Essay Example: What Steps Would You Follow to Assess an Emerging Disaster Situation?

1. What steps would you follow to assess an emerging disaster situation?

The first step in assessing a disaster situation is by identifying who and what is at risk. Although most jurisdictions are aware of where hazard events, for example, earthquakes and floods might occur, their frequency and estimated impacts, and the specific people likely to be affected are rarely known (Ready.go, 2020b). The second step is to determine the means of communication which would be used to communicate risk to the population. An emerging disaster situation is only going to be recognized as a disaster if it poses a threat to human life, damage to property, and disruption of livelihood (Ready.go, 2020a).

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2. What are the key facts that need to be captured early to guide the assessment process?

The main elements to guide the assessment process include:

• Current situation (location, people affected, and how);
• Response procedures;
• Social communication;
• Sequence and evaluation.

3. What criteria should be considered to gauge the severity of the incident?

The severity of a disaster event should depend on the nature of the event, its location (population density), and its impact on the health of the population (US Department of Justice, Office of Inspector General, 2003). Such events as volcanic explosions, floods, hurricanes, fires among others occur in unique places and have equally different degrees of impact. Other incidents such as bomb explosions, chemical explosions etc. mostly occur in urban areas and pose serious threats to high a high population.

4. What would be the likely impact of mistakes made during the situational assessment process?

The situational assessment must be done in a clear and concise manner, oriented to practical operational actions, taking into account the resources and capacities available, both at the municipal, state and national levels. Mistakes made in the assessment are likely to incur heavy and severe consequences in the form of loss of lives and damage of property as the rapid maintenance and restoration efforts will be delayed.

When it has been established that an emergency situation exists, rapid maintenance and restoration must be activated, through an organized process to ensure communication of immediate relief efforts and responses. This process should provide alternative communication mechanisms in the event of power outages and interruption of telephone lines.

References

Ready.gov (2020). Community Emergency Response Team. HYPERLINK "https://www.ready.gov/cert" https://www.ready.gov/cert

Ready.gov (2020). Emergency Response Plan. HYPERLINK "https://www.ready.gov/business/implementation/emergency" https://www.ready.gov/business/implementation/emergency

US Department of Justice, Office of Inspector General. (2003). Review of the Critical Incident Response Plans of the United States Attorneys' Offices. HYPERLINK "https://oig.justice.gov/reports/EOUSA/e0401/final.pdf" https://oig.justice.gov/reports/EOUSA/e0401/final.pdf