The Recommendations Made in the Field of Tsunami Emergency Managements Report (Assessment)

Introduction

Among the most exemplary cases of natural disasters and their management was Katrina, a hurricane that hit America in 2004. In that regard, such example demonstrated that the preparedness for natural hazards was not about unifying all the branches of security under one department, but also about coordination as well. Additionally, the tsunami that hit the coastal area of the Indian Ocean in 2004 was one of the events that led to reconsiderations of the preparedness levels in dealing with catastrophes of such scales. In the light of the aforementioned, the present paper examines the literature of emergency and disaster, in order to identify the recent recommendations made in the field of tsunami emergency managements.

Tsunami Emergency Management Systems

With definitions being an essential and critical aspect of emergency and disaster management, due to “confusion over the meaning given to core terms” (Moore and Lakha, p. 110), the establishment of the category to which tsunamis belong is necessary. In that regard, a tsunami qualifies as a catastrophe, based on such factors as severity, consequences, costs, and socio-legal impact. According to the New Oxford Dictionary of English (1999), cited in Moore and Lakha (2006), a catastrophe is “an event causing great and often sudden damage or suffering: a disaster” (Moore and Lakha, p. 110). Nevertheless, it should be noted that in chapter 36 of the Civil Contingencies Act 2004, emergency is the main word used to classify all categories of events, which in this case implies an event or situation threatening serious damage to human welfare and/or the environment of a place in the United Kingdom (Parliament of the United Kingdom, p. 1).

With the definitions clarified, the general framework for Disaster and Emergency Management Systems (DEMS) consists of the following elements:

• Assessment of external and internal factors
• A disaster and emergency policy
• Organization for disasters and emergencies
• Disaster and emergency planning
• Monitoring the disaster and emergency plans
• Audit and review (Moore and Lakha, p. 117)

Applying such framework to the case of tsunami, it can be stated that the first element, i.e. the assessment of the internal and external factor, is concerned with gathering important statistics. The statistics include the environmental factors, such as weather conditions around the site, the locations of potential impacts, the terrain at such locations, the distance to the nearest Emergency and Accidents Centres, etc. Taking the Tsunami Ready Program as an example of a specific tsunami-based DEMS (Haddow, Bullock and Coppola 216), the assessment stage can be paralleled to the stage in which the communities eligible for the participation in Tsunami Ready are determined. The eligibility criteria might include identifying at risk communities, their descriptions, the availability of weather monitoring equipment, and others. The historical factor might be included as well, specifically for the cases of major incidents occurred in the past, assessing the response of the community, in terms of assisting emergency service and volunteers (Moore and Lakha, p. 119).

An important factor to consider is the influence of established policies in such issues. In that regard, it can be stated that one of the most important policies governing the emergency management in the UK is the Civil Contingencies Act (2004), which establishes the general guidelines for emergency management. Although the Act lacks specific instructions on tsunami preparedness, it provides a general framework, in which the roles of authorities in case of emergency are established as well as the coordination regulations. It should be noted that DEMS should identify the role of the government, their representatives, their location, and their plans. In that regard, an assessment of the gaps that might exists in the government policies might facilitate coordination efforts between agencies.

The DEMS should acknowledge the existence of the all the agencies which are concerned with the managing emergencies, which frameworks have “guidance, information and templates on response” (Moore and Lakha, p. 119). An important factor that should be considered is the identification of authorities which have the power to make emergency regulations as well as the power to modify them. In the case of UK, the power to make emergency regulations, as stated in Chapter 36 of the Civil Contingencies ACT (2004), is held by Her Majesty the Queen by Order in Council, the First Lord of the Treasury (the Prime Minister, any of Her Majesty’s Principal Secretaries of State, and the Commissioners of Her Majesty’s Treasury (Parliament of the United Kingdom, p. 13). Additionally, as a part of the identification of the existing policies, the Act identifies the local authorities and the emergency services that have the responsibilities to handle the management of emergencies and disasters within their counties. In that regard, the Act identifies the categories of responders to include local authorities such as a county council, a district council, etc, and responders of emergency services, such the chief officer of police, the chief constable of the British Transport Police Force, the National Health Service, and others (Parliament of the United Kingdom, pp. 23-24). The aforementioned and other agencies and respondents has the responsibilities to provide information about the actions that were taken in regards of an emergency or a disaster, and accordingly provide explanations for the actions that were no taken under their duty (Parliament of the United Kingdom, p. 8). The acknowledgement of the coordination schemes and their hierarchical structures, in both handling the situation and reporting can be seen as an essential aspect of the DEMS. The example of the latter, in terms of the previously mentioned Tsunami Ready Program, can fall under the category of Administrative guidelines, which in this case include the framework developed by the National Storm Ready Board, the representative of Federal Emergency Management, State emergency service directors, and others (Haddow, Bullock and Coppola, p. 223).

The organization for disaster and emergencies stage of the DEMS is concerned with planning, in which a general framework for actions that should be undertaken is outlined. In that regard, such framework might contain elements of the Civil Contingencies Act (2004) as well as elements from the Tsunami Ready Program, which initiative is aimed specifically for managing such kinds of disasters. One of the most important elements of the DEMS is the establishment of effective communication. The scope and the purpose of establishing effective means of communication can be seen through the definition of communication, which is the “process of transmission, reception and feedback of information, whether the information is verbal, written, pictorial or intimated” (Moore and Lakha, p. 126). The responsibilities for responding on the aforementioned aspect, namely communications networks, lie within the Contingencies Act (2004) on the persons assigned to provide “a public electronic communications network which makes telephone services available”, which provision and explanations are given within section 32(4)(a) and (b), 32(1), and 151(1) of the Communications Act 2003 (c. 21) (Parliament of the United Kingdom, p. 25).

In the context of emergency and disaster management the establishment of communication can be seen on two levels, where on the one hand, the communication should serve as a communication and coordination mean within the system itself, e.g. between Emergency Operations Centres (EOCs) and warning points (Haddow, Bullock and Coppola, p. 220), as well as a mean of regular planning initiatives with all the stakeholders involved in a particular DEMS (Haddow, Bullock and Coppola, p. 222). On the other hand, effective communication should be also directed toward the population, where communication channels should serve as the main mean for issuing warnings for the population, specifically in case of short-fused events. In tsunami-related context the warnings against such events is specifically important, where the arrival of waves can occur merely within minutes. Another purpose of communication channels can be seen through not only the communication of alerts, but also through educating the population on the actions that they should undertake through various media. In terms of alert communication, the mediums for such communication include television and radio overrides, local broadcast systems, dial-down systems, and tone alert receivers (Haddow, Bullock and Coppola, p. 221). Timely information delivered to authorities and the public should be considered as one of the responsibilities of the DEMS.

The planning stage is based on a clear identification of the goals and the objectives of the DEMS, which in the case of a tsunami might take the form of the following:

• Reducing, controlling and mitigating the effects of the tsunami
• Enabling other actions to be taken in connection with an emergency.
• Maintain arrangements to warn the public (Parliament of the United Kingdom).

It should be noted that an important objective of the DEMS, outlined within the Contingencies Act, is not related to the case of the tsunami, which is prevention. It might be assumed that a tsunami as a category of disaster that cannot be prevented, as long as there is a threat of its occurrence.

Dividing the stages of planning to those prior to the event, during the event, and after the event, it can be seen that initiative such as Tsunami Ready are concerned with the preparation period, where the promotion of preparedness is the main focus of such initiative. Nevertheless, other stages are important as well, where there elements that should be considered during the event such as coordination of actions and following the code of conduct, although it can be noted that the success of the processes during the tsunami is largely connected following the stages prior to the event itself.

With all the steps of managing the event being followed, the framework of the DEMS plan should be monitored and regularly reviewed, which can be seen as the main concern of the last two elements of the DEMS. The experience gained during the mitigation of a tsunami should be considered during the training programs as well as during the making and/or modification of the existing regulations concerned with emergency management. Monitoring the plan, on the other hand, is concerned with the “process of assessing and evaluating the value, efficiency and robustness” of the implemented plan (Moore and Lakha, p. 138).

Local Communities Preparation

The aforementioned overview of the emergency management system puts the main responsibility on the agencies to conduct the preparedness and mitigation initiatives. Nevertheless, the local communities in which the event occurred have their own set of responsibilities, facilitate tsunami response as well as raise their level of preparedness. In that regard, it can be stated that the Tsunami Ready Program is more exemplary in that matter, when demonstrating the list of possible actions of the local communities. The list of actions that local communities should undertake might include the following points:

• Conducting an assessment of the capacity of the community to meet the requirements of tsunami preparedness programs.
• Adopt curriculums and educational courses that can be used as a learning material to increases the knowledge and awareness level of the population.
• Purchase and locate equipment and devices, recommended by the program to meet the eligibility criteria.
• Provide assistance to the representatives of the program as well as other agencies’ representatives in the distribution of educational materials (Haddow, Bullock and Coppola, pp. 216-25).

It can be seen that the role of local communities cannot be underestimated in preparedness initiatives, specifically in educational context and increasing awareness. The role of the government in that regard can be seen in providing the assistance for the communities through expert workshops and forums, in which the community-government collaboration will be discussed. One aspect of such collaboration can be seen through the assessment stage during the development of a tsunami DEMS, where the identification and the assessment of the external factor include societal factors as well (Moore and Lakha, p. 118). The better the community is prepared for emergency management, the easier it is for the government to mitigate the impact of the disaster.

Recovery

Among the significant aspects of a tsunami response are the recovery efforts, which in the context of a tsunami preparedness program can be defined as providing individuals and communities affected by a disaster with information on “how to register for a receive disaster relief” (Haddow, Bullock and Coppola 228). The complexity of the recovery process can be seen in identifying the period when the response stage ends and the recovery begins, as well as the complexity of the issues and decisions that should be undertaken during recovery, unlike the narrow focus of the response function (Haddow, Bullock and Coppola, p. 155). One of the most important aspects that should be considered in terms of recovery is effective media partnership, which benefits can be seen in managing public expectations, delineating the roles of emergency management organizations and boosting the relief workers and disaster victims (Haddow, Bullock and Coppola, p. 231). Accordingly, it can be seen that that recovery functions are connected mainly to communications, where “the provision of timely and accurate information directly to the public and the media is critical to the success of any response and recovery effort” (Haddow, Bullock and Coppola, p. 232).

Conclusion

It can be concluded that the provided recommendations establish the general framework for response, which include the stages for developing a Disaster and Emergency Management Systems (DEMS), an overview of each of the stages, and the role and actions of the local community. In that regard, it can be seen that the most significant aspects that can be outlined form the aforementioned recommendations are the coordination and collaboration. Developing a framework for tsunami response can be considered successful as long as all the parties involved work in coordinated efforts, including the local communities.

Works Cited

1. Haddow, George D., Jane A. Bullock, and Damon P. Coppola. Introduction to Emergency Management. Butterworth-Heinemann Homeland Security Series. 3rd ed. Amsterdam ; Boston: Elsevier/Butterworth-Heinemann, 2008. Print.
2. Moore, Tony, and Raj Lakha. Tolley’s Handbook of Disaster and Emergency Management. 3rd ed. Amsterdam ; Boston: Elsevier, 2006. Print.
3. Parliament of the United Kingdom. “Civil Contingencies Act 2004: Chapter 36.” Crown, 2004. 1-34. Print.