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Managing the Unexpected

Every where in the world disaster strikes leaving hundreds and thousands dead and the

devastating damage that these disasters leave behind has an enormous loss to the population

of the state related to the disaster. Over the last decade the world has been engulfed with

many environmental or natural disasters, although with a closer look they are human

affiliated, brought about by technological and human activities that result or increase the

chances of natural disasters.

In this paper am going to address disaster risk science as the system approach that will

help in the reconstruction of Haiti. This will also help in understanding what transpired and is

aimed at a theoretical broad based acknowledgement of risk brought about by disasters,

vulnerability factors and hazard interplays. This approach is basically aimed at pin pointing

causes that generate disasters, human attributes to disasters and also how to build strategically

analytical capabilities management on risk reduction practices and processes. This approach is

best suited for disaster management in Haiti.

This approach will help the reader to know the complex nature that disasters leaves

the native of the affected area, the vulnerable state they are left in. the risk and challenges they

face on daily basis as they wait for relief to come, these is especially felt by those people who

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are in the outskirts of major towns. This approach allows the authorities who are executing

this controls or prevention to take precaution on matters which are crucial and needs

immediate response.

Disaster is a tragedy or occurrence that can originate from natural causes, deliberate

intent or accidents which result in destruction of facilities, records and infrastructures. They

also are considered the most common natural threat to personal safety leaving behind many

losses of lives and casualties, disaster can also disrupt operations and can paralyses

operational networks of a state. (Quarantelli, E.L. (ed.) 2008 Pp 90)

There are many classifications in the subject of disaster and in this essay we are going to

classify disaster in three segments namely human conflict based events, natural disasters and

technological and human error disasters;

Human conflict based events falls in the class of human activities that create unrest

and reduce life expectancy in the human race, these factors include riots, civil unrest, suicide

bombing, wars, judicial killings and acts of terrorism. These man made disasters are observed

all over the world because of conflict between countries and within states.

Natural disasters; these are disasters that occur naturally but are sometime triggered by

human negligence and degradation activities in the eco-system and the environment. This

includes floods, storms, hurricanes, volcanoes, earthquakes. Tornadoes, forest fires and mud

slide. These natural activities that affect the demographical state of a country or region are

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some triggered by the human involvement in areas that are prone to these activities (Lee, &

Bui, (2000).

Deforestation in the tropical region makes the region venerable to floods, mudslides or

severe drought; these in most poor countries are attributes that most government sees them as

small agenda until when they create unrest like in Haiti.

Technological and human error attributes are the aftermath of human experiments

gone bad and the dire consequences can be very severe because in most cases the experiment

are nuclear affiliated like in nuclear power plant disasters or use of atomic war head in the

battle field like the Hiroshima and accident in plants like explosion of industrial plant in India

and Bhopal. Other include oil spills in the ocean, green house carbon emission in developed

countries, mine caving in incidence, fast trains collisions and pipeline fires outbreaks.

There are many levels of disasters and there are remedies to many but not the natural

cases like those of Haiti. Although some disasters can be due to negligence by the population

of a certain place, knowledgeable advice if properly deployed will help those who are like

sitting ducks to disaster prone areas like Haiti.

In this essay will look at mostly the state of Haiti and the nature of the disaster the

region has gone through from time immemorial. This has not been the first time that this state

has been hit by such disasters, for residents of this state are prone to tsunamis, hurricanes,

mud slides, earthquakes, flood and tropical storms. These disasters have the left the state in

devastated state and although analysts are quick to point out that most of this disasters are

human affiliated, some are just natural geographical state of the region which this country

occupies (Cuny, 1983). This natural effect that has been on and off on the calendar of this

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state and the level of governance that this first black led state in the Caribbean, has left the

state in a very poor position and it is considered to be the most poorest state in the Caribbean

and most of the occupants form the majority of migrants in the neighboring state Dominican

republic.

The recent turn of events in Haiti have left thousands dead and thousands reported as

missing and mostly assumed dead, have also affected are nearly all infrastructure in this state.

The complexity of the Haiti disaster is so complex that all infrastructure used to connect the

region with the outside world were affected by the quake. Just as the aid was gaining access

and temporary infrastructures were being set up to connect the town worse hit by the quake

were under way, another quake with lower magnitude hit this state.

This second disaster brought about fear to the occupants of this state and because of

the culture and beliefs in voodoos practices among the locals of this state. Fear of the people

are so high that they believe that it’s an omen that has befallen on them and many are opting

not to go back to their houses even in areas that the quake took less effect. (Wisner, Ben; P.

Blaikie, T. Cannon, & I. Davis 2004 Pp 321)

When this disaster hit Haiti the country was ill prepared for such calamity of that scale

and the government resources were paralyzed and some destroyed in the aftermath of this

calamity. According to Drabek, (1986) poor engineering of infrastructure in a region with

earth quake history is another factor, if the civil engineers of this state had paid attention at

the construction of infrastructures, then the magnitude of disaster left behind could have been

less, compared to the magnitude and the devastating level of destruction that the region

experienced due to negligence in the construction of the infrastructure by the civil engineers,

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the disaster response by the government of this state and the corruption level of this state is

another major attribute for the unpreparedness of this region. (Raphael B, 2003 Pp 299)

The unpreparedness nature of some third world countries, although this happens even

to advanced countries in economy and technology fall in the same class as disaster comes

unexpectedly, like the tsunami and earthquakes in Eastern Asia in the year 2004 and the most

gruesome attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon on September 11 2001, they need

disaster management. These are cycles of activities that begin with mitigating vulnerability

and negative impacts associated with disasters.

There is also preparedness for encountering procedures and provision of relief in

emergency circumstances like search and rescue and assisting in recovery of lost human life

and also physical reconstruction and the ability of the government to return life to normal

after a disaster.

Information is the key aspect to handling disaster and also for managing disasters.

Amdahl (2002) and Cutter et al (2003) advocate that most information required to curb

disaster and manage it have a spatial location or component. Although recent documented

studies by SNDR (2002) and Jain and Mclean (2003) indicate that there are considerable

issues with running spatial information or data which are a key requirement for disaster

management with reverence to data usage, dissemination access and collection. These

problems arise during the disaster response phase due to its dynamic and time sensitivity and

become more serious and problematic.

Mostly these problems that hinder a quick response to the emergency on the ground

are sometimes politically influenced due to lack of communication by the right authority or

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due to wrangles in power among top officials in the government. Mix ups can also affect

rescue on the ground because of lack of infrastructure on sites. For instance in Haiti we saw

that relief foods were being held in the airport as the rescuers awaited government clearance

and also interference of other foreign countries whom are assisting as they sanction who to

give aid and whom not. As the case also in Haiti when the aids of most Arabs states were

being turned away or the cargo plane carrying the supplies being denied clearance and landing

on the Haiti airport (Amdahl, 2002). This conflict of interest between those who are aiding the

country is another major issue deterring the disaster response as the country in this turmoil

needs no political leverage but quick assistance.

Disaster management needs certain disaster recovery programs and planning as this

minimizes the disruption of operation and ensures security and stability of the economy of a

country is not much damaged by the disaster. The objectives that go side to side with disaster

recovery planning and programs include; providing security sense, risk delay minimization,

standby system reliability guarantee, provision of testing plan standards, and the minimization

of decision making during disaster. This was mostly seen in the Haiti airport as the

government and the rescue teams had debate over which plane to land and how the relief

distribution should be executed making the people in need having to wait for a long time

before they can resolve their differences over how the operation should be scheduled.

Top management commitment by the government and organization who are offering

aid to the destitute should also be top priority for the programs to run smoothly, if the

government of the country in disaster is cooperative and information is easily passed around

then managing such a catastrophe would be an easy task for the principals whom are running

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operation would easily transfers information and appoints task for the efficiency of this

planning and the aid and relief will flow to their destination without much ado.

The government of Haiti could have put up disaster management plan and systems that

compliments any short coming from these disasters. Proper preparation and civil involvement

and awareness to the public could have been of help in curbing this calamity. This not been

the first time that this country has had this issues as in the year 1770 and 1842 earthquake

destroyed parts of this country leaving devastating wreckage and loss of civilian live, from

this and other natural disasters that has been associated with this region are reasons enough to

make the government of this state to step up the game in emergency recuperation and

awareness and response that will reduce the causalities for there are no methodologies that

can completely do away with natural disasters casualties. (Russell R. Dynes. 1970. Pp 120)

Creating awareness to the people of Haiti would have helped and the country investing

more on emergency response. This awareness would have help to curd environmental

degradation by the locals who had no idea of the dire consequences that are involved and the

triggering factors associated with the eco-system of this state. Proper set up of infrastructure

would also have encouraged good response from the emergency team provided that the

government of Haiti did a good work in contributing to proper and administration of proper

networking and good communication technologies and invest on metrological department for

warning and detection of such calamities (Feeney Et al, 69). Setting aside funds to cater for

the evacuation and administering aid of medical value to those affected by this disaster

Conclusion

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If only the government of Haiti had been prepared properly and the infrastructure of

this state had been designed to endure this natural calamity that this state is prone to, and also

if the issue of wealth margin would be addressed to promote equality among the locals this

would help address construction of earthquake compatible houses. Emergency response

should also be the first priority to the government of Haiti in response to disasters. If these

precautions are enacted and funds to address these issues are set aside. construction of

structures are controlled by the government then the next time this calamity hits will be met

with proper response and the numbers of casualties will drastically reduce. Insertion of this

model in the government budgetary funds set aside to curb unforeseen calamities should also

be enacted, there should be centers with qualified personnel’s for addressing the case of

unforeseen and early detection for creating warning for the locals to take precautions.

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References;

Amdahl, G., 2002. GIS for Public Safety. Available from <http://www.esri.com/news/arcnews/winter0102articles/gishomeland.Html>

Blaikie, T & I. Davis (2004). At Risk - Natural hazards, people’s vulnerability and disasters.

Wiltshire: Routledge.

Cuny, C. (1983). Disasters and Development. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Feeney, E., Chan, T. and Rajabifard, A. (2001). ‘The dynamic nature of spatial data infrastructure’, Journal of Geomatica. Vol. 55. No. 1, pp. 65-72

Lee, J. & Bui, T. (2000). ‘Methodology for Disaster Management Information Systems’,

Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. Vol. 1, No. pp. pp.1050-1084

Quarantelli, E.L. (ed.) (2008), what is a Disaster? New York: Routledge

Russell R. Dynes. 1970. Pp 100-134 ‘Organized behavior in disaster,’ USA, Heath Lexington

Books.

Raphael, B, (2003), When Disaster Strikes Hutchinson London. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press

Wisner, B. (2004), At Risk: Natural hazards, people's vulnerability, and disasters, 2nd

Edition, New York: Rout ledge

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