Creating Emergency Response
For large scale disasters, the relief effort involved is large scale and involves numerous relief agencies, national and international, government and private. Because of the number of relief agencies involved, a chain of command must be implemented. On the International Level, this will consist of an international agency that will serve as the hub that will appropriate resources and manpower to the countries affected. This agency will do this based on the number of resources available and the relative need of each country. This agency is mentioned by Team 10 in their proposal. A condition for a relief agency to help out is that it must agree to the guidelines set by this central agency. Any deviation from these guidelines would be detrimental to relief efforts and it would be better if that non-cooperative group did not help at all.
Once the resources are transferred to the country, a central agency managing disaster relief efforts in the country will take command of the resources and the manpower appropriated to them. This central agency will be responsible for telling the relief agencies where there help is needed as well as directing resources to ensure that disaster relief operations are efficient and effective. Because of the nature of their task, we believe that this central disaster management agency should be a government institution. This is because the government has the jurisdiction in the affected area to coordinate such relief management efforts. Things that are necessary for this central agency to have would be a database of all the relief agencies working on the disaster site and exactly what job they are doing. This is to ensure that there will be no overlap between relief agencies. There should also be a database of the resources at hand for disaster relief and how these resources are being allocated. This agency should also be at the core of communications between relief efforts and should be the communications backbone between relief groups. The communications infrastructure involved in this will be designed by another group. Overall, this is the group that is in charge when a disaster strikes.
Between 1992 and 1995 they ran disaster simulations on the effect of an offshore earthquake on its coastline1. The simulations included the possibility of a tsunami. Based on this data, which was proven to be relativity accurate when compared to the data from the 2001 earthquake, Peru has come up with its own disaster protocol and has evacuation procedures for all major cities along its coastline1. The INDECI is the government agency in Peru which is in charge of these evacuation efforts. We think that this should be the central agency in Peru in charge of these relief efforts, especially since they are already used to disaster response. We will however look into the specific protocols the INDECI has for disaster relief and look how they can be improved. We also recommend that they be given more funding to create the databases and communication infrastructure written about on the above paragraph.
Micronesia has a standing agreement2 with the United States such that in the case of a disaster the US shall provide disaster response services through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and in extreme cases through FEMA. They also have a Disaster Assistance Emergency fund to which the United States and Micronesia each contribute $200,000 dollars a year to. If a disaster is foreseen to be too much for the Federal Government of Micronesia to handle, the president can call on this agreement to ask for assistance from the US . This includes 2:
• Repair and replacement of damaged public facilities and private non-profit facilities that provide services which are governmental in nature;
• Debris removal and emergency protective measures;
• Housing, including temporary housing, and repair and replacement of damaged dwellings;
• Provision of temporary public facilities for schools and other essential community services;
• Search and rescue, emergency medical care, emergency mass care, emergency shelter, and provision of food, water, medicine and other essential needs, including the movement of supplies and people; and
• Performing on public or private lands or waters any work or services essential to saving lives and protecting and preserving property or public health and safety.
In the event of a disaster, the USAID will coordinate relief efforts while FEMA will provide administrative funding. Because of this agreement with the US we believe Micronesia is pretty well off in disaster management. The group shall look at where USAID is based in Micronesia and their actual response time to a disaster to evaluate anything that needs to be improved. Because of this US assistance we believe that a joint agency be formed between the US and Micronesia to coordinate relief efforts. (Information on agreement from reading of the actual text of the agreement on: http://www.fm/jcn/docs/fpsaartxamend.doc )
These agencies will be the top level of the Incident Command System (ICS). This will be the model for our chain of command. For more information on this please look at Team 4's website.
1. Kuroiwa, J., & Zurka, D. (1997). Peru 's program for disaster mitigation 1992-1995. In G. Housner, & R. Chung (Eds.), National disaster reduction (pp. 84-85). USA : American Society of Civil Engineering.
2. Agreement to Amend Article X of the Federal Programs and Services Agreement Between the Government of the United States and the Government of the Federated States of Micronesia, United States-Micronesia, February 26, 2004, http://www.fm/jcn/docs/fpsaartxamend.doc, (November 1, 2005)