The Nature of Accidents and Catastrophes - Case Study Example

Accidents and Catastrophes Course Name and Code Institution Name Institution Code Students’ Name Students’ Number Instructors’ Name October 19, 2008 Today, there are many accidents and catastrophes that occur in different parts of the world. Many people are dying and million worth of properties go down the drain. It has resulted to social, economic and environmental impacts to the affected people and locations. Different countries are developing policies that guides and manages its vulnerability to different accidents and catastrophes. Some common examples of accidents include the 7/7 London Bombing, 9/11 Twin Towers bombing which are accredited to terrorism. The aim of this report is to understand the nature of accidents and catastrophes and the classification of these catastrophes. Furthermore, a case study of Preston is analyzed in depicting accidents that may occur. Moreover, the analysis goes beyond Preston and it will analyze two catastrophes that are well known, the lessons that were learned and legislations that were developed to manage and control such circumstances. Finally, discussion of the UK disaster management plans will be evident including legislations and reconstruction strategies that are developed in ensuring that the effects of the accident and catastrophe are brought into an understanding. A catastrophe is an impact that causes a negative effect to the environment and the society. This means that catastrophes results due to lack of inappropriate managed risk. Hence, in our case a risk is a product that results due to vulnerability and hazard. However, a hazard that occurs in a low vulnerability area may not be termed as a catastrophe e.g. an uninhabited region. The impact of a catastrophe differs depending on countries. In the developing countries catastrophes are more devastating when compared to developed or industrialized countries. Generally, a catastrophe or an accident may be classified in two ways: Human-made and Natural. These two types of catastrophes depend on the causative agents (Halley 1999, p. 16 - 17). Classification of Catastrophes Man made disaster This is a type of disaster that has an influence to human inability and may result due to negligence, human intent, a failure or an error of a system. Hence, it means that the man made disasters are those which result from human hazards without any adequate emergency management measures that are in place. In most cases the man made disasters can be further be divided into two parts: sociological and technology disasters. Sociological disasters results due to the activities of man behavior in regards to other beings. Some examples of sociological disasters are the terrorism, civil disorder, crime and war. On the other hand, technological disasters results in the advancement of human needs in developing the right equipments and accessories that fulfills their needs. Examples of technological disasters are the structural collapse, industrial hazards, transportation and hazardous materials. Natural Disasters This type of disaster is a result of natural occurrence hazards which affects human activities. The extent of damage or impact to human vulnerability results to poor or lack of the appropriate emergency management and may lead to human, environmental and financial losses. This means that the loss that will result due to natural disasters depends entirely on the capacity that the population will be able to resist and manage the disaster. This means that a natural disaster may not be caused by a natural hazard but the vulnerability of the inhabitants. Natural disasters can be further be classified to what causes it. Land movement disasters are caused by the way that the earth or the soil in the earth moves e.g. earthquakes, volcanic eruptions. There are also the water disasters that are caused by the floods, tsunamis and limnic eruptions. Consequently, the weather disasters are caused by droughts, heat waves, blizzards and cyclonic storms. Others, includes fire, space e.g. solar flare and impact events and health and diseases (Bramwell 1997, p. 56). Modern Day Threats on Preston Preston currently has a population of approximately 130,000 and was given the city status in 2002. Preston is a developed city and has many vulnerable positions that may lead to disaster. Some forms of disasters that can occur in this location are the terrorist attacks, building collapse, transportation, diseases and climate disasters. Terrorism can be classified into two ways: one is targeting the civilians only while the other is employing force and violence in achieving religious, political or ideological goal. Therefore, the most common terrorism aspect that can affect Preston is the second one of use of force and violence in achieving a goal. Its impact can be witnessed in both on terms of financial, environmental and human effect (Melton 2004, p. 65). Many buildings in Preston can be destroyed when terrorists attack resulting in maiming and killing of the high population in the area. Additionally, it will result in causing socio-economic distress to the affect population. The equipments and means that the terrorists will employ will determine the environmental degradation that will affects the area. Commonly, terrorists employ bombs; whoever a case may arise when the use of chemical or biological attacks may result in huge damages. Preston is vulnerable when the high rise buildings collapse. Workers, visitors and other people within these buildings will be affected and may be killed. These structures may collapse because of natural factors such as earthquakes or man made factors such as poor structural design. This also will result to economical, social and environmental suffering to all populations that are in the Preston and beyond areas (Melton, W 2004, p. 70). Technological advancement and mostly in the transport perspective can easily result in an accident or a catastrophe. Preston supports various means in transportation industry such as the planes, motor vehicles, trains and water. In any complication that may occur due to the factors that are associated with the means of transport usually results either in death or economic and environmental degradations. Therefore, it means that Preston is vulnerable to occurrences of both man made and natural catastrophes. Natural hazards such as diseases and epidemics can also affect the population of this area and is compounded by the River Ribble which opens towards the Irish Sea and may lead to floods (Melton 2004, p. 71). Analysis of Catastrophes and Accidents Chernobyl Disaster This is an example of man made catastrophe. It was a nuclear reactor accident which occurred in Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant formerly in Soviet Union and currently in Northern Ukraine. It is ranked among the most disastrous nuclear accidents and it occurred in April 26, 1986. A reactor number 4 suffered an immense, catastrophic power excursion that resulted in steam explosion and dispersed a huge amount of radioactive materials (Bramble 2006, p. 290). The radioactive was detected as far as Sweden after workers there detect the radioactive materials in there clothes. At the instant of the accident two people died, additionally the effect of the explosion affected many people because there was no way that the radiation would have been contained. Environment was affected such as the creation of Red Forest and increased cancerous diseases to the occupants that are within the area that was surrounded by the nuclear plant (Bramble 2006, p. 301). Different lessons were learned because of the vulnerability that the organization exposed to the workers and the general population. For example the Chernobyl had no device that could control any leakage of radioactive materials which is evident in the Western countries. It resulted the country developing measures and means that could control any problem that resulted due to any accident. Furthermore, this accident development measures that could monitor and control any critical infrastructure. Since the time of Hiroshima disaster which is relates to nuclear activity it resulted in creation of bodies that monitor development of nuclear activities. Some organizations such has the European Atomic Energy Community (E.A.E.C) and Council Regulations have developed rules and regulations that monitor the nuclear technology. London Bombings July 7, 2005 This is an example of terrorism attack. It is also called the 7/7 bombings in which a series of coordinated bomb blasts occurred in London public transport system during the morning hours. It is believed that it was caused by British Islamists extremist who were angered by British involvement in the Iraq war. Generally three bombs exploded within a time of fifty seconds and the fourth bomb occurred an hour later in Tavistock Square (Bramble 2006, p. 89). The bombing resulted in 52 commuters killed and four terrorists while injuring 700 people. Additionally, it caused disruption in the transportation and mobile telecommunications infrastructure. Furthermore, there were side effects to those people who were affected and financial stability of the organizations. London authorities realized that their infrastructure was vulnerable and developed the level of security alerts. It enabled the government to develop rules and guidelines on how people moving within the governmental infrastructures should behave and the ability to access the said areas. The attack resulted to different tightening of legislative principles. An example is the Number 10 which launched measures including deporting suspicious foreign nationals and banning extremist groups. Additionally, the Treason Act of 1351 was brought into consideration in containing and bringing into consideration any future attack (Allred 2007, p. 191). UK Disaster Management Disaster Management Plan Emergency management is a sector that deals with avoiding and reducing risks that can result due to disaster scenarios. In addition, the disaster management involves means that supports responses to catastrophes and the way in which the society will be rebuild. In any disaster management plan there are steps that are taken so as to ensure that any loophole that may result in any emergency is brought into control. The stages that are employed by UK disaster management are the assessment, anticipation, prevention, response, recovery and preparation. Mitigation is the way that the hazard may be reduced to a level that is not catastrophic. Its means that it is a long process that defines long term measures that ensures reducing or eliminating risk and at times it may occur after the catastrophe to manage future risks. In the preparedness stage the managers who are supposed to manage and develop plans that manage the predicted catastrophe or accident. Issues such as chain of command, maintenance of equipments are some issues that are addressed in this phase. Response occurs when there as been an accident and includes factors such as mobilization and first respondents to the accident area. This brings in many organizations and private bodies to manage the accident and provide assistance. Finally, the recovery stage is the restoration of the accident or catastrophe area into its previous state. The restoration includes re-employment, rebuilding the destroyed property and repairing essential infrastructure. Legislation UK government has placed into consideration various legislations that guide the way that catastrophes can be managed and the way that is controlled. Additionally, there are organizations that are dedicated in controlling the way that these organizations control the way in which any accident or catastrophe can be mitigated and brought back to previous state. Some of these organizations and legislatives that have been created to manage them are Civil Contingencies Secretariat which was created in 2001. It is responsible for emergency planning and is headed by the Cabinet Office. Its main responsibility is to ensure that UK should be resilient against disruptive challenge and collaborate with other bodies in ways that the accident can be planned in advance and ways that will be used in maintaining and resolving the disaster. The Secretariat has three divisions; Operations, Policy and Assessment (Allred 2007 p. 67). Additionally, there is an Act of Parliament that provides the British government a wide array of powers during an emergency. The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 was derived to replace Civil Defense and Emergency Powers that was created in the 20th Century. The Act is split into three parts with two categories of responders. The first part is the Local Arrangements for Civil Protection and the second is Emergency powers while the third provides a legislation that is used to support the first two parts. Furthermore, the Category 1 & 2 responders are specified organizations that are defined in the Act that has the responsibilities that carry out the legislation (Simkin 2006, p. 10 - 11). Moreover, Institute of Emergency Management (IEM) was incorporated in 1996 and was dedicated in bringing in managers and professionals from the fields of emergency in researching the ways that may be used in resolving and improving major incidents and develop long term coordinated management. Reconstruction Strategy United Kingdom believes in holistic approach when it comes to matters that are related to recovery and reconstruction when collaborating with other bodies. This means that recovery requires an approach that supports community sustainability and capacity building that will reduce future risks to minimal and manageable levels. Stakeholders who are involved in means of reconstruction strategies include assets owners, insurance companies, lifeline agencies, non-governmental agencies and the construction and reinstatement organizations. To fulfill this, the government has developed stages that fulfill the reconstruction strategy. These stages include impact assessment, restoration proposal, funding arrangements, regulatory process and the physical construction (Simkin 2006, p. 16). There is a saying that accidents are not predictable but they can be managed or controlled if the right measures are developed. In most cases there are two types of catastrophes; man made and natural which depend on the causative agent. Man made results from man activities while natural is due forces that are not related by man but they can be controlled. Preston is a developed city with a population that can be affected by accident if it may occur. A catastrophe may occur in the technological advancement that is evident in the city. The tall buildings, transportation and terrorism are the likely causative that may lead to an accident or a catastrophe. Chernobyl Nuclear Plant and 7/7 London bombing are some examples of accidents and catastrophes that have occurred. Chernobyl accident resulted in dispersing of radioactive materials that lead to pollution of the environmental such as the Red Forest and many deaths were occurred. Furthermore, the cancerous diseases are evident till date. London bombings result to death of 56 people with a lot of economical and social damage. These are examples of how accidents may occur and affect people. UK government has developed plans that control accidents and catastrophes. She has laid down legislation policies that should be followed in containing and accident. Furthermore, there are strategies that have been developed that controls reconstruction of the areas that are affected by the catastrophe or disaster. Bibliography Allred, A., Addams, H.L., and Chakraborty, G. (2007), ‘Is informal planning the key to success of Disaster Management?’ Journal of Small Business Strategy, Vol. 18, Iss. 1, pp. 95-104. Baker, F 2006, Introduction to Disasters: Categories, O’Reilly Publishers, New York. Bramble, T 2006 ‘Understanding Chernobyl Accident and Other Accidents’, Journal of Sociology, Sep., vol. 42. pp. 287 – 309 Bramwell, B 1997, Containment of Disasters, Prentice Hall of Jakarta, Jakarta Davids, M., and Newcomb, K. (2006), ‘Examples of Disasters and Impacts to Population, Vol. 21, Iss. 4, pp. 22-25. Halley, N. 1999. 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