Flood Disaster Management: Emergency Plan, Best Practices, and Recovery

Flood disaster management
CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................1
PART – 1 (EMERGENCY PLAN)............................................................................................1
Evaluation of the likelihood, severity as well as consequences of this disaster.....................1
Determining measures for preventing the influence of this disaster......................................2
Actions to be taken in advance to prepare..............................................................................3
Key planned activities in the response phase.........................................................................3
Brief recovery and evaluation plan.........................................................................................5
PART – 2 (PROPOSAL REFLECTING BEST PARCTICE)...................................................6
CONCLUSION..........................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES...........................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Speaking in relation with the disaster management, it is being referred as the
emergency plan or response which involves management as well as organization of the
resources and accountabilities for the purpose of dealing with the humanitarian facets of
emergencies. The main aim of emergency planning or disaster management is preventing as
well as reducing the harmful impact of all hazards, comprising disasters (Oktari and et.al.,
2020). Considering this, the main focus of the current research report is to write an
emergency plan for managing the flood disaster of Chennai Flood, India. The plan will throw
some light on the likelihood, severity and consequences of the flood and measures for
preventing or mitigating the influence of this disaster. Further, it will also be going to
emphasize on the advance actions related to preparedness and will focus on the key planned
activities in response phase. Valuation and recovery plan will also be prepared for describing
the actions that are within the capacity of resources that the community can call on. The final
part of the report will involve a justification as to why the proposal reflects the best practice.
PART – 1 (EMERGENCY PLAN)
Evaluation of the likelihood, severity as well as consequences of this disaster
A record breaking rains and flooding has been experienced by Chennai, India in early
November. Beginning on the 1st December, the rain got intensified and has created more
flooding. This disaster has caused thousands of people to be trapped as well as stranded. As
estimated of around one hundred and eighty-eight people were died in this event and more
than two lakhs’ people were displaced. There were around thirty-five hundred being stuck at
the airport of Chennai. In the east coast part of India, the likelihood of heavy rainfall is quite
more because of different reasons (Jayaraman, 2015). The very first among them is that the
meteorological subdivision of Tamil Nadu falls under the rains-shadow region for the
southwest monsoon. Secondly, because of the low-pressure system and cyclonic disturbances
over the Bay of Bengal, there has been influence on the coastal areas of north and southern
peninsular India which significantly contributes to the north and south eastern monsoon
rainfall. Last but not the least, the likelihood of such type of floods and heavy rainfalls are
more in Chennai region mainly because of the high carbon emissions. It offers more
favourable weather for such kind of events in this region.
Talking in relation with the severity of this Chennai flood, the state Tamil Nadu has
recorded an exceptionally heavy rainfall during the November and December 2015 which has
caused severe damages both to the lives and infrastructure of the city. Furthermore, the first
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three spells of rains have caused flooding in most of the districts of Tamil Nadu which has
caused damages to the infrastructures along with the property and has distressed the people.
The final spell flooded the densely populated areas of Chennai Metropolis and the connecting
districts of Kancheepuram and Thiruvallur (Anand, 2017). Thus, it can be said that this
devastating rainfall and caused key damages to the roads, irrigation, infrastructure and public
facilities and the biggest of all, lives of many humans and livestock. Further, this flood also
had many consequences such as loss of life, spread of diseases, loss of natural habitat and
huge number of losses to homes, power supply and other infrastructure.
Determining measures for preventing the influence of this disaster
Flooding is being regarded as the most common as well as expensive natural disasters
across the world. This historic flood of Chennai in the year 2015 has caused millions of
damages to infrastructure, human lives and other public amenities. Thus, it is quite important
prevent or mitigate the impact of this disaster effectively. For mitigating or preventing the
impacts of this disaster following measures are required to be taken by the local community
and the individual:
 Establishing a voluntary team for watching the flood and encouraging the residents of
that community such as the slum dwellers, the homeless, informal sector labourers
along with the people belonging to Dalit and tribal communities to be prepared for a
flood (Aldrich, 2017).
 It is important that the community must take care of their small stream crossing as
well as culverts where the floods might be more usual. It is also crucial that they must
watch for the changes in the course of water in the community.
 During the rainfall water flows should be carefully watched particularly in the hard
surfaces. Roads along with parking lots actually speed up the water floes which can b
quite dangerous. Thus, it is essential to ensure that the water can flow into system of
drainage sufficiently without causing any damage.
 Residents of the community must be encouraged for reducing runoff though execution
of rain garden and green system.
 Knowing the neighbour is being regarded as the most important strategy because in
doing so, the community and the individual can be better prepared for heling each
other during the time of disaster. Further, with this the community will also be going
to learn about the requirement of social help throughout a flood (Disaster
Management: Flood, 2022). This can be done by organization of neighbourhood
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