Emergency Response Plan Following the Floods Havoc

Emergency Response Plan

Following the floods havoc in the community, there were a lot of destructions that were experienced and this has been noted to be a common trend over more than five years despite the recommendations that have been put in place to ensure the destruction of property is kept at minimum as well as the general negative impact of the floods.

The following is a brief plan than can be used to asses the damages of the flood within the community especially on property. The focus of the plan is to look at the response that was put forth by the city council, the salvaged property and the partly destroyed as well as the completely destroyed property by the floods.

The key people that I would want to meet are the head of the natural disaster warning center responsible for the city, the police chief responsible for the town as well as the head of programming or logistics of the fire department of the city as well as the representative of the community group that is responsible for accounting for the losses of the community.

The first step will be to know if there were any warning signs from the disaster alert center to the authorities of the city and the dwellers in advance and if there was, how long before the disaster struck. I will then enquire from the police and the administrative authority of the city if they got the warning in time from the disaster alert center. If the alert came in time what steps they took to ensure the dwellers moved their mobile property like cars, furniture and other household goods to safer grounds. The head of fire department will also be vital in knowing how they helped implement the safety and evacuation process if at all they did. The community representative will as well indicate how effectively the community was informed and assisted in evacuation plans and how long ahead of the flood this was. The community representative will also be instrumental in getting the estimation of the property destruction.

Having found out that more than 50% of property belonging to the community members, there was need to look at the reasons why, despite having relevant mitigation programs in place over the last five years. The main reasons why there is no improvement are actually four. From the interaction with the various authorities and people within the community, it was clear that there was no timely warning passed down to the community, despite there being sufficient information with the disaster alert center. This was attributed to the various bureaucracies that were involved in the passing of information from the center to the community level. This killed time hence the floods caught most villagers unawares.

The second reason for the failure of the mitigation procedures that led to mass destruction was the lack of sufficient help and aid in clearing their property from the buildings as the available personnel and trucks from the fire apartment could barely met the demands of the people. This shortage persists despite the knowledge of the place being flood prone and the persistent need to have the community more staffed and vehicles assembled.

The third reason was the lack of proper direction on the rescue center and coordination among the leaders. The residents had to guess fro themselves the best places to relocate their families and property to. Unfortunately, as was indicated by the community representative, some of these areas thought by the residents to be safe were ultimately submerged with the property when suddenly the floods swelled further.

The fourth reason behind the failure of the mitigation process was the lack of the community sensitization and training programs entrenched in the mitigation program. The program concentrates more on the actions that the authority would take incase there is an emergency, yet it does not involve the cooperation and the steps the community members should take during such catastrophes.