The Disaster Life Cycle and UK Disaster Management Plans - Term Paper Example

ACCIDENTS AND CATASTROPHES 1. Introduction Accidents, disasters whether natural or man-made, and catastrophes is generally viewed as unpleasant and disadvantageous life and property. These events disrupts the normal functioning of the economy and people significantly. Sources of disasters and catastrophes such as nature, technology, and willful acts like terrorism usually cause dramatic loss of life and possessions and can be disorienting to some people. The following sections discuss issues associated with accidents, disasters, and catastrophes. These include discussions on the nature of accidents and catastrophes and their classification followed by identification of various variables affecting or interacting to produce disasters and catastrophes including modern-day threats and frequency of disaster occurrence. More importantly, it will also discuss disaster life cycle and the UK disaster management plans. 2. The Nature of Accidents and Catastrophes and their Classification Generally, an accident is viewed as an undesirable event that may or may not result to physical injury or damage to property (Kulweic 1985, p.1380). It may be a short, sudden, and unexpected event with undesirable outcome (Hollnagel 2004, p.6). However, not all events that happen suddenly can be called an accident since it is generally meant for those that involved damage to people, objects, or both (Perrow 1999, p.64). There seems no universal definition of a catastrophic events but it is more often viewed as those events causing enormous damage to humans and properties (Skipper & Kwon 2007, p.110). According to Sarat et al. (2007, p.57), a catastrophe is a sudden, widespread, and extraordinary disaster originating from either nature or human. Human causes may include war, invasion, rebellion, military, civil commotions, technology, and other man-made structure. The natural causes on the other hand may include movements of the earth, air, or water. Historically, the losses associated with man-made catastrophe have been at levels somewhat comparable to the direct losses caused by natural hazards. However, according to OECD (2005, p.152), in the past years natural catastrophes have increased to a much higher level but the losses from a man-made disaster like the World Trade Center event is equally dramatic. Natural catastrophe is an event cause by natural forces that generally results in a large number of individual losses. It is more often the result of a vast ecological breakdown in the relation between humans and their environment such as drought, flood, etc. (Ryan et al. 2002, p.28). In contrast, human induced or man-made catastrophe are major events arising from human activities such as major fires and explosion, shipping disaster, rail and road disasters, mining accidents, terrorism, and building collapse (Faure et al. 2006, p.265). Natural catastrophes are caused by environmental risks that have low-probability of happening. For instance, earthquakes, hurricanes, etc can cause mass destruction and usually kills large number of people. On the other hand, man-made catastrophes are often caused by technological risks such as chemical accidents that adversely affect the environment and cause human health problems (Folmer & Tietenberg 2003, p.160). For instance, events such as a nuclear fallout in the power plant of the Three Mile Island due to human error, nuclear leakage in Chernobyl plant, toxic release at Love Canal and Bhopal, and situations like collisions, explosions, breakdowns, collapses, and crisis. There other examples of technological disasters where casualties involve lesser number of people than other disasters such as floods, road accidents and coastal cyclones (Singh 1993, p.26). 3. Variables Interacting to Produce Disasters and Catastrophes Disasters and catastrophe can strike even people are prepared (Cotts 1999, p.212). The man-environment relationship is changing and for this reason the occurrence of hazards, their frequencies, intensities, and implications are changing. Variables such as elements of the physical environment and technological hazards can produce disasters and catastrophes. For instance, the more weight that is loaded on to a bridge, the more it will suffer deformation and the changes are not very obvious. However, at a certain time, disaster occurs and the bridge collapse. Clearly, only few variables are involved in this type of disaster and it can be viewed as a move beyond the critical point (Szpiro 2006, p.119). Generally, hazards pose a threat to human life and properties and they are typically coming from natural processes (Hyndman & Hyndman 2008, p.3). However, although knowing the difference between crisis, disaster, and catastrophe is important, the line between what constitutes a disaster and what constitutes a catastrophe seems unclear. Some view disaster as the result of willful action or gross human neglect while others see it as an event which people have little control (Birkland 2006, p.4). Man-made disasters occurs because of human failure or error or the malfunction of some structure which incidentally also designed by man. Although a disaster, man-made or natural, causes severe damage, natural disasters such as volcano eruption or flooding is often predictable unlike technological or man-made disasters that are not suppose to happen. Generally, variable affecting natural disasters, except for volcanic eruption, earthquake, and the like, are human activity related. For this reason, victims of man-made disaster are sometimes seen as being partially responsible for their fate (Hodgkinson & Stewart 1991, p.37). 4. Modern Day Threats and the Changing Trends in the Frequency of Disasters Historically, disasters are more often occurred because of events in the natural environment with or without human intervention. However, modern-day disasters are different as it suggests they are as not only an ‘act of God’ but also acts of man. Modern-day threats can include atomic weapons created by man, conventional bombing, economic dislocations, expatriation and displacements, explosion, fires, invasion and conquest, massacre and pogrom, mine disasters, discrimination and restrictions, revolution, riots and mob violence, siege and strikes. According to Barkuan (1986, p.202), the impact of natural disasters has waned as new categories of man-made disaster have arisen in their place. This is because man, whom historically defending against the fury of nature has now made possible unnatural catastrophes to occur. More importantly, increasing scale has been of an important feature of modern society thus man-made disasters are no longer confined to a single locality but increasing in number and frequency. With particular regard to disaster, the 9/11 terrorism attack in New York represents a number of elements. However, the most notable one is intentional man-made destruction and confirmation of a new type of modern-day disaster. The 9/11 disaster is not just about destruction and terrorism but environment and risk to health and safety as its aftermath brought a number of environmental risk. For instance, according to Lundy et al. (2009, p.591), research found that residents and workers at ground zero were exposed to asbestos, lead, glass fibers, concrete dust, and other toxins. Like a natural disaster with catastrophic effects, terrorist attack can wreck havoc thus the nation must be ready to face a different risks and threats (Bea 2003, p.116). 5. Disaster Life Cycle and the UK Disaster Management Plans The phases of disasters have been defined in numerous ways and all divisions of a disaster lifecycle are artificial as one phase of a disaster merges with another (Hogan & Burstein 2007, p.4) Every crisis has a life cycle and disaster can be distinguishing in three main stages- ramp up, sustain, and ramp down. Each stage demands a different type of coordination based on the objectives and stakeholders involved (Tomasini & Wassenhove 2009, p.80). The ramp-up stage is where there is a critical need to remove the bottlenecks so relief and rescue can get to the scene of the disaster. The ‘sustain’ stage represents a consensus environment where humanitarian agencies coordinates and share resources to ensure sustained operation. Ramp down, as the third and last stage is where each humanitarian agency is concentrating in handing over their responsibilities and coordinate occasionally. In a more detailed description, disaster lifecycle are actions that starts with reduction, respond, recovery, resume, and ends with restore (Heng 2005, p.11). Commonly, the initial step in any disaster preparedness efforts is to understand the potential risks, followed by assessment of their viability and evaluation of the likelihood of the occurrence of a particular risk. Potential risks differ from location, facility, and activities involved thus there is no standard disaster plan that would fit one particular country, area, or facility (Schneid & Collins 2001, p.1). In an industrialized country like the United Kingdom, government sees effective disaster prevention in design and operations of major hazard installations. Moreover, to limit the impact of such disaster in people and the environment requires sufficient emergency preparedness and response strategies (Health and Safety Executive 2008, Executive Summary). To eliminate or reduce the possibility of occurring, parts of the avoidance strategies include safer design, high reliability plant, and learning from warnings. The UK government believed that controlling and reducing major hazards can be realized by improving the reliability of plant by both technical and managerial methods. More importantly, keeping these potentially hazardous plants away from populated areas (Health and Safety Commission 1984, p.18-20). Like many other country, the United Kingdom take into account how people perceived risks and recognize the facts that the country is surrounded by hazards that can result to unpleasant consequences (Health and Safety Executive 2001, p.10). Taking into account the consequences of several disasters in the pasts, the UK government through the Deputy Prime Ministers conducted a review of emergency planning arrangements. These include public consultation, which had helped the government conclude that an adequate framework for modern civil protection efforts is required. For this reason, a new legislation for civil contingencies was introduced in 2004 to meet the challenges of the 21st century. The Civil Contingencies Act of 2004’s focus is on local arrangements for civil protection and set responsibilities for local responders that would deal with extreme emergencies. Some of the responsibilities of local responders under the Act are to assess the risk and use the information to device or plan emergency response. Put in place an emergency plan and business continuity management arrangements. Make this information to the public by conduction awareness drive and advisory. Finally, coordinate with other local responders to ensure effective response (Cabinet Office 2004, p.3). Emergency planning in the UK context is to prevent the occurrence of emergencies and to reduce, control, or mitigate it when it did occur. The focus of emergency planning includes key groups of people such as vulnerable, victims, and responders. Similarly, the plan should cover three important areas that include prevention of emergency, reduction, control, and mitigation of the effects of such emergency, and alternation actions required in relation to a particular emergency. The emergency plan also comes in different types. Generic plans are considered the central plan, which can be use to respond to any known emergencies while ‘specific’ plans are emergency dependent and intended for a particular location. However, specific plans relies on generic plan and organizations may chose if they have to use a more specific plan (UK Resilience 2009, Emergency planning page). 6. Difference Between Disaster and Catastrophe Planning By definition, the noticeable difference between a major disaster and catastrophe is the severity and magnitude. According to Canton (2007, p.51), a disaster causes damage of limited severity and magnitude while a catastrophe causes extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, disruption severely affecting the population, infrastructure, environment economy, national morale, and government functions. The World Health Organization sees disaster as any occurrence causing damage, ecological disruption, loss of human lives, deterioration of health and health services on a scale sufficient to warrant any extraordinary intervention from outside the affected community. They will only call an event catastrophic if it is relatively large scale where loss of life and disruption to human activities is significantly large (Indian Science Congress Association 2003, p.1729). However, not all violent manifestations of natures such as earthquakes, volcano eruptions, hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, wildfires constitute a disaster. Disaster can also come from humans or societies that had built and develop structures on hazardous areas such as floodplains. For instance, a strong earthquake in an unpopulated area cannot be counted as a disaster but it can be a catastrophic in a densely populated city (Cornerio 1998, p.4). Disasters can become catastrophes when a certain event has low probability of occurring but it does occur and resulted to destruction so great and sudden that it disrupts all flow of events that follows it (Posner 2004, p.6). Catastrophes are more profound than disasters because they affect a much broader area, render local and neighboring governments unable to respond because they are also affected, and therefore require outside assistance or from national governments (Birkland 2006, p.4). Natural catastrophes may include pandemics and volcanic eruption while scientific or technologic catastrophes may come from lethal substances or hazardous structures produced by man (Posner 2004, p.35). Therefore, the difference between disaster planning and catastrophe planning is the extent to which it is intended. Catastrophe planning is large in scope, may require consideration external assistance while disaster planning can local, and limited in scope. 7. Glossary of Terms 9/11 – September 11, 2001 World Trade Center terrorist attack Accidents – primarily a small event that disrupt the normal flow of people’s lives and resulting to negligible damages. Catastrophe – a sudden, widespread, and extraordinary form of disaster that can originate from humans or nature. Catastrophic Events – are events causing enormous damage to life and properties. Civil Contingencies Act 2004 -.UK Government’s legislation to prevent the occurrence of emergencies or disaster. Disaster –willful action or gross human neglect where people have little control Disaster Life Cycle – phases of disaster that may include ramp-up, sustain, and ramp-down cycles. Disaster Plan – a plan to counter, reduces, avoid, and eliminate the harmful effects of disaster Disaster Preparedness – understanding the threat or risk, assessment of potential risk, and evaluation of the occurrence. Ecological Breakdown – drought, flood, erosion, and others produced by relationship between man and his environment. Generic Plans – generally the foundation or the central plan that can be use to support a more specific plan. Human-Induced Disaster – man-made disorders like war, invasion, rebellion, military confrontation, civil uprising, dangerous technology, fires and explosion, shipping disaster, rail and road disasters, mining accidents, terrorism, structure collapse, and structural failure. Modern-day threats – terrorism, nuclear arms, Atomic bombs, chemical weapons, etc. Specific Plan – a plan with special focus on a certain emergency. 8. Summary/Conclusion Accidents, disasters, and catastrophes, man-made or natural is destructive and affects the functioning of people’ lives and economy. Accident is a sudden or unexpected event that often has undesirable outcome while catastrophe is generally a large event that can cause considerable damage to life and property. Man-made catastrophes include war, hazardous technology, and potentially hazardous structure. Natural cause of catastrophe on the other hand can include flooding, earthquake, and other nature-based disturbance. Variables that may cause accidents, disaster, and catastrophic events include elements of the physical environment and technological hazards. Hazards threatens human life and disasters are commonly produced by willful actions or gross human neglect, failure, and unexpected malfunction of a certain structure. Modern-day threats include terrorism, advance technology used in warfare such as the atomic and nuclear bombs. Since society is advancing, the number and frequency of disaster also advanced considerably. The life cycle of a disaster can be generally viewed as the ramp-up, sustain, and ramp-down that requires different type of coordination. In the UK for instance, emergency preparedness requires different approaches and government are more interested to the source of the disaster. The country takes into account may variables including people’s perception of risk and the importance of public consultation that can help identify the appropriate framework required. 9. Reference List Barkun M. 1986. Disaster and the millennium. Syracuse University Press, US Bea K. 2003. 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