Disaster Management

This article discusses the importance of disaster management in mitigating the effects of natural disasters. It focuses on the response and recovery efforts after Cyclone Idai hit Mozambique, causing extensive damage and loss of life. Recommendations for future preparedness are also provided.

Running head: DISASTER MANAGEMENT 1
Disaster Management
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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

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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).

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Victims of cyclone Idai
The response for cyclone Idai took long since communication was completely shut down. The
affected victims were unable to ask for help. People in nearby provinces were the first to
respond to the situation. In as much as they tried to help, they were not able to assess the
damage since they did not have the specialized facilities to do so. On March 20th, USAID sent
disaster management unit DART to assess the damage, identify which areas needed much
help and to help local rescuers in providing support for the people of Mozambique. The USAID
team assisted in offering food, logistics services, water, hygiene and sanitation. They also
provided emergency shelters and health care services through world vision. Up to now, the US
has assisted Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi with more than $70 million (Responding to
Cyclone Idai Requires a more robust approach, 2019). Other organizations World Food
Program, World Health Organization, CARE, International Organization For Migration, FHI 360,
MENTOR Initiative, Red Cresent Societies And International Federation Of Red Cross also
contributed help to the affected victims.
Recovery
Cyclone Idai is currently considered a global natural phenomenon. To start with, many parts of
the country were flooding, and this means that crops were completed destroyed. As a country
that depends much on agricultural products, this was quite a blow to the government and the
residents (Sylves, 2019). Hunger struck across the country after the destruction. Cholera
outbreaks among other diseases also came in. To recover from the situation, medicines’ san
frontiers (MSF) interfered. The team offered medical support to the affected victims. They did
this by providing the oral rehydration points. The team also had ambulance referral services for
severe cases. The team also supported the campaign for Mozambique authorities to vaccinate
citizens against cholera (Lipid, 2019). MSF also gave relief food to the people.

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Cyclone Idai’s victims receiving relief food
Since people were displaced, they were living in deplorable conditions whereby most of them
were overcrowded temporary shelters MSF, has offered basic survival kits to about 30,000
people. The packages had things like blankets, sheets, roofing elements, mosquito nets, cans,
and sodium hypochlorite to treat water. The items were distributed to help people rebuild their
lives. Some people have already moved back to their homes and started building houses again.
Most importantly, the country is restoring the affected health facilities. Currently, they are
reconstructing three facilities that were recently destroyed. This will ensure that people get
treatment services quickly and faster if needed (Le Page, 2019).
Recommendations
The government of Mozambique should come up with strategies that can help in case such a
catastrophe invades them again. This would make them be in a better position to counterattack
and prevent manger losses of lives and also properties. Since this is a natural disaster and has
no specific cause. There are ways the government can have preventive measures like
improving weather forecast stations. With this well organized, it is possible to detect the
possibility of such incidences and also be prepared. If the government could also have well-
trained personnel who are relevant to the devices installed can be an added advantage. Putting
up in a building a safe room in case of invasion of either disaster or fire (Needham, Keim, and
Sathiaraj, 2015). Also having a good relationship with neighbouring countries can help in the
time when such disasters attack.
Planting trees can help in reducing pollution from carbon dioxide. Conserving and maintaining
marine plants like mangroves and seagrasses helps the ocean to absorb carbon dioxide better.
This is healthy to aquatic habitats, and also the plants can be used as natural filters (Rakotobe
et al., 2016).

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Another recommendation is to improve the quality of the infrastructures. It is very much possible
that in the future there might be another incidence of cyclones in Mozambique. This has been
proven right by the emergence of Cyclone Kenneth, six weeks after cyclone Idai which claimed
more than nine hundred lives. For this reason, both government and investors should come up
with buildings which can withstand such disasters like bankers and safe rooms (Scully, 2019).
Another recommendation is to vacate from coastal lines. Many people nowadays have set up
their existing houses in places very near to the oceans, government and investors have also
built many hotels and accommodations homes in these areas too. However luxurious this might
look, it also very dangerous. With occurrences of natural phenomena like cyclones or even
tsunami, people living in these areas hardly survive. It is therefore prudent for the government to
designate coastal lines unfit for building residential.
The government of Mozambique should come up to make emergency kits available to its
citizen. Also by making sure that they have means of communication like radio to get in touch
and update people on the progress can be of great help. The relevant authorities should also be
seen when it comes to approving a drawing of a building to be constructed (Mafa, 2019). They
should be strict following up each detail to ensure that safe and robust building is set up.
Keeping an emergency phone number accessible by a citizen in case they want to ask for help.
Respond to emergency drill immediately to be rescued. Exercises are fundamental in case of
any trouble. However, people do not consider that there could be more dangerous situations
and so they avoid responding instantly. This is how many people lose their lives. With cyclone
Idai, it is true it was unexpected, and so the response was slow but in future people living in the
targetable affected areas should learn to respond to the alarms with immediate effect (Devi,
2019). When this happens, people are assembled in one place as the situation is being
controlled. Cooperating with the rescuers makes their work more comfortable and also makes
the job quite manageable.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is regrettable that cyclone Idai claimed many lives in Mozambique and that
there was no prior warning from global weather department. However, this came as an eye
opener for the people of Mozambique and any other country bordering oceans. With mass
destruction of property and rising death tolls, a certain level of preparedness has to be
considered. Few recommendations have been discussed, with which both government of
Mozambique, residence and international community 4esashould ensure are well implemented
to avoid this kind of calamity in future.

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