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Disaster Recovery and Response Assignment

   

Added on  2019-10-31

13 Pages3308 Words161 Views
Running Head: DISASTER RECOVERY AND RESPONSE A Brief on Victoria Bushfire 2009 and Management of Recovery PhaseNameInstitution

DISASTER RECOVERY AND RESPONSE2Summary This paper is focused on the effective strategies that should be adopted in theprocess of disaster response recovery. With the assumption of the emergency manager position,the paper evaluates the 2009 Victoria bushfire as a case study while evaluating and outlining thestrategies and principles that can be adapted to effectively guidance and managementof thedisaster recovery process for the affected individuals in the Victoria 2009 bush fire. The reportthus analyzes different principles and strategies that when adopted will be efficient not only infire incidences but even other emergency issues as well. IntroductionIn our daily life, the world often faces great emergency situations which bear significantimpact on individuals as well as the society at large. One of the major emergency situationswhich face a nation is the incident of a bushfire. Therefore, there is need to develop appropriatemanagement guides to help in the recovery phase of the affected regions as well as the affectedfamilies. One of the major known bushfires is the Victoria bushfire that occurred on 2009 in theAustralia (Choo&Nadarajah, 2014). It is commonly referred to as the Black Saturday fires inwhich historically these were the most devastating bush fires experienced in Australia. The tragicevent was precedent a number of factors which are believed to have resulted in the fires. TheVictoria state during this period this period was experiencing the worst weather conditions. Thestate was experiencing extreme heat conditions, high winds, and low humidity as well as a severedrought.Purpose of the study

DISASTER RECOVERY AND RESPONSE3The main aim of the study is to evaluate and outline the strategies and principles that canbe adopted to effectively guide and manage the recovery process for the affected individuals inthe Victoria 2009 bush fire. The report gives an overview of the issue before, during, as well asafter the bushfire occurrence. The report then advises on the proper guidelines that can beadopted to ensure a proper recovery management for fast and efficient recovery phasemanagement. Overview of the Victorian communityVictoria community before the occurrence of the bushfire was a diverse communityconsisting of various types of wildlife. The community had six special nature impacted sectionsincluding Yarra Ranges National Park, Kinglake National Park, Cathedral Range, Lady TalbotDrive, Wilsons Prom, and Keppel Falls. The forest also acted as a water catchment point. Thecommunity had a big population of friendly people living together in harmony but later turned tobe a community of mourning for the lost lives (Whittaker, Eriksen, & Haynes. 2016). Background of the IssueThe Black Saturday bushfire in Victoria occurred on February 7th, 2009. It has sinceremained in the record as one of the most destructive and horrific natural disasters that have everwitnessed in Australia. As reported by the Australian Fire Authority report, 592 bush and grassfires, as well as 263 structure fires, were reported in the black Saturday (Bryant et al. 2014). Onthat same day, the major fires in terms of significant damage or loss were at Kilmore East,Churchill, Delburn, Narre Warren, Redesdale, Horsham, Bendigo, and Bunyip among others(Whittaker, Eriksen, & Haynes. 2016). In general, the fire destroyed and severely y damagedover 3400 homes in Victoria and burnt about 430,000 hectares of land. More tragically, 173

DISASTER RECOVERY AND RESPONSE4individuals lost their lives while many others were injured. As a result, those that survived had adrastic psychological experience due to the occurrence of the fire and the lives that were lost. The heat had increased to the extremes of 46 degrees Celsius which is believed to be theworst recorded temperatures in Australian history. Two months prior to the black Saturday theVictoria state was experiencing the worst drought ever characterized with little or no rainfallwhatsoever. The relative speed of the wind then was 100km/hr. however, this was speedincreased to 120km/hr. and such a mighty wind is believed to have caused the fires to merge inone huge fire that burned with great speed and velocity (Mannakkara& Wilkinson, 2014). As aresult, the incident led to the loss of life where more than 173 people died and 120 people out ofthis incident were reported to have died or killed by a single firestorm. It is also reported thatover 2000 houses, as well as over 3500 other structures, were also destroyed. Many towns werereported to have been completely destroyed while others suffered serious damages. It is withsuch concerns that a committee was formed to address the recovery phase of the incident.Issue after the bushfireAfter the black Saturday fire, many organizations such as the Salvation Army were on thesite with the aim of providing meals and counseling the affected persons. There were alsoresponse teams that were coordinating material aid as well as offering immediate financialassistance to the individuals that were affected by the fire for purchasing the most urgent needs.With the high level of damages that were caused as a result of the fire, there was a need forfinancial grants and other basic human need materials (Hu &Kapucu, 2016). After the initialresponse by different groups and agencies, there was a need for an active and continuouscounseling process with the aim of working with the affected communities though the difficult

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