Introduction
Natural disasters are bound to happen in any region of the country or continent. Such occurrences mostly result in very catastrophic damages to lives and property. They can derail the economic development of any country as they rob off the necessary resources needed for development (Quarantelli, 1988). Although there is nothing that can be done to prevent these occurrences, a country can do something to reduce the negative impacts of natural disasters. Any country must be ready to prepare for any natural disaster. Resources required before, during and after any natural incident need to be readily available to compact these incidences. Personnel in positions of natural risk and incident management need to be highly trained to be in a better position of dealing with any catastrophe. Communication and information systems across all the command and support elements managing these incidents should be of high quality and advanced (Annelli, 2006).
All nations are prone to at least one of the following natural disasters: floods, hurricanes, tornados, fires, severe storms, severe ice storms, earthquakes, cyclones, volcanoes, landslides and many others.
According to the data documented in Presidential Disaster declaration of federal Emergency Management Agency, all states of America are oftenly hit by natural disasters (Moe et al., 2007).
A national model of natural disasters showing the FEMA regions and the specific disasters can be represented in the following spreadsheet and chart:
The FEMA region IV my domicile region experienced the most natural disasters followed by region III. Severe storms were the most common natural disasters across the United States of America. The total number of natural disasters indicates that as a nation, people must be ready for a natural disaster and avail maximum effort to mitigate the effects caused by the disasters.
The regional incidence management protocol of region IV
The region prepares for natural disasters by continuously training, planning, organizing, equipping, evaluating and taking corrective actions. This ensures that in case of crisis time, there is coordination and efficient management of emergency and incidence response (Sharma, 2001).
The region also has a communication and information system that ensures that all people and organizations to be involved in dealing with a natural crisis are coordinated harmoniously to avoid confusion and achieve the objectives of operations. There is coordinated decision making between agencies and people involved ensuring smooth operations in times of crisis (Moe et al., 2007).
The region allocates resources and manages them before and during the incident occurrences. This protocol ensures that the operation is carried out without running out of resources.
The region has an incident command protocols that ensure that facilities, staff members, processes and all resources are fully integrated. It avails a structure upon which an organization can plan, built and manage functional areas of disaster management (Quarantelli, 1988).
During a natural crisis, public safety official is responsible for alerting members of the community by using an integrated public alert system. The alert has to pass through the internet to the concerned parties to make sure that the alert came from an authorized source.
The region officials that are concerned with natural disasters are involved in educating the public on the importance of taking preventive measure against the disasters. It educates them on reporting various incidences that can be dangerous to life and how to provide a helping hand in saving victims of the catastrophes without endangering their own life.
A comparative analysis between region IV and region III
Disaster similarities:
Both region IV and region III had high incidents of severe storms. Region IV had 48 while region III had 24. Severe thunderstorms are common occurrences in both regions, especially during the spring and summer months. They may take place singly, in clusters or lines. In both regions, the storms were typically favored by warm, humid conditions and produced heavy rains.
In both regions, the severe storms gave rise to at least 0.75 inch hail and winds travelling at 58 miles per hour. Tornados often resulted from such an occurrence in both regions.
Most lightning deaths and injuries occurred during the afternoons and evenings of summer months when people were caught outside.
The two regions also experienced Hurricanes. Region IV had 19 while III had 7 hurricanes. The hurricanes severely damaged coastlines and several miles inland the two regions. They gave rise to tornados, microburst, and winds are blowing at more than 155 miles per hour. Some parts of the coastlines of the two regions experienced storm surges.
Both regions experienced Tornados. Region III was hit once while my domicile region, IV was hit five times. Tornadoes are the most powerful storms that spawn from violent thunderstorms. They are fatal and can destroy a neighborhood very fast. A tornado resembles a rotating cloud that is funnel-shaped and extending from a thunderstorm to the ground with whirling winds that can have a speed of up to 300 miles per hour. This disaster can be clearly visible or can be obscured by rain or nearby low clouds. These natural disasters often take place within seconds. Hence enough warning in time for a tornado can be impossible. Prior to a tornado, the atmosphere may be calm with no winds. Even if a funnel is not seen, a tornado can be located by a cloud of debris.
There were also floods experienced in both regions. Region III suffered from flood ten times while the domicile region suffered twice from the same predicament. The floods can build up slowly or rapidly without noticeable signs of rain. Some of the floods in both regions were local in that they affected the community while others were very large, impacting the entire region and the surrounding states.
Flash floods were experienced in both regions. They occurred within a few minutes of heavy rainfall. Others occurred due to a failure in dams and levee while some were caused by a sudden release of water that had been blocked by ice jams. These floods had dangerous walls of water laden with debris and were characterized by roaring sound (Annelli, 2006).
Some streams and rivers overflowed their banks, giving rise to overland flooding.
Individual incidence management protocols similarities:
The two regions have the following similar protocols in addressing the natural Disasters.
In both regions, there is an Incident Action Plan that shows the name of the incident, the operational period of the plan, the date that the plan was prepared. The plan contains attachments about information such as the resources, organization, medical and communication plans
In both regions, the Incident Command and general staff are provided with basic information about the incident and the resources set aside for the incident.
The objectives and strategy of the incident to be used for each operational period are then described. The staffing of the personnel and response organization is also provided in the protocols. The Incident Command has to approve the objectives and staffing.
The staff members then get the information that assigns each to the appropriate task. Communications equipments are also assigned.
Both regions’ protocols of the two regions specify hospitals, incident medical aid stations, evacuation, resources (such as food and water), logistics, and procedures for a medical emergency.
The protocols avail a room to check the staff members, resources, and equipment arriving at an incident or departing from the incident. The check in or out involves recording of particular information. All this is in a bid to ensure that every facility is accounted for, and nothing underused. Any skill that needs to be acquired is recorded.
Both regions provide a protocol for incident dispatchers and personnel to: report messages that may not be transmitted orally to the appropriate recipient, transmit messages through telephone or radio and transmit any notification that needs hard copy delivery.
The activities of the incident are recorded in Unit Logs to provide future reference for compiling after-action report. The successes and failures of the activities be indicated to improve on future intervention in dealing with natural disasters.
The protocol's record major decisions on the needs of resources for the subsequent operational period. This information is used to order resources for the incident and update resource information. The resources that were not available are noted so that they can be provided to make the management of natural disasters effective.
The Safety Officer reports the health and safety issues he or she identified. The air operations officer is required to communicate on air operation information as the type, number, specific tasks, and locations of helicopters and aircrafts.
Analysis of the differences and effectiveness of Fema Region III protocols as compared to the domicile region IV:
The communication and Information components of region III be more effective than the domicile region IV. They are much more flexible and thus allowing the creation of a common operating picture to incident management, accessibility, and interoperability. They're properly planned, established and utilized information exchange has enabled the command and support elements of the region to disseminate information amongst themselves during the incident's occurrences.
The FEMA region III incident communication is more effective because it has more developed utilization of interoperable communication plans, standards, architecture, equipment and processes. As such, during any incident, the support and operational units of the various organizations within the region III are properly linked to ensure connectivity in communications and situation awareness.
The region III offers more effective training to its personnel across all government positions that are related to management of disasters. As such, the region’s personnel have better expertise, knowledge, and experience of dealing with any natural disaster (Sharma, 2001).
However, the resource management protocol of region III is less effective than the domicile region IV. The region seems to be less effective in managing its personnel, facilities, equipment, and teams. It does not fully utilize the tracking, inventorying and organizing of resources, thus ending up having problems in dispatching, deployment, and recovery of resources in addressing incident occurrence (Annelli, 2006).
Hypotheses and modifications:
Effective incident and emergency management and response require flexible communications and information systems. The domicile region, IV, should modify its communication and information system by putting in place policies that are related to the incident. It should provide proper standards, equipments, systems, and training on the system to achieve integrated communications (Sharma, 2001).
Improvement of nationwide all-hazard capabilities requires appropriate training of personnel at emergency management and incident responses positions in governments. Performance-based and exercise programs should be put in place to train leaders and other staff members on how to exercise their roles in containing natural disasters. These programs should also avail tools and resources such as policy and guidance, technology, direct exercise support, and training enhance the creation of self-sustaining programs (Moe et al., 2007).
Conclusion
Natural disasters are bound to happen now and then in any country. When they strike, they are known to cause deaths of many people and animals, destroy buildings, plants and other properties that cost millions of money. Proper management of these disasters is thus necessary if their catastrophic impacts are to be avoided at all costs. Keeping records of these incidents is also important to improve on future management attempts (Annelli, 2006).
References
Annelli, J. F. (2006). The National Incident Management System: a multi-agency approach to emergency response in the United States of America.
Moe, T. L., Gehbauer, F., Senitz, S., & Mueller, M. (2007). Balanced scorecard for natural disaster management projects. Disaster Prevention and Management. doi:10.1108/09653560710837073
Natural Catastrophe and Man-Made Disasters in 2003. (2004).
Quarantelli, E. L. (1988). DISASTER CRISIS MANAGEMENT: A SUMMARY OF RESEARCH FINDINGS. Journal of Management Studies.
Sharma, V. K., & National Centre for Disaster Management (India) (2001). Disaster management. New Delhi: National Centre for Disaster Management, Indian Institute of Public Administration.
