POST-DISASTER MANAGEMENT

 Post disaster management is the aftermath of

emergency disaster management.

 This consists of the following:

 Enabling survivors to resume normal lives and their
means of livelihood.
 Restoring normal lifelines and communications
 Returning people to their homes and work places
 Ensuring businesses back in place and economic activities
in full swing
 Beginning housing reconstruction and repair
 To describe the actions required for a smooth transition from the
immediate post-disaster relief and response phase to the
recovery phase.

 To understand the need for detailed damage and loss assessment

 To list the actions to be taken during the three phases of the

recovery and restoration (Reconstruction, Rehabilitation, and
Restoration)

 To understand how to use the opportunity to change disaster to

development
 The aftermath of disaster could be:
 Some business may never recover
 Communities may take an entire generation to return to normal
state

 Each phase of disaster management merges into a

subsequent one.

 This forms the path of a spiral

 Recovery under Post-Disaster management is a long-term

recovery activities instead of immediate recovery plans
 Under recovery, the following could be a table of
prioritized actions:
 Critical life and safety issues
 Search and rescue operations
 Treating the injured
 Re-establishing vital public services e.g.. Electricity
 Providing emergency shelters

 Recovery plans must proceed the occurrence of disasters

 The plans should be concise and should outline the frame

work for long-term recovery
 Set up a recovery task force
 Embodied by community leaders, representatives of local
government and interested citizens

 Community-wide task force can however assume this

responsibility

 Form standing committees to address issues of

reconstruction, rehabilitation etc

 Also, small committees can be created

 Small committees are a true reflection of community wide
views and interests.
 A team of representatives from the planning,
sanctioning authority, public works and emergency
management department could develop a strategy.

 Local governments should provide technical

assistance for long-term recovery plans

 A government funded recovery planning team,

including a planner, architect, economist, and
engineer should be formed
 The develop set of strategies for reconstruction which
include specific implementation recommendations.
 NOTE:

 Recovery teams need same facilities as the

emergency response team

 Communication links are required in order for all

parties to work together
 A contrast between lost assessment during
immediate post disaster phase and recovery phase
can be seen in the table below
Immediate post disaster Recovery
 Save as many lives as possible  Save endangered lives

 Get critical facilities in places  Determine the victims needs

as soon as possible
 Set priorities for action and
 Reach as many people for scheduling]
medical and health care as
possible  Provide data needed for
program planning and planned
development
 The following questions help obtain the
information need
o What is damaged?
o What are the priorities?
o Where can these essentials coming from?
o How can funds be mobilized for each activity?

 Complete a detail loss assessment to answer the

above questions
 The following are prime in receiving information

 Governments: they need the following information on the

impact of disaster
 Individuals and families
 Lifelines such as water, electricity, sewer, and transport networks

 Critical facilities such as hospitals and government facilities.

 Transportation facilities such as ports and warehouses.

 Airports.

 Fuel supplies.

 The economy and means of production

 The above information help the government to
know where to place assistance first.

 Reconstruction Agencies: information needed

include-
 Data about condition of survivors
 Means of coping of the survivors

 Ability of families to recover and reconstruct

 Lender and Donors:
 Require information about the overall extent of the
disaster and its economic impact

 Insurance Companies:
 Need information to make projections for
compensations of claims and mobilize resources
 Some means of recording damages are:
 Video coverage with scenario narrations
 Field surveys
 Over flights
 Aerial photography
 Remote sensing
 Remote reporting

 Four stages of recoding the damages are:

 Before the debris is removed
 After the debris is removed
 Prior to start of repairs
 After the damages has been repaired
 Needs
assessment
Situational
Damage
assessment
assessment
5 useful
assessments

Health needs Social impact

assessment assessment
 Initial reconnaissance

 Immediate estimation of impact of a disaster]

 This happens at the emergency phase of the post-

disaster management.
 Determine the needs of:
 Victims
 Communities at large
 Relief agencies responding to the emergency.

 Classify needs into two

 Immediate needs such as health, life support, safety, etc.
 Long term needs such as housing and economic needs.
 Determine the extent of physical damage in all areas
such as:
 Buildings
 Manmade structures
 Agriculture
 Economic base of areas affected

 Specialists in each sector determine damages.

Example:
 Engineers determine houses and buildings, lifelines
and major economic installations
 Agronomics determine the losses to crops, forests,
orchards etc.
 Involves epidemiological surveillance

 Identify threats to public health precipitated or

aggravated by the disaster.

 Establish a monitoring and medical response

capability
 Identify disasters impact on community’ social
structures

 Identify community’s own spontaneous relief

measures and their effectiveness
 There are however variations in the assessments
due to the inabilities to monetary quantify all
damages e.g. life

 The valuator would have to weigh the damages

based on the purpose of his assessment.
 Damages are in two parts: Direct and Indirect.

 Direct damages involve

 Total or partial destruction of physical infrastructure, crop
lands and others
 Estimated costs of demolishing and clearing destruction
areas

 Indirect damages
 They are not immediately apparent and quantifiable.
 Indirect damages involve the flow of goods and services.
  They interfere with production capacity and services.

o Examples of indirect damages include:

 Lack of future harvests as a result of flooding of
farmlands
 Loss of income for service companies caused by
services interruptions.
 Loss of taxes with reduce economics activity
  Examples of intangible damages caused by indirect
damages
 Human sufferings
 Insecurity
 Solidarity
 Effects on national solidarity etc.

 Secondary Effects
 Reflect disaster’s impact on the behavior of main
macroeconomic variables
 Secondary effects have impact on:

 Thegrowth rate of the overall and sectoral gross domestic

product

 The balance of payment for external services

 The level of indebtedness and of reserves

 Public finances and gross investment

 Identification of users e.g. health and medical organization,
housing agencies and others.

 Defining the information needed for appropriate response.

Avoid collecting unnecessary information

 Linking information to action. Information should be timely

and appropriate

 Format: organize and achieve information in clear and

retrievable means

 Timing. Determine the priorities of those affected and the most

appropriate time to response to various needs.
 Location. Survey appropriate areas with adequate
description and classification
 Standard terminology, relating and classification are
important

 Proper interpretation for analyzing of different types

of damages, losses and accuracy is required

 Appropriate dissemination of information to

response agencies is required in useful and timely
manner.
 Central united states earthquake consortium
distinguished recovery from reconstruction as:

 Reconstruction would mean permanent

construction or replacement of severely damaged
physical structures, the full restoration of all
services and local infrastructure, and the
revitalization of the of the economy (including
agriculture).
 Recovery however is the physical, social, economic,
and environmental healing of a community.

 Reconstruction stress the physical aspect of post-

disaster rebuilding.
 It is a desire to achieve a better quality of life, improve
aesthetics and community design.

 While recovery epitomizes the desire to return to

normal/pre-existing conditions, reconstruction
provides an opportunity to do it better.
 The question is, are we to “to fix or start anew?”

 With regards to buildings for example,

Careful thought must precede decisions about
buildings that are demolished or damaged.
 Reconstruction programs that are ill-planned may
leave them almost vulnerable again to future
disaster.

 It also creates complacency because something

has been seen to have been done

 Reconstruction assistance should be designed to

 Relieve economic constrains and reduce the cost of
production
 Inject capital into the community

 Create employment

 Support and strengthen existing economic enterprise

 Use of Baseline Data and Communication
Involve in Planning and Reconstruction
 Some necessary information can gathered in advance

 UNDRO study “Shelter After Disaster” suggests that

the following pre-disaster conditions be met.
1. Identification and mapping of hazardous zones
2. Description of prevailing building technique
3. Mapping elements at risk
4. Estimation of housing demands
 Baseline data is especially important for
- epidemiological surveillance
- Economic impact assessment
- Agriculture and food needs assessments

 Municipal planning
 Disaster is an opportunity
 Communities must take advantage of the services
offered by the municipality or agencies in the
communities
 It is important to consider the municipality’s intention

 Knowing what services are available will help to

eliminate duplication of effort.
 Rehabilitation is the actions taken in the aftermath of
a disaster

 Rehabilitation helps to
 Enable basic services to resume functioning
 Facilitate the revival of economic activities including
agriculture
 Resume normal pre-disaster patterns of life

 Rehabilitation is a transitional phase between long

term records and pursuit of ongoing development of
post-disaster impact
 As the rescue phase moves toward recovery, you
will find that the community has suffered a lot
physical and mental trauma an loss.

 Many people will have contributed a great deal

to rescue and response operations and it is
important to present this as an opportunity for
them to look for a safer and better quality of life.
 Traumatic Rehabilitation
 It can take years for people to heal after a trauma
suffered on account of a disaster.

 In almost all rehabilitation programs, authorities

concentrate on the recovery and rehabilitation of
physical infrastructures and the health of the people-
that is , they look towards future opportunities.

 It is important to show concern for the stress and

psychological issues of people who have gone
through the experience and those involved in
providing emergency response.
 While assessing impacts of the disaster,
information on possible psychosocial effects of
the event and the coping strategies becomes
equally important in order to avoid any crime or
social unrest.

 Another step may be to provide counseling

services.
 A disaster can become an opportunity to fulfil
development needs, addressing issues of pre-
disaster delays due to unavailability of funds and
political forces.
 Rehabilitation and reconstruction must be seen as
a process of restoring what previously existed. It
is necessary to develop strategies and modalities
to reconstitute services and renovate or replace
essential structures so that vulnerability is
reduced.
 Assistance in rehabilitation and reconstruction must
be planned on the basis of a thorough assessment
and appraisal of the technical and social issues
involved.

 While assistance planning cannot be unduly rushed,

it must be accomplished as expeditiously as possible.
There are two reasons:
 Certain rehabilitation and reconstruction measures, if
organized rapidly enough, can shorten the period for
which emergency relief assistance is needed and eliminate
the need to invest resources in temporary resources
 The window of opportunity for incorporating risk
reduction measures in reconstruction (of housing,
for instance) or for new development initiatives
(especially social aspects) may be short.
 Seasonal factors must be considered and may
determine the needed timetable for reconstruction.
 Lesson learned

 Build evaluation into the overall response plan.