Comprehensive Disaster Management Plan: Critical Analysis, Stakeholders, Logistics, Considerations, Shortcomings, And Challenges

Critical Analysis

Disasters and tragedies can happen without warning and at whatever time or season or even place. When they do, we need to be ready for emergency actions that will prevent loss of lives or destruction of property. The success of a response plan depends on the readiness and organisation to be able to provide a rapid response and most importantly on time. Thompson and Frazier (2014) explain that it’s impossible to mitigate on all the possible risks, but with proper planning it is possible to cover the largest area possible, mitigate on the risks that are there and do the most within a short time. According to Milman and Warmer (2016) the success of helping the public to adapt to climate risks, will always depend on how previously, these events have been handled and how the public responds to such. In this case the emergency is a hurricane set to be on the land by 8p.m in the evening. Being that it’s a festive season, this means that a large percentage of people are on the beach, the response approach has to be different.

Stakeholders

The first stakeholder in such a scenario would be the media. The first move on such a short notice would be to pass or spread the information as first as possible. This can be done through radio, television or even the internet. Ford and King (2015) discuss that since there has been a lot of research and focus on climate change, then the media play an important role in portraying climate in the news. On the other hand they discuss that there is very limited research on the way the media discusses the adaptation. Still the media would play a very important role in conveying the news to the public. It would also be important to involve the local authorities in the area such as the police, groups of people who are volunteering to help, the non-governmental organisations, financing institutions, the Red Cross, fire fighting institutions, hospitals and even the National Disaster Management (Baroudi & Rapp, 2014). Decentralising the plan to implement a “wish list” of the plan goes a long way to help in plans which would not be feasible under normal circumstances (Simpson, 2014).  How quickly these stakeholders can spring into action when called upon is ultimately important and can help to reduce the risk of harm posed by the disaster.

The logistics in this case would involve dispatching personnel, food, specialised equipment to help in rescue if need be, rescue teams since there can be panic and this can cause injuries like accidents on roads and medical materials (Ozdamar, Ekinci & Kucukyazici, 2015). Developing a model of creating a safe point from the areas to be hit by the hurricane would also be necessary (Wu, Lindell, & Prater, 2015). Personnel would be required to vacate people from the beach area, others would be required in construction of emergency housing facilities and others in spreading the information since the area might be big for personnel such as the police to cover on their own. It has to be noted that a door to door briefing has to be done to ensure all people leave the area. Logistics play a very vital role amid any natural disasters otherwise a lot will go wrong. Abe (2017) says that during the recent hurricanes in the United States that is Hurricane Irma & Harvey, create extreme logistical challenges for aid and mitigation. The Department of Defence had to mobilise air, naval plus ground assets or authorities to respond to the needs of the people.

Stakeholders

There are special considerations to be made in this scenario. Being that this is a festive season and there are tourists, this means that a lot of people are maybe staying in hotels since they are visiting the place, temporary houses have to be constructed (Nigro, Morlock, Thodhoraqi, Billings, & Rigney, 2018). This is where they will be safe and also they will be provided with food and essential items during that time. According to the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (2018) during hurricanes and such disasters, relief organisations need to provide the victims with temporary housing during and also after the disasters until its safe for them to relocate back to their homes. This can be expensive since some of these structures need to accommodate the people for up to one year. Another aspect to be put on consideration is the fact that, there have been storms before at that place but not at that time of the year. It might be difficult to convince the people especially the locals because some may think it’s just a way of wanting to defraud them. There need to be special precautions to be made to avoid such. Special or unique clothes such as of the Red Cross need to be used to help in identification of the personnel involved. According to Cobb, Hung and Wu (2015), there is a need to identify the socially vulnerable population in that place. There can be people who require transport from where they are to safer grounds where there is emergency housing and response facilities. Women and children are also among this vulnerable population. There is a possibility of kids getting lost amid the confusion and panic. In their study, Cobb, et al.,(2015) found out that populations farther in the inland may be at higher or equal risk to the beach populations depending on their socioeconomic status. This is because people will move from the high risk areas and this can cause congestion which may result to outbreak of diseases. 

There can be shortcomings or challenges in the whole process, but the success depends on how organised the relevant stakeholders are, each in performing their roles. These shortcomings may include; lack of adequate training and personnel involved in the response plan. This may be because some of the personnel are voluntary and also due to short notice (Holguín-Veras, Pérez, Ukkusuri, Wachtendorf, & Brown, 2007). Extreme devastating events create disturbances that have risks of culminating to chaos. Now delivering any assistance or response in such conditions may be next to impossible. For example a scenario where people are struggling to get into transport vehicles while being vacated from a place. There also can be challenges in humanitarian logistics, whereby supply of critical supplies and services is made impossible. This may include supply of food, first aid and even medicine. There may be lack of or poor transport maybe due to a lot of traffic, or closed roads because of fallen trees and even bad weather. Apte (2016) describes humanitarian logistics as the most important of a response plan. This is because after getting the people out of the danger zones, you need to take care of them until it’s safe to go back. Otherwise they are likely to lack essential items necessary for their survival.

Logistics

The whole process of the disaster management plan may be impacted by several conditions and or even challenges experienced. The first and major factor would be, response of the public to the information. Such news can cause a lot of panic that may lead to interference of the whole process. (Holguín-Veras, Pérez, Ukkusuri, Wachtendorf, & Brown, 2007). It’s important for the public to maintain calm and follow instructions when asked to. Inadequate training of volunteers can also be a great challenge. There are situations that may require special or professional expertise such as administering first aid. When this is not available or is not provided at the right time it can cause harm. Another factor includes logistics which includes transporting people to safer grounds, transport of essential equipment to them and transport of personnel. Also there may be too many people to be transported from place to place. This too may be affected by,

The winds are going to be so strong and can cause falling of trees on roads which may fully block passage from place to place. There cannot be use of air because of the strong winds which will be experienced. This means the only form of transport available and that is safe is by road. This also brings up the issues animal welfare. There are some people who own animals like cats and dogs or even other livestock and may want to leave with them. This may cause them to walk all the way since there may be no good form of transport for them. This can slow down the whole process. It’s good to find a way to carter for such individuals who may not want to lose their property.         

The likely outcomes depend on the level of preparedness of each of the stakeholders at their roles in the response plan. It is certain that the hurricane will destroy a lot of property but the aim of the plan is not majorly on the materials but to save lives of the citizens. It’s next to impossible to ascertain that there will be no casualties during the disaster because some people may endanger themselves in their own. There will be need for social, psychological help for the victims after the disaster since some will have lost their loved ones and definitely all of them their property. Hamama-Raz, Palgi,  Shrira, Goodwin, Kaniasty, & Ben-Ezram (2015) confirm that when a disaster occurs, there can be an outburst of many cases of mental health vulnerabilities such as; some people may experience acute stress disorders, others posttraumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression.

Since the aim of the whole process is to save lives, then the first would be the number of casualties and even deaths. If everyone in the place survives and no one dies, then it would be right to say the plan was perfect. Still there will be casualties that may need attention meaning the effectiveness of the plan goes a long way even after the hurricane. Like social help needed by the victims of the disaster. Property will be destroyed since some like buildings cannot be moved. Thus the strategy for evaluating the effectiveness of such a plan would be to look at the death toll and number of casualties.

The first recommendation would be for extensive disaster research to be done, on before during and after a disaster. The government has an obligation to set aside funds for disasters such as hurricanes in areas where they are likely to happen. The weather and meteorological department play a big role in ensuring that there is enough information on such disasters. The people’s interpretation of threat information is very important. This means that the public is able to take care of themselves to some level when they are informed of a coming danger All the people whether both in the places of higher risk and those of safe zones need to be well informed so that during such disasters they can help each other.

References

Abe Eshkenazi. (2017). In the Wake of Natural Disasters, Logistics Proves Paramount. ApicsInsight into current events. Retrieved 20^th Sep 2018 from https://www.apics.org/sites/apics-blog/think-supply-chain-landing-page/thinking-supply-chain/2017/09/15/in-the-wake-of-natural-disasters-logistics-proves-paramount

Milman, A., & Warner, B. P. (2016). The interfaces of public and private adaptation: Lessons from flooding in the Deerfield River Watershed. Global Environmental Change, 36, 46-55.doi:10.1016/j.gloevcha.2015.11.

Apte, A. (2010). Humanitarian logistics: A new field of research and action. Foundations and trends® in technology, information and operations management, 3(1), 1-100.doi/10.1561/0200000014

Baroudi, B., & R. Rapp, R. (2014). Stakeholder management in disaster restoration projects. International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment, 5(2), 182-193.doi/10.1108/IJDRBE-07-2012-0021

Cobb, D. J., Hung, M. C., & Wu, Y. H. (2015). Identifying Socially Vulnerable Population to Storm Surge Flooding Based on Local Planning Needs: A Case Study of Lee County, Florida. International Journal of Geoinformatics, 11(1).

Thompson, C. M., & Frazier, T. G. (2014). Deterministic and probabilistic flood modeling for contemporary and future coastal and inland precipitation inundation. Applied Geography, 50, 1-14. doi:10.1016/j.apgeog.2014.01.013

Nigro, J. T., Morlock, M. J., Thodhoraqi, N., Billings, R., & Rigney, R. J. (2018). Collapsible Temporary Housing Design and Optimization.

Ford, J. D., & King, D. (2015). Coverage and framing of climate change adaptation in the media: A review of influential North American newspapers during 1993–2013. Environmental Science & Policy, 48, 137-146. doi:10.1016/j.envsi.2014.12.003

Holguín-Veras, J., Pérez, N., Ukkusuri, S., Wachtendorf, T., & Brown, B. (2007). Emergency logistics issues affecting the response to Katrina: a synthesis and preliminary suggestions for improvement. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, (2022), 76-82. doi:10.3141/2022-09

Ozdamar, L., Ekinci,E., Kucukyazici, B. (2004). Emergency logistics planning in natural disasters. Annals of Operations Research 129, 217–245. doi:10.1023/B:ANOR.0000030690.27939.39

Simpson, E. (2014), The Political Biography of an Earthquake, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Wu, H. C., Lindell, M. K., & Prater, C. S. (2015). Strike probability judgments and protective action recommendations in a dynamic hurricane tracking task. Natural Hazards, 79(1), 355-380.doi.1007/s11069-015-1846-z

Hamama-Raz, Y., Palgi, Y., Shrira, A., Goodwin, R., Kaniasty, K., & Ben-Ezra, M. (2015). Gender differences in psychological reactions to Hurricane Sandy among New York metropolitan area residents. Psychiatric quarterly, 86(2), 285-296.doi.10.1007/s11126-014-9333-3

Worcester Polytechnic Institute. (2018). Semi-Collapsible Temporary Housing for Hurricane Relief and Recovery. Retrieved 20 September 2018, from https://web.wpi.edu/Pubs/E…/E…/MQP_TemporaryHousing_Report_Final-2.pdf