POST-DISASTER MANAGEMENT
Post disaster management is the aftermath of
emergency disaster management.
This consists of the following:
Enabling survivors to resume normal lives and their
means of livelihood.
Restoring normal lifelines and communications
Returning people to their homes and work places
Ensuring businesses back in place and economic activities
in full swing
Beginning housing reconstruction and repair
To describe the actions required for a smooth transition from the
immediate post-disaster relief and response phase to the
recovery phase.
To understand the need for detailed damage and loss assessment
To list the actions to be taken during the three phases of the
recovery and restoration (Reconstruction, Rehabilitation, and
Restoration)
To understand how to use the opportunity to change disaster to
development
The aftermath of disaster could be:
Some business may never recover
Communities may take an entire generation to return to normal
state
Each phase of disaster management merges into a
subsequent one.
This forms the path of a spiral
Recovery under Post-Disaster management is a long-term
recovery activities instead of immediate recovery plans
Under recovery, the following could be a table of
prioritized actions:
Critical life and safety issues
Search and rescue operations
Treating the injured
Re-establishing vital public services e.g.. Electricity
Providing emergency shelters
Recovery plans must proceed the occurrence of disasters
The plans should be concise and should outline the frame
work for long-term recovery
Set up a recovery task force
Embodied by community leaders, representatives of local
government and interested citizens
Community-wide task force can however assume this
responsibility
Form standing committees to address issues of
reconstruction, rehabilitation etc
Also, small committees can be created
Small committees are a true reflection of community wide
views and interests.
A team of representatives from the planning,
sanctioning authority, public works and emergency
management department could develop a strategy.
Local governments should provide technical
assistance for long-term recovery plans
A government funded recovery planning team,
including a planner, architect, economist, and
engineer should be formed
The develop set of strategies for reconstruction which
include specific implementation recommendations.
NOTE:
Recovery teams need same facilities as the
emergency response team
Communication links are required in order for all
parties to work together
A contrast between lost assessment during
immediate post disaster phase and recovery phase
can be seen in the table below
Immediate post disaster Recovery
Save as many lives as possible Save endangered lives
Get critical facilities in places Determine the victims needs
as soon as possible
Set priorities for action and
Reach as many people for scheduling]
medical and health care as
possible Provide data needed for
program planning and planned
development
The following questions help obtain the
information need
o What is damaged?
o What are the priorities?
o Where can these essentials coming from?
o How can funds be mobilized for each activity?
Complete a detail loss assessment to answer the
above questions
The following are prime in receiving information
Governments: they need the following information on the
impact of disaster
Individuals and families
Lifelines such as water, electricity, sewer, and transport networks
Critical facilities such as hospitals and government facilities.
Transportation facilities such as ports and warehouses.
Airports.
Fuel supplies.
The economy and means of production
The above information help the government to
know where to place assistance first.
Reconstruction Agencies: information needed
include-
Data about condition of survivors
Means of coping of the survivors
Ability of families to recover and reconstruct
Lender and Donors:
Require information about the overall extent of the
disaster and its economic impact
Insurance Companies:
Need information to make projections for
compensations of claims and mobilize resources
Some means of recording damages are:
Video coverage with scenario narrations
Field surveys
Over flights
Aerial photography
Remote sensing
Remote reporting
Four stages of recoding the damages are:
Before the debris is removed
After the debris is removed
Prior to start of repairs
After the damages has been repaired
Needs
assessment
Situational
Damage
assessment
assessment
5 useful
assessments
Health needs Social impact
assessment assessment
Initial reconnaissance
Immediate estimation of impact of a disaster]
This happens at the emergency phase of the post-
disaster management.
Determine the needs of:
Victims
Communities at large
Relief agencies responding to the emergency.
Classify needs into two
Immediate needs such as health, life support, safety, etc.
Long term needs such as housing and economic needs.
Determine the extent of physical damage in all areas
such as:
Buildings
Manmade structures
Agriculture
Economic base of areas affected
Specialists in each sector determine damages.
Example:
Engineers determine houses and buildings, lifelines
and major economic installations
Agronomics determine the losses to crops, forests,
orchards etc.
Involves epidemiological surveillance
Identify threats to public health precipitated or
aggravated by the disaster.
Establish a monitoring and medical response
capability
Identify disasters impact on community’ social
structures
Identify community’s own spontaneous relief
measures and their effectiveness
There are however variations in the assessments
due to the inabilities to monetary quantify all
damages e.g. life
The valuator would have to weigh the damages
based on the purpose of his assessment.
Damages are in two parts: Direct and Indirect.
Direct damages involve
Total or partial destruction of physical infrastructure, crop
lands and others
Estimated costs of demolishing and clearing destruction
areas
Indirect damages
They are not immediately apparent and quantifiable.
Indirect damages involve the flow of goods and services.
They interfere with production capacity and services.
o Examples of indirect damages include:
Lack of future harvests as a result of flooding of
farmlands
Loss of income for service companies caused by
services interruptions.
Loss of taxes with reduce economics activity
Examples of intangible damages caused by indirect
damages
Human sufferings
Insecurity
Solidarity
Effects on national solidarity etc.
Secondary Effects
Reflect disaster’s impact on the behavior of main
macroeconomic variables
Secondary effects have impact on:
Thegrowth rate of the overall and sectoral gross domestic
product
The balance of payment for external services
The level of indebtedness and of reserves
Public finances and gross investment
Identification of users e.g. health and medical organization,
housing agencies and others.
Defining the information needed for appropriate response.
Avoid collecting unnecessary information
Linking information to action. Information should be timely
and appropriate
Format: organize and achieve information in clear and
retrievable means
Timing. Determine the priorities of those affected and the most
appropriate time to response to various needs.
Location. Survey appropriate areas with adequate
description and classification
Standard terminology, relating and classification are
important
Proper interpretation for analyzing of different types
of damages, losses and accuracy is required
Appropriate dissemination of information to
response agencies is required in useful and timely
manner.
Central united states earthquake consortium
distinguished recovery from reconstruction as:
Reconstruction would mean permanent
construction or replacement of severely damaged
physical structures, the full restoration of all
services and local infrastructure, and the
revitalization of the of the economy (including
agriculture).
Recovery however is the physical, social, economic,
and environmental healing of a community.
Reconstruction stress the physical aspect of post-
disaster rebuilding.
It is a desire to achieve a better quality of life, improve
aesthetics and community design.
While recovery epitomizes the desire to return to
normal/pre-existing conditions, reconstruction
provides an opportunity to do it better.
The question is, are we to “to fix or start anew?”
With regards to buildings for example,
Careful thought must precede decisions about
buildings that are demolished or damaged.
Reconstruction programs that are ill-planned may
leave them almost vulnerable again to future
disaster.
It also creates complacency because something
has been seen to have been done
Reconstruction assistance should be designed to
Relieve economic constrains and reduce the cost of
production
Inject capital into the community
Create employment
Support and strengthen existing economic enterprise
Use of Baseline Data and Communication
Involve in Planning and Reconstruction
Some necessary information can gathered in advance
UNDRO study “Shelter After Disaster” suggests that
the following pre-disaster conditions be met.
1. Identification and mapping of hazardous zones
2. Description of prevailing building technique
3. Mapping elements at risk
4. Estimation of housing demands
Baseline data is especially important for
- epidemiological surveillance
- Economic impact assessment
- Agriculture and food needs assessments
Municipal planning
Disaster is an opportunity
Communities must take advantage of the services
offered by the municipality or agencies in the
communities
It is important to consider the municipality’s intention
Knowing what services are available will help to
eliminate duplication of effort.
Rehabilitation is the actions taken in the aftermath of
a disaster
Rehabilitation helps to
Enable basic services to resume functioning
Facilitate the revival of economic activities including
agriculture
Resume normal pre-disaster patterns of life
Rehabilitation is a transitional phase between long
term records and pursuit of ongoing development of
post-disaster impact
As the rescue phase moves toward recovery, you
will find that the community has suffered a lot
physical and mental trauma an loss.
Many people will have contributed a great deal
to rescue and response operations and it is
important to present this as an opportunity for
them to look for a safer and better quality of life.
Traumatic Rehabilitation
It can take years for people to heal after a trauma
suffered on account of a disaster.
In almost all rehabilitation programs, authorities
concentrate on the recovery and rehabilitation of
physical infrastructures and the health of the people-
that is , they look towards future opportunities.
It is important to show concern for the stress and
psychological issues of people who have gone
through the experience and those involved in
providing emergency response.
While assessing impacts of the disaster,
information on possible psychosocial effects of
the event and the coping strategies becomes
equally important in order to avoid any crime or
social unrest.
Another step may be to provide counseling
services.
A disaster can become an opportunity to fulfil
development needs, addressing issues of pre-
disaster delays due to unavailability of funds and
political forces.
Rehabilitation and reconstruction must be seen as
a process of restoring what previously existed. It
is necessary to develop strategies and modalities
to reconstitute services and renovate or replace
essential structures so that vulnerability is
reduced.
Assistance in rehabilitation and reconstruction must
be planned on the basis of a thorough assessment
and appraisal of the technical and social issues
involved.
While assistance planning cannot be unduly rushed,
it must be accomplished as expeditiously as possible.
There are two reasons:
Certain rehabilitation and reconstruction measures, if
organized rapidly enough, can shorten the period for
which emergency relief assistance is needed and eliminate
the need to invest resources in temporary resources
The window of opportunity for incorporating risk
reduction measures in reconstruction (of housing,
for instance) or for new development initiatives
(especially social aspects) may be short.
Seasonal factors must be considered and may
determine the needed timetable for reconstruction.
Lesson learned
Build evaluation into the overall response plan.
