This document discusses disaster prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery. It covers: 1. Mental health impacts like post-traumatic stress disorder after disasters. PTSD can be delayed and occurs in three stages. 2. Disaster risk management involves a cycle of prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. Preparedness includes early warning systems, evacuation plans, and emergency communications. 3. The response phase aims to save lives and reduce damage. It has acute and stabilization periods focusing on search and rescue, shelter, food and meeting basic needs. Recovery restores normal life through rehabilitation and reconstruction over short, medium and long terms.

1. JIGJIGA HEALTH SCIENCE COLLEGE
Disaster prevention and preparedness
Mr. Mohamed Arab (Mph)

2. •Chapter two

3. Mental Health:
• Post traumatic stress disorder: Each disaster presents a slightly different
profile of emotional trauma. However, some trends are predictable. All
persons involved with a disaster will suffer to some degree from the
emotional trauma.

4. Risk factors for post traumatic stress disorder
development after disaster
• Intense exposure to death and injury;
• Exposure of survivors to dead bodies;
• Overwhelming life threatening danger;
• Unexpected or first exposure to disaster;
• Intense initial phase (prolonged stress);

5. Time course of post traumatic stress disorder:
• The development of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may be delayed
from one week to three years, and it is divided into three stages.
• • Stage one is associated with an adrenergic surge that occurs acutely, but
persons rarely dwell long term on the incident. It may last up to one month,
and, if symptoms last

6. • more than six weeks, the patients are considered to have been entered stage
two.
• • Stage two is characterized by a sense of helplessness and a loss of self-
control. Autonomic and somatic manifestations dominate. Moreover, it is
accompanied by lifestyle and personality changes.
• • Stage three is characterized by profound despondency and
demoralization.

7. Children in disasters:
• The actual degree of emotional trauma among children is usually
underestimated after disaster. The most important reasons for this are:
Risk factors of an increased emotional trauma in children:
• High intensity event; ™
injury to the child;
• Loss of parent or significant person;
• Fear of death, separation and recurrence of the disaster;
• Insecurity, lack of support;

8. The elderly in disasters:
• The elderly are indeed at an increased risk for physical injury in some
circumstances, the impact of the loss of spouse, relative, or even a pet may
be greater in the elderly. Another factor is the loss of self-reliance.

9. Therapy
• PTSD therapy has three main goals:
• Improve your symptoms
• Teach you skills to deal with it
• Restore your self-esteem

10. • Most PTSD therapies fall under the umbrella of cognitive behavioral
therapy (CBT). The idea is to change the thought patterns that are
disturbing your life. This might happen through talking about your trauma or
concentrating on where your fears come from.
• The best hope for treating PTSD is a combination of medication and
therapy

11. Chapter Three:
Disaster Risk Management Cycle
• In order to effectively mitigate disasters a complete strategies for
disaster management are very crucial, which are also referred to
as the disaster management cycle.
• Disaster management cycle :- includes prevention, mitigation,
preparedness, response operation, and
rehabilitation/reconstruction.

12. Disaster Risk Management Cycle

13. Section1: The Pre-Disaster Management
• The section presents the measure taken before the occurrence
of Disaster which is identified as the pre-disaster management
activities which are prevention, mitigation and preparedness.
1. Prevention.
• Prevention refers to the elimination or avoidance of a risk. This
can be done by addressing root causes of vulnerability through
identifying hazards and building on the capacity of the people.
Here are four terms you need to have clarifications, they are
hazard, risk, vulnerability and capacity.

14. Cont.……
• Risk is the expected severity of a disaster. It is the probability
of harmful expected losses resulting from inter action between
natural hazard or human induced hazards and vulnerable
conditions.
• The level of the risk will depend on the potential impact of the
hazards, the vulnerability level of people and their capacity to
cope with the situation.

15. Cont.……
• A Hazard is a phenomenon that has the potential to adversely
affect human life and activity, for example, conflict , drought
earthquake, volcanic eruptions, economic collapse, political
crises, epidemic, landslide, and deforestation.
• Vulnerability is related to the degree to which people are
susceptible to loss, damage, suffering and death.
• Vulnerability includes various factors including, amongst
others, physical, economical, social, political and religious
factors

16. Cont.……..
• A capacity refers to the internal and external resources. People,
households and communities have to cope with in situations
that threaten their life and well being.

17. Goals of Disaster Prevention
• Creating public awareness about safety from disasters
• Amending /Enhancing legislation for safety from hazards
• Planning development areas with safety from hazards
• Protection of habitations from adverse hazard impacts
• Constructing new buildings safe from hazards
• Retrofitting existing buildings from improving hazards
resistance

18. 2. Mitigation
• Mitigation activities actually try to eliminate or reduce the
probability of disaster occurrence, or reduce the effects of
unavoidable disasters.
• Mitigation measures include building codes, vulnerability
analysis updates, zoning and land use management, building
use regulations and safety codes; preventive health care and
public education.

19. Cont.…..
• Mitigation also indicates a short term process or set activities focused on
reducing, rather than eliminating, the likely hood of the potential impact of
hazard.
• The distinction between mitigation and prevention is often blurred and the
understanding of those terms will depend on individuals’ views and
organizational mandates as well as context.

20. 3. Disaster Preparedness
• Disaster preparedness is defined as a state of readiness to respond to a
disaster, crisis, or any other type of emergency situation. .
Preparedness generally refers to planning how to respond.
• The preparedness phase has the following three essential components.
1. Risk identification
2. Risk reduction and
3. Risk transfer

21. Cont.…….
• The aim of disaster preparation is to be able to reduce the
immediate mortality and morbidity with a better prepared, well
equipped service.
• The preparation includes early warning systems for seasonal
changes in climate, and risk of flood or drought, such as electronic
information systems and satellites that can provide information
over large regions and continents.

22. Preparedness measures include;
• Preparedness plan
• Emergency exercise /training
• Establishing early warning systems
• Emergency communication systems
• Evacuations plans and training
• Resource interventions
• Emergency personnel/contact lists
• Mutual aid agreements and
• Public information/education.

23. • Planning for various disasters:
• Two strategies for disaster planning include
• 1. The agent-specific.
In agent-specific planning, communities only plan for threats most
likely to occur in their region.
2. The all-hazards approaches
An all-hazards approach involves planning for the common
problems and tasks that arise in the majority of disasters.

24. • The following are some of the means to plan for disastrous situations:
• • Escape routes
• • Family communications
• • Utility shut-off and safety
• • Insurance and vital records
• • Special needs : Keep specialized items ready, including extra wheelchair
batteries, oxygen, catheters, medication, food for service animals, and any
other items you might need.

25. The Disaster Management Phase
• This section is built on during disaster management activities.
You will be learning the major response types taken during the
occurrence of a disaster and the activities of both the acute and
stabilization periods of the response phase. In other words, you
will deal with how to develop activities to be undertaken in
order to save lives and reduce property damages while the
disaster happens.

26. Response (Emergency response)
• Response is the immediate reaction to disaster. It may occur as the disaster is
anticipated, as well as soon after it begins. Examples
• include mass evacuation, sandbagging buildings and other
• structures, securing emergency food and water, covering windows, providing
emergency medical services

27. Cont.……
• To be able to response effectively, these agencies must have
experienced leaders, trained personnel, adequate transport and logistic
support, appropriate communications, and guidelines for working in
emergencies.
• If the necessary preparations have not been made, the humanitarian
agencies will not able to meet the immediate needs of the people.
• The response phase can be divided into two further phases; Acute and
stabilization

28. 1.The Acute phase
• is also called the early response phase. Emergency response at
the acute phase covers measures required in search and rescue
of survivors and in meeting basic survival needs for shelter,
water, food and health care. This includes rescue and relief
activities.
• The aim of emergency response is to provide immediate
assistance to maintain life, improve health and support the
moral of the affected populations.

29. Cont.……..
• Such assistance ranges from providing specific but limited aid, such
as assisting refugees with transport, temporary shelter, and food, to
establishing semi-permanent settlement in camps and other locations.
• It also involves initial repairs to damaged infrastructure. The focus in
the response phase is on meeting the basic needs of the people until
more permanent and sustainable solutions can be found.
• Humanitarian organizations are often strong present in this phase of
the disaster management cycle.

30. Cont.…..
• Experiences have shown that the basic tenets of responding to
specific needs and involving the local people are essential even
in the disaster setting.
• Direct relief’s response efforts are fast, yet they always involve
local partners and are coordinated with other international
organizations and government authorities to ensure the most
efficient use of resources.

31. 2.Stabilization phase:
• The stabilization phase is a transition phase to the recovery
phase. Even at acute phase, some assessments must be made of
the stabilization and pre-recovery priorities.
• Stabilization often refers to storing of power without which all
work is hampered
• It seems that you able to tell intervention phases during the
occurrence of disaster.
• At this phase therefore, the most badly damaged infrastructure
are need to be repaired.

32. The Post Disaster Management
• This section is an extension of these activities, i.e. What you are expected to do after the
disaster happens.
• Post Disaster Phase (Recovery Phase)
• Recovery includes rehabilitation and reconstruction measures and it refers to returning the
community to normal life situations. There are three recovery phases
• Short to medium term
• Long term
• Post disaster planning and mitigation

33. Cont.……….
• The short term phase generally begins immediately after the occurrence of a
disaster.
• The phase involves starting to clean up the mess created by disasters and also
beginning to plan properly for the long term recovery phases. The most important
job here is restoring the confidence of the community, which has lost assets, jobs
loved ones and leadership.

34. Cont.……
• Recovery: Recovery is defined as a comprehensive community process, which
should coordinate the redevelopment of the economic, social, cultural and natural
resources fabrics. covers interventions in rehabilitation and reconstruction. It is the
process undertaken after a disaster has occurred.
• Rehabilitation covers interventions to restore the full functioning of the society to
facilitate the recovery of the affected populations.
• Reconstruction is permanent measure to repair or replace damaged dwelling and
infrastructure to set the economy back on course.

35. Cont.…..
• Community participation in decision making and the speed at
which the economic activity is restored profoundly influence
the recovery process.
• Recovery measures, both short and long term.

36. You should also consider the following recovery activities
• Temporary shelter/drinking/water/food/clothing/minimum household
utility goods for victims.
• Repair of roads, electricity, and communication networks.
• Salvaging damage to agriculture/distribution of seeds, fertilizers etc.
• Restoration of health/education facilities or temporary alternative
arrangement.

37. Cont.…………
• The recovery phase is frequently underemphasized in disaster plans, but it is
crucial for the affected community. Recovery efforts should identify
opportunities for community development, especially in terms of creating
sustainable, safer, and more resilient communities.

38. • The four elements of recovery are:
• 1. Community recovery (including psychological recovery);
• 2. Infrastructure recovery (services and lifelines);
• 3. Economy recovery (including financial and political considerations, and
business continuity);
• 4. Environment recovery.

39. Community recovery
• What mechanisms and resources will be required to aid in the psychological
recovery of the community?
• What are likely to be the medical and health requirements of the community?

40. Infrastructure recovery
• How will we ensure the restoration of essential services?
• ™
How will our community access essential services? ™
• How will we ensure or facilitate restoration of living conditions and housing
security?
• How will we rebuild our community infrastructure? This includes ports,
airports, dry storage, roads, public transport, fuel, gas, water, electricity,
telecommunications, garbage and sewerage, waterways, parks, flora and
fauna.

41. Economic recovery
• What impact will disaster have on job security in our community? (that is,
both for displaced community members and volunteers in the recovery
process.)
• ™
What mechanisms and resources will be required to assist and ensure the
economic recovery of the community?
• ™
Who needs to be involved in re-establishing economic validity in our
community

42. Environmental recovery:
• . ™
What issues do we need to consider in preparing for and
managing environmental damage caused by a disaster event?
• ™
Who needs to be involved in this process?

43. Principles of disaster recovery and reconstruction:
• Three phases describe as to what happens to post-impact in the affected
community:
• 1. Emergency phase: activities should focus on saving lives through search
and rescue, first aid, emergency medical assistance and over all disaster
assessment. Efforts immediately begin to repair critical facilities,
• to restore communications, and transportation networks, and in some
cases, to evacuate residents from areas still vulnerable to further disaster.

44. • Transition or recovery phase: during this phase, people return to work,
repair damaged buildings and infrastructure, and initiate other actions that
allow the community to return to their normal as soon as possible. Victims
begin emotional recovery and may experience depression and post-traumatic
disorder.

45. • Reconstruction phase: is characterized by physical reordering of
communications, utilities, roads and general environment. Residents repair or
rebuild their housing and agricultural activities resume.
• Community participation is essential for planning the rehabilitation phase
because local people better understand their own needs and the problems
that create these needs.

46. Thank you