The Crisis Management Systems - Essay Example

The crisis management systems: An overview: “A crisis can be defined as any unplanned event, occurrence or sequence of events that has a specific undesirable consequence.” (Sikich, 2008). One of the biggest crisis that have occurred in the past is the tsunami that occurred on 26 December 2004 as a result of an undersea earthquake spoiled the coastal regions in South Asia. (www.defra.gov.uk, 2008). The incident drifted the attention of various countries toward the possibility of incurring severe life and financial losses as a result of possible incidents like tsunami. This led to the emergence of a new concept of crisis management. Therefore, in an attempt to secure the countries against the harmful effects of floods, various governments have formulated tsunami management plans. These plans are meant to provide the course of action necessary to ensure a sound business continuity management when the business is subjected to risks by natural disasters like cyclones, floods, earthquakes or tsunamis. This paper discusses the tsunami management systems as developed in different countries in general with specific reference to the one employed in the United Kingdom (UK). Also, the roles and responsibilities of the government, media and the local community are analyzed in relation to the subject matter. A comparison between the tsunami management systems of the European and the underdeveloped countries: The European states have taken a step further beyond providing protection against tsunamis by developing Flood Risk Management (FRM) System. (www.floodsite.net, 2007). The system fundamentally comprises three phases as identified by (www.apfm.info, 2005) given as follows: 1. Advance preparation. 2. Real-time responses. 3. Post-flood rehabilitation. Practically, the advance preparation phase in the underdeveloped countries heavily relies on empirical methods of judging the possibility of tsunamis. The methods include but are not limited to observing behavior of the animals, water levels in dams and rivers and rains. Such notions persist in less educated societies in which a vast majority of people do not understand the technical language in which the flood forecasts are broadcast. However, history proves that their beliefs should not be underestimated. (Mott, 2005) mentioned in that prior to the tsunami of 2004, a strange change in the mood of zoo animals was noticed. The outdoor animals were observed screaming and running for higher grounds and the pets refused to move outdoors. (Mott, 2005). The risk conscious societies of the modern age are moving toward the development of a community based approach. The Community Flood Management Committee (CFMC) assesses factors needed to reduce the chances of tsunami occurrence and lays down the course of action that should be followed in the case of occurrence. They tend to eliminate the areas exposure to tsunami risks by monitoring the town planning originally. Secondly, such committees aim at adopting a planned and organized approach toward the management of circumstances that may result from tsunamis. Their key functions include organizing, planning and monitoring the overall tsunami risk management system. The real-time responses cover both the pre-tsunami responses and those occurring during the tsunami. The pre-tsunami responses typically include the Flood Vigilance Task Activities (FVTA) that constantly analyze the process of development of the tsunamis so that the CFMC can issue the warnings and generate reports in accordance with the findings of the FVTA. Warnings issued to the residents correspond with the level of risk an area is exposed to. Such programmes ensure that local people are formerly educated on the meanings of the colors and types of warning signals that can be installed to project any risks in future. In the case of occurrence of tsunamis, the CFMC provides the affected people with the required guidance and lead them to safe places. Besides CFMC, government has a very important role to play in order to rehabilitate and restore the routine of the affected people to normal. The CFMC requires funds to facilitate the people and those funds are generated by the government. The emergency management system in UK: UK has once experienced a very severe tsunami in 1953 that had resulted in about 300 casualties. This tsunami, which is often referred to as the “the worst national peacetime disaster to hit the UK” is listed among the first 15 of the “most significant meteorological events” that happened in the 20th Century by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. (www.bbc.co.uk, 2010). Since then, the coastal tsunami defense has been a matter of major concern for the government of UK. Today, a well-organized system has been developed to warn the areas subjected to high risk in time and the emergency plans are routinely formulated. Although UK is geographically located in a way that it is not quite subjected to high risks of tsunamis, yet the great tsunami of 2004 has invoked a sense of responsibility in the government to lay out an emergency management system to mitigate the effects of hopefully rare tsunamis in the future. The overall responsibility for the policy making and funding the tsunami risk management system in the UK rests with The Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). DEFRA is facilitated by the services of the Environment Agency and the local communities. In order to design an efficient system of tsunami risk management, it is necessary to assess the UK exposure to tsunami risk. DEFRA has therefore, generated two reports consecutively in 2005 and 2006 namely “The threat posed by Tsunami to the UK” and “Tsunamis - assessing the hazard for the UK and Irish coasts” respectively. (www.defra.gov.uk, 2008). The former report showed that the possibility of tsunamis in UK was not altogether negligible, but sufficient preventive measures had already been taken to protect the coasts against the largest expected heights of waves. The latter study was conducted to crosscheck and eliminate any grey areas in the former study. The Environment Agency is funded by DEFRA to take measures that would mitigate the chances and hazards of tsunami occurrence. Exercises are carried out by the DEFRA, the Environment Agency and other bodies involved in the process of tsunami mitigation on both local and national level in order to analyze their level of preparedness for all possible tsunamis in the future. It is imperative that certain factors are taken into consideration while designing a safe and efficient system. Such factors include but are not limited to the limitation of time for issuance of warning signals in the case of occurrence of a tsunami and the possibility of false alarms resulting from a high degree of risk assessment. Therefore, an optimum level of risk assessment and mitigation needs to be exercised in order to achieve maximum benefits without causing unnecessary inconvenience to the public. Tsunami mitigation strategies: Effective and timely communication is the most fundamental requirement of a reliable emergency management system. In the tsunami risk management system employed in UK, strategies are developed to test the effectiveness of the system. One such practice is the Exercise Triton which is meant to provide useful information about the efficiency of the system and the key agencies on which the system depends. The practice exercised in June and July 2004 was based on the most severe among the last 1000 floods and involved more than 60 agencies from about 35 different locations. They were told to act under the assumed emergency like they would if the emergency were real. The exercise was meant to check the efficiency of their communication with the public about the emergency and the preventive measures in general and the agencies involved in the plan in particular. (www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk, 2010). The overall plan led to the realization of important information regarding the inter-agency communication, efficiency and productivity. Besides, DEFRA leads the “Capabilities Programme” of the “Cabinet Office” which is related to the tsunami emergency management. The roles and responsibilities of the Environment Agency and other local authorities in the tsunami mitigation programme are laid out by the “Civil Contingencies Act 2004”. (www.defra.gov.uk, 2009). Responsibilities of media: The strategic planning of pre- tsunami risk management is considered a tough task because of the not-so-concerned attitude of the people in power. Usually, a recent incident would have a significant impact on the overall mood of both the society and the government and the need of an efficient pre- tsunami risk management system might be largely felt and taken seriously, but the perception would not persist for long. Soon after the memories of the incident start to fade away, it becomes increasingly cumbersome to receive an uninterrupted political support, vital for the formulation of a beneficial system. Also, owing to the very less occurrence of disasters, they are considered as uncontrollable and the government is generally reluctant to invest in tsunami control and mitigation plans. Investing in protecting the nation against natural hazards is similar to purchasing insurance, that might never be useful. Such an attitude dominates the requirement of mitigating the risks of tsunamis in the policy making. This is where media can play a very important role. Media should display documentaries that compare the experiences of countries that have undergone such hazards in the past, and show how the countries that invested in developing tsunami mitigation and management plans managed to incur less losses as compared to those countries that did not. Such documentaries can greatly motivate the people in power to take necessary actions against all possible tsunamis in the future. Besides, media also plays an extremely important role in the overall scenario of crisis because of its huge influence on the psychology of the public in general. What media says about the efforts of government in mitigating the risk and how it projects the efficiency of the tsunami mitigation plan will have a long lasting impact on the people. Media’s stance on the crisis management can serve to both reduce the people’s tension and exaggerate their anger to add to the already mounting tension. Hence, in the case of tsunami occurrence, it is the media’s responsibility to assume the position of a mediator and serve to calm down the public while keeping it updated on the current situation. The media should heavily emphasize on developing a general consensus among the public that the matter is being taken care of rightly. Media is indeed, the most fundamental and efficient source of information because all correspondence between the government officials and the public takes place largely through media. Therefore, if an emergency situation arises because of a tsunami, media should serve to carry the tsunami mitigating body’s messages to the public and guide them on the matters of safety and protection. Media should display the names of safer areas and encourage the public to move to those areas. In addition to that, media should also highlight what donations have been gathered to assist the affected people and where they can be accessed. Responsibilities of the government: Three areas need to be greatly emphasized upon by the government in order to exercise an effective tsunami risk management programme, namely, the research, education and exercises. The following examples illustrate how governments in different countries have played their role in the development of an effective tsunami management plan: Examples: 1. Institutes in Sweden: The following example illustrates how government can educate the public in general and youth in particular on tsunami management and offer them a means of training by incorporating the subject in their curriculum as practiced in Sweden: The Institute of Security and Strategy, that includes Crismart, has devised an 80 credit hour tsunami management training programme in collaboration with the University of Uppsala, and a 10 credit hour course namely “Crisis communication with aspects of the media” with the University College of Örebro respectively. (Askelin, 2003). 2. The Taubman Center for State and Local Government, US: The United States (US) has taken the mission of risk analysis and control to the next level by employing a system that aims at educating the governments on the assessment and mitigation of tsunami. An example of the efforts put in the subject by the US government is the Kennedy School of Government that organizes activities to enhance relations between the state and local governments in the form of programmes offered in the Taubman Center for State and Local Government and its affiliated institutes. (www.hks.harvard.edu, 2010). One of the programmes offered in the Taubman Center for State and Local Government is the “Program on Emergency Preparedness, Crisis Management, and Disaster Recovery”, aims at teaching ways to improve the response to natural hazards that physically impact the society that include cyclones, hurricanes, floods, earthquakes and above all the tsunamis. (www.hks.harvard.edu, 2010). Such programmes reflect the positive attitude of government toward understanding the need of developing means to mitigate risks inherent to the natural climate and location of a region. Programmes offered at the Taubman Center for State and Local Government serve not only to spread awareness and education about crisis mitigation and management in general but also enhance mutual relations, collaboration, interaction and understanding among the state and local governments vital to the development of an efficient and quick emergency response mechanism. 3. The Civil Contingencies Act, 2004, UK: The Civil Contingencies Act, 2004 of the United Kingdom (UK) is a very comprehensive guide that mentions what circumstances can be categorized as emergency. The Act allocates the responsibility of tsunami risk assessment and management to specific authorities in clear and concise language so as to avoid any misconceptions or ambiguities. Not only that, the Act also clearly notifies the tsunami management body of its responsibilities that include regular and frequent processing of the risk assessment, maintenance of plans and updates so as to ensure the availability of the precise judgement and control over the crisis on its occurrence, in case it could not be prevented in the first place. It is emphasized that the plan should be regularly exercised even if there is no foreseeable risk in the near future in order to assess the overall efficiency of the plan and modify the necessary areas. Further, the very body is notified of its responsibility to publish timely information in case of emergency so that the effects of the tsunami can be minimized. The Act clearly states the distribution of power to lay out a structure of regulatory authorities that would interact to formulate an effective tsunami management plan and also mentions the course of action to be adopted to ensure achievement of sound and productive interaction among the concerned bodies. In addition to that, the Civil Contingencies Act also notes the scope and conditions as well as the limitations of making the regulations regarding tsunami management. Conclusion: Tsunamis are natural and not always predictable. In a vast majority of cases, they are a matter beyond human control. However, timely action can be taken in order to minimize their harms to the society. This involves development of a strategy to prevent their occurrence in the first place. In case they can not be prevented, their after effects can be minimized by exercising an efficient tsunami risk management plan. This requires cooperation of government and the media with the body responsible for developing the tsunami risk mitigation plan. With the development of an effective tsunami management plan, countries have managed to cope with the circumstances well. References: Askelin, J. I., 2003. “Government should hold regular exercises in crisis management”. Framsyn Magazine. Available at: http://www.foi.se/FOI/templates/Page____3790.aspx. [Accessed: 7 June 2010]. Mott, M., 2005. “Did animals smell Tsunami was coming?”. National Geographic News. Available at: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/01/0104_050104_tsunami_animals.html. [Accessed: 1 June 2010]. Sikich, G. W., 2008. “"All Hazards" Crisis Management Planning”. Available at: http://cool.conservation-us.org/byauth/sikich/allhz.html. [Accessed: 7 June 2010]. www.apfm.info, 2005. “Summary of the synthesis of manuals on Community Flood Management in Bangladesh, India and Nepal”. 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