Hurricane Floyd - Emergency Management Entity of Charlotte County - Case Study Example

Hurricane Floyd Case Study of Hurricane Floyd: Response of Emergency Management Entity of Charlotte County, FLORIDA 1. Statement of the Purpose: Charlotte county emergency management agency contains permanent workers of four and volunteers amounting to a most five persons, (Office of Emergency Management Charlotte County Florida, 2013). The county contains a population of roughly a hundred and fifty thousands and covers a surface area of 700 sq. miles. This interprets to a personnel-to-resident magnitude relation of one to fifteen thousand. This magnitude relation is not effective throughout ruinous events like Floyd. The rescue activities become overwhelming throughout serious emergency cases that the low staff-to resident magnitude relation causes lots of injury because the staff becomes overworked. Even the with the intervention of alternative emergencies from neighboring states, there is very little improvement because the evacuation systems in situ create constraints. The evacuation needs per individual on the instance of such ruinous event, as Floyd, is overwhelming for this low personnel-to-resident magnitude relation. On the fateful day of cyclone Floyd, the routes were slim and congestions were huge. The personnel were overcome by the quantity of needs per individual when Floyd attacked. With reference to the size of the county, the response to disaster that happens at the furthest distance from the agency location might not be handled with success because of low workers range. The area of coverage per personnel is such that the reaction time remains low despite early preparations. This could be worsened by inadequate instrumentality and transport for handling this kind of emergencies. 2. Description of the Subject: The recent rise within the instances of hurricanes, storms and tornadoes give possible indication of increase of the level greenhouse gases within the atmosphere. It is believed that increase of the quantity of global warming within the troposphere – lower atmosphere, will increase warming in high altitudes. Heat waves and droughts became extremely predictable whereas weather specialists and scientists still have confidence in noncurrent short prediction for the hurricanes, storms and tornadoes, (Herring, 2000). Emergency response agencies are ill equipped because the historical account of prevalence of the storms, hurricanes and tornadoes offers a lower chance of the events happening. Charlotte County is found on Florida’s East coast and has not experienced landfall of a major storm since cyclone Agnes in 1972, 32 years before Charley. However, recently, it was hit by two hurricanes, Dennis and Floyd, which confirms the fears over the result of worldwide warming and will increase chance of prevalence. Even with the noticeable recent rise in cases of hurricanes and storms, the native agency has remained inadequately ready in terms of range and experience of the personnel. All the personnel of the agency presently conduct emergency designing and coordination at the workplace level. There are only a few officers on the ground to implement these plans. The few volunteers are not enough to succeed in rescuing the whole population of a hundred and fifty thousand distributed over seven hundred sq. miles. Moreover, the unpredictability of the emergency events is probably going to place the volunteers at identical risk same as the residents rendering them useless. The shortage of infrastructure dedicated to evacuation method offers the personnel little time in effecting their obligations. 3. Chronology of the Case Study On September5, 1999, cyclone Dennis leaves after pounding the North geographic region two times. In real time, on September8, Tropical storm alias Floyd begins to form within the Atlantic. On fourteenth same month, it builds up into fourth-class cyclone before touching the Bahamas Islands as a landfall. After the strike, most of its energy is distributed and it reduces to second-class storm when it transforms into rains over North geographic region on September15. While uninterrupted at level two, it pounds Cape Fear within the morning of September16. Because of this action, Floyd dispenses most of its energy and reduces to the primary level storm by the time it reaches Virginia. The ensuing tornadoes strike Carteret and Pamlico counties. These activities drain of energy from the storm remodeling it into a tropical storm over the coast of New Jersey. The ensuing rains cause lots of flooding in North Carolina region by nightfall. This sudden and untimely flood long affects the lives of the native residents. Within the morning of September 17, over one thousand five hundred individuals are rescued from the floods. Late within the morning of same date, Floyd transforms and becomes extra tropical over the Marine Coast. However, its effects extends into affecting Greenville power station to lose power causation black out. Essential services depending on power become compromised. Continued flooding affects many individuals, the amount of individuals rescued hit over three thousand five hundred by September18. Many cases of death were reportable because of the cyclone hit in the dark and caught residents unprepared. The subsequent day marks the diffusion of Floyd because it merges with prevailing weather over Atlantic. The damages left within the wake of the cyclone approximated to 6 billion U.S.A. dollars. On September20, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, establishes a disaster recovery centers once the waves in Tar watercourse peak crests hits over 41 feet in Tarboro and twenty-two feet higher than the flood stage. Federal Emergency Management Agency is a government intervention for disasters that are larger for native agencies to handle. Flood stage refers to a stage at that flooding intrudes into buildings and streets causing a threat. The entire effects of the cyclone reduce by September 22and colleges like East Carolina University resume classes, (RENCI, 2012). 4. Results The floods that hit the region within the night of September16 destroyed homes and displaced thousands of families. The ensuing rains caused power blackout within the space resulting in stoppage of industries and essential services that depends on electricity. Since the floods attacked within the night, most families within the place were unprepared and consequently, several of them lost their lives. The floods and, therefore, the runoffs that resulted caused huge erosion. This led to high sedimentation within the Sounds of North Carina coast and Albemarle. This region is famous for its wealthy supply of fish and shrimps. The consequence of this was losses amounting to $19 for the fish trade for the industries. Colleges were not spared either. The county became endemic to water borne diseases like infection by fecal coli form bacteria. Moreover, the infrastructure like roads, bridges and waterways within the space were not spared. The roads were impassible and were destroyed by the floods. The crops were conjointly destroyed extensively within the space. 5. Lessons Learned: Most of the harmful effects of Floyd resulted from unpreparedness of the agency and the residents within the county. Part of the blame conjointly goes to the hydrologists that hold that the opinion that flooding caused by Floyd has a 0.2 % likelihood of prevalence. This theory is probably going to withdraw the resident’s attention to disaster preparation. As a result, the residents still live and put up developments within the place that is susceptible to effects of cyclone. The speculation conjointly makes Emergency Management entities like Charlotte County Emergency Management office to place very little efforts in terms of personnel, funding, analysis and instrumentality in preparation to such events. A catastrophe as Floyd could have restricted likelihood of prevalence however causes serious damages after they strike. This needs emergency management agencies to organize for any slightest prevalence of natural catastrophe no matter its chance of prevalence. Moreover, the events that characterized Floyd reveals that everyone the time the tornado was increase, the Charlotte County Emergency Management agency never thought of getting ready for the natural event. Floyd reached a couple of days when cyclone Dennis hit the adjacent county and, therefore, the native agency had the chance to require caution over chance of another cyclone. Despite the very fact that the chance of prevalence of serious flooding is low within the county, the degree of prevalence of ruinous cyclone ought to influence the physical designing of the infrastructure. This involves construction physical infrastructure together with housing and drainage to accommodate flooding. This leaves the emergency agency with very little burden of getting ready for unprecedented catastrophe. The FAME intervened once the native agency was overpowered with the disaster. The time of response for the FAME toward the consequences of the disaster is comparatively longer. This permits for lots of destruction to occur before rescuing operations commences. It is desirable to equip the native agency in terms of equipment and personnel to extend their capability to deal with disasters at local level. Recommendations The needs that ought to be addressed by the evacuation personnel included planning for the evacuation sessions at the multi-county and multi-state levels. There is also need to for better coordination between various evacuation agencies such as transportation, law enforcement and emergency management agency’s at the local, county and multi-county levels during an emergency. The personnel needed convenient tools to communicate with the public as well as with each other. The personnel also needed to provide timely information at all levels concerning road barricades, road conditions, weather patterns, incidences and alternative routes. They also needed to evaluate the capacity of the evacuation routes to ensure efficiency in utilization to reduce operational failures during evacuation process. In addition, the personnel also needed to determine the capacity of local streets that offer access to and from the evacuation zones and ensure that they are efficiently utilized to avoid bottlenecks during evacuation process. The evacuation routes need to be designed to suite emergency evacuation processes. There ought to be strategies on standby at all times to maximize the efficiency in detecting, responding and to clearing incidents on evacuation routes. The personnel should always collect data on occurrences of the emergency events; the effectiveness of the methods used and keeps them for future predictions. This data is used to improve response methods. Regarding the evacuees, they should be informed in advance about the evacuation procedures, the routes and destinations in case of an emergency, (Southeast United States Hurricane Evacuation Study). References RENCI. (2012, March 23). Retrieved March 7, 2013, from RENCI website: http://www.ecu.edu/renci/StormsToLife/Floyd/index.html Office of Emergency Management Charlotte County Florida. (2013, March 6). Retrieved March 7, 2013, from Charlotte County Florida website: http://www.charlottecountyfl.com/Emergency/ Herring, D. (2000, March 1). NASA-Earth Observatory. Retrieved March 7, 2013, from NASA-Earth Observatory website: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/FloydIntro/ Norris, B. (2006, October 25). Hurricane Floyd | September 1999. Daily Press. Southeast United States Hurricane Evacuation Study. (n.d.). Retrieved March 7, 2013, from http://www.csc.noaa.gov/hes/docs/general_info/SEUS_HES.pdf Read More