Session 20 1

Comparative Emergency Management

Session 20 Slide Deck

Session 20 2

Session Objectives

1. Discuss Emergency Response from a Global Perspective

2. Describe the Life-Saving Response Functions

3. Describe the Life-Sustaining Response Functions

Session 20 3

Response

Decisions and actions aimed at limiting injuries, loss of life, and damage to property and the environment from a specific, defined

hazard

Session 20 4

Response Actions

• Relative to the disaster, response actions nay be taken:– Prior to

– During

– Immediately following

• Response begins as soon as it becomes apparent that a hazard event is imminent, and lasts until the emergency is declared to be over

Session 20 5

Response Characteristics

Response is typically performed:

• During periods of very high stress

• In a highly time-constrained environment

• With limited and imperfect information

Session 20 6

Response Phases

• Pre-Hazard

• The emergency phase: hazard effects ongoing

• The emergency phase: hazard effects have ceased

Session 20 7

Pre-Disaster Response Processes

• Warning and evacuation

• Pre-positioning of resources and supplies

• Last-minute mitigation and preparedness measures

Session 20 8

Hazard Recognition Shortfalls• The scope of the unfolding event is underestimated in light of

early impacts

• The hazard’s initial effects are unrecognizable or undetectable

• The hazard’s initial effects are kept hidden from response officials

• Disruptions of, inefficiencies in, or a lack of communications infrastructure prevents the affected from reporting an emergency in progress

• Response officials are fully engaged in response to another hazard and are unable to receive information about a new, secondary hazard

Session 20 9

Life Saving Functions

• Search and Rescue (SAR)

• First Aid Medical Treatment

• Evacuation

Session 20 10

Search and Rescue (SAR)

• SAR Actions:– Locating victims

– Extracting (rescuing) victims

– Providing initial medical first-aid treatment

• The majority of search and rescue is performed in the initial minutes and hours of a disaster by untrained, average citizens, who include victims’ friends, family members, and neighbors

Session 20 11

SAR Tasks: All Team Types

• Search collapsed buildings for victims, and rescue them

• Locate and rescue victims buried in earth, snow, and other debris

• Rescue victims from swiftly moving or high water

• Locate and rescue victims from damaged or collapsed mines

• Locate and rescue victims lost in wilderness areas

• Provide emergency medical care to trapped victims

• Provide dogs trained to locate victims by sound or smell

• Assess and control gas, electric service, and hazardous materials

• Evaluate and stabilize damaged structures

Session 20 12

First Aid Medical Treatment

• Victims may outnumber responding technicians

• Supplies may be short or depleted• Transportation of victims may be delayed,

obstructed, or simply impossible• There may be no adequate facilities

available to bring victims for longer-term care

Session 20 13

Triage

• Ranks victims according to the seriousness of their injuries, ensuring that the highest priority cases are transported to medical facilities before less serious ones

• Two systems (primarily):– START– Advanced Triage

Session 20 14

Evacuation

• Moves populations away from the hazard

• Decisions cannot be taken lightly

• Requires established statutory authority and evacuation capacity

• Most effective when limited just to the risk area

• Must be sanctioned and facilitated

Session 20 15

Life Sustaining and EM Functions

• Assessment• Treating the Hazard• Provision of Water, Food, and Shelter• Public Health• Sanitation• Safety and Security• Critical Infrastructure Resumption• Emergency Social Services• Donations Management

Session 20 16

Assessment

• Tells Responders:– What is happening– Where it is happening– What is needed– What is required to address those needs– What resources are available

Session 20 17

Assessments Continued

• Assessment Types– Situation Assessment– Needs Assessment

• Reports– Flash reports – Initial assessment report– Interim report – Specialist/technical report – Final report

Session 20 18

Treating the Hazard

• Three types of hazard effects:– Effects that are over before any response

activities may be initiated to treat them– Effects that persist, but for which no response

actions exist that can limit or eliminate them– Effects that persist that may be limited or

eliminated completely through existing response actions

Session 20 19

Water Provision• Used for:

– Hydration– Hygiene – Food preparation

• Met by:– Transporting to victims (in mass storage devices or bottles)– Tapping unexploited water sources within the community– Providing access to a functioning but restricted water source

within the community– Pumping water into the community– Providing filters or other treatments– Moving the population to another location where water is

available

Session 20 20

Food Provision• Must suit the affected population• Distribution:

– Wet– Dry

• Concerns– Nutritional Assessments– Cleanliness– Points of Distribution– Storage– Vermin– Others

Session 20 21

Shelter

• Protects from:– Natural elements– Insecurity– Damage to psychological well-being

• Immediate Shelter

• Long-Term Shelter

Session 20 22

Public Health

• Facilities that normally manage health issues may be full, overtaxed, damaged, or nonexistent

• Measures:– Crude Mortality Rate

– Morbidity Rates

– Prevalence

– Incidence

– Attack rate

Session 20 23

Public Health Response Tasks

• Rapid Assessment of Health

• Disease Prevention

• Disease Surveillance

• Outbreak Control

• Disease Management

Session 20 24

Sanitation

• Primary Sanitation Issues:– Collection and disposal of human waste. – Wastewater– Garbage (trash)– Dust– Vector control (bugs, rodents, etc.)

Session 20 25

Fatality Management• Factors that contribute to human mortality in

disasters:– Direct injuries from the hazard

– Indirect injuries resulting from the aftereffects of the hazard event

– Unrelated accidents and natural causes of death

• Actions:– Search and recovery of corpses

– Transportation of the bodies to a centralized facility

– Examination and identification of the body

– Final disposal of the body

Session 20 26

Safety and Security• Police/fire officials affected by disaster and may

be victims• Police/fire officials overtaxed• Common disaster security concerns:

– Looting – Assaults on victims – Assaults on response and recovery officials – Security within shelters and resettlement camps– Rapes– Robberies– Domestic violence

Session 20 27

Critical Infrastructure Resumption• Infrastructure = basic facilities, services, and installations

required for the functioning of a community or a society

• Critical infrastructure – vital to disaster response and the safety and security of the public

• Examples of Critical Infrastructure:– Transportation systems (land, sea, and air)

– Communications

– Electricity

– Gas and oil storage and transportation

– Water supply systems

– Emergency services

– Public health

Session 20 28

Emergency Social Services

• Psychological stresses of:– Victims– Responders

• Common names:– Disaster Counseling– Psychosocial Services– Disaster mental health

Session 20 29

Donations Management• Without an effective mechanism to accept, catalogue,

inventory, store, and distribute those donations, however, their presence can actually create what is commonly called “the second disaster.”

• Cash is best• Goods:

– Address the actual needs of the affected population

– Be appropriate for the cultural setting into which they are donated

– Be in good condition

– Be able to clear customs