Preparing for and Responding to Disasters

This section contains knowledge, information and tools to meet the needs of urban leaders who seek to prepare their municipalities and/or communities for the possibility of natural and/or technological disasters. It also contains action-oriented checklists for responding to disasters actually underway.

Types of disasters which most affect cities are:

• Hurricanes and typhoons
• Earthquakes
• Landslides
• Floods and "storm surge" from high winds
• Ice storms and heavy snowfall
• Technological breakdowns, such as widespread power failures

Here are some typical situations in which preparation for natural or technological disasters is required:

• A disaster has occurred in recent memory and residents are looking for a better and more effective response for the future.
• A major failure or breakdown has occurred in some service or system used by the public every day, e.g., in transportation, water supply, or energy supply, but disaster has been narrowly avoided. Urban leaders have recognized that the next time they may not be so lucky.
• A disaster has hit a neighbouring or similar city or community with serious loss of life and/or property. Urban leaders realize that they could be the next in line.
• A new policy on disaster management has been imposed from above by central government.

Here are some typical actions that cities may take to prepare for the possibility of disasters:

• Establishing an emergency command centre to organize efforts to respond to disasters, e.g., arranging escape routes, keeping communications open to alert people, providing medical services, and arranging emergency food and water.
• Selecting and strengthening safe havens for people to gather in during a disaster, e.g., community halls, school gymnasia, or barracks.
• Promoting efforts to strengthen individual dwellings to withstand violent storms and earthquakes.
• Developing and implementing long-term plans to move people away from dwellings in vulnerable areas during disasters, such as mountain sides, flood plains, and coastlines.

During an actual disaster, municipal leaders may be called upon to:

• Direct populations to safe havens and/or escape routes.
• Organize emergency relief for homeless people.
• Take charge of security when order has broken down.
• Seek aid from the central or state/provincial government.

Following a major disaster, urban leaders will need to come together to plan and implement short-term restoration of basic services, and long-term reconstruction.

You will not find on the Internet a single convenient guide to organizing and carrying out preparations for disasters, or for how to respond while they are underway, although there is a lot of related information available We have created a short guide for you here.

It takes the form of a slide presentation which you can freely adapt to your own needs and situation. A possible use of this presentation would be at the first meeting of a newly-formed emergency planning committee or department.

The structure of this presentation was originally developed by the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University for planning organizational change projects.

You can find it at: http://www.sei.cmu.edu/ideal/ideal.present/tsld001.htm. The actual contents have been extensively adapted here.