2013 Moore - Oklahoma EF-5 Tornado Disaster - Assignment Example

Responses to 2013 Moore EF-5 TornadoWhen a disaster occurs, it is the duty of local government authorities to respond immediately to the scene so as to protect life, property and minimize suffering. In cases where additional assistance is required, the governor of the affected state gives state agencies and volunteer service organizations the go ahead to assist in all ways possible, for instance, the provision of services and resources (United States, 2008).In the case of the 2013 Moore- Oklahoma EF-5 tornado, the emergency support function annexes and its primary agencies responded to the disaster.

This tornado was an EF-5, killing 24 populace, and over 100 people were rescued (National Weather Service, 2013). Some of these annexes included that of transportation that helped in movement and recovery of transportation infrastructure, communication that was responsible for restoration, protection and sustainment of the telecommunication infrastructure, public works and engineering that contracted support for life-saving and life-sustaining services, firefighting that coordinated firefighting services, emergency management that was responsible for the issuance of emergency, mission assignments, mass care, housing and human services annex, public health and medical services annex, oil and hazardous materials response, energy annex, search and rescue, public safety and finally security annex (Braden, 2014).

Out of all those Emergency Support Function Annexes, the ones I considered the most difficult to implement in the aftermath of the EF-5 tornado in Moore include mass care, emergency, housing and human services annex and that of oil and hazardous material annex. The mass care, emergency, housing and human services annex purpose is to establish a procedure for providing emergency first aid, shelter, victim registration, feeding, and bulk distribution. From the incident, it was reported that one thousand and fifty homes were destroyed, three hundred injured and kids and parents in parking lots searching for each other.

It is evident, therefore, that the support function will experience difficulties providing shelter to all those homeless people most important children as it was also reported that the governor did not approve the idea of providing shelter for state schools in times of severe weather claiming that the funds required to do say beyond the government’s budget.Oil and hazardous material annex purpose is to ensure that all efforts are done to reduce issues arising from hazardous materials, which could be a threat to the public.

In the tornado incident, it was reported that after a month later, the damage caused by the tornado was still widespread. The damage was estimated by the insurance to be more than one billion U.S dollars thus proving to be difficult to implement this type of annex since it will take some time before that amount of money is paid off once the insurance covers it, of which they will be reluctant to do as their worry will be whether they will be paid off.These Emergency Support Annexes, therefore, are not a guarantee that they will be completely done in the aftermath of disaster stricken areas as there are challenges that come with them.

This is evident from the mentioned Emergency Support Function Annexes (ESF’s) that I considered the most difficult to put into force in the aftermath of the EF-5 tornado that devastated Moore.ReferencesBraden, G. (2014). Turning Point: Creating Resilience in a Time of Extremes. Carlsbad: HayHouse."Emergency Support Function Annexes."www.fema.gov/pdf/emergency. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Jan. 2008. .United States. (2008). National response framework. Washington, D.C: U.S. Dept. of HomelandSecurity.

National Weather Service. (2013, May 20). National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office. The Tornado Outbreak of May 20, 2013. Retrieved June 3, 2014, from http://www.srh.noaa.gov/oun/?n=events-20130520