Classifications of Accidents and Catastrophes, Variables Leading to Accidents and Catastrophes - Essay Example

Title: Accidents & Catastrophes Name: Course: Instructor: Date: Introduction Accident is a specific unintended, unexpected, identifiable and unusual external action that occurs in particular time in a given place, minus obvious or deliberate cause but with significant effects. Accidents occur as result of neglection to circumstances that could have been acted upon to avoid or stop the bad incident (Perry, 27-45). This definition gives incidents such as fire, fall, collision, drowning among other to be grouped under accidents. These have been categorised in relation to level of impact they have to environment. Accidents are known to have minimal impact to the environment compared to catastrophe. On the other hand, catastrophes are non avoidable situations that cause bad effect in the environment. Some of these incidents are drought, earthquake, hailstorm, tornado and hurricanes (Lancaster, 153). Human beings have no control over catastrophes, they tend to depend more on region’s climate, the geographical features together with people’s behaviour as well as level of technology in a region. All in all, accidents and catastrophes are known to cause damages to the environment and people’s death around the region. In the context below, the paper aims at discussing the nature of accidents and catastrophes, classifications of accidents and catastrophes, basics variables that lead to accidents and catastrophes, modern threats, disaster life cycle, United Kingdom disaster management and the comparison between disaster and catastrophe planning. This is aimed at giving the reader knowledge on different types of catastrophe and accidents and how United Kingdom has tried to manage disaster in the country. Nature of Accidents and Catastrophes Nature of accidents and catastrophe are determined through (Lancaster, 113-198); The level of impact they have to the community. The cause of the incident The percentage of effect that the incident causes Basing on the level of impact, accidents are known to have low impact to the community while catastrophe having high percentage of impact (Perrow, 60-67). With the cause of incident, catastrophes are known to depend mostly on mass media while accident greatly depends on human behaviour. Catastrophes are known to impact very large region where as accidents have minimal impact on the environment. Classifications of Accidents and Catastrophes There are more than two classifications of catastrophe. Today, catastrophe are mostly classified into consequences of the event, area of the destroyed zone, nature, affected territories, duration and needed intervention measures(Lancaster, 152-215). This has resulted into many catastrophes such as earthquakes, tornados, snow avalanches, hailstorms and terrorisms. Therefore we can say that, different catastrophes result from the topic of classification. Basing of accidents classifications, they depend on the cause of the accident, element causing the accident, result of the accident and the solution of the accident. Basing on the element of the accident, we get air accident, vehicle accident together with laboratory accidents (Frolov & Baecher, 60-62). Variables Leading To Accidents and Catastrophes For any accident to take place, there have to be circumstances leading to them. Most of accidents and catastrophes have been believed to be as result of human beings behaviour in the society (Lancaster, 113-198). The people around the environment are known to contribute highly on occurrence of any incident. For instance, in the case of car accidents, there has to be some ignorance from the engineer for failure to notice the faulty aspect in the vehicle leading to the accident. With great change in catastrophe felt in our nations, it is thought to be as result of change in technology. Thus, we can say that technology have influence in occurrence of accident and catastrophe. It is to this variable that high level of accident and catastrophe are reported in developed countries compared to the number reported in non-developed country. Globalisation is the movement of people from one region to the other. This has contributed to high spread of flu from one nation to another resulting to health accidents and catastrophe (Lancaster, 113-198). For instance, with high level of international relation among nation, there has been high spread of HIV virus among people in the world. Thus we can say that, the level of globalisation allowed in a nation dictates the level of catastrophe or accident that occurs in the nation. Modern Threats Over years, the security threats facing the United Kingdom have been altered greatly. In the past, the government was more concerned with the fear of nuclear annihilation farcing them to come up with effective strategies and response to the threat in secret. Today, people have diversified in the form of threats that they involve themselves in; there have been the cases of terrorism, falling states and organised crimes threats (Banks, 65-97). With high level of globalisation in United Kingdom, modern threats have become so interdependent, complex cutting across traditional government departmental divides, challenging established interest and ways of performing activities. It has led to increase of threats in the nations. Example, the increase in international relations amongst nations has led to increase in flu pandemics in different nations. At the same time, globalisation has led to high technology among nations leading to production of very harmful weapons used by criminals in organised crimes as well as for terrorism in the nation. The major threat today has been terrorism. This is a systematic use of terror particularly as a means of force. It is also refers to violence actions meant to bring out fear, they are committed for an ideological objectives and intentionally target or take no notice of the safety of non combatants (Frolov & Baecher, 60-62). In the modern society today, the word is used by nations to delegitimize foreign or political challengers and potentially legitimize the states own use of terror against them. With high level of technology in United Kingdom, criminals are reported to engage themselves with development of destructive elements such as bomb used to destroy major cities in the region. Disaster Life Cycle This is the time frame for disaster occurrence starting with the period between disasters progressing through the actual disaster occurrence and the disaster response and culminating in onset of the next disaster occurrence. This difference in time begins at the end of the last disaster recovery and ends when the immediate event collapses. In normal circumstances, disaster response starts when the event occurs and ends when severe disaster reaction services are no longer required (Lancaster, 152-125). Disaster recuperation starts with the disaster reaction and continues till the affected regions assume the pre-event condition. There are six main stages that every disaster have to go through these will be discussed in the text. These are the stages that any disaster goes through from the time before the incident to the recovery time. According to Faulkner, there are 6main stages in disaster life cycle. First stage the pre-event stage, is the stage at which preparations and planning are done to avoid the catastrophe to take place. For instance, in case of sense of heavy rains that may result to flooding in the region, the management may opt to plan on ways in which they could save people form the targeted region and resettle them some where else. This is just for the purpose of saving he lives of people who could be affected in the flood. Secondly, is the pro-dromal stage, at this stage, it become quite obvious that the incident is at pert and non-avoidable. Then there is the emergency stage, this is the stage when the actual incident unfolds leading it to intermediate stage where by the community struggles to return everything into normal. This is achieved through rescuing people involved into the incident, saving the properties that might be of important to the community in later stage and coming up with ways that they can normalize everything in the scene (Lancaster, 113-198). This is the most crucial stage in disaster lifecycle as the party concerned have to act very fast to ensure that high percentage of people involved are saved. For instance, in the case of HIV epidemic in the world, the world health organisation had to come up with a way that could minimise the number of people being affected. They achieved this through coming up with strategies that could enable one to establish other status and thus keeping themselves safe and not affecting others. After intermediate stage, there is the long term or recovery stage that is mainly concerned with analysis of the situation. The people rescued are taken for treatment and any medical check up to ensure that they do not get future problem in relation to the disaster. At this stage, the community have the chance to redefine of reposition itself and can develop changes to the local tourism system (Lancaster, 113-198). The changes are made in relation to sustainable development and minimising environmental impact. Lastly, resolution stage this is whereby the state restores its activities to normal. At this stage, the disaster fades off in the community and people regain their normal conditions. These stages have been categorised into four main categories; disaster planning, disaster preparation, disaster recovery and disaster response. Disaster planning is the act of formulating a methodology for tackling disaster event, particularly one with the possible to occur abruptly and result to great injury and loss of life injure and hardship (Roberts & Ashley, 3-10). This takes place during disaster inter-phase. With disaster preparation, the management in entitle of the disaster put into action and implementing plans for contracting with the disaster before and after the event occurs, especially one with the potential to take place abruptly and result to great influence of loss of people life. This takes place during the disaster interphase stage in disaster life cycle. In disaster recovery, the management takes place action to return the interruption occurred into normal conditions (Hogan & Burstein, 3-13). Disaster response is the ability for the management to come up with better solutions for the intense challenges posed by the accident occurrence. United Kingdom Disaster Management Plans Natural disasters such as floods, tornados and earthquakes, and man-made disaster resulting from fires, chemical accidents, explosions and falling aircrafts and vehicles are prospective hazards that people have to be prepared to curb them. This gives every nation significant need to come up with strategies to manage disaster. Government have to allocate resources, provide legislation and do rational planning and sustainable development that will enhance disaster management in the country. Therefore, disaster management and planning is an essential element of government effort. We can then say that, disaster management plans are the ways stipulated by government to enhance disaster protection in the country. While coming up with the plan, the government has to put in mind the disaster lifecycle together with its six stages. These are preparation of disaster before occurrence, ways to respond to the disaster as well as strategies to restore the affected region to its normal conditions. The process is continues in every nation involving groups, individuals and communities to deal with hazards in attempt to prevent impact of disaster in the environment. Actions practices rely on perceptions of risk of people exposed. Effective disaster management depends on thorough integration of emergency plans at all governmental levels and involvement of non government (Perry, 27-45). Every action on each of the level tends to affect the counter part, and thus one has to be keen on what they involve themselves in to secure the protection for the community. In United Kingdom, the government has come up with various bodies to aid in disaster management ensuring the no tragedy take place in the locality. For instance, Fire Department (London Fire Brigade) take control of all the fire incidences that happens in the country, they have stipulated strategies to ensure that all buildings within locality are safe from fire. To attain this, they have come up with many fire protection strategies implemented within the country buildings to alert people in-case of fire thus reducing the impact of the accident to the community; they provide fire protective devices to citizens thus reducing fire cases percentage. Other than planning for ways to control the accident, the organisation is seen practicing all the stages in the disaster lifecycle (Matthews, Smith & Knowles, 37-46). They involve themselves with proper planning to prevent the disaster, rescue of people and properties in case the disaster takes place, the recovery of the scene to its normally condition together with improvement of the region to prevent future hazards to take place in the region. To facilitate proper disaster management in the country, the government has come up with Canadian centre for emergency preparedness program which assists through providing help to the disaster management community by means of consulting, delivering applicable programs and services and accessing information required. The organisation also coordinate wit other nation disaster management community to attain better strategies to implement in United Kingdom (Perry, 27-45). Through improving communication between disaster management community, levels of government and private sector, the organisation is able to educate all UK citizens on ways to protect their environment from disaster. In 1996, the government of UK carried out a survey on the level of disaster management in various departments. From their results, it was clear that, only 56% of managers reported positively towards the level of disaster management at their organisation (Matthews, Smith & Knowles, 37-46). This gave the nation a second thought on how develop better strategy to be implemented in the nation facilitating effective disaster management in all organisations in the nation. Differences between Disaster and Catastrophe Planning As much as catastrophe may be different from disasters, in terms of the time they occur, they impact same effect on the human being. According to Dr. E.L. Ouarantelli, a research professor and who is also a founding director of Disaster Research Centre, in Delaware insists that there must be a collective crisis for them to be called disaster otherwise they are just catastrophes. There are major three ways in which the two can be differentiated; societal level, organisational level and community level (Canton, 209-216). The paper will discuss the major differences that exist between the two and later on, look at the ways in which they differ in term of organisational level. The level of impact felt in the community differs. With catastrophe, most of community built construction are normally impacted (Banks, 65-97). For instance, in the case of hurricane Hugo it destroyed at least 90% of the total homes around the region. This gave the management team hard time to rescue people as there was no nearby home to shelter the victims. The ones who survived remained shelter less as they could not join their relative since they had as well been involved in the accident. To contrary, with accidents the impact of the hazard if felt at very low percentage in such a manner that only a section of the population are normally even in a major accidents. For example, in the earthquake that took place in Mexico City 1985, only 2% of the residential home constructions were reported to be lost with only 4.9% of the building had been damaged. In regard to this, the people in damaged home could move out of their homes and resettle at neighbouring region in the metropolitan areas. Basing on the level of impact exacted on properties, catastrophe are known to paralyse all their operational bases living them with no structure to house the management to facilitate the rescue process making work operation very difficult (Perry, 27-45). To the country, with accident, only sections of facilities are affected living great majority with no damage thus increasing the processes in the disaster life cycle. Secondly, in catastrophe, most of community functions are greatly affected resulting to increase in time in relation to disaster life cycle. In relation to accident, only the scene of the accidents are the affected region and thus, people can run for their security from other source leaving the region for further investigation, With catastrophe, no help from the neighbours can be attained. This is to the fact that, they also feel the impact leaving the whole community in danger. In other words, catastrophes affect multiple communities and have regional character. In contrary to accident, only few populations get involve into the accident giving the neighbours better chance to assist those in danger (Canton, 209-216). As result of this, it makes the incident to be attended to in timely manner reducing the number death and injured people from the accident scene. Catastrophe takes longer recovery time as compared to the time taken in case of an accident. This is in regard to the inability for the local officials to perform their duties due to the intensity of the impact (Perry, 27-45). Catastrophes are morel likely to be constructed by mass media. For instance, using high level of technology, one can develop a bombs increases the chance of threats in a nation (Perry 2005). This is contrary to accident as they only take place as result of human being behaviour. Conclusion In conclusion, as much as accident and catastrophe differ in term of nature, level of impact and ability to help, they still have same impact to the society thus calling for one process to be implemented in handling the issue. Thus every nation has to establish their disaster management plan to enable it operate effectively to the nation, giving citizens proper help in time of trouble. We can then say that, the more effective the nation’s disaster management plan the lesser the occurrence of accidents and catastrophes in the nation. Works Cited: Banks, E. Risks & Financial Catastrophe Palgrave Macmillan 2009 pp 65-97 Lancaster, J. Engineering catastrophes Causes & Effects of Major Accidents 3rd Ed Pennsylvania State University Woodhead Publishing 2005 pp 113-198 Lancaster, J. Engineering Catastrophes Causes & Effects of Major Accidents 2nd Ed Woodhead Publishing 2000 152-215 Perry, R. & Quarantelli, E. Disaster Philadelphia 2005 pp 27-45 Canton, L. Emergency Management Concepts & Strategies for Effective Programs Wiley- Interscience 2007 pp 209-216 Mattheews, G., Smith, Y. & Knowles, G. Disaster Management in Archives, Museum & Libraries Ashgate Publishing Ltd 2009 pp 37-46 Hogan, D. & Burstein, J. Disaster Medicine 2nd Ed Lippincott Williams & Wilkins 2007 pp 3-13 Roberts, S. & Ashley, W. Disaster Spiritual Care SkyLight Paths Publishing 2008 pp 3-10 Frolov, K. & Baecher, G. Protection of Civil Infrastructure from Acts of Terrorism Springer 2006 pp 60-62 Perrow, C. Normal Accidents Living with High-Risk Technologies Princeton University Press 1999 pp 62-67 Read More