Disasters and emergencies can happen anywhere, at any time (Pellegrin, 2012). A disaster is a term describing a whole range of distress situations, both individual and communal. These include fires and drowning, earthquake and tornado, epidemics and starvation, heat and cold, rats and locusts (Kumar, 2000). While the Malaysian National Security Council (MNSC) Directive 20 (2003) defines disaster as “an emergency situation of some complexity that will cause the loss of lives, damage property and the environment, and hamper local social and economic activities” (Ibrahim and Fakhru’l-Razi, 2006). Disasters have been classified into natural, and man-made disasters. Natural disasters are catastrophic events resulting from natural causes such as floods, landslides, mudslides, etc. over which man has no control. Natural disasters are often termed “Act of God”. Man-made disasters can be sudden or long term (IFRCRCS, 2003). Natural disasters Malaysia has experienced 19 natural disasters that resulted in 1,460 fatalities, and 821 injuries. (Ibrahim and Fakhru’l-Razi, 2006). Such Natural Disasters that happened in Malaysia are: • Flooding • Landslides • Mudslides • Tropical Storm • Tsunami • Epidemics Man-made disasters Besides that, Malaysia also has experienced 18 man-made disasters that resulted in 282 fatalities and 1,892 injuries. Such examples of man-made disasters are: • Technological Disasters such as fire and explosion • Transportation accidents such as Tourist Bus Accident can cause large number of casualties, hazardous materials incidents, and major disruption of vital transportation routes. • Public places failure includes the collapse of stadia, high-rise buildings and the urban fires. Urban fires occur in structures as hig... ... middle of paper ... ...uf (2007). An overview on the technological disasters. Disaster Prevention and Management, 16(3), 380 - 390. Lan, S. (2002). Disaster Management Plan. Lawal Billa, Mansor Shattri, Ahmad Rodzi Mahmud , & Abdul Halim Ghazali (2006). Comprehensive planning and the role of SDSS in flood disaster management in Malaysia.Disaster Prevention and Management, 15(2), 233 - 240. Matthews , G., & Eden, P. (1996). Disaster management training in libraries. Library Review,45(1), 30 - 38. Moe, T. L., & Pathranarakul, P. (2006). An integrated approach to natural disaster management. Disaster Prevention and Management, 15(3), 396 - 413. Pellegrin, V. (2012). Emergency preparedness training. MASS TRANSIT, 28 - 33. Rosso, A. (2012). Ten Tips for Effective Disaster Preparedness Planning. Collector, 30 - 34. Tarpey, D. (2011). Expect the unexpected. Caterer & Hotelkeeper, 32 - 35.
Both man-made and natural disasters are often devastating, resource draining and disruptive. Having a basic plan ready for these types of disaster events is key to the success of executing and implementing, as well as assessing the aftermath. There are many different ways to create an emergency operations plan (EOP) to encompass a natural and/or man-made disaster, including following the six stage planning process, collection of information, and identification of threats and hazards. The most important aspect of the US emergency management system in preparing for, mitigating, and responding to man-made and natural disasters is the creation, implementation and assessment of a community’s EOP.
Bissell, R. (2010). Catastrophic Readiness and Response Course, Session 6 – Social and Economic Issues. Accessed at http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/edu/crr.asp
Shrivastava, P. and Siomkos, G. (1989) Disaster containment strategies. Journal of Business Strategy, 10 (5); pp. 26–30;
Hazards pose risk to everyone. Our acceptance of the risks associated with hazards dictates where and how we live. As humans, we accept a certain amount of risk when choosing to live our daily lives. From time to time, a hazard becomes an emergent situation. Tornadoes in the Midwest, hurricanes along the Gulf Coast or earthquakes in California are all hazards that residents in those regions accept and live with. This paper will examine one hazard that caused a disaster requiring a response from emergency management personnel. Specifically, the hazard more closely examined here is an earthquake. With the recent twenty year anniversary covered by many media outlets, the January 17, 1994, Northridge, California earthquake to date is the most expensive earthquake in American history.
Haddow, G. D., Bullock, J. A., & Coppola, D. P. (2010).Introduction to emergency management. (4th ed., pp. 1-26). Burlington, MA: Butterworth-Heinemann.
The main definition of natural disaster is “any catastrophic event that is caused by nature or the natural processes of the earth” (Natural disasters). Natural disasters happen all around the world, it is a major event resulting from a natural process of the Earth, for example the most common are hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, tornados, and volcanic eruptions. A natural disaster can create a lot of damage, and also loss of life. These disasters typically cause economic damage, which it´s very difficult to recover from. Some of the events will not rise to the level of a natural disaster if it occurs in an area without vulnerable population, however if it occurs in a vulnerable and populated area, it is considered a natural disaster, and it can cause serious damages that can last for a lot of years.
Natural Disasters can occur anywhere at anytime. Some are more predictable than others, but they all bring hardship to everyone’s life. Examples of natural disasters are Earthquakes (Haiti 2010), Tornadoes, Tsunami, Hurricanes, Wild Fires, Winter Storms, Heat waves, Mudslides and Floods. Regardless of what kind of disaster occurs, bottom line, everyone needs to be prepared mentally and physically to deal with the aftermath. Education is the first step to prepare you to deal with any major disaster. Three of the major disasters that can potentially disrupt normal day to day operations in our lives, are Hurricanes, Tsunamis and Tornadoes.
Introduction Disaster Recovery Planning is the critical factor that can prevent headaches or nightmares experienced by an organization in times of disaster. Having a disaster recovery plan marks the difference between organizations that can successfully manage crises with minimal cost, effort and with maximum speed, and those organizations that cannot. By having back-up plans, not only for equipment and network recovery, but also detailed disaster recovery plans that precisely outline what steps each person involved in recovery efforts should undertake, an organization can improve their recovery time and minimize the disruption time for their normal business functions. Thus, it is essential that disaster recovery plans are carefully laid out and updated regularly. Part of the plan should include a system where regular training occurs for network engineers and managers.
Tulsa, Oklahoma: Fire Engineering Books. Oliver, C. (2010). The 'Standard'. Catastrophic Disaster Planning and Response. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
There are different types and causes of disasters: man-made, natural and a combination. Man-made disasters are caused by human error or human actions that cause harm to the environment, and people (Baack & Alfred, 2013). Natural disasters are caused by nature, a hurricane for example, and a combination of NA-TECH (natural-technological). Examples are earthquakes that cause structural damage such as a collapse of a bridge (Nies & McEwen, 2011). Communities must have effective emergency preparedness in place to reduce the casualties of a disaster.
Sometimes one phase of the emergency management tends to overlap of adjacent phase. The concept of “phases” has been used since the 1930’s to help describe, examine, and understand disasters and to help organize the practice of emergency management. In an article titled Reconsidering the Phases of Disaster, David Neal cites different examples of different researchers using five, six, seven, and up to eight phases long before the four phases became the standard. (Neal 1997) This acknowledges that critical activities frequently cover more than one phase, and the boundaries between phases are seldom precise. Most sources also emphasize that important interrelationships exist among all the ph...
Johns Hopkins University. (2009, March). In disaster-prone areas, construction needs a new approach. Retrieved from http://phys.org/news157051992.html
Our Earth has suffered a great deal from reoccurring natural disasters that have repeatedly put a strain on people’s lives. A natural disaster is a sudden event, an accident or a natural havoc, that causes great extents of damage or multiple deaths. Over these past years a numerous amount of these disasters has been seen happening all around the world. Tragedies of towns getting torn apart were reported as well as the occurrence of many deaths, disabilities and shelter damage. People have been losing relatives, friends, shelter and property. Even though these disasters cannot be stopped from occurring, recognizing their danger and their effects is essential.
Of the four phases of emergency management, mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery, perhaps the place that individuals can make the biggest difference in their own state of resiliency and survival of a disaster is in the preparedness phase. Being prepared before a disaster strikes makes sense yet many people fail to take even simple, precautionary steps to reduce the consequences of destruction and mayhem produced by natural events such as earthquakes, volcanos and tornados (see Paton et al, 2001, Mileti and Peek, 2002; Tierney, 1993, Tierney et al, 2001).
Will you ever be part of nature’s disasters? Most natural disasters can be foreseen with the aid of advanced technology, but, overall, nature’s wonders occur unexpectedly. The majority of the human population does not know what to do before, during, and after a catastrophic event. The most common questions asked are: what is it, where will it take place, when will it happen, and who will be affected. It is important to have an understanding of what natural disasters may be and what could be experienced during a time of chaos.