As we are just entering the aftermath stage of the Alberta Flooding and the crude oil train derailment - which saw large scale responses - It's important to ensure that our response team can meet the needs of the people/property we help - as well as the needs of our responders. The majority of these needs can be met by having good SOP's for the 'Response, Recovery, Mitigation and Preparation' stages.
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Clik here to view.
As we can see from this disaster management graphic from earthzine.org - an 'Event' such as the Alberta Flooding will trigger a response that will require emergency management and operations to be done - which will usually include;
- Warnings & evacuations.
- Rescues.
- Providing Immediate assistance.
- Assessing damage.
These stages will also have significant media attention, any mistakes/errors (perceived or real) may incur backlash from the public and draw your team/service into disrepute.
Having Pre-Event tasks completed such as;
- Pre- Event Activities such as 'home preparedness' awareness days or other public awareness campaigns, that would help instill preparedness in your populous is always a useful task.It may help alleviate the dependency on your team. On your response teams side, it could be planning appropriate personel scheduling all the way to ensuring that you have all the required stock levels for consumables.
- Mitigation/prevention - such as risk assessing area's and planning ways/methods to reduce the exposure to your team.
Post-Event your team may look at;
- Providing Ongoing Assistance.
- Assistance with the Restoration of Infrastructural Services, Resettlement & Relocation.
Other agencies, In the Post-Event scenario, may assist with;
- Economic and Social Recovery.
- Ongoing Development activities.
- Conduct Risk Assessments of the Current/Future Situation.
On an ongoing basis your team should look at the 'Pre-Event, Response & Post-Event' and change the 'Event' area to 'Earthquake Event', 'Fire Event','Flooding Event' etc. Your team should look at how it would conduct it's self in the 'Response, Recovery, Mitigation & Preparation' stages and look to have solutions to fix any issues that could arise. This could be anything from alerting the populous to an 'Event', having correct staffing levels etc. Another task could be to look at how other agencies/stakeholders would fit in during each of the stages and how you could work together with them to achieve the common goal.
Having an open and collaborative environment where teams can organise, plan, execute and record is the reasons we built Decisions [D4H] - Multi-Award Winning Emergency Response Team Software.
Written by Adam Scott, [D4H] Customer Success Dept, EMT & SAR Responder
