Disaster Research Analysis

Running Head: DISASTER RESEARCH ANALYSIS 1

Disaster Research Analysis:

Student’s Name:

Affiliation:

DISASTER RESEARCH ANALYSIS 2

Purpose

To evaluate the disaster preparedness, response and mitigation in United States of

America, California State; by vetting existing literature on the field, hypothesis testing, data

analysis techniques and the data sources.

Design

The review is centrally based documentaries, journals, newspapers, books and recorded

data by humanitarian agencies and is conducted by descriptive explanation.

This study analysis of the field disaster analysis, it investigates various strategies used

and the significance and drawbacks. It lightly focuses mostly on the opportunities that various

strategies highlighted; the study overly states the opportunities but not the lengthy information

on effectiveness.

Target

This study is purely targets Emergency service, civil defense, policy makers and society

as whole; emergency and humanitarian organizations are the main actors, however, it is

important to state and acknowledge that they are not the only sole actors in this field and they

contribute to a part of a larger group.

Findings

Major finding indicate that there is direct relationship preparedness and the response time

to respond to a disaster, prevention and mitigation also depends on the preparedness of a state or

organization.

Limitations

Analysis in this study is limited in the nature that third party actors involved there is a

general unwillingness to disclose some vital data on effectiveness that might be crucial

Emergences services and the humanitarian agencies. The geographical factor also plays a bigger

role in the response, mitigation and prevention of disaster, exclusion of geographical factors in

the study limits its scope where the geographical factors may play a vital part.

DISASTER RESEARCH ANALYSIS 3

California Wild Fire 2017

Introduction

The past ten –twenty five years, disasters have not only amplified in numbers but also in

intensity. Emergency and humanitarian institutions have contemplated for techniques to prepare,

mitigate, and prevent for these disasters. This state of affairs requires a thorough mull over of the

previous disasters so that decisions can aim the chief weakness.

The purpose of this dessert is to aid the policies in place for the preparation, prevention,

and response to disasters, this is achieved via the recommendations and the suggestions

highlighted in the study.

The state of preparedness and response disasters in the United States of America

constituent States bearing in mind the record of demographics, and geography affected by the

disasters. Literature studies on the disaster analysis have been carried out over years and have

mainly focused on natural occurrences. Mitigations have been conducted and the statistical

analysis data of the affected population recorded in various states in the United States of

America (DV Spracklen, 2009).

Finally, the training methods that are discussed are in accordance with the weaknesses

and the vulnerabilities that have been highlighted in the several reviews, the end note also

suggests that training programs and methods should be more effective and targeted in the United

States of America (AL Westling, 2008).

The finding can be used in disaster preparedness, prevention, and responses in the United States

of America.

Keywords:

Forecast, Relief, Logistics, Humanitarian, emergency, Civil defense, Prevention, Mitigation,

Disaster.

DISASTER RESEARCH ANALYSIS 4

It is evident that each year hundreds of thousands of people are affected by disasters, if

not millions, with no regard to religion, race , gender or age; these disasters have amplified in

both the magnitude and intensity as well as in numbers, the main causes of the sharp rise are

mainly man made , by man made these are disasters that mainly arise due to human activities

directly, this activities either accelerates the disaster or facilitates a ground for outburst such

activities includes deforestation, nuclear reactions, chemical accidents, war, conflicts and the

refugee crisis. The second cause for theses disasters to occur is the natural occurrences; in this

category these are factors that no man has control over this includes hurricanes, wildfires,

Famine, drought, floods, earthquakes etc. (AL Westling, 2008).

When disasters strike they call for rapid emergencies and humanitarian response,

predictions estimates that in the next 30 to 40 years disasters will escalate by almost 50%in,

number, magnitude, intensity and severity. The surge in the numbers of disasters have

illuminated the weaknesses in affected and inhibiting population, the vulnerabilities are exposed

by the urgency by which these people require reinforcement of emergency services, and

humanitarian support ranging from well-wishers, Non-governmental organizations [NGOs],

United Nations and governments; all these bodies have played a role in helping and supporting

the affected region by facilitating logistics for delivery of basic human needs like food, shelter,

water, education ,medical equipment’s , drugs and medicines (Perry, 2005).

The nature of the cyclic natural disasters and the probability of re occurrence there is

need to for countries to be prepared to handle these catastrophes. Demonstrates that the

humanitarian agencies have formulated approaches to the cyclic nature of these disasters and

recommends governments to align the relevant institutions according to strategies and policies

laid out (Susan G Conard, 2018).

The approaches to the vicious cycle of the disasters formulated by the humanitarian

agencies are identifiable by the following management stages: preparation, response, mitigation,

recovery and continuity of normal livelihood of the affected society. Humanitarian agencies

often oversees the preparatory and response stages, activities in the mitigation stages are those

actions that are put in place to scale down and eliminate the chances of occurrence of a new

disaster or any further escalation of the current state of disaster (Deaton, 2018).

The preparatory stage mainly is constituted by mechanisms to handle factors that cannot

be scaled down, scheduling of response as well as resource availing before the striking of a

disaster. The thorough mull over of the previous occurrences avails the much soughed, required,

and needed knowledge and strategies on preparation and mitigation steps to be taken to offer the

most efficient and effective response to any type of disaster or identify the most suitable

response (Deaton, 2018, p. 6).

In a handful of cases, the optimal solutions mainly aims at the critical weakness within a

community, hypothesized this concept and deduced weakness and vulnerability and further noted

DISASTER RESEARCH ANALYSIS 5

that there was an accelerated escalation trend, the author further observers that the social and

economic conditions were main source or contributors of disasters in his arguments he considers

factors like human recklessness, ignorance, population increase and environmental pollution.

In the literature (SC Barro, 1991)notes that in 2004 tsunami in the far east Asia and the

earthquakes in the People’s Republic of China in 2008 and the chain of catastrophes in

Fukushima in Japan nuclear power plant have illustrated the weaknesses and vulnerability in the

society even of those developed nation, in 2017 the united states was hit by a series of

catastrophes like hurricanes namely Irma, Maria, Harvey just but a few of the series, the

California wild fire that left a broad swath of damage across states.

Global warming has also amplified the brutality and severity of the catastrophes in

addition to the frequency and the rate at which they occur. From a United States of America

perspective the recent California wildfire disaster constituted of scarily and worrisome

manifestation via the fatalities and destruction of the environment and the destruction of property

and the infrastructure. The Emergencies programs main obligation to the society is to assign

responsibilities in regard to preparedness, prevention, and mitigation of disasters however, there

seems to be gaps within the working frame work of these agencies (Deaton, 2018, p. 7)

This context highlights the significance of monitoring, reporting and learning natural

disasters like wildfires, since credible and actionable information can be deduced, implemented,

and applied to minimize the subjectivity of policies and the working decisions from the

emergency agencies and contribute inn repelling the vulnerabilities, availing resources decisively

and efficiently that meet the humanitarian demands for reprieve of the affected part of society

(JC Regelbruggle, 1993)

The monitoring mainly involves accounting for human life and the infrastructural

damages from the previous disasters that can be a treasure in stages of planning and prevention

for future hazards. International bodies like the United Nations, through their disaster

management arm, the United Nations office for disaster risk reduction (UNISDR), have pushed

for the creation and implementation of a universal database for disasters (SC Barro, 1991).

California case

Considering the United States of America reality this desert shows a study on the records

of disaster provided by the civil defense to highlight the victims account, and targets to discuss

and recommend more efficient and sufficient training methods. This study is limited to the state

of California but the knowledge base may be applied to areas the face similar challenges of wild

fire in any part of the globe (Deaton, 2018).

California state has had been hit by several wildfires previously. These wildfires have

claimed lives and caused destruction of property and infrastructure too, fatalities caused by his

wild fire represents about 40% of deaths that occurred in the region. The state of California

accounts for over 10 % of population total population in the United States, which translates to

DISASTER RESEARCH ANALYSIS 6

about 39.25 million inhabitants and has a gross domestic product output of 4.447 trillion dollars

(California Population 2018 | Population USA, 2018).

The 2017 California wild fire was the most lethal disaster in the state disaster record that

consisted of over 9,135 fires that burned a total of over 1,375,000 acres as record by the state

department of fire protection (Susan G Conard, 2018). According to (Susan G Conard, 2018),

there were possibilities of large fires in the state. The Wildfire proved to be the most costly in the

entire history of the state that saw a whopping nine billion dollars.

Figure 1. Wild fire distribution using data provided by the California inter agency body of

fire protection.

Period of occurrence (year)

Number of fires

Acres Affected

Jan 1 20017 to Dec 31 2017

7117

505,956

Jan 1 2016 to Dec 31 2016

4785

244319

Previous 5 year time(Jan 1 to Dec 31)

4835

202768

The study to investigate the effects of wildfires in California uses statistical analysis data

of the account of the population affected directly by the wildfire from the period between years

2010 to year 20018 incorporating factors like sex, age, gender and geographical relief of victims

locality with respect to the recurrent nature of wildfire hazards experienced in California over the

years (DV Spracklen, 2009).

Graphical representation

The above data can be visualized and summarized in the graph below that clearly

illustrates the wild fire tragedy in the state of California as provided by the inter agency body of

fire protection indicates that in the period beyond the year 2015 the wildfire tragedy has been

severe in terms of spreading and the acres covered as well as the fatalities from the fires (Susan

G Conard, 2018).

Explanation and justification

It is evident that the lethality of the wildfire tragedies has escalated as the graph depicts

both the in the acreage covered by the wildfires and the intensity and the numbers of wildfires

burning at a single time, the graph indicates an upward trend and the projection based on that

scenario at current state of affair, a period of 10 to 15 years to come the tragedies will be more

lethal and severe (Deaton, 2018).

DISASTER RESEARCH ANALYSIS 7

Wild Fire Tragedy in the State of California

Figure 2. Visualization of the Effect of Wildfires effects using data provided by the California inter agency body of fire

protection (Susan G Conard, 2018)

In the literature (Deaton, 2018) there is examination whether the relief of a location was

determinant in humanitarian operations in disaster stricken areas and she further urges that,

population density, geographical aspects plays a vital role in all these operations.

In much of their field literature authors they have noted the sex, and physical variation

between the genders impacts response to disasters, according to (AL Westling, 2008) the

literature have illustrated the human capacity depicted by the both sexes and the physical

strength and ability in times of disasters and noted the response time and mortality rate of the

two genders there was a trend in place, it was note that the male gender whose physic is basically

strong responded quite fast and the resultant fatalities of the gender were indicated to be low on

the other hand the female gender deemed to be weak physically recorded scores of fatalities and

a whole bunch of the affected.

In much of the field literature conducted by other researchers there is a general

intellectual hypothesis that the authors in various works seem to agree that regarding disasters

risk ideally there is a human tenancy to ignore or underrate perils and there is consistent lack of

effort in engaging the public in humanitarian and emergency preparedness and there is always a

100

1000

10000

100000

1000000

Past 5 Years 2016 2017

Total Fires

Acrea Affected

DISASTER RESEARCH ANALYSIS 8

reactive kind of response to when and where the disaster strikes and this leads to inefficiency and

massive loss of life as the is a very poor coordination of activities in the logistical requirements.

The conducted work by (DV Spracklen, 2009) studied the distribution of emergency and

humanitarian agencies services and noted that the distribution as well as the equipment of the

agencies, the author highlight lack of coordinated frame work in handling disasters, there was

bureaucracy in every level of work and this leads to time waste at the cost of human life. The

nature of equipment has also been highlighted as wanting since some of the equipment’s are out

of date, broken down or damaged. The distribution aspect the author investigated the geo

location distribution of equipment and simulated a scenario of a disaster, in his finding he

stressed on addressing distribution and location of emergency services.

According to (Susan G Conard, 2018) illustrates the California County is ill prepared,

UN organized and limitation in resources and training in the lethal, swift moving wildfire. In her

explanations she indicates that coordination, overlapping of roles, and the overall lack of

mapping skills. The large state department worked individually and the trend flows down to the

respective departmental units across the state and this contributes to inconsistency in the whole

exercise.

Conclusion

The descriptive study of the disaster research analysis and statistical illustration of

wildfire and highlights the perils that are associated with various groups and the society in

general. The issues laid out by the study can aid the emergency services, humanitarian

organizations, and the various levels of government namely local government and the federal

government in mitigation, preparedness and prevention of disasters in other state in ahead times

as well as replicate the strategies in other types of disasters.

The study investigates the affected accounts via the data presented by the relevant departments to

validate some of the hypothetical ideas laid out.

The study also shows that there is generally lack of knowledge on the issues of disaster

like evacuation, coordination and safety at the time of the occurrence. The preparation part fall

mainly to the emergency teams and the humanitarian agencies the preparedness of this agencies

needs to be scaled up and a centralized coordination adopted to maximize the efficiency and

reduce the time to respond to call of distress.

Additionally role of communication and the spread of information are quit rapid, fast, and

efficient too however there are discrepancies in figures recorded by various people and

organization. The media of transmission or conveying the information also is a big determinant

in the disaster research analysis as there are various classes and groups of people involved, the

signaling of danger is poor, danger is only noted by sirens from ambulance past the occurrence

of the disaster.

DISASTER RESEARCH ANALYSIS 9

Limitation

The following are areas the study has scanty of details in:

 The study in its descriptive nature have not put into consideration of the special interest

groups like the blind , deaf, dumb, those with various types of handicaps ranging from

physical to mental.

 The Study does not get into details on the inhabitants settlement scheme in an area and

there is a broad generalization of demographics.

 The data used my not be of 100% accuracy as place where compensation may involve

figures may be inflate like in property insured and an area is of affected, people may try

to inflate the claim.

Suggestions

The following area needs a deep and dedicated future research to expound on the existing

knowledge and better equip those in the field of disaster analysis and the emergency personnel to

carry out task properly.

a. The incorporation of training of disaster in society intuitions like schools and disaster

drill performed time to time to get better equipped will necessary skills.

b. In corporate all people of all kind in the disaster research including of those if special

needs and expand the means of communication in times of disasters.

DISASTER RESEARCH ANALYSIS 10

Works Cited

California Population 2018 | Population USA. (2018). Retrieved April 05, 2018, from usapopulation.org:

https://www.usapopulation.org/california-population/

AL Westling, B. B. (2008). Climate change and Wildfires in California. Emeraldinsight, 7-8.

Deaton, L. (2018). The view from NFPA wildfire division: Watchin the World Burn. NFPA Journal, 6-8.

DV Spracklen, L. M. (2009). Impacts of Climate Change From 2000 to 2050 on Wildfire in western United

States. Journal of Goephysical Research: Atmospheres / vol 114 Issue D20, 7-10.

JC Regelbruggle, S. C. (1993). Modelling Tree mortality Following Wildfire in pinus Ponderosa forest in

central Sierra- Navada of California. International Journal of Wildland Fire 3, 23-35.

Perry, M. (2005). Natural Disaster Anagement Planning: A study on logistic Managers Responding to the

Tsunami. Emeraldinsight, 17-23.

SC Barro, S. C. (1991). Fires effects on Carlifonia Chaparrel systems: An Overview. Environmental

International journal, 13-24.

Susan G Conard, S. D. (2018). International Journal of Wildland Fires. International Journal of Wildland

Fires, 40-50.

DISASTER RESEARCH ANALYSIS 11

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