¶ … Disaster Communication Safety

International disasters including natural disasters pose a number of simultaneous challenges. Communication is an essential facet to life and particularly in life threatening situations, such as in disaster situations. Effective and stable communication is very important in providing support to people in need or danger during disastrous events. There are a variety of potential threats to communication during disasters; threats are contingent to the type or nature of the disaster, the severity of the disaster, the location of the event, and the duration. In disastrous events, there is a strong possibility that communication will be compromised, damaged, or temporarily inaccessible. Communication on the ground where the event occurs has a greater potential for damage and inaccessibility. The paper will explore the challenges international disaster agencies face regarding communication during disasters. Referencing a modern example, the paper will examine general and specific challenges in communication during phases of the disaster operation.

Problems to communication include when the disaster occurs in an area with a moderate to large variety of cultural, ethnic, and/or linguistic qualities. Language is definitely a realistic barrier when it comes to communication. International disaster agencies may have the means for lives translation,...

During the Sendai Earthquake in Japan in March 2011, there was a great need for people who speak Japanese. Japanese is one of the top ten spoken languages on Earth, but it is not a language spoken by many in the west. In this respect, language as a part of communication slowed the response from regions where there are fewer and less experienced Japanese speakers. For agencies that do not have the adequate linguistic reference, they face a huge impediment to serving the people affected by the disaster.
If the disaster has affected power, even with all the proper resources, communication may be impeded among international disaster agencies because of the severity of the disaster, such as a black out or hurricane. If there are internal communication problems in the area of the disaster, international disaster agencies face another obstacle in this way. If power and communications are damaged as a result of a disaster, despite the fact that international agencies may be able to communicate among themselves, the lack of communication is a problem. In the case of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, towns were flooded. Vehicles were swept away. People were missing, lost, or dead. Power lines were destroyed. All of these facts contributed to restrictions in communication within Japan as well as to the outside world.…