UNIVERSITY OF BOHOL

PROFESSIONAL STUDIES

ESSAY
Improving Disaster Recovery

Submitted to
Dr. AMMON DENIS R. TIROL, DM, CPA

as partial fulfillment of the requirements in

BM 213 - RISK MANAGEMENT
2ND Semester S.Y. 2018-2019

Submitted by:
RAYMUNDA R.MORENO
PhD. HRM
 When a disaster is declared, our government responds immediately. Local jurisdictions
impacted by a disaster seek aid and assistance from the national government level. Response
actions are organized under the National Response Framework.

When natural disasters strike, communities are often devastated and left vulnerable,
having little access to some of life's essentials, such as food, clean water, shelter, and basic
services.

Our local government has first-hand knowledge of our community's social, economic,
infrastructure, and environmental needs, helping them to provide support in a disaster.

The most important point of reading in this article is that in every disaster we may
encounter, there is corresponding recovery coordination with the help and aid of the
government.

This topic is not new to the reader, a lot of disasters happen almost every day, and
through media, scenarios like this is common for these disasters are inevitable, they are
considered risks in our everyday life.

The 2011 earthquake off the Pacific coast of Tōhoku was a magnitude 9.0–9.1 (Mw)
undersea mega thrust earthquake off the coast of Japan that occurred at 14:46 JST (05:46
UTC) on Friday 11 March 2011, with the epicentre approximately 70 kilometres (43 mi) east of
the Oshika Peninsula of Tōhoku and the hypocenter at an underwater depth of approximately
29 km (18 mi).[5][11] The earthquake is often referred to in Japan as the Great East Japan
Earthquake (東日本大震災 Higashi nihon daishinsai)[12][13][fn 1] and is also known as the 2011
Tōhoku earthquake,[28] the Great Sendai Earthquake,[29] the Great Tōhoku Earthquake,[29]
and the 3.11 earthquake.

It was the most powerful earthquake ever recorded in Japan, and the fourth most
powerful earthquake in the world since modern record-keeping began in 1900.[10][30][31] The
earthquake triggered powerful tsunami waves that may have reached heights of up to 40.5
metres (133 ft) in Miyako in Tōhoku's Iwate Prefecture,[32][33] and which, in the Sendai area,
traveled up to 10 km (6 mi) inland.[34]

The earthquake moved Honshu (the main island of Japan) 2.4 m (8 ft) east, shifted the
Earth on its axis by estimates of between 10 cm (4 in) and 25 cm (10 in),[35][36][37] increased
earth's rotational speed by 1.8 µs per day,[38] and generated infrasound waves detected in
perturbations of the low-orbiting GOCE satellite.[39] Initially, the earthquake caused sinking of
part of Honshu's Pacific coast by up to roughly a metre, but after about three years, the coast
rose back and kept on rising to exceed its original height.[40][41][42][43]

The tsunami swept the Japanese mainland and killed over ten thousand people, mainly
through drowning, though blunt trauma also caused many deaths. The latest report from the
Japanese National Police Agency report confirms 15,897 deaths,[44] 6,157 injured,[45] and
2,533 people missing[46] across twenty prefectures, and a report from 2015 indicated 228,863
people were still living away from their home in either temporary housing or due to permanent
relocation.[47]
 A report by the National Police Agency of Japan on 10 September 2018 listed 121,778
buildings as "total collapsed", with a further 280,926 buildings "half collapsed", and another
699,180 buildings "partially damaged".[48] The earthquake and tsunami also caused extensive
and severe structural damage in north-eastern Japan, including heavy damage to roads and
railways as well as fires in many areas, and a dam collapse.[34][49] Japanese Prime Minister
Naoto Kan said, "In the 65 years after the end of World War II, this is the toughest and the most
difficult crisis for Japan."[50] Around 4.4 million households in northeastern Japan were left
without electricity and 1.5 million without water.[51]

Implementation time lines are longer than the public expects and require periods of
preparation during which progress is invisible to the public. Why is that so?

Basically, people are affected, either directly or indirectly, by disaster. Directly affected
are those who have suffered injury, illness or other health effects; who were evacuated,
displaced, relocated or have suffered direct damage to their livelihoods, economic, physical,
social, cultural and environmental assets. Indirectly affected are people who have suffered
consequences, other than or in addition to direct effects, over time, due to disruption or changes
in economy, critical infrastructure, basic services, commerce or work, or social, health and
psychological consequences.