Disaster Risk Reduction And Management: Earthquake Response Essay In Rio City.

Stakeholders Involved in Response Plan

Discuss about the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management.

In a disaster management plan, developing a response plan is the second phase of the whole plan, it is sometimes referred to as emergency response (Abbott, 2012). A response plan includes conducting actions like warnings/ evacuation plans, search and rescue operations, assessing the damage caused and providing immediate help for as long as needed (Crane et al., 2014). A response plan is simply used to maintain order, save lives and offer assistance and support to the affected parties. It is mostly involved in scenarios where human lives are said to be in danger or situations that can cause great loss of human life, e.g., earthquakes or tremors, floods, volcanic eruptions disasters, tornadoes, tsunamis, airplane crashes to name a few (Hayes et al., 2009 and Sharma, 2015). In other words, a response plan acts as a tool for enabling the provision of basic human needs up until a permanent solution can be found or rather identified (Greer, 2012). In this assignment, I am going to discuss the response plan that I will use in a scenario where there is an earthquake occurrence, and there is a lot of lives already in danger while other lives have already been lost.

An earthquake is a natural but sudden and rapid shaking of the ground which is caused by breaking and dismantling of the rocks beneath the earth’s surface. Being a natural disaster, it can cause a lot of damage to properties, e.g., buildings, bridges, infrastructures like roads and human life. Besides these, earthquakes can cause other problems like disruption of the electric and telephone services, cause floods, landslides, fires to name a few. In this case study, the earthquake has occurred in Rio City which is one of the largest city in Brazil. Additionally, the city-country has planned to host its Olympics games in that same city which means that there is a lot of people living in the city at that very moment. From the case study information, there are large numbers of tourists and athletes in the city already. The earthquake has already occurred, and many lives have already been lost, and others are in grave danger.

Generally, in an emergency response team, certain members or stakeholders are supposed to be involved in making the process a successful one. These parties should always be rich and high with expertise, experience, knowledge, and skills to deal with any scenario that seems to target and destroy human lives (Paganini et al., 2016). The stakeholders in any disaster should always be ready to save human life. In other words, these stakeholders are responsible for ensuring that property and human life is safeguarded and if in danger, responds effectively and efficiently to reduce the suffering and pain experienced especially by the people involved (Lennquist, 2012). In the case study, the stakeholders that will be involved in the situation include the following parties:

Logistics of the Scenario

All of the above named stakeholders must be certainly be knowledgeable and skilled in their specific area of work. The response team leader should ensure that every individual involved has expertise on their specific field for better performance and success chances. Therefore, the team leader should basically focus on including parties that are capable of saving human life and ensuring less property loss.

Logistics in a disaster occurrence like an earthquake occurrence must focus on the main purpose and aim for the response team, i.e. to save and safeguard human life and property. Therefore, the steps and procedures to be taken should include any activity and action that is capable of saving a life and making sure that no property that is damaged. As for the case study, the logistics will include the following procedures and activities:

• The team will be the responsible for allocating and coordinating all the operations conducted in the scene
• The stakeholders involved in the scene should register and run by the response team leader
• The team should ensure that all the people possibly involved in the scene are accounted for, either being dead or alive
• The team members will ensure that every affected person is provided a comfortable and safe environment. E.g. either emotionally, physically or psychologically. In other words, this involves the action to rescue, relief, rehabilitate, rebuild and comfort people affected.
• Team will ensure that all the property located in the area of earthquake occurrence are accounted for.
• Evacuation procedures will be implemented for every citizen affected especially those whose homes have already been destroyed by the earthquakes.

It is not always easy to point out or indicate a specific location where a natural disaster is likely to occur. Therefore, it is important for every government and response team to ensure that it is always ready to act and provide the best care possible to the people that may be involved. In the case of the case study, the earthquake occurred in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which happens to be in the country’s capital city. Therefore, besides the fact that the city normally has a large number of people or citizens and residential homes, the city was to host Olympic Games during the earthquake occurrence. This means that the numbers of the people residing in the city at that exact time was extremely higher even than its normal population. Therefore, this increases the number of lives in danger including those of tourists and vising athletes. Generally, every natural disaster occurrence causes human life loss, property loss and other problems accompany it even after the situation is over (Biswas et al, 2016). Therefore, in the case of Rio’s earthquake, the response team must ensure that there are more stakeholders involved and that the responsibilities are effectively performed for the whole process and plan to be successful.

In every situation and every group work, there are possible challenges to be experienced especially when it comes to solving and helping natural disaster victims (Pourhosseini et al, 2015). The following challenges are expected by my response team during its time with Rio earthquake disaster:

• Some victims will not want to be helped. Some victims will find it better for them to visit their own doctors and specialists instead of being checked and treated by the doctors already in the scene. This is mostly for the victims who are not deeply hurt or affected (Srivastava, 2010).
• Lack of cooperation among the stakeholders. This is especially when some groups or organizations think that they have the right and most effective process and procedure to perform a certain responsibility than another (Djalali et al, 2011). Also, this may arise from the fact that some stakeholders look down upon others and would rather take o leadership roles whenever they want.
• Challenges in sharing and distributing basic human needs like water, food and clothes especially to the affected (Raissi, 2007). This can also happen in the case of medication and sanitation delivery and access (MasoudiAlavi, 2014).
• Death occurrence
• Challenges in continuing with the Olympic Games because of the chaos and disruptions that may be caused by the earthquake

In every scenario or situation, there are certain specific outcomes expected to be realized after the operation is complete, especially in a natural disaster occurrence (Amon et al, 2015). In a natural disaster occurrence scenario, the response team is expected to put all the effort and energy they can to achieve the expected results or rather the best results possible. In the case study discussed above, some of the expected outcomes include the following:

• Human life is saved
• Cause of the earthquake is identified
• Solution for long term problems and challenges are identified (Nolte et al, 2012). For instance disease outbreak from such disaster or other damages that come in handy like frequent landslides, floods etc.
• Property loss e.g. buildings, roads and bridges
• Loss of homes which leads to internally displaced people.
• Possible cancellation of the Olympic Games process

Challenges During Response Plan

Conclusions

A natural disaster like an earthquake can occur at any time anywhere. However, every country should ensure that there are response teams ready to take the role and responsibility of eradicating the disaster and caring for the victims of that disaster, i.e. including saving human lives and property. In case of an earthquake aftermath, the response team can be involved in various response and recovery operations e.g. implementing evacuation procedures. In the case study, my response team’s plan will be based entirely on the sole responsibility to save live which will include evacuation procedures for the people living in the exact area of earthquake occurrence. This plan will certainly be able to complete the whole process and ensure that it is successful.

I would recommend the Brazilian government to be extremely cautious especially when it comes to identifying possible disaster occurrences (like earthquake occurrence parameters) (Yunga, 2010) to avoid the above mentioned challenges and problems like loss of lives and property.

I would also recommend every response team associated with natural disaster responses and recovery to be ready to cooperate and work as a team to reduce the amount and number of problems caused by the disaster itself.

References

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