paper instructions:
During Module 2, you will be learning about the various disciplines of emergency management: mitigation, preparedness, communications, response, and recovery.You will also be reading a number of disaster case studies during this module from the EPS text.For this paper, you are being asked to apply one of each of the emergency management disciplines to one of the case studies and explain how applying this discipline would have improved emergency management.A completed paper should have selected five cases and each one should have one of the five disciplines applied to it.Do not repeat cases or disciplines in the writing of your paper. Do not merely summarize the case, but rather apply your understanding of the discipline to the case.A complete assignment should be between 10 and 15 double-spaced pages.The Disaster Case Paper will be submitted to me by Dropbox.
The Disaster Case Paper is based upon four categories: analysis and rhetoric, linkage to learning objectives, responsiveness, and mechanics.Analysis and rhetoric is based upon how well you fully flesh out the five cases and their linkage to the five disciplines of emergency management.Linkage to learning objectives requires that your Disaster Case Paper clearly link to at least three of the key learning objectives from the course.Responsiveness requires that your Disaster Case Paper meets the minimum criteria in length, 10 pages.Mechanics requires that you write a paper that is free of grammatical errors.You can refer to the Disaster Case Paper Rubric which is found within the Getting Started Module for more specific details on grading criteria.The Disaster Case Paper is worth 50 points.
Emergency Preparedness: Disaster Case Paper
Disasters are diverse in contemporary society. From history, various communities have witnessed different disasters ranging from earthquakes, hurricanes, flooding, heatwaves, oil spills, among others. The nature of disasters informs accidents of catastrophe that occur beyond human control. Therefore, these natural disasters come with untold risks to the environment, humans, and animals. As a result, it is imperative to understand the causes of disasters, the correct mechanism to address them, and the best practices for emergency management. Since the focus of disaster management is to map out early preparedness and thus arrest the adverse effects of disasters, by evaluating five disaster cases, the report outlines how each disaster occurred, its impact, and efforts to mitigate the emergences and the lessons that the authorities learned from the disaster.
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina hit the eastern side of New Orleans on August 29, 2005. The hurricane causes adverse ramifications for the entire New Orleans region. Almost 80% of the city suffered massive floods, with the destruction from Hurricane Katrina reaching an estimated 200 billion dollars. Therefore, the disaster was one of the most devastating and costly hurricane in the history of the United States. According to Epstein, Ameya, and Simon (2014), Hurricane Katrina descended on the coast of Louisiana with the strongest winds measuring 125 mph. The outcome of the hurricane was the destruction of the cities while New Orleans failed to withstand the storm’s impact.
After a day of the devastations, Hurricane Katrina reduced its force, with winds subsiding to about 95 mph. As a result, the National Hurricane Center issued a storm advisory with floodwaters poring throughout the city and falling leaves across New Orleans. The impact of the disaster prompted the Department of Health and Human Services to declare for Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Florida. The state government ordered the continued evacuation of people (Epstein, Ameya, and Simon 2014). However, the transport network was already at its knees, thereby crippling its operations. For this reason, the New Orleans mayor sought assistance from the federal government.
Hurricane Katarina was the most expensive hurricane in the history of the United States. The country’s damages resulted from level failure that left approximately 80 percent of the city covered with water (Epstein, Ameya, and Simon 2014). After the direct cause of Hurricane Katrina, approximately 1,833 people died in the five states of Florida, Louisiana, Alabama, and Georgia. The hurricane covered about 90,000 square miles of land, destroying over 300,000 homes. The impact of Hurricane Katrina was almost ten times that which Hurricane Andrew caused. The estimated economic loss due to the hurricane stood at over $200 billion, doubling the September 11 terrorist attack caused. Therefore, the total cost of the damaged property stood at 80 billion.
The results of Hurricane Katarina meant that over eight million gallons of oil spilled into the Gulf and left almost two hundred bodies unidentified. The affected land area, regions, and cities were contented with massive unemployment, poverty, humanitarian situations, and diseases in the aftermath. In Louisiana, unemployment increased twofold, while Mississippi suffered the destruction of almost 1.3 million acres of forest land (Epstein, Ameya, and Simon 2014). Therefore, thousands of residents in these areas could stare at the socioeconomic situation that burdened the Federal government with providing assistance and aid.
Recovery met various challenges. Although the state ordered an evacuation, several people remained stranded in New Orleans. Different levels of government made decisions to respond to the disaster. The decision to respond to the long-term and short-term consequences for New Orleans was the most logical one (Epstein, Ameya, and Simon 2014). The National Response Plan failed to outline the military intervention before Hurricane Katrina occurred. Little collaboration existed between civic agencies, military personnel, and the human services programs when the hurricane surged on. According to Valenzuela (2020), the National Guard State waited for the military to define the response initiative and other roles of external assistance in New Orleans. All these planning and recovery initiatives emerged as ineffective since none provided a satisfactory response mechanism in addressing the hurricane disaster.
The catastrophic Hurricane Katrina exposed the weaknesses in the disaster response policies and other models of emergency preparedness. Several lessons emerge from how the state department, military, and civic agencies handled the response and recovery measures. The federal and state government should recognize and modernize their emergency response plans (Epstein, Pawar, and Simon 2014). As a result, the focus would initiate an emergency preparedness approach that anchors social intelligence to increase the response approach and make other intervention processes effective. Moreover, a lack of collaboration and integration is critical between regional agencies and the military. The response to Hurricane Katrina would have been effective if the National Response Plan clarified the directions for the collaboration and integration of the military and regional disaster response agencies (Valenzuela 2020). Therefore, all state governments should develop a culture of disaster preparedness. Thus, the models of response would be effective in responding to situations. It is imperative to establish a modern protective structure to enhance evacuation and rebuilding, and rehabilitation after the disaster.
San Francisco Earthquake
The San Francisco earthquake of 1906 and 1989 had a considerable magnitude that caused continuous tremors and fire. The effect of the earthquake was causing a humanitarian crisis leaving the city in rubbles. The greatest catastrophe emerges as one of the notable disasters in the history of humankind. According to Molina (2019), the earthquake reached the magnitude of 8.3 on Richter’s scale and lasted for a minute. As the earthquake broke the primary water system, it also caused many emergency impacts on the entire city. The firefighters worked harder to drown the fires with dynamites and black dust. San Francisco Earthquake is among the natural disaster in the history of America owing to the severe damage that the city faced and the cost of damages it inflicted.
Uncovering the disaster is the primary focus of disaster management. In San Francisco Earthquake, the literature suggests that analyzing the cause and consequences that the city faced created the pathway for disaster management. Understanding the implications of the disaster helps to know the events that led to the earthquake. Therefore, San Francisco Earthquake occurred due to the fault lines at the epicenter in the Santa Cruz Mountains, almost 60 miles to the southeast of San Francisco city. The earthquake led a devastating impact on property and human lives. Accordingly, more than 3700 people sustained various injuries, with eleven dying (Molina, 2019). Also, more than 12,000 people became homeless as catastrophe destroyed property worth billions. The San Francisco fire department had experienced almost 36, with 34 percent of the fire incidences directly occurring due to the earthquakes (Molina, 2019). After the disaster, the entire San Francisco city faced power outages. Several buildings collapsed with the oak-land Bay bridge buckling, thus paralyzing transport services.
Communication was ineffective given the sporadic telephone services. As a result, the tremor triggered a tsunami in Monterey Bay. Therefore, with the tsunami, some areas suffered sea landslides, leading to 3 feet drop in sea level at Santa Cruz. Before the San Francisco earthquake, Oakland’s Firefighting stations had not experienced the pressure to respond to the magnitude of the disaster. Because of the power failure, the communication loss characterized the rescue mission’s challenge (Valenzuela, 2020). For this reason, the initial response of the fire dispatch center involved directing resources according to the demand at that time to take care of the disaster situation. Therefore, all the Oakland fire fighting companies provided the fifteen engines and enough firefighting staff members.
The San Francisco disaster department responded with emergency measures. The focus was to save lives by evacuating the affected and laying plans to start reconstructing the nation. Although the rebuilding process was slow, the city managed to arrest the impacts of the severe earthquake (Molina, 2019). For this reason, San Francisco and the State government used the incident command system and Emergency Operations Center principles in managing the 1989 San Francisco earthquake impacts. The emergency operation center coordinated the entire emergency response and disaster management on the catastrophe’s areas. Before the earthquake hit San Francisco, the Federal and State agencies had plans to relocate the operation center for the city. The justification was that Oakland Hills was near the faulty zone, creating challenges for the emergency response (Gomez, 2017). In addition, California rescue and fire mutual aid systems responded to the impacts of fire outbreaks. Following the earthquake, the State and Federal agencies dispatched a team of experts to fight the fires, rescue the people and save the property (Valenzuela, 2020). The principle of the emergency response indicates the stakeholders’ effort to use infrastructure resources to address the catastrophe and restore the environment, humans, and property to the original state.
Hurricane Andrew
Hurricane Andrew was a tropical cyclone that ravaged south-central Louisiana, Southern Florida, and the Bahamas in 1992. The hurricane emerged as the most effective Atlantic hurricane in the history of the U.S. Hurricane Andrew struck the target areas with the 130-mph storm surge. The impact of such a height of 15 feet in excess was havoc to several people who lost their lives and property. It is imperative to point out that Hurricane Andrew was among the deadly natural disasters to have hit the U.S, thereby destroying property worth 20 million dollars in 1992 (Gomez, 2017). Hurricane Andrew began as a tropical depression in Cape de Verde. The National Hurricane Center of the U.S National Weather Service classified it as a tropical storm. For this reason, the storm traveled northwest across the Atlantic Ocean. Tropical hurricanes have atmospheric pressure below 1,000 millibars (Gomez, 2017). Hurricane Andrew was a category five storm on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale. It blew on with winds of 161 miles per hour.
Hurricane Andrew had a severe impact on humans, property, and the environment. As it passed through the Bahamas and the U.S South Coast, it left significant structural damage to trees and buildings due to its strong winds. In south Louisiana, the Bahamas, and Florida, the cyclone left brunt impacts on people, leaving approximately 250,000 people homeless in Dade County (Gomez, 2017). Overall, about 26 people died, with over 25,000 homes destroyed while 100,000 others suffered a series of damages.
The state and federal departments of disaster and emergency response operated on the fundamental principles of mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. Before Hurricane Andrew occurred, stakeholders realized that there is no level of preparedness that can eliminate the potential threat t of hurricanes. The states had an active approach to responding and mitigating Hurricane Andrews’ devastations. It adopted several preventive measures that saw hundreds of thousands of people calling for rescue (Valenzuela, 2020). The severe storm surged on with wind damage, and thus, the Florida state built a resilient by design approach to help other stakeholders with withstanding the storm’s impact. The state established Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund to mitigate the impact by spreading the risks through mandatory reinsurance.
The greatest challenge for demonstrating an effective emergency response was the failure to track the hurricane. Primarily, the disaster agencies in Florida focused on forecasting the probability measures as part of the interventions to track the hurricane intensity. Although Hurricane Andrew varied its intensity across the areas in hit, foresters used rapid identification systems to monitor it. The authorities believed that the forecast would help in disaster planning and mitigation (Gomez, 2017). However, the lack of wireless communication devices made it challenging for the authorities to know how and when the hurricane would strike.
Northridge Earthquake
Northridge Earthquake was a disaster that shook the earth at the magnitude of 6.7 on the annual day of Martin Luther King. The nature of the earth’s quakes depends on how they strike. Therefore, the impact depends on the rough ground causing the ground to erode, twist and uplift. The factors that made Northridge Earthquake predicted were that it was inculpable (Valenzuela 2020). The earthquake caused part of the Santa Monica freeway to suffer huge damages with the collapse of the interstate, occurrence of fires from the eruption of valves and gas mains, and structural damages of building. Although the emergency response team had coordinated efforts, the entire Long Angeles established shelters, assisted with the emergency supply of humanitarian products, clean water, and authorities sought to return life to normalcy by restoring power (Valenzuela, 2020). Therefore, the city maintained the Local Hazard Mitigation Plan that outlined the hazards of the earthquake, assessed the impact, and created different rescue missions.
Northridge Earthquake was the most tragic moment in the history of American. After the earthquake, several people had died. However, it exposed how vulnerable the building infrastructure was and other fault lines in the city. The Los Angeles Disaster Preparedness Unit started the operation of saving lives (Valenzuela, 2020). It assigned a wide range of resources, enhancing communication networks and dispatching officers to monitor the situation on the ground. The priority of emergency response was to save a life with paramedic services taking the injured to hospital and rescuing others.
Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010
Deep-water Horizon was an industrial disaster that occurred in 2010. The oil drilling rig that was operating in the Macando Prospect in the Gulf of Mexico exploded. The outcomes were catastrophic as the drilling rig sank, causing the death of eleven workers. It also created the largest oil spill in the history of oil drilling operations. Almost four million barrels of oil flowed from the Macondo well for 87 days, from April 20, 2010, to July 15, 2010. (Pallardy 2021) The consequence of the disaster was that the oil leaked from a massive oil slick with a flow rate of 1000 to 5000 barrels per day. Therefore, the total estimated leakage was approximately 4.9 million barrels (Pallardy 2021). Deepwater Horizon is the largest oil spill in the marine ecosystem in the history of America. British Petroleum (BP) was the company in charge of oil drilling.
The economic prospects in the Gulf costs dwindled as many industries and residents could suspend their livelihoods. Moreover, the U.S agencies closed a third of the federal waters restricting fishing due to contamination. Although specific stakeholders argued that the government’s figures were overestimated, the oil spill had a significant impact on are of approximately 68,000 square miles of the ocean (Pallardy 2021). Such vast areas equal the size of Oklahoma. Also, the spillage expanded to other surrounding areas such as the coast of Louisiana, Mississippi strip, Florida, and Alabama coastlines. For this reason, the oil sludge spread in the Pensacola and the Gulf Islands and the Intercostal Waterway (Pallardy 2021). The disaster proved that there are few efforts geared towards emergence preparedness in maritime oil drilling. Reports indicate that underground water in the Gulf of Mexico appears contaminated until today, raising questions over the safety of humans and wildlife.
The presence of contaminated waterways indicates the impacts of the Deepwater Horizon because scientists and researchers in the Northern Gulf of Mexico have attributed the presence of dissolved oil and the delay of oxygen gas in the region to the disaster. Although the surface oil dissipated, an unknown amount of the oil remains on the subsurface (Pallardy 2021). As a result, the offshore of the sea alongside areas in the fine silts continue to exhibit the impact of maritime pollutions due to the disaster. The gas continues to combine with cold water in the waterway forming crystals of methane hydrate. It is these crystals that blocked the dome opening at the top.
Through Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S sought to enforce response mechanisms in containing the effects of the disaster. The humanitarian services adopted an evacuation and settlement approach to address the disaster that caused billions of dollars in losses (Pallardy 2021). The response from emergency teams made efforts to contain the dome over the leak of the hydrates. The emergency teams employed a top kill attempt by pumping the drilling mud into the well to stop the oil flow. Although these attempts failed, BP turned to the Lower Marine Riser Package cap. By this time, the damaged rise helped in reducing the flow of oil. Therefore, BP lowered the cap into the place and allowed some oil to escape. The outcome of this response made BP recovery approximately 15 0000 barrels of oil every day (Pallardy 2021). The success of the procedure helped stop the oil leak by sealing it.
Moreover, recovery was incremental. As oil dispersed, the authorities began reopening the sections of the guild to fishing. The state government struggled to create advertisement and awareness campaigns warning the public against the unspoiled and newly scrubbed beaches. The disaster management sought to implement the cleanup approach (Pallardy 2021). The national response team and other government agencies such as the Coast Guard and the Environmental Protection Agency coordinated the efforts for the cleanup. Coast guards held cleanup patrols that ended in 2014. The weakness in the overall response reflected the lack of regulatory oversight by the government. Also, there were negligence and timesaving measures on the part of BP and its partners.
References
Epstein, C. R., Pawar, A., & Simon, S. C. (2014). Emergency management and social intelligence: A comprehensive all-hazards approach. CRC Press.
Gomez, N. (2017). What We Learned from Hurricane Andrew. Nephrology Nursing Journal, 44(6), 501-503.
Molina, K. (2019). Disaster in San Francisco: The Literature on the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fires.
Pallardy, R. (2021, April 13). Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/event/Deepwater-Horizon-oil-spill
Valenzuela, D. (2020). Personal Preparedness for Disasters Approach To Best Practices Among Vulnerable Communities (Doctoral dissertation, California State University, Northridge).
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