The Ways of Responding to Disasters - Essay Example

Every society which includes, groups, communities, individuals, and organization are usually and occasionally in unexpected ways exposed to disasters. There are different kinds of disasters including the natural ones that are beyond human explanation like earthquakes, storms and volcanic explosions, industrial accidents, or technological failures like structure collapse, widespread power outages, and explosions. Other kinds of disasters started by human beings like riots and terrorism make normal society functional disturbed.

For years, people have slowly developed efficient means of dealing with and surviving disasters by coming up with precise emergency management procedures. Different groups have volunteered to help people in times of disaster the UN and the Red Cross organization by providing basic needs to the casualties around the world. Earthquake a natural disaster has hit a school that caters to more than 3 students in California and the superintendent is required to respond to the disaster, make decisions on what is to be done and ascertain that the students and their families are taken care of for more than 4 days.

To understand the different issues of disasters and their impact on different societies, researchers have come up with different phases of emergency management (. Spens & Gyongi, 2011). The first approach that the superintendent should take to ensure that the school does not turn into chaos is mitigation. This is the foundation of emergency management or response which is a continuous process supposed to lessen the effects that the disaster had on people and property. Response management is required to ensure that no or only a few people are in danger, and everyone receives the basic needs that they require.

The superintendent should ensure that each family stays together so that it would be easy to locate everyone. Ensuring that there are fire retardant materials in the right places is also an emergency procedure, especially in this situation where there is a gas leak causing a fire in various rooms. Resources required could be fire extinguishers, food, and sleeping material for the affected families such as blankets. The larger rooms like the gym and the cafeteria should be used as sleeping places for different families.

Mitigation also includes using the available resources to help survive the disaster. The families should also try to cooperate with people assisting and understand that it is a social disaster, and they should stick together to survive. Preparedness is the next response to a disaster and people should be well-informed about what to expect in the next few days of the disaster. Like families will not enjoy the luxury they do in their homes, and there are times when they will have to forego some things to get through the situation safely (Lennquist, 2012).

The adults should be trained on the emergency procedures that they should do if situations get worse. They should be advised on what to tell their children in case of emotional panic, and also be provided with basic first aid kits so that the superintendent does not have to do every single thing for hundreds of people. The students and their families should also be prepared if the situation does not get better in a few days and the measures they should take. The other phase is the prevention phase which is a response where the superintendent takes action to save more people as possible and prevent further damage.

The attending should ask for assistance from the male adults with fixing the leaking gas while the ladies should ensure that families get enough meals and other basic needs (Haddow & Haddow, 2009). The phase also includes asking for help from various organizations and communities for damage assessment and the rescue mission.