is ever completely preventable, governments should take steps to minimize their effects and plan ahead for disasters. Listed below are some reasons why disaster management is crucial.
Disaster management is an interdisciplinary field of study that covers many different skills. It can be a challenging profession, but highly trained disaster managers are critical to the coordination of effective action. The goal of disaster management is to minimize the number of lives lost during a disaster. In many cases, disasters occur when the government or private sector has not planned for them. Improving disaster management can save lives. To learn more about disaster management, check out these benefits.
Disaster management includes an overall approach to emergency response. Sometimes, it focuses on a specific division or business process. For example, one form of DM planning can be geared towards ensuring employee safety protocols, while another may focus on IT components. Disasters can literally shut down a business, so proper preparation is essential. A disaster-management leader coordinates resources. These measures reduce the risk of entering the next stage of the disaster life cycle.
Disaster management can also help limit damage to critical infrastructure, such as nuclear plants. The 2011 earthquake in Japan had devastating effects, with a tsunami cutting off the power supply to the cooling systems of the Fukushima Daiichi reactors. Fortunately, disaster response efforts can be coordinated to minimize duplication and maximize efficiency by anticipating community needs and building a disaster management team. It also allows for the effective coordination of recovery efforts.