Disaster, as defined by the United Nations, is a serious disruption of the functioning of a community or society, which involves widespread human, material, economic or environmental impacts that exceed the ability of the affected community or society to cope using its own resources. Disaster management is how we deal with the human, material, economic or environmental impacts of a said disaster, it is the process of how we “prepare for, respond to and learn from the effects of major failures”. Though often caused by nature, disasters can have human origins. According to the International Federation of Red Cross & Red Crescent Societies a disaster occurs when a hazard impacts on vulnerable people. The combination of hazards, vulnerability, and inability to reduce the potential negative consequences of risk results in disaster.
DISASTER = (VULNERABILITY HAZARD ) / CAPACITY
Natural disasters and armed conflict have marked human existence throughout history and have always caused peaks in mortality and morbidity. This article examines the advances in the humanitarian response to public health over the past fifty years and the challenges currently faced in managing natural disasters and armed conflict.
Disaster Management is strategic planning and procedure that is administered and employed to protect critical infrastructures from severe damages when natural or human-made calamities and catastrophic(1) events occur. Disaster management plans are multi-layered and are aimed to address such issues as floods, storms, fires, bombings, cyclones, earthquakes, and even mass failures of utilities or the rapid spread of disease (e.g COVID-19 ). The disaster plan is likely to address such important matters as relinquishing people from an impacted region, arranging temporary housing, food, and medical care.
The United Nations defines a disaster as a serious disruption of the functioning of a community or a society. Disasters involve widespread human, material, economic or environmental impacts, which exceed the ability of the affected community or society to cope using its own resources.
The Red Cross and Red Crescent societies define disaster management 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.
There is no country that is immune from disaster, though vulnerability to disaster varies. There are four main types of disaster:
=> Natural disasters
According to the International Federation of Red Cross & Red Crescent Societies, Natural Disasters are naturally occurring physical phenomena caused either by rapid or slow onset events that have immediate impacts on human health and secondary impacts causing further death and suffering. These disasters include floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, and volcano eruptions that can have immediate impacts on human health, as well as secondary impacts causing further death and suffering from floods causing landslides, earthquakes resulting in fires, tsunamis causing widespread flooding and typhoons sinking ferries. These disasters can be:
> Geophysical (e.g. Earthquakes, Landslides, Tsunamis, and Volcanic Activity)
> Hydrological (e.g. Avalanches and Floods)
> Climatological (e.g. Extreme Temperatures, Drought and Wildfires)
> Meteorological (e.g. Cyclones and Storms/Wave Surges)
> Biological (e.g. Disease Epidemics and Insect/Animal Plagues)
=> Man-Made Disasters
Man-Made Disasters as viewed by the International Federation of Red Cross & Red Crescent Societies are events that are caused by humans that occur in or close to human settlements often caused as a result of Environmental or Technological Emergencies. These emergencies include technological or industrial accidents, usually involving hazardous material, and occur where these materials are produced, used, or transported. Large forest fires are generally included in this definition because they tend to be caused by humans. This can include:
> Environmental Degradation
> Pollution
> Accidents (e.g. Industrial, Technological and Transport usually involving the production, use or transport of hazardous materials)
=> Complex emergencies
Some disasters can result from multiple hazards(2), or, more often, a complex combination of both natural and man-made causes which involve a break-down of authority, looting, and attacks on strategic installations, including conflict situations and war. These can include:
> Food Insecurity
> Epidemics
> Armed Conflicts
> Displaced Populations
> Extensive Violence
=> Pandemic Emergencies
Pandemic is an epidemic of infectious disease that has spread across a large region, which can occur to the human population or animal population and may affect health and disrupt services leading to economic and social costs. It may be an unusual or unexpected increase in the number of cases of an infectious disease which already exists in a certain region or population or can also refer to the appearance of a significant number of cases of an infectious disease in a region or population that is usually free from that disease. Pandemic Emergencies may occur as a consequence of natural or man-made disasters. These have included the following epidemics:
> COVID-19 > Ebola > Zika
> Avian Flu > Cholera > Dengue Fever
> Malaria
Any disaster can interrupt essential services, such as 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 programs rather than attempting individual efforts.
Local, regional, national, and international organizations 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.
Emergency Management:
Emergency Management is the generic name of an interdisciplinary field dealing with the strategic organization management processes used to protect assets of an organization from hazard risks that can cause disasters and to ensure the continuance of the organization within their planned lifetime.
Emergency Management is a systematic process leading to action before, during, and after a disaster to save lives and prevent injury. "Disaster" here means a major emergency that exceeds the community's capacity to respond successfully with its own resources. Emergency Management is organized into four phases:
=> Disaster Prevention
"The outright avoidance of adverse impacts of hazards and related disasters"
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 knowledge and capacities developed by governments, professional response and recovery organizations, communities and individuals to effectively anticipate, respond to, and recover from, the impacts of likely, imminent or current hazard events or conditions"
These activities are designed to minimize 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
"The provision of emergency services and public assistance during or immediately after a disaster in order to save lives, reduce health impacts, ensure public safety and meet the basic subsistence needs of the people affected"
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.
The coordinated multi-agency response is vital to this stage of Disaster Management in order to reduce the impact of a disaster and its long-term results with relief activities including:
> Rescue
> Relocation
> Provision Food and Water
> Provision Emergency Health Care
> Prevention of Disease and Disability
> Repairing Vital Services e.g. Telecommunications, Transport
> Provision Temporary Shelter
=> 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. Disaster Recovery refers to those programs which go beyond the provision of immediate relief to assist those who have suffered the full impact of a disaster and include the following activities:
> Rebuilding Infrastructure e.g. Homes, Schools, Hospitals, Roads
> Health Care and Rehabilitation
> Development Activities e.g. building human resources for health
> Development Policies and Practices to avoid or mitigate 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 marginalized groups. Health Volunteers Overseas publications address some of the common misunderstandings about disaster management.
International Organizations
The International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM) is the primary professional and academic organization of Emergency and Disaster Professionals worldwide. The main goals of this organization are to protect human lives, assets, and the environment during disasters. In addition, the organization's principles are to provide information, networking, education, professional opportunities, and to advance the emergency management profession.
Other Non-Profit Organizations
=> United Nations
The United Nations (UN) has programs to assist any nation in mitigating the effect of disasters and enhancing the capacity of training institutions and the government to develop strategic plans for disaster management. The UN provides guidelines and policies for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR).
=> World Bank
The World Bank has provided support for disaster management to countries affected by major disasters. These include post-disaster reconstruction projects, as well as projects with components aimed at preventing and mitigating disaster impacts, in countries such as Argentina, Bangladesh, Colombia, Haiti, India, Mexico, Turkey, and Vietnam to name only a few.
=> International Recovery Platform
The International Recovery Platform (IRP) was conceived at the World Conference on Disaster Reduction (WCDR) in Kobe, Hyogo, Japan in January 2005. As a thematic platform of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) system, IRP is a key pillar for the implementation of the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) 2005–2015: Building the Resilience of Nations and Communities to Disasters, a global plan for disaster risk reduction for the decade adopted by 168 governments at the WCDR.
Time and again, we have seen and read about many natural disasters occurring in the country and outside, which have caused great havoc in the society, killing thousands of people and destroying lives and properties. We bring the some most dangerous natural disasters occurring in the history of India over the years:
=> Uttarakhand Flash Floods
> Year: 2013
> Areas affected: Govindghat, Kedar Dome, Rudraprayag district, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Western Nepal
> Death Toll: 5000 plus
In the year 2013, Uttarakhand suffered from a major catastrophic natural disaster in the form of huge and deadly cloudbursts, causing flash floods in River Ganga. Suddenly, heavy rains caused dangerous landslides in Uttarakhand, which killed thousands of people, and thousands were reported missing. The death toll was estimated to be 5,700. The flash floods and landslides continued for 4 days from 14 to 17 June 2013. More than 1,00,000 pilgrims were trapped in the valleys that led to the Kedarnath shrine.
=> The Indian Ocean Tsunami
> Year: 2004
> Areas affected: Parts of southern India and Andaman Nicobar Islands, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, etc.
> Death toll: 2 lakh plus
Following a major earthquake in 2004, there was a huge tsunami in the Indian Ocean, causing immense loss of life and property in India and the neighboring countries – Sri Lanka and Indonesia. The earthquake had its epicenter in the ocean bed which led to this destructive tsunami. The magnitude was measured between 9.1 and 9.3 and it lasted for almost 10 minutes. According to reports, it was the third-largest earthquake in the world ever recorded. The impact was equivalent to the energy of 23,000 Hiroshima-type atomic bombs. More than 2 lakh people were killed.
=> Odisha Super Cyclone
> Year: 1999
> Areas affected: The coastal districts of Bhadrak, Kendrapara, Balasore, Jagatsinghpur, Puri, Ganjam, etc.
> Death toll: 10,000 plus
This is one of the deadliest storms that affected the state of Odisha in 1999. Also known as the Paradip cyclone or super cyclone 05B, this cyclone caused deaths of more than 10,000 people in the state. More than 275,000 houses were destroyed. Around 1.67 million people were left homeless. When the cyclone reached its peak intensity of 912 MB, it became the strongest tropical cyclone of the North Indian basin.
=> The Great Famine
> Year: 1876-1878
> Areas affected: Madras, Mysore, Hyderabad, and Bombay
> Death toll: 3 crore
Southern and southwestern parts of the country were affected by a major famine in 1876-78, which killed nearly 3 crore people. The famine, which first started in China, spread over to India and affected millions of people in the period between 1876 and 1878. Even today, it is considered as one of the worst natural calamities in India of all time.
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