Sudden Onset Natural Disasters Research Articles

Criteria for Deployment of the United States National Guard to Domestic Sudden-Onset Natural Disasters: A Scoping Review.

This study is a scoping review to identify literature pertinent to the question: "What are the criteria for deployment of the United States National Guard (USNG) to domestic sudden-onset natural disasters (SODs)?" As this question relies on factors across many disciplines-legal, medical, technical, cultural-and as there is no foundational body of academic literature or unified governmental or USNG policy addressing this question, a scoping review was designed to identify the body of literature on which further research and policy decisions surrounding this question may be based. On January 23, 2023 a modified PRISMA-ScR search was performed using an online search engine of the following databases: Academic Search Premier, Google Scholar, JSTOR, PubMed, Web of Science, and WorldCat. The inclusion criteria included the involvement of the USNG response to U.S. domestic SOD. Non-SOD results were excluded. Results from all years and of any type of literature were considered and were limited to the English language. First, titles and abstracts were screened by 2 independent reviewers. Then, a full-text review was performed by 2 independent reviewers. Finally, data were extracted from included texts by 2 independent reviewers. A third reviewer resolved any discrepancies at each stage. This study did not require approval of an institutional review board. Out of the 886 results identified by the original search, after the complete review process, 34 sources were relevant to the research question. Fifteen criteria for the deployment of the USNG to SODs were identified. Overwhelmed local responders, utility failure, the need for the provision of security, and the need for logistical coordination were the most commonly identified criteria. Hurricanes were the most common SOD addressed in the included literature, and most results were event reports. This modified PRISMA-ScR identified a foundation on which elected officials, USNG leadership, and the larger disaster response community may develop policies and disaster response plans to optimize available resources through the activation of the USNG when responding to SODs.

Optimizing emergency supply pre-positioning for disaster relief: A two-stage distributionally robust approach

Humanitarian organizations commonly establish facilities to store emergency supplies in advance, ensuring a prompt and adequate response to non-climate and sudden-onset natural disasters. However, existing research on facility location and inventory pre-positioning does not adequately examine multiple sources of post-disaster emergency supplies, which are critical for an efficient response. Additionally, disaster managers encounter various uncertain parameters when making decisions, such as disaster characteristics, demand, transportation, and supply. To address these issues, we develop a novel two-stage distributionally robust optimization model to minimize the total expected costs in the worst case. The facility location and quantity of pre-positioned emergency supplies are decided in the first stage before the occurrence of disasters. In the second stage, emergency supplies that are pre-positioned in advance or purchased from spot markets, as well as in-kind donations, are distributed to affected areas. Two tailor-made column-and-constraint generation (C&CG) algorithms, consisting of an exact and an approximation scheme, are designed to solve the proposed model. A case study based on the data collected from the earthquakes in Pu’er City, Yunnan Province, China, demonstrates the superiority of the proposed model, and provides managerial insights for decision-makers. Furthermore, the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed algorithms are demonstrated by the results of experiments conducted on randomly generated instances.

Demographic and Clinical Characteristics of Earthquake Victims Presented to the Emergency Department with and without Crush Injury upon the 2023 Kahramanmaraş (Turkey) Earthquake.

Earthquakes are sudden-onset natural disasters that are associated with substantial material damage, resulting in the collapse of built environment with a high rate of mortality, injury, and disability. Crush syndrome, which can be seen after devastating earthquakes, can lead to acute kidney injury (AKI) and patients may require amputation, fasciotomy, and dialysis. Supportive treatment has an important role in the prognosis of these patients. The aim of this study was to investigate the demographic and clinical characteristics of traumatic earthquake survivors admitted to the emergency department (ED) of a hospital, which was close to the earthquake zone but not affected by the earthquake, after the February 6, 2023 Kahramanmaraş (Turkey) earthquakes. This study was conducted by retrospectively analyzing the data of 1,110 traumatized earthquake survivors admitted to the ED of a tertiary care university hospital from February 6th through February 20th, 2023. Age; gender; time of presentation; presence of comorbid diseases; ED triage category; duration of stay under debris; presence of additional trauma; laboratory tests; presence of AKI; presence of crush injury and injury sites; supportive treatment (fluid replacement and intravenous [IV] sodium bicarbonate); need for amputation, dialysis, and fasciotomy; duration of hospitalization; and outcome of ED were evaluated. Of the 1,110 traumatic victims in this study, 55.5% were female patients. The mean age of the patients was 45.94 (SD = 16.7) years; the youngest was 18 years old and the oldest was 95 years old. Crush injury was detected in 18.8% and AKI in 3.0% of the patients. Dialysis, amputation, and fasciotomy were required in 1.6%, 2.8%, and 1.4% of the patients, respectively. In total, 29.2% of patients were hospitalized, including 2.9% admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) and 26.3% to the relevant ward. In total, 0.3% of the patients included in the study died at ED. Post-earthquake patients may present with crush injury, AKI may develop, and fasciotomy, amputation, and dialysis may be needed, so hospitals and EDs should be prepared for natural disasters such as earthquakes.

IMPLEMENTING GIS TO IMPROVE HOSPITAL EFFICIENCY IN NATURAL DISASTERS

Abstract. Over the past decades, the number of natural disasters has been growing around the world. In addition to damaging communities and infrastructures, unexpected disasters also affect service providers such as hospitals and health centers. Markedly, hospital safety from disasters is a challenge in all countries. With disaster damage to health systems resulting in human tragedy, huge economic losses, devastating blows to developmental goals, and shaken social confidence. Ensuring that hospitals and health facilities are safe and secure from disasters depend on implementing an appropriate method to mitigate adverse impacts on hospitals during incidents. Thus, disaster management becomes even more significant, as the health sector has been particularly vulnerable to damages. So, it is crucial to develop appropriate mitigation and adoption method for healthcare facilities, to withstand the natural disasters such as earthquakes and floods. A comprehensive disaster plan is required to ensure a prompt disaster response and coordinated management of a multi causality incident. The aim of this research is to systemically and critically review the importance of hospitals in disaster events and this research attempts to reach a basic understanding to mitigate the risk of disasters in hospitals and improve the continuity of health services during or after disaster events. For this study, secondary information was retrieved from the literature review and document review on sudden-onset natural disasters in different parts of the world was collected. This study found some challenges and deliverables for disaster managers that could mitigate the risk of a natural disaster’s impact on a hospital. Accordingly, this research will evaluate the importance of disaster management for hospitals and the challenges that need to be considered during the disaster response.

Safety and security of hospitals during natural disasters: Challenges of disaster managers

The purpose of this research is to explore some challenges that hospital disaster managers face in dealing with natural disaster events. In such events, it is crucial that hospitals remain safe and functional during and after the disaster; thus, hospitals at all levels need to plan for natural disasters and be aware of the requirement to remain in an operational condition both during and after any event. Evidence from around the world suggests that the malfunctioning of hospitals during a disaster have extensive impacts on both inbound and outbound patients; as such, disaster preparedness is a significant concern for hospital disaster managers. Hospital disaster management is important because of the critical services that healthcare facilities provide for injured people and existing patients. Therefore, developing a good management system for natural disaster events can help to ensure better efficiency and economy in the use of facilities and human resources within hospitals. Although appropriate disaster management can mitigate the impact of natural disasters in hospitals, there are some barriers that can prevent the effective management of these facilities in such events. For this study, secondary information was retrieved from the Internet and via academic database on sudden-onset natural disasters, and it was found that the: awareness, knowledge, disaster preparedness of hospital staff; allocation of building codes, and the relocation of buildings to higher levels, need be improved. Also, equipping health care facilities at the time of natural disaster events is important. To manage the challenges facing hospital disaster managers, a national strategy for the disaster management planning for hospitals is required.

Remittances as aid following major sudden-onset natural disasters.

There is a general assumption, based on macroeconomic studies, that remittances will rise following major sudden-onset natural disasters. This is confirmed by a few assessments involving country-specific research, and usually short-term data. This study, questioning conventional wisdom, reviewed and graphed annual and quarterly remittance flows using International Monetary Fund and World Bank data from 2000-14 for 12 countries that confronted 18 major natural disasters. It found that, regardless of event type, annual remittances rose steadily from 2000-14 except for after the 2008-09 financial crisis. Post disaster, there was a quarterly increase in the majority of cases (confirming previous research) but there was seldom an annual increase in the year of the disaster greater than the average annual increase in 2000-14. It appears that remittance senders rush to provide assistance after a natural disaster, but since their own financial situation has not changed, the immediate increase is compensated by a later decrease.

Research on Emergency Management Methods of Incident Contingency in City Administration

In recent years, the situation that a great number of cities in our country are facing sudden-onset natural disasters has become increasingly serious. And therefore, it has a very important significance to establish a rational and effective emergency management and effective response to all types of sudden-onset natural disasters in our cities. This article firstly classifies the urban disasters, summarizes its dangers, and analyzes the formation for the urban disasters. It elaborates the further approaches and strategies of the urban disaster contingency management. Among them, contingency management methods include the Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and Remote Sensing technologies (RS). And emergency management strategies are analyzed from prevention and preparation, formulating contingency plans, practicing emergency plans and other aspects. Additionally, the process is deduced from the practical application and has strong value to be promoted.

The Flash Environmental Assessment Tool: Worldwide first aid for chemical accidents response, pro action, prevention and preparedness

The United Nations response mechanism to environmental emergencies requested a tool to support disaster assessment and coordination actions by United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) teams. The tool should support on-site decision making when substantial chemical emissions affect human health directly or via the environment and should be suitable for prioritizing impact reduction management options under challenging conditions worldwide. To answer this need, the Flash Environmental Assessment Tool (FEAT) was developed and the scientific and practical underpinning and application of this tool are described in this paper. FEAT consists of a printed decision framework and lookup tables, generated by combining the scientific data on chemicals, exposure pathways and vulnerabilities with the pragmatic needs of emergency field teams. Application of the tool yields information that can help prioritize impact reduction measures. The first years of use illustrated the usefulness of the tool as well as suggesting additional uses and improvements. An additional use is application of the back-office tool (Hazard Identification Tool, HIT), the results of which aid decision-making by the authorities of affected countries and the preparation of field teams for on-site deployment. Another extra use is in disaster pro action and prevention. In this case, the application of the tool supports safe land-use planning and improved technical design of chemical facilities. UNDAC teams are trained to use the tool after large-scale sudden onset natural disasters.

Iconic Catastrophe and the Question of Nature

This essay deals with video footage depicting sudden onset natural disasters caught in the event. The attempt is to critically revisit the concept of nature that these images evoke, a concept that today is often bracketed due to its transcendental bearings (e.g. in Timothy Morton’s influential deconstruction of ecocriticism in Ecology Without Nature). Considering video to be part of the extended family of photographic veridiction techniques, this analysis suggests that the journalistic value of amateur disaster footage rests on an iconic realism that can trace its origins back to the romantic notion of nature expressing itself in the photograph. This idea is in turn part of a larger epistemic order that celebrates the Book of Nature as universal reason: a keystone concept from the scientific revolutions of the 16th and 17th century. Understanding disaster video footage in the light of this framework means neither to support positivism nor to endorse constructivism; it means instead to assume a third position where photo-media embraces a particular modality of seeing, a way of making things visible with its own premises and potentialities. From this perspective nature no longer presents itself in the image. But with video-recorded natural catastrophes a glitch in the photographic mode of seeing presents us with an irrecusable remains of what used to be known as nature. This glitch, this iconic disjunction provoked by the depicted scene, concerns the proportional rendering of relative size, conventionally coded and secured by the camera’s perspective construction. The iconic disruption of photographic image relations provoked by the depicted chaos is in this paper offered as an alternative to the traditional sublime. For the ghost of nature is no longer conjured up by some sensuous overload but rather with the visible discordance between the image’s representing and presenting capacities.

Rapid mapping in support of emergency response after earthquake events

Earthquakes and other sudden onset natural disasters require quick and efficient emergency response. Earth observation (EO) data can make a valuable contribution to emergency response efforts if provided within hours and at the most days after the event. Mechanisms like the International Charter Space and Major Disasters and the European GMES Emergency Response Service provide the necessary basis for an efficient and rapid provision of EO data and damage mapping. This paper provides an overview of earthquake damage assessment methodologies, their potential and their limitations in a rapid mapping context and outlines a methodology for casualty estimation. Two case studies—the 2010 Haiti earthquake and the 2011 Van (Turkey) earthquake—are presented, where DLR’s Center for satellite-based crisis information (ZKI) provided rapid damage maps using a team-based visual interpretation approach. Additionally, the application of a casualty estimation method in the immediate aftermath of an earthquake is outlined.

Construction and Information Management of Lianyungang Emergency Shelters for Earthquake Disaster Based on GIS

Emergency shelters for earthquake disaster (ESED) is an important part of the prevention system for earthquake and other sudden-onset natural disasters. ESED plays an important role in the reduction of earthquake disasters and emergency evacuation to a safe place for resettlement of affected people. It is important to use GIS technology to establish earthquake emergency shelter planning, construction and information management. We briefly introduce the status quo of the ESED construction and planning of Lianyungang after an analysis of the necessity and feasibility of the establishment of planning, construction and information management, then outline main functions of the ESED, and finally some suggestions for planning, construction and information management are provided.

Capitalising on Catastrophe: Reinvigorating the Japanese State with Moral Values through Education following the 1923 Great Kantô Earthquake

Sudden onset natural disasters such as earthquakes are absolute physical and psychological levellers which spare no one from the event itself or the aftermath. The resulting physical devastation of a city and the psychological weakening of a population, however, also present opportunities. The opportunity to reorder society is unparalleled by any other historical event except perhaps war and with increasing regularity throughout much of the twentieth century, nation states have used disasters as a pretext to secure long held political goals. In September 1923, the devastation of Tokyo as a result of the Great Kantô Earthquake presented a significant opportunity to reorder Japanese society both on a physical and psychological level. In the post-disaster reconstruction period, the government was quick to capitalise on this catastrophe.

Natural Hazards: Causes and Effects: A Course in Disaster Management

This self-study course will meet the needs of people involved in disaster management for both sudden-onset natural disasters (i.e., earthquakes, floods, hurricanes) and slow-onset disasters (i.e., famine, drought). The course is designed for government personnel, representatives of private, voluntary agencies, and other individuals interested in disaster management.The nine lessons for the course will be published successively in Prehospital and Disaster Medicine. Self-assessment tests will accompany each lesson. There also is a final examination offered for those who wish to earn continuing education units (CEUs) through the University of Wisconsin—Disaster Management Center (UW-DMC).