Disaster Management

Running head: DISASTER MANAGEMENT 1
Disaster Management
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DISASTER MANAGEMENT 2
Introduction
Many natural disasters occur without human interference. Good examples are cyclones,
hurricanes, earthquakes or even tsunamis. When these kinds of disasters hit, they cause a
considerable amount of damage to both lives and property. Cyclones, however, have been the
most rampant, hitting in most corners of the world. Cyclones are not to be confused with
hurricanes as they move along the warm air in the ocean and forces water to travel at high
speed, tossing objects, houses and vehicles thus causing death and injuries (Alexander, 2014).
Mozambique was the latest victim of this natural phenomena as Cyclone Idai hit the land within
nine hours. Cyclone Idai made landfall in Mozambique march 14 and 15, 2019 as category two
storm. The most affected provinces were Tate, Biare, Zambezi, Sofala and Niassa. Within nine
hours people had experienced the darkest night of their lives. After about two weeks roads,
bridges and homes were utterly destroyed and inaccessible. Communication was also cut
making it hard for rescue teams to access the area.
A view of standing water in Sofala province, Mozambique
Mitigation
In environmental engineering, mitigation involves reducing the risk of loss when an undesirable
event occurs. After cyclone Idai hit Mozambique, the victims were exposed to diarrheal diseases
due to the poor sanitary conditions and lack of good drinking water. The situation brought about
an increase in cholera cases. Children were also exposed to the risk of respiratory diseases
since the available shelters were cold and overcrowded. As soon as the evacuation as was
done, the victims were vaccinated to prevent the widespread of cholera, malaria and other
waterborne diseases. This a significant move as hundreds more would have died of these
diseases. To reduce cold and fever, people were given warm clothes and blankets, especially
children (Boykoff, Katzung, and Nacu-Schmidt, 2019). Not only the affected areas but also the

DISASTER MANAGEMENT 3
rescuers went ahead and evacuated people living nearby places to avoid the more significant
part of the problem in case cyclone Idai would continue hitting many places.
Preparedness
Just a few days after cyclone Idai hit Mozambique, the news and headlines declared it the worst
disaster that had hit the southern part of Africa. The cyclone affected about 1200 miles of land in
Mozambique which includes the country’s most fertile lands. Salty flood waters spread causing
extensive damage to the area. Hundreds of people lost their lives from the disaster, and about
ten thousand were moved from their homes. Many other structures were also destroyed. The
blast also destroyed about 57 health facilities. Roads and bridges were also affected since they
were inaccessible for many days. The damage was spread to Malawi and Zimbabwe, and an
estimate of $1billion of proper was destroyed (Idai, 2019).
Preparedness necessitates the transference of existing resources to control and reduce the risk
of undesirable events that may happen in the future. To ensure readiness for an event that has
not yet happened, people need to spend scarce resources now to prevent future impacts that
would be much worse if the current investments on preparedness are absent. This way
preparedness is very vital and has been a wrenching debate in many countries especially in
southern Africa. A country like Mozambique which was previously hit by the cyclone Idai has to
make choices for development priorities in terms of having access to the necessary
vaccinations, having affordable houses and useful public health systems. Another important
feature the government needs to incorporate as preparation for hazards is ensuring availability
for clean drinking water (Education, 2019).
Another essential measure to ensure preparedness for disaster management is smart public
investments. Availability of good health care is an excellent example. When cyclone Idai hit
Mozambique, public health workers were on the first line to help the affected victims. They were
the very first people to respond and save many lives. They controlled the situation in the rescue
centres by offering basic primary care (Cabral, et al, 2017).
Despite the importance of investing in good primary health care, countries need to build up
emergency units to respond effectively when disasters like cyclone Idai hits. Regardless of how
many times in a year the facilities get to be used, their presence assures disaster management
is in place. Mozambique had an emergency management agency, INGC, which has been in
place to reduce effects for disasters like cyclone Idai they have in place innovations like drone
mapping which was very helpful in response to floods. Drone mapping helps in assessing the
targeted and hit areas. Although the agency has lesser resources compared to other countries,
they have been able to attain the necessary standards for disaster preparedness (Farham,
2019).
Response
The disaster is now considered the worst to have hit Mozambique for about two decades now. A
large area of land was covered with water. The catastrophe was triggered by storms which
claimed many lives and left many others homeless (Gruenbaum, 2019).