Disaster Recovery
Content Table
Disaster Recovery is the process to aid critical infrastructures, people, or nation involved in the disaster and to orderly return back to standard state or operation. In addition,disaster recovery include the following steps:
- Rebuild resources
- Counseling adults and children to cope with disasters
- Ensuring public health and safety
- Community organizations and educators should assist in counseling people involved in the disaster.
- Provide services to help community in recovering from disaster.
- Environmental cleanup
Recovering from a disaster is usually a gradual process and safety is a primary issue, as are mental and physical well being (FEMA, 2010a).
Disaster Preparedness
Even though the probability of you or your family being injured or killed in a disaster is very low, it is extremely probable that your lives will be impacted (IEMA, 2011). Utilities may be interrupted for hours or even days; your home, workplace, or school may be damaged or destroyed; roads and highways may be closed; and stores may be closed due to damage or have shortages of the items you need (IEMA, 2011). Emergencies come in many forms, and they may require anything from a brief absence from your home to permanent evacuation (ASPCA, 2011).
As part of public services in every state in the United States, the Division and the local programs that make up the mental health, developmental disabilities and substance abuse services system provide help during and after disasters (NC-DMHDDSAS, 2009). Now this state system is also ready to assist with the effects of coping with pandemic influenza or man-made disasters such as terrorism and bioterrorism (NC-DMHDDSAS, 2009).
While disasters are often unpredictable, the harm they cause can be mitigated or partly prevented (WHO, 2011a). WHO/Europe works closely with Member States and international and national partners to help communities prepare for disasters, deal with their health consequences and mitigate their long-term effects (WHO, 2011a). Communities are particularly vulnerable when local and national systems, specifically health systems, cannot cope with the consequences of a crisis (WHO, 2011a). This may be because they are overwhelmed by a sudden increase in demand or because the institutions that underpin them are weak and cannot deliver what is expected (WHO, 2011a).
According to World Health Organization (2011b), Implementation of the activities in the area of disaster preparedness and response , are the following activities should be carried out:
- Strengthening the resilience and safety of the country’s health facilities to ensure they continue to function in the event of a disaster.
- Raising the awareness about the need to protect health facilities and ensure that they can function during and in the aftermath of disasters
- Simulation exercises to test hospital crisis preparedness plans will be organized in cooperation between the WHO and the Ministry of Health
- Development of national climate change health adaptation strategies, capacity building measures for climate change related emergency management of health care facilities, development of heat health preparedness action plans and creation of a meteorological early warning system for extreme weather events are planned
- Technical support in the process of gathering quality data for monitoring and evaluation of the functioning of the Emergency medical services
- Technical support in implementation of the National Strategy for upgrading the Emergency Medical Services.
Figure 1. Members of a Hazmat Team scrub a Volunteer during a "Red Alert" Disaster Preparedness Drill (Source: ABC News, 2011)
Figure 2. Disaster Preparedness and Response (Source: WHO, 2011a)
Disaster Aid Programs
According to the United States Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA; 2010b), Disaster assistance to individual generally falls into the following categories:
- Disaster Housing may be available for up to 18 months, using local resources, for displaced persons whose residences were heavily damaged or destroyed. Funding also can be provided for housing repairs and replacement of damaged items to make homes habitable.
- Disaster Grants, are available to help meet other serious disaster related needs and necessary expenses not covered by insurance and other aid programs. These may include replacement of personal property, and transportation, medical, dental and funeral expenses.
- Low-Interest Disaster Loans are available after a disaster for homeowners and renters from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) to cover uninsured property losses. Loans may be for repair or replacement of homes, automobiles, clothing or other damaged personal property. Loans are also available to businesses for property loss and economic injury.
- Other Disaster Aid Programs include crisis counseling, disaster-related unemployment assistance, legal aid and assistance with income tax, Social Security and Veteran's benefits. Other state or local help may also be available.
- Assistance Process -- After the application is taken, the damaged property is inspected to verify the loss. If approved, an applicant will soon receive a check for rental assistance or a grant. Loan applications require more information and approval may take several weeks after application. The deadline for most individual assistance programs is 60 days following the President's major disaster declaration.
Measures and Guidelines
(To be field in)
Related Article
References
ABC News. 2011. Report Reveals Gaps in Hospital Disaster Plans.http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Wellness/report-finds-gaps-hospital-disaster-plans/story?id=13221087 (Accessed on July 7, 2011).
ASPCA. 2011. Disaster Preparedness. http://www.aspca.org/pet-care/disaster-preparedness/ (Accessed on July 8, 2011)
Illinois Emergency Management Agency. 2011. Disaster Preparedness, Response, and Recovery. http://www.state.il.us/iema/disaster/disaster.htm (Accessed on July 7, 2011).
North Carolina Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Substance Abuse Services (NC-DMHDDSAS). 2009. Disaster Preparedness. http://www.ncdhhs.gov/mhddsas/disasterpreparedness/ (Accessed on July 8, 2011).
U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency. 2010a. Recovering from Disaster. http://www.fema.gov/rebuild/recover/after.shtm (Accessed on July 8, 2011).
U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency. 2010a. Disaster Aid Programs. http://www.fema.gov/hazard/dproc.shtm (Accessed on July 8, 2011).
World Health Organization. 2011a. Disaster Preparedness and Response.http://www.euro.who.int/en/what-we-do/health-topics/emergencies/disaster-preparedness-and-response (Accessed on July 8, 2011).
World Health Organization. 2011b. The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia: Disaster Preparedness and Response. http://www.euro.who.int/en/where-we-work/member-states/the-former-yugoslav-republic-of-macedonia/areas-of-work/disaster-preparedness-and-response (Accessed on July 8, 2011).
Further Reading
Preparedness Information When Its Needed Most (Red Cross)
Disaster Preparedness Prevention Initiative for South-Eastern Europe
Disaster Assistance Program (U.S. Department of Agriculture)
Post-Disaster Recovery Guidelines (United Nations Development Programme)
Links
Animal Disaster Plans and Resources by State in the United States (AVMA)
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