What is disaster management?

Disaster management can be defined as the organization and management of resources and responsibilities for dealing with all humanitarian aspects of emergencies, in particular preparedness, response and recovery in order to lessen the impact of disasters. Disasters whether natural or man-made can strike at any time. In general, the general response to a disaster is in terms of relief and rescue operations - after the event. However, if we are adequately prepared, its possible to severely reduce the impact of a disaster. The impact can be reduced through a good understanding of preventive actions, as well as having the knowledge of certain life-saving tools and techniques, which when used at the time of the event of disaster can control the total damage to life and belongings. The biggest problem with the disasters is the suddenness and swiftness with which they arrive. Hence, in order to reduce the severity of a disaster the response also has to equally swift.

Types of disasters
Though, all kinds of disaster require more or less similar skill-sets and rescue-efforts at least a few days after the event, it is important to understand various kinds of disasters. Depending upon the actual nature of disaster, the immediate reaction needs to be different. Also, the first few moments of disasters are distinctly different for each kind of disasters. Thus, understanding of each kind of disaster might also help in identifying the onset of a disastrous event, so that a trained person can undertake some key actions, during the initial few moments. This could have a major impact on the final outcome in terms of amount of final loss. There are mainly two types of disasters. They are: Natural These are primarily natural events. It is possible that certain human activities could maybe aid in some of these events, but, by and large, these are mostly natural events.

Man Made

Earthquakes Volcanos Floods Tornadoes, Typhoons, Cyclones

These are mostly caused due to certain human activities. The disasters themselves could be unintentional, but, are caused due to some intentional activity. Most of these (barring coordinated terrorist activities) are due to certain accidents which could have been prevented if sufficient precautionary measures were put in place.

Nuclear Leaks Chemical Leaks/Spill over Terrorist Activities Structural Collapse

Any disaster can interrupt essential services, such as the provision of health care, electricity, water, sewage/garbage removal, transportation and communications. The interruption can seriously affect the health, social and economic networks of local communities and countries. Disasters have a major and long-lasting impact on people long after the immediate effect has been mitigated. Poorly planned relief activities can have a significant negative impact not only on the disaster victims but also on donors and relief agencies. So it is important that physical therapists join established programmes rather than attempting individual efforts. Local, regional, national and (where necessary) international organisations are all involved in mounting a humanitarian response to disasters. Each will have a prepared disaster management plan. These plans cover prevention, preparedness, relief and recovery (see below).

Disaster prevention
These are activities designed to provide permanent protection from disasters. Not all disasters, particularly natural disasters, can be prevented, but the risk of loss of life and injury can be mitigated with good evacuation plans, environmental planning and design standards. In January 2005, 168 Governments adopted a 10-year global plan for natural disaster risk reduction called the Hyogo Framework. It offers guiding principles, priorities for action, and practical means for achieving disaster resilience for vulnerable communities.

Disaster preparedness
The main characteristics of a major disaster are that irrespective of the origin, after a little while the scene is the same:

total chaos all around lack of utilities which we have always taken for granted no relief and rescue teams for several days lack of medical facilities

Thus, the sufferings are not just due to the disaster, but, post-disaster, many more people die and suffer because of: 1. 2. 3. lack of food, shelter lack of medical attention hygiene issues causing health hazards

The nature of disaster might only change the sequence of events thats all. Hence, it is important to have the following precautions/preparations done if your neighbourhood is prone to any of the disasters. While preparing, remember, after a major disaster it might be at least 3 to 5 days, before the first signs of relief is visible. All your preparations should be done with this in mind. Its not just important to survive the immediate disaster, but, you need to be able to sustain yourself for next several days all on your own maybe, without any utilities etc. First and foremost, remember, after a disaster, you might not have stores open. Everything might be closed down. Hence, its important that you have all the life-saving material with you well in advance. These activities are designed to minimise loss of life and damage for example by removing people and property from a threatened location and by facilitating timely and effective rescue, relief and rehabilitation. Preparedness is the main way of reducing the impact of disasters. Community-based preparedness and management should be a high priority in physical therapy practice management.

Disaster relief
This is a coordinated multi-agency response to reduce the impact of a disaster and its long-term results. Relief activities include rescue, relocation, providing food and water, preventing disease and disability, repairing vital services such as telecommunications and transport, providing temporary shelter and emergency health care.

Disaster recovery
Once emergency needs have been met and the initial crisis is over, the people affected and the communities that support them are still vulnerable. Recovery activities include rebuilding infrastructure, health care and rehabilitation. These should blend with development activities, such as building human resources for health and developing policies and practices to avoid similar situations in future. Disaster management is linked with sustainable development, particularly in relation to vulnerable people such as those with disabilities, elderly people, children and other marginalised groups. Myths and Realities of Disaster Assistance2 summarises some of the common misunderstandings about disaster management.