Disaster Management

• The systematic process of applying administrative directives, organizations, and operational skills and capacities to implement strategies, policies and improved coping capacities in order to lessen the adverse impacts of hazards and the possibility of disaster is called Disaster Management. 

Disaster Management is necessary or expedient for:

• Prevention
• Mitigation
• Preparedness
• Response
• Recovery
• Rehabilitation

Disaster Management Cycle or Disaster Cycle

• The six disaster management phases that have been used in the concept of disaster cycle are as follows

Pre–Disaster Phase

Prevention and Mitigation

• Reducing the risk of disasters involves activities, which either reduce or modify the scale and intensity of the threat faced or by improving the conditions of elements at risk. 
• The use of the term reduction to describe protective or preventive actions that lessen the scale of impact is therefore preferred. 
• Mitigation embraces all measures taken to reduce both the effects of the hazard itself and the vulnerable conditions to it, in order to reduce the scale of a future disaster. 
• In addition to these physical measures, mitigation should also be aimed at reducing the physical, economic and social vulnerability to threats and the underlying causes for this vulnerability. 
• Therefore, mitigation may incorporate addressing issues such as land ownership, tenancy rights, wealth distribution, implementation of earthquake-resistant building codes etc.

Preparedness

• The process includes various measures that enable governments, communities and individuals to respond rapidly to disaster situations to cope with them effectively. 
• Preparedness includes for example, the formulation of viable emergency plans, the development of warning systems, the maintenance of inventories, public awareness and education and the training of personnel. 
• It may also embrace search and rescue measures as well as evacuation plans for areas that may be “at risk” from a recurring disaster. 
• All preparedness planning needs to be supported by appropriate rules and regulations with clear allocation of responsibilities and budgetary provision

Early Warning

• This is the process of monitoring the situation in communities or areas known to be vulnerable to slow onset hazards, and passing the knowledge of the pending hazard to people harmless way. 
• To be effective, warnings must be related to mass education and training of the population who know, what actions they must take, when warned

The Disaster Impact

• This refers to the “real-time event of a hazard occurrence and affecting elements at risk. 
• The duration of the event will depend on the type of threat; ground shaking may only occur in a matter of seconds during an earthquake. 
• Whereas flooding may take place over a longer sustained period.

Response

• This refers to the first stage response to any calamity, which include setting up control rooms, putting the contingency plan in action, issue warning, action for evacuation, taking people to safer areas, rendering medical aid to the needy etc., 
• simultaneously rendering relief to the homeless, food, drinking water, clothing etc. 
• To the needy, restoration of communication, disbursement of assistance in cash or kind. 
• The emergency relief activities undertaken during and immediately following a disaster, which includes immediate relief, rescue, and the damage needs assessment and debris clearance.

The Post-Disaster Phase

• Recovery:

  Recovery is used to describe the activities that encompass the three overlapping phases of emergency relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction.

• Rehabilitation:

  Rehabilitation includes the provision of temporary public utilities and housing as interim measures to assist long term recovery.

• Reconstruction: Reconstruction attempts to return communities with improved predisaster functioning. It includes replacement of buildings; infrastructure and lifeline facilities so that long-term development prospects are enhanced rather than reproducing the same conditions, which made an area or population vulnerable

• Development: In an evolving economy, the development process is an ongoing activity.
• Long-term prevention/disaster reduction measures like construction of embankments against flooding, irrigation facilities as drought proofing measures, increasing plant cover to reduce the occurrences of landslides, land use planning, construction of houses, capable of withstanding the onslaught of heavy rain/wind speed and shocks of earthquakes are some of the activities that can be taken up as part of the development plan.