Introduction to Emergency Response

This article discusses the concept of disaster and how it arises from events that cause either human, material or environmental losses. It also highlights the Messina earthquake and tsunami as a case study and the measures taken by UAE to mitigate earthquake disasters.

Introduction to emergency response 1
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Introduction to emergency response 2
Introduction to emergency response
Disaster concept involves unplanned activities which are likely to happen. Different
events qualify to be in disaster categories when they are calamitous and cause serious disruption
of community functionality. Disaster concept arises when events cause either human, material or
environmental losses whereby the communities of societies are unable to cope with the damage
caused (In Alani, In Tawfik, In Saeed, & In Anya, 2018). Although calamities are attributed to
natural calamities, they can also result from human origins. The concept of calamity is able to
combine the vulnerability of hazards and the inability to reduce the negative impacts of the
events. Therefore, in absence of incapability of handling the negative impacts, the disaster
concept will not exist.
Earthquakes are known to cause one of the major catastrophic disasters. The earthquakes
result from shaking of the earth, which comes from sudden release of energy from the earth’s
lithosphere and thus creating seismic waves. The earthquakes have different adverse
consequences which include loss of lives, properties, economic and social disruption among
others. The case study under consideration in this case is the Messina earthquake and tsunami
which was able to claim more than 200,000 lives in 1908. It was clear that the city was unable to
cope with the adverse consequences of the event happening. During the earthquake disaster,
about 91% of the structures in Messina destroyed. The surrounding regions were as well able to
experience key damages of the properties. The earthquake shook the ground for about 40 second
and the impact of the disaster was experienced at a radius of 300 kilometers (Pino, Piatanesi,
Valensise, Boschi, 2009). Vulnerability of hazards was clearly evident in this case. The tsunami
was able to increase the damage sweeping through the coastline. About half of the population in
Messina was lost and great buildings were destroyed even which had withstood previous

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earthquakes. Transport systems were complete destroyed making is hard to salvage anything.
The disaster is considered has one of the catastrophic to hit the region in history.
UAE has been able to experience several earthquakes disasters over the past and this has
made them to develop some key measures to mitigate earthquake disasters. To handle this
disaster, UAE has some of key legislation which include use of seismic monitoring systems to
record the structure’s response to damages by earthquakes, which can be applied on this case. In
addition, installation of buildings with Structural Health Monitoring systems helps to alert when
structural safety performance thresholds exceed. This would have helped to warn on an incoming
danger of collapse for the buildings and therefore help in development of counter measures to
mitigate the disaster effects. This system is able to provide onsite displays, alerting and remote
notifications to allow for proper responses to earthquakes (Skolnik, Ciudad-Real, Franke, Kaya,
Safak, 2014). In addition, the emergency framework for the disaster crisis also involves the
OASIS PlusTM solution overview is able to help such disasters. This response mechanism
involves monitoring, alarm system, emergency response and communication for containing the
disaster. The Structural Health Monitoring is able to provide the collection and processing of
key information concerning building response to earthquakes. This system has sensor, data
acquisition unit and display cabinet. This helps to monitor the situations and provide the required
response (Glykas, & George, 2017). The disaster changes and level of building responses can be
monitored and evaluated for proper measures to mitigate them are taken. Both short and extreme
earthquake conditions can be controlled and thus preventing adverse loss due to the disasters.

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References
Glykas, M., & George, J. (January 01, 2017). Quality and Process Management Systems in the
UAE Maritime Industry. International Journal of Productivity Management and
Assessment Technologies (ijpmat), 5, 1, 20-39.
In Alani, M. M., In Tawfik, H., In Saeed, M., & In Anya, O. (2018). Applications of Big Data
Analytics: Trends, Issues, and Challenges in disaster management. Cham: Springer
International Publishing : Imprint: Springer.
Pino, N.A.; Piatanesi, A.; Valensise, G.; Boschi, E. (2009). "The 28 December 1908 Messina
Straits Earthquake (Mw 7.1): A Great Earthquake throughout a Century of Seismology"
(PDF). Seismological Research Letters. Seismological Society of America. 80 (2): 243–
259.
Skolnik D. A, Ciudad-Real M, Franke M, Kaya Y, Safak E. (2014). “Structural Health
Monitoring of Unique Structures in Abu Dhabi Emirate”, Proceedings, 2ECEE Second
European Conference on Earthquake Engineering and Seismology, Istanbul, Turkey.