Disaster response refers to actions taken during a disaster and the immediate aftermath of the disaster. It comprises the decisions and actions taken to deal with an urgent situation that has adversely affected life and property. The mission of the response phase of the disaster management cycle is to meet the basic needs of the people by providing instant support to maintain life and health of the affected population until more permanent and sustainable solutions are formulated and available.
During the response stage, any ongoing hazards are stabilised to prevent secondary hazards and new risks. The level and kind of disaster response depends on the scale of disaster, the nature of the disaster, the number of affected people and site specific conditions. Disaster response interventions generally include rapid situation assessment, search and rescue efforts, emergency healthcare and injury assessment, food and water management and shelter assignment for displaced individuals and families, among other things.
Search and rescue is an undertaking mounted by emergency services, often well-trained volunteers, to find those believed to be in distress, lost, sick or injured either in a remote or difficult-to-access area. It entails searching for and providing aid to people who are in distress or imminent danger. Search involves assessing the situation and determining a safe action plan, locating victims and documenting their location. Rescue, on the other hand, involves the procedures and methods required to extricate the victims.
Rapid situation assessment in disaster response is key in prioritising response activities, fairly allocating scarce resources and providing the life-serving and life sustaining needs to the affected people. To effectively coordinate a quick, safe and successful disaster response, the coordinating team and those on the ground must have a clear situation awareness, which implies understanding a given circumstance, gathering relevant information, analysing it and making informed decisions to successfully address any potential risk, hazard or event that might occur.
Specifically, disaster response focuses on, but is not limited to, implementing disaster response plans; evacuation to purpose-built evacuation centres, if available, or temporary shelters which may include office buildings, sports stadia, churches, residential homes, dormitories, schools and community centres. All these may serve as emergency shelters. Disaster response also focuses on the provision of food, water, clothes and emergency healthcare as well as security.
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The advantage of purpose-built evacuation centres is that they have all necessary facilities to accommodate the affected people. They usually have separate apartments and sanitary facilities for women, men, boys and girls. This is unlike other temporary shelters, which accommodate men, women, boys and girls in the same hall or space, compromising the privacy and dignity of the victims.
The effectiveness of disaster response also hinges on understanding the disasters, which should include primary and secondary hazards. Primary effects or hazards are those which occur as a direct result of the disaster. For example, in a case of an earthquake, buildings collapsing is a direct result of the earthquake ground shaking. Indirect or secondary hazards result from an initial event but happen later. For example, mudslides are often common after tropical cyclones due to heavy rainfall brought by the cyclones and elevated river levels.
With inadequate understanding of the disaster, it is not uncommon to only focus on the primary hazards. Readers may relate with the recent Tropical Cyclone Freddy, which adversely hit some areas in the country, in which land/mudslides posed a serious challenge as we may not have adequately prepared for the secondary hazards of that nature.
In conclusion, just like disaster preparedness, disaster response demands the involvement of stakeholders at various levels. These include communities, particularly those most vulnerable; local governments; central governments; regional institutions; non-governmental organisations, corporations, media and scientific communities. Further, while the main responsibility to address needs and respond to a disaster lies with the government or governments in whose territory the disaster has occurred, humanitarian organisations are often strongly present in this phase of the disaster management cycle, particularly in countries where the government lacks the resources to respond adequately to the needs. This buttresses the need for coordination, communication and collaboration, failing which disaster response may not be effective, unfortunately leading to injury, colossal loss of life and property.
