Emergency Preparedness.

Emergency Preparedness

Question 1

Introduction

The rate of recurrence of major as well as unpleasant incidents seems to be on the increase in recent years. The occurrences have heightened the understanding of the devastating consequences of the various incidents on human lives. The abruptness as well as the magnitude of the incidents often renders regions affected by the natural catastrophes incapable of responding efficiently towards the emergencies due to the devastation getting beyond the capacity of the region’s resources (Peters et.al, 2004).

Many regions have had to handle relentless and unpredictable incidents that have often put the general public into a state of jeopardy. Such unpredictable events cause devastating impacts that spread on to the national economies of the affected nations. The results show in the large number of people dying as a result of loss of lives. Hundreds or thousands of people die and some injured while million others are rendered homeless in some cases. A number of affected regions also suffer from infrastructure damage leading to financial losses that are difficult to bear with.

Victoria has had a long history of incidents with a number of them being extremely destructive, and has come up with a capability of dealing with such incidents. A number of organizations within the community, together with the emergency service providers, play a significant role in this. Various activities of these organizations, both charitable and permanently staffed, require coordination to evade conflict, wastage, as well as gaps (Commonwealth of Australia, 2004).

How the Emergency Service Community is preparing for Incidents

The emergency management community deals with incidents of different sizes, from small to extremely large. Particularly, they deal with incidents involving more that one organization. Emergency management entails plans, structures and arrangements set up to bring collectively the normal actions of the government, charitable as well as private organizations in an all-inclusive and synchronized way to handle the whole range of emergency requirements, including prevention, response as well as recovery.

With major incidents occurring unexpectedly, they seem complex to distinguish from lesser to major occurrences at the initial stages. And with the usual experiences and the anticipations of the parties implicated, there may seem to be a difficulty in recognizing that a rising situation requires a reaction or response of a better order. For these reasons, the management plans to deal with major incidents are much similar to plans to deal with lesser or order occurrences, and are not a different set of plans set aside for a major incidents(Becker et.al.,2010).

In Victoria, there exist no rules and regulations or declarations needed to instigate or speed up the response as well as the recovery activities. The plans are therefore deliberated to allow for the situation to be evaluated, providing for a graduated marshalling in addition to the utilization of the resources meant to deal with such incidents, under structures established under the appropriate overall plan along with the participating organizations’ own plans (Emergency Response Plan 2009).

Victoria’s emergency services are tailored to handle various hazards with most emphasis put on obvious tragedies for instance fire outbreaks, floods as well as transport accidents. A number of such incidents are handled employing the emergency management plans and resources (Commonwealth of Australia, 2004).

These comprise of emergencies that has only been little or even no experience within the state of Victoria, such as terrorist incidents, earthquakes, animal disease emergencies as well as environmental emergencies. The management of such emergencies is often a collective responsibility linking many people as well as organizations within the community. It therefore does not just involve a section of the community working for the rest of the society, though a number of organizations do have expert roles.

Along with the emergency services, the government departments also have some part to play. The emergency response duty may act as a small part of their duty. The government has the duty of making arrangements for, as well as managing the costs of a health emergency occurrence. The government does this through the Emergency Management Act. The human service department has the duty of directing all the health in addition to the medical emergency responses and in this case developing, improving and maintaining the plan (IRFC, 2010).

Municipal councils too have important roles in emergency planning. All Victorian municipalities are charged with the health protection within their respective boundaries. The environmental officers within the respective municipalities are concerned with the emergency management preparation. They therefore provide public health advice in cases of emergencies. The emergency management arrangements of the municipalities include both the public health as well as the recovery response. These are connected into local public health as well as the recovery plans (Gabriel, 2008).

The credibility as well as the reputation of various bodies towards the disasters is mainly influenced by their perceptions towards their reactions on the event of the crisis. The organization and communication involved towards the disasters in reaction to such crisis rapidly brings out the main challenge. A more open and consistent communication is employed throughout the system in order to come up with a successful crisis communication process.

Other than the Victorian State emergency plans there are also response plans at the regional levels. The Victoria state emergency plan comes up with the emergency response coordination plans in addition to setting out the roles of the chief agencies involved in the response. A number of public as well as private agencies, or some section of organizations, have key roles to play towards the response plan (Commonwealth of Australia, 2004).

Other organizations such as the municipal councils are called upon to offer support during specific events. Emergency responses are normally established on various arrangements which are applicable all the times and they operate whenever there is an emergency. Responsibilities normally lies initially at the municipal level with support coming from the regional or the state level if need be.

Incident controls are left with the control agencies which are mainly responsible for reacting to particular emergencies. Support agencies on the other hand offer services, personnel, as well as materials to assist control agencies and other affected persons. Response agencies in this case are vested with the role of controlling and supporting agencies with regards to a particular emergency. This always entails a collective responsibility where agencies and resources are brought together to enable a well-organized response towards the emergencies (Sinha, 2008).

These unpredictable events have enlightened many organizations to consider an in depth analysis of their preparedness on how to handle such events. As a result of this enlighten, many programmes have therefore been established so as to enhance the public safety in the event of such emergencies. The significant role of effective management systems is therefore increasingly acquiring recognition in the disaster emergency management.

There also exists various recovery processes in place established by the various bodies involved. These are often in place and meant to assist those who are affected by various emergencies so that they area able to acquire a proper as well as an efficient level of operating. This process involves efforts between all the levels of the government, on-government agencies, community, as well as the private sector considering various factors such as:

the recovery of essential infrastructure

environment rehabilitation

the regeneration of the affected community’s economy

the emotional, social, as well as the physical wellbeing of the affected individuals and community

During the recovery process, the governments as well as the community often have plans set in place in order to assist the affected persons and the community to recover back to a healthy, secure, and functioning environment. There is also state as well as regional recovery managing commissions. Regional recovery management comes up with agency responsibilities as well as coordinating plans that are applicable to the respective region, with detailed resource listings as well as contact details (Commonwealth of Australia, 2004).

Moreover, they depict plans for the establishment as well as support of the community recovery teams. Recovery within the Victoria state is often managed at a level that is nearest to those affected, which might or might not be situated within the municipal district. The activities are planned to start immediately following the impacts of an occurrence, and carry out at the same the time with the responsive actions.

Recovery is often managed within the municipal level and done by the council, and in most cases with the participation with the community recovery commissions which combine both government as well as non-government agencies’ works taking into account the community’s needs throughout the recovery process. The various committees are normally chaired by the council personnel. The department of human services works as the directing agent on recovery as stipulated by section 17b (1) of the Act (Eburn, 2005).

There is therefore a multi organization structure for emergency planning, which facilitate the implementation of the roles as well as the responsibilities, and the capability to acclimatize to different situations within an organized framework. Some of these are legislated whereas others have been formed through agreements.

Benefits in the preparations and delivery of service to the affected community in cases of disasters

Promoting a stern review on the past incidents’ management practices

A number of benefits have accompanied the various preparations towards the delivery of service to the affected community during disasters. This has been able to promote a stern review on the past incidents’ management practices as well as considerations of a broad range of non-structural approaches employed initially.

The change in emphasis in disaster management and preparedness programmes, from non- structural to structural procedures in a number of Victoria’s incidents of essential management has helped to improve the preparedness approach (Sinha, 2008).

It is in this perspective that emergency preparedness management provides a way to think about as well as planning structures towards emergency management. The emergency preparedness framework facilitates

a concentration on risks involving the connections between the various hazards and the communities and not only hazards

development of a number of inventive approaches towards secure programs through risk reduction by changing either the possibility of emergencies or the potential results

the involvement of a number of people as well as professions other than just the emergency services to enhance safety along with sustainability

Cost/Economic benefits

Economic benefits are also accrued as a result of disaster preparedness. For instance, the economic benefits that come from fire disaster management attempts are replicated in the economic, environmental in addition to the social damage avoided during incidents of bushfires. It is normally predictable that if the preparedness level is highly undertaken then the damage becomes lower and in this case more benefits to the society (Handmer et.al, 2008).

The gains therefore goes up as efforts increases too although at a declining rate. The management cost however increases with further management efforts but an increasing rate. The various approaches employed are also useful as they capitulate the same result towards identifying economically effective and most favorable management problems (Handmer et.al, 2008).

Risk analysis and best measures

The appropriate disaster management decisions are very crucial to analyzing the risks involved as well as working towards the best measures. These are largely improved through information integration. They bring out familiarity of both the short and long term impacts of such disasters. For instance to understand the impacts of floods and to make appropriate plans requires significant analysis of relevant data such as soil characteristics, topography, population, vegetation, settlements, transportation, socio-economic as well as the materials (Handmer et.al., 2008).

This is because this information is acquired from different sources and therefore problematic to many vulnerable regions to collect them together. They are also play a significant role in developing preliminary information in order to come up with the disaster management system. Such type of information may be categorized into various related categories depending on the short and long term requirements. These include:

Pre-disaster activities: These involves researching and analyzing in order to enhance the already available knowledge base, risk evaluation, prevention, mitigation and disaster state of readiness.

Post-disaster activities: This involves responding to the crisis after the event of a disaster, making rehabilitations as well as doing reconstruction.

All these are done through the analysis on the pre-disaster on the affected region and the risks. The same applies on the post-disaster data concerning the impacts on the affected region and the available resources to encounter such disasters. In most cases the information requirements of disaster managers go beyond those of other organizations and in this case the data may already be stored somewhere else. At the national level normally are databases for a number of roles.

The implications to the delivery of normal services

Over the recent years disaster management has changed from being exclusively the task of conservators and continuation managers to presently being a corporate apprehension; this shows a positive result. It is also interesting to observe that although there exists a number of approaches to respond to the disasters, there exists also a higher level of uniformity within the organizations as to how the various disasters are managed as well as being dealt with (Gabriel, 2008).

The various incidents at the Victoria state, both small and huge, demonstrate that they are neither unyielding nor generally predictable in their outcomes; and in most cases things are not what are expected. It is therefore of great significance that the concerned bodies in Victoria focus their efforts on the outcomes rather than the causes. There is need for the managers to be familiar that handling disasters is more of an innovative process, and that there is no exactly an accurate way. And by coming up with a clear framework awareness of concepts and principles which allow the managers to handle the unexpected are developed (Hughes et.al, 2009).

There is an urgent need to come up with mechanisms consisting of many partnering groups for instance NGOs and communities around working in the affected areas. They should always be able to move on doing the process of monitoring and coming up with detailed, up-to date and relevant information from the affected persons. This however requires a lot of resources since they need transportation to the various locations of the affected areas. The data collected from such activities can be of significant role in the future assessment of such risks.

In each of the regions affected, there is an urgent need to employ the use of the media particularly the internet in order to combine the relevant actions with the rehabilitation programs going on. The appropriate resources, funds as well as other personnel also be directed on those actions so that the needs of the affected people along with the resources from well wishers and the skills and services of other experts could be put together. This would allow for on time and appropriate aid to many communities and households that were not assisted by either the management of their respective regions or NGOS (Eburn, 2005).

The management of the affected regions should also conduct vulnerability evaluations for the sake of preparedness, planning, risk reduction and risk analysis and do the facilitation as well along with the assistance of other autonomous organizations. Conducting vulnerability evaluations will be of significant role from various aspects. This will be able to strengthen the preparedness plans. This can also help in the reduction alternatives and population resettlement strategies depending on areas of disaster vulnerability. This should be done after the relocation of new infrastructures to safer areas.

There is also an urgent need for the emergency department to enhance data base management through relevant information gathering on the victims of the disaster as well as their subsequent needs, for instance, those of figures of the survivors and missing persons. It is however a fact that the process of accounting for missing persons is often difficult task, imprecise counts will seriously affect the scale of resources directed to affected persons. The victims in this case should be involved in gathering and ascertaining the truth of the data (Commonwealth of Australia, 2004).

Relying upon the officials and other observers can affect the credibility of the resulting data. The emergency department should also come up support facilities within the respective regions of the affected regions. These would serve as an advisory back up on disaster rehabilitation giving relevant advice and training within the respective nations to enhance the arrangements between the bodies involved. It will be also of great significance if a disaster risk management program is designed and put into use in accordance to priority basis so as to come up with the capacity involving the government and the society in general to put down the risks and enhance development gains.

In all the affected regions of Victoria State there is also an urgent need to bring all the people so that are able to organize them and formulate their personal decisions on their own short and long term goals. In most cases they are supposed to work as a group so that they are able to acquire permanent housing in regions where they are able to regain their former livelihood. This could possibly be areas that are not very vulnerable to such disasters. In all the affected regions of Victoria State the approach and priorities in managing the disasters should in most cases given advance evaluation of the concerned risks (IRFC, 2010).

Thereafter the institutional and legal systems should be empowered to combat disaster risk management. Great disaster preparedness and planning and reduction actions including training and capacity building should also be strengthened. This should be applied in order to come up with a strategy with regards to the extent of vulnerability and the risk frequencies of particular regions of the affected nations. Disasters are not a common occurrence and designing a disaster risk management for disaster risk is simply not cost effective. The strategy should therefore be designed on the basis of the vulnerability assessment (Emergency Management Manual, 2003).

Conclusion

Just like any development process, the directions delineated possibly will not all bring out enhanced future safety for all communities as well as more efficient and competent multiagency planning course of action. Change at all times requires an avoidance of the common previous practice (Gabriel, 2008).

Nonetheless, if the challenges of discovery are taken up by the various emergency service providers, their experiences will be crucial in the development as well as the improvement of the future with regards to emergency preparedness. Prevention of disasters or the reduction of their harshness is an important concern in emergency management, together with response and recovery. Emergency Risk Management, a focused application of risk management, is the main tool for working towards achieving the expected objectives.

References

Emergency Response Plan

Becker, V, etal. (2010). Emergency Planning and Community Right-To-Know Act: A Status of State Actions, National Governors’ Association.

Commonwealth of Australia. (2004). Natural Disasters in Australia: Reforming Mitigation, Relief and Recovery, Retrieved on September 7 from HYPERLINK “http://www.ga.gov.au/hazards/management/preparedness.jsp”http://www.ga.gov.au/hazards/management/preparedness.jsp

Commonwealth of Australia. (2009). Victorian Bushfires -.

Eburn, M. (2005). Emergency Law: Rights, Liabilities, and Duties of Emergency Workers and Volunteers. Federation Press.

Emergency Response Plan.(2009). Victoria Emergency Management Department:

Emergency Management Manual Victoria.(2003). Emergency Risk Management and Mitigation in Victoria.

Emergency Management Manual Victoria,(2010). State and Regional Emergency Management Planning.

Gabriel, P. (2003). The Development of Municipal Emergency Management Planning in Victoria Australia. The Australian Journal of Emergency Management.18 ( 2).

Hughes, R & Mercer, D.(2009). Planning to Reduce Risk: The Wildfire Management Overlay in Victoria, Australia.

Handmer, J & Hayness ,K. (2008). Community Bushfire Safety, Csiro Publishing.

International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IRFC).( 2010).Legal Preparedness for International Disaster Response in Australia: Laws, Policies, Planning, and Practices.

Peters, E & Mc Entire, D, 2004, Emergency Management in Australia: An Innovative, Progressive, and Committed Sector.

Sinha, P.C .(2008) .Wind and Water Driven Disasters: Encyclopedia of Disaster Management Series. Anmol Publications.