Think about what are the most serious hazards your community (or organisation) faces?
This is a tricky question to answer. Earthquakes and Tsunami are potentially our most serious hazard but flooding is our most frequent hazard.
Envisage how your community (or organisation) would respond to the most significant hazard now
One thing I have discovered is how community awareness of Emergency Management is growing and how many community leaders are putting their hands up to be involved, to learn, to provide support – to be prepared.
I envisage our communities would expect help in the form of Civil Defence from government, local or central eventually. They would also look to each other – there would be a huge element of self-sufficiency and striving to survive that would come about, either in community groups or within households. The size of the need will determine how quickly or how far people will reach out for help. In time, emergency hubs around the city would be opened up as well as Emergency Assistance Centres if required. The Emergency Operations Centre would be stood up in response, supporting the Welfare team to respond to the community needs.
Then share with us what issues would come from that Response or Recovery?
Potential response issues for our community would be accommodation or rather lack of… Provision of supplies such as food stuff or necessities like blankets for heating could be an issue as it’s highly likely we’d be cut off from the rest of the region meaning supply for us could be severely limited. We have a high population of lower socio-economic households which has implications for both response and recovery such as level of need and resources required to begin to rebuild.