Good Hazard Mitigation And Preparedness Case Study Example

Hazard Mitigation and Preparedness

[Institution’s Name]
Hazard Mitigation and Preparedness
(Oklahoma Severe Storms and Tornadoes May 20, 2013)
Natural disasters are always the major threats for human existance. One of the most evident natural disasters occurred latterly includes, the Moore tornado, at Oklahoma in the year 2013. It was an EF5 tornado that struck Oklahoma in the afternoon of May 20th. The highest of the peak of the wind is recorded at two hundred and ten mph (340 km per hour). The kind of tornado is compared to the earlier version of tornado that hit the place in the year 1999. The track was more or less the same, but the disaster was massive to the present occurrence. The reasons of the state were the absence of arrangements and shelter, and purpose built storm shelters.
The tornado that struck in year 1999 is known by the name of Bridge Creek_Moor Tornado. The damages, remedies and arrangements were pondered later by the researchers and investigators. One such analysis by Tim Marshall, who is a professional engineer, meteorologist and storm chaser, elaborates numerous aspect of the implication. He mentions in his readings that Oklahoma tornado, which is classified under the category of EF5 (enhance fajita) is same in many ways to the tornado that struck in the year 1999. Though, it was classified as F5 (fajita scale). The chaos and panic of the situation primarily inflicted the rescue operations, and recovery action plans of tornado victims.
The tornado that struck the place is said to be a part of a weather system that develop and throw tornados in a region. The disaster was aggravated when the tornado struck the densely populated area of Moore with all its intensity. It was 1.3 miles (2.1 km wide) at the top peak, and eventually resulted in massive fatalities, injuries and damages. The counties of Oklahoma were directly inflicted by the disasters; these include the city of the Moore and the areas of Grady, McClain, and Cleveland. The referred tornado that struck Oklahoma is EF5 that said to have thrown numerous other tornadoes in the great plains of the areas before it actually threw the original. Among these tornados, the five other low categories of tornados were struck at central Oklahoma on May 19. It was only the raged intensity of tornado that completely obstruct the region when it tossed down the area to the west of new castle at 256pm. It remained aground for above thirty nine minutes with the intensity of seventeen miles (27 km part).
The incident had major causality reporting that includes killing of around twenty four people. The number of injured were reported to be 377. The utilities in context to conveniences (power, water, fuel, telecommunication, transportation, and other such social and economic activities) were absolutely disrupted in the place because of the sudden happening of the incident. Even though, the place was struck with minor tornadoes before a week, but there was no warning of such massive tornado. Most of the children were in school at the time. The search and rescue operations intended to locate children from the debris of Plaza Towers Elementary School, which was completely demolished under the implication (FEMA, 2014). The place depicted more a picture of a war zone as the homes were lacking preparations for such natural disaster and incidences. Around 1150 homes of the place were completely destroyed, of which almost 377 other houses in the adjacent areas were completely flattened. The medical center of this place was rushed with injured children and other people. The two elementary schools, Briarwood Elementary School and Plaza Tower Elementary School were opened for education with students in it, who were badly struck by the tornado. Seven children died at Plaza Tower Elementary School. It was only weak structure of houses and other buildings such as schools and offices that led to a raised number of causalities. The structural engineer investigated and examined the place after the incident and presented numerous structural deficiencies over the infrastructure of buildings that were highlighted to be an essential shortcoming in the context of measures against natural disaster (FEMA, 2013). The disaster was promptly noticed by the government and declared within the emergency state by the governor Marry Fallin (FEMA, 2013). The urban search and rescue teams were deployed under the management of federal management agency that intended to implement fast and efficient recovery action plans. Oklahoma national guards were deployed to support the recovery action as well. Thus, such immediate measure greatly attributed the recovery action executions. In addition, the President Obama made a declaration for hazard mitigation measures that were to be established across the state and the later review of mitigation techniques in lieu to the incident made certain measures (FEMA, 2013).
The activities pertaining to the mitigation of the disaster was effectively conducted by FEMA. The department managed the disaster management plans and recovery challenges with the variety of action plans. The purpose was to effectively coordinate the resources with the variety of mitigating techniques to overcome the damages. The initiative in this reference included the presidential declaration of ‘emergency state’. The added support was supplemented with allocation of incident management assistance team comprising of three urban search and rescue teams, two medical assistance teams, two disaster mortuary operational response teams and the national FEMA incident management assistance team. Together the structure monitored the area to take control of the recovery situations in an expedited mode. Each communication and approval process was conducted in most hasted manner for fast response. Like, governor was reached through telephone rather than writing for certain approvals and the plan and strategy was disseminated promptly across the structure of recovery plan.
It was only the result of such efficient management that rescues operations that aids available to the victims in no time. Likewise, the complete series of natural disaster appeared in the month of May in Oklahoma (2013). The contextual details of the disaster and the mitigation measures were conceived as an opportunity for refinement of disasters plans in lieu of management against such disasters in future.
The department of homeland security launched a complete report over the regional incident support manual to bring in awareness in the public. It also highlighted the areas which were areas, the prevention remedies and the trainings of contextual activities pertaining to the fact that the main source of damage of Oklahoma tornado was aroused out of the reason that even the measures were available and preached but there was no training provided to the citizens in this lieu. Hence, the chaos of the situation completely brought in panic, thus disabling any chance of management amongst the victims at the time of the incident. The operational, logistic administrative and finance structure was comprehensively constructed over the foundation of the mitigating structure. The purpose was to educate the people in reference to the implication of natural disasters. The awareness and vigilance could support the management in lieu of the disaster management obtain the vulnerability of human communities for handling of the situation (Lauren Effron, 2013). Thus, in this particular reference, the efforts were made to bring in improvements and preparedness against natural disasters amongst the community. As the place has the likelihood of getting and affecting because of the geographical position of the place. Moreover, the lessons from 1999 tornados were evidently not conceived in the ideal manner that is evidently aggravated the distraction as no improvements and measures were made to cope with such disaster again. Thus, the homeland security published a manual to educate the community and bring in necessary changes with supportive training to prepare the region for any unwanted natural disaster in advance.

References:

FEMA. (2013). City of Moore-Residential Storm Shelter Rebate Program. Disaster Survivor Assisstance.
FEMA. (2013). Collection: Oklahoma tornadoes May 2013. RSS.
FEMA. (2013). Latest Approved Funding Brings Total for Oklahoma Recovery to More Than $85 Million. RSS.
FEMA. (2014). More Than $6.8 Million in Federal Grants Awarded for Schools Impacted by May 2013 Tornadoes. RSS.
Lauren Effron, D. S. (2013). Oklahoma Tornado Deaths Revised Down to 24, Including 9 Children. ABC News.