This article intends to correspond to the widespread disaster caused by Hurricane Maxine in Charleston, South Carolina. During the investigation phase, the city mayor executive, policy coordination officer, and the environmental officer will play a fundamental role in laying grounds for the investigation to be a success. The investigation will outline the procedures and general policies that give common coordinate ground for functional annexes and joint operations, which demonstrates the role of the city department in the framework of emergency support functions. It will also involve implementation measures such as training, mobilization, and distribution of resources and service counteract floods and other disasters.
To begin with, policy formulation should be the city of Charleston, South Carolina remedy to cub any disaster or emergency. Therefore, with the disaster caused by Hurricane Maxine happening, there are already guidelines to help deal with the disasters. This involves the maintenance of facilities, equipment, emergency response personnel to be ready to save lives, and reduce the level of damage of properties, and assist the victims of the disaster. Furthermore, it is fundamental to organize coordination of emergency operations in comparison to the activities of other states, counties, and the federal government.
The role of the mayor and his dignitaries is to determine the duration and level of use of resources by the city. Additionally, the plan intends to establish procedures and policies that provide a solution to the impact of the flood, and explain how the city should conduct the activities and mobilize resources through response, recovery, preparedness, and mitigation planning.
It is essential to include the utilization of the Emergency Support Function to apply and marshal resources and elaborate responsibility of various city departments in executing recovery operations and effective response. Engaging the National Incident Support is also crucial since it enables the tribal, local, federal, and state government plus the non-governmental organizations and the private sector to work as one more efficiently and effectively to prepare for, prevent, recover and respond to domestic incidents regardless of the size, cause or complexity.
The investigation/ plan includes the mission to be accomplished, for example, coordinating assistance from the county, federal, and state governments, and assessing the local requirements, recovery operations and assessing restoration coordination, sensitization of the public about the situation and the necessary protective measures, deployment of resource effectively and timely responding to the disaster, and alerting the population of the impending danger. Additionally, emergency preparedness planning responsibility should be clearly outlined for every stakeholder. For example, actions for prevention include avoiding an incident or work towards stopping the incident from happening through the application of intelligence information and advancing corresponding countermeasures.
Secondly, deploying mitigation activities to minimize the vulnerability of society to reduce the adverse impact of the disaster; prevention of the occurrence of an emergency. Examples of such mitigation activities may include land use legislation and building code enforcement. Thirdly, programs and systems being prepared for the disaster need to be put in place to help enhance the response of the disaster. This can be made possible through planning, scenario exercise, and training. The response program aspect is designed to address the short-term and immediate effects of the floods. It helps to reduce the damages and more casualties and make the recovery much easier and faster. Returning the infrastructures and systems to pre-floods condition through the recovery process is significant in the planning process.
Through the investigation, a situation assumption is that it is clear that Hazard Analysis data determine the efforts of planning for the disaster. The City of South Charleston is threatened by both manmade and natural hazards which are likely to be immediate such as a hurricane or long-term such as drought. These negatively affect the day-to-day activities, cause extreme property damage, and result in mass casualties.
Besides, according to Jerry (2019), the greatest threat to the city has been from natural causes like hurricane and floods throughout history. On the other hand, the planning assumptions claim that hurricane Maxine may have occurred with no or little warning hence spreading faster than the ability of one city department to handle. And as a result, the city government is likely to request from the state and county or mutual aid organization in case a hurricane exceeds its resources. It is up-to the city department to notify their chain of command and the Municipality Emergency Operations Center in case of an impact on its city’s assets.
The state-wide problem is flooding due to the fact a total of nearly $1 billion has been paid out to the South Caroline National Flood Insurance Program which makes it the 10th- highest amount among fifty states. Low-lying Charleston is located in a region that has been for a long time prone to flooding, and the slow crawl of sea-level rise is to blame for the problem. It is an objective of the city to identify extremely damaged properties after the floods like the ones the left most of the Charleston region underwater especially in 2015, 2016, and 2017.
According to Cooper (2018), an examination carried out on hundreds of properties after the floods revealed only seven that met the threshold for either being demolished or elevated. However, another analysis done found at least an extra five homes which were extremely damaged home where the city had missed the damages or underestimated the impact of the floods.
Flood risk management should be promoted to reduce the risk from flood occurrences to the population located in areas susceptible to floods. The susceptibility to rapid flows, the closeness to the river, elevation, the role of the floods, steps that have been embraced to deal with effects of flood occurrences of a particular region is all dependent on the size of risks as a result of floods. Each risk and mitigation transfer measure as a recommendation leads to a decrease of the risk to some extent; however, eliminating the risk is impossible.
Identification and implementation of mitigation measures that limit the overall risks to residual risk as an outcome are possible through the flood risk management strategy. It is significant to put into consideration the benefits and cost of each measure regarding reducing the risks. The benefit and cost required for every measure applied and during the strategy development process are significant in understanding the overall impact in reducing the risks.
Levees are one of the ways used in decreasing the impact of floods in Charleston city. The role of the levees is to deter the floodwater from reaching the region behind it to a level over being overtopped, and the effect on the city, people, and the property are reduced. The strength and height of the levee determine the level of risks of those behind the levee. Additionally, it is vital for the stakeholders such as investors and public officials and the residence of the floodplains to encourage sensitization of the population about the risks involved with floods to enable them to understand the nature of the risks and how to help reduce them.
Additionally, the purchase of special land-use requirements like insurance and new construction regulations such as elevation of the first floor should be considered as great relevant, mostly by those governed by the National Flood Insurance Program. A considerate amount of attention has been given to risk management strategy development following the involvement of communities in National Flood Insurance and encouraging land-use guidelines.
In conclusion, immediately after the levee gets accredited after being constructed, the communities behind it seize to be inside the floodplains, and as such, they are not placed under the regulations the guide land-use. In other words, such communities no longer qualify for special consideration as those the lay on the floodplain in regards to levee failure or being overtopped. Charleston, South Carolina is a city that has experienced several flood cases over the years, and to be able to secure a future, the review of environmental policies, and re-modification of the topography of the lower-lying areas to resist the impact of floods is recommended.
As such, the support agencies and the federal government should establish a committee of officials to enforce the acceptance of corrective measures to prevent flash floods from the municipality. Furthermore, the city officials and the people should learn from the past impact of flood/ Hurricane Maxine and lay the ground for proper planning in case of future occurrence.
References
Cooper, A. J. (2018). Structural failure patterns of mid-nineteenth century masonry buildings of Charleston. Tiger Prints: Clemson University Research. Web.
Jerry, R. (2019). Managing hurricane (and other natural disasters) risk. Texas A&M Law Review, 6(2), 391-452. Web.