Disaster Management

 Definiton
A “ disaster "can be defined as any occurrence(unexplained) that
causes damage, ecological disruption, loss of human life or
deterioration of health and health services on a scale sufficient to
warrant an extraordinary response from outside the affected
community or area.

 What is Hazard ???

Hazard can be defined as any phenomenon that has a potential to
cause disruption or damage to people and their environment.
 What is the difference between Disaster and Hazard ????

• In their dormant state, hazard just pose a threat to life

and property, these hazards are termed as disaster
when they cause widespread destruction of property
and human life.
 DISASTER
 Human sufferings, risk of developing infectious diseases due to epidemics like
acute gastroenteritis, hepatitis A, malaria, etc
 Death of animals, destruction of standing crops and damage to the properties
 Roads, rails, bridges, electrical installation, telecommunication, buildings and
other properties are damaged
 Disruption of all the routine activities of the community
 Acute shortage of food, clothes, shelter, etc resulting in living problems
 Disaster either natural or man- made, slow or sudden have been occurring now
and then in different parts of the world
 WHO in 1990 has given the call to member countries to meet disaster and the
theme of world health day on 7th April 1991 was “Should Disaster Strike Be
Prepared”
Emergencies varies according to certain factors
 Type of Disaster
 Density and distribution of population
 Condition of environment
 Degree of preparedness
 Opportunity of warning
 CLASSIFICATION OF DISASTERS

1. Natural Disaster
2. Man- made Disaster
 NATUR̥ AL DISASTER
a. Earthquake
b. Tsunamis
c. Volcanic eruption
d. Landslides
e. Avalanches
f. Windstorm
g. Tornadoes
h. Hailstones
i. Flood
j. Droughts
 MAN-MADE DISASTERS
 CAUSED BY WARFARE
 Conventional
 Nuclear
 Biological
 Chemical

 CAUSED BY ACCIDENTS
 Vehicular – air crafts, train, ship, four wheelers, two wheelers
 Drowning
 Collapse of the building
 Explosions
 Fires
 Chemicals including poisoning
Man Made disaster
 COMPONENTS OF DISASTER MANAGEMENT(impt)
(Principles of Disaster management)
1. Disaster impact
2. Disaster response recovery phase ( after the occurrence)
3. Rehabilitation
4. Reconstruction
5. Disaster mitigation risk reduction phase ( before the occurrence)
6. Disaster preparedness
 Disaster Disaster
impact response

Disaster
preparedness
Rehabilitation
Disaster mitigation

Reconstru
ction
Disaster impact :
 Period of impact may be few minutes in case of earthquake, hours in cyclones and
days in floods
 Need of emergency care – given in the first few hours
 As emergency is in mass, the management is to be carried out in the following
steps
1) Search, Rescue and first aid –
 After a major disaster, the need for search ,rescue and first aid
 Uninjured survivors who come to immediate help
 They come to rescue and provide first aid
2) Field care –
 Food
 Shelter – tents, schools, and community halls
 Health care persons, police, home guards are deployed to the place
 Enquiry centre – to respond to patients, friends, relatives and family members
 Dead body – dead victim to be identified and adequate mortuary space provided
3) Triage – ( to decide the order of treatment)
 manpower and resources are limited compared to casualties
 Injured survivors are classified into categories based on severity and chances of
survival with medical supervision
 Triage approach
 “ First come First treated system is not their ’’
 Colour coding system of the victims, in priorities, carried out at the site
 Priority 1 – red colour – critically ill patients who need immediate medical
/surgical treatment within 6 hours
 Priority 2 – yellow colour – moderately ill requiring resuscitation within 24
hours
 Priority 3 – green colour – ambulatory patients of minimum risk
 Priority 4 – black colour – dead or moribund patients

4) Tagging – patients are identified with tags - name , age, contact, address and
treatment
5) Care of the dead - are removed from the site of disaster, shifted to mortuary,
identified and bereaved family members are received
Disaster Response :
1. Relief phase
2. Mass immunization
3. Malnutrition
RELIEF PHASE:
 This phase will begins when assistance from outside starts to reach the disaster
area
 Type and quantity of humanitarian relief supplies are determined by two
factors
1. The type of disaster
2. The type and quantity of supplies available locally
 The most critical supplies needed for treating causalities and preventing the
spread of communicable disease
 Supplies include food, blankets, clothing's, shelter, sanitary engineering
equipments and construction material
 Rapid damage assessment must be carried out in order to identify needs and
resources
 There are 4 principal components in managing humanitarian supplies –
acquisition of supplies, transportation, storage and distribution
MASS IMMUNIZATION :
 Against Cholera, Typhoid and Tetanus was given but not been proved effective
as causality or injury is more (WHO does not recommend)
 But vaccination is recommended for health care providers in order to avoid the
infection
 TT injection is given for required patients ( no incidence of tetanus have not
occurred after natural disaster)

MALNUTRITION:
 Natural disaster may affect the nutritional status of the population by affecting
one or more components of the food chain
 Infants, children, pregnant women, nursing mothers and sick person are more
prone to nutritional problem after disaster
 Immediate steps for ensuring food relief programme
a. Accessing the food supplies
b. Gauging the nutritional needs of the affected population
c. Calculating daily food rations and need for large population
d. Monitoring the nutritional status of the affected population
Rehabilitation :
Should be started from the time of onset of disaster
 Action of restoring someone to former condition.
1. Water supply
2. Food safety
3. Improvement of sanitation
4. Control of vector
5. Care of survivors
Water supply :
 important and best way of water supply is by means of
Chlorination with residual chlorine at the concentration of
0.7ppm
 Survey to be conducted to find the source of water and other
protective measures are undertaken like – access to human and
animal are avoided by constructing the fenceto water sources
 If well – avoid the contamination
 Human excreta and waste is to be disposed away from water
sources
Food supply :
 Food hygiene is to be maintained to avoid food borne outbreaks
 Food handlers are to maintain high standard of personal
hygiene
 People should wash their hands before eating and after toilets
Improvement of sanitation:
 Main problem during disaster – excreta disposal, water borne
disease, food borne disease, soil pollution
 To avoid that, importance to be given for proper disposal of
excreta by constructing temporary trench latrine
Control of vector :
 After flood damping of water that will provide the favorable
condition for breeding of vector resulting in vector borne disease
like malaria, dengue fever etc. so measures are taken to control
vectors
Care of survivors:
 Efforts to be made to reintegrate the survivor to the society by the
help of NGO’s, department of social welfare and orphaned
children are to be taken care properly
Disaster mitigation :
 It involves measure to lessen the likely effect of the disaster
 Protection of vulnerable population and structure eg structural
quality.
 Safety health facilities and public health service - water supply
and sewerage system.
 Mitigation compliments disaster preparedness and disaster
response
Disaster preparedness:
 Strengthening the capacity of the country to manage disaster
 It should be started by the community people
 It should be in the form of money, material and man power
 Measures to be followed :
 Evaluation from past experiences
 Location of the disaster prone area
 Adaptation of standard operating procedure
 Organization of communication, information and warning system
 Ensuring co-ordination and response mechanism
 Development of public education programme
 Co-ordination with news media
 National and international relationship
 Organization of disaster simulation exercisers ( fictional)
 Keeping stock of food, drugs and other essential commodities.