MOI UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES

NAME: ELIJAH .O. DOUGLAS

REG NO: BA/097/17

COURSE TITLE: DISASTER MANAGEMENT

COURSE CODE: SAS 402

QUESTION

Using diagrammatic illustration, comprehensively discuss the Disaster

Management Cycle.
INTRODUCTION

Disaster is a sudden adverse or unfortunate extreme event which causes great damage to human
beings as well as plants and animals. Disasters occur rapidly, instantaneously and
indiscriminately. These extreme events either natural of man-induced exceed the tolerable
magnitude within or beyond certain time limits hence making adjustment difficult thus resulting
in loss of property, life and income.

Disaster management on the other hand can be defined as the organization and management of

resources and responsibilities for dealing with all humanitarian aspects of emergencies, in

particular preparedness, response and recovery in order to lessen the impact of disasters while

disaster management cycle illustrates the ongoing process by which governments, businesses and

civil society plan for and reduce the impact of disasters by taking steps to recover after a disaster

has occurred. Appropriate actions at all points in the cycle lead to greater preparedness, better

warnings, reduced vulnerability or the prevention of disasters during the next iteration of the

cycle. The complete disaster management cycle includes the shaping of public policies and plans

that either modify the causes of disasters or mitigate their effects on people, property, and

infrastructure.

A number of disaster management cycles have been used in various regions of the world and

have usually been used in dealing with both natural disasters and manmade emergencies. There

are variations to the cycle but the most common version is the four phases of disaster cycle. They

include:

 Mitigation

 Preparedness

 Response and Recovery

Below is a diagrammatic illustration of the disaster management cycle
Phase 1: Mitigation

The mitigation phase occurs before a disaster takes place. Here, an organization will take steps to

protect people and property, while also decreasing risks and consequences from a given disaster

situation. The organization’s main goal is to reduce vulnerability to disaster impacts (such as

property damage, injuries and loss of life).

Examples of mitigation may include, conducting a property inspection to discover ways to fortify

the building against damage. The organization may also revise zoning and land-use management

to further prevent or reduce the impact of a disaster.

Phase 2: Preparedness

The preparedness phase also occurs before a disaster takes place.Here, an organization attempts

to understand how a disaster might affect overall productivity and the bottom line, the

organization will also provide appropriate education while putting preparedness measures into

place.

Examples of preparedness may include hosting training, education, drills, tabletop exercises and

full-scale exercises on disaster preparedness. This ensures that stakeholders know what to do in

the event of an emergency. Nevertheless, organizations may also assemble a business continuity

team to assemble a strategic plan that allows the business to recover after a crisis. The team will

create a business continuity plan outline and list of resources needed to recover from a disaster.

Phase 3: Response

In this phase, Organizations must focus their attention on addressing immediate threats to people,

property and business.

Occupant safety and wellbeing largely depends on its preparedness levels before disaster strikes.

The most notable example of the response phase is to ensure that people are out of harm’s way.

The organization will then move on to assess damage, implement disaster response plans, triage

cleanup efforts and start resource distribution as necessary. Businesses will also need to navigate

building closures, preliminary damage assessments and hampered communication with

stakeholders (like staff, vendors and suppliers) due to shutdowns. As the response period

progresses, focus will typically shift from immediate emergency issues to conducting repairs,

restoring utilities, re-establishing operations and cleaning up.

Phase 4: Recovery

Recovery is the fourth phase of disaster and is the restoration of all aspects of the disaster’s

impact on a community and the return of the local economy to some sense of normalcy. By this

time, the impacted region has achieved a degree of physical, environmental, economic and social

stability. The recovery phase of disaster can be broken into two periods. The short-term phase

typically lasts from six months to at least one year and involves delivering immediate services to

businesses. The long-term phase, which can range up to decades, requires thoughtful strategic

planning and action to address more serious or permanent impacts of a disaster. Investment in

economic development capacity building becomes essential to foster economic diversification,

attain new resources, build new partnerships and implement effective recovery strategies and

tactics. Communities must access and deploy a range of public and private resources to enable

long-term economic recovery.

CONCLUSION

Risk management is a complex process that requires a clear plan that would help an organization

or a community to minimize the impact of a disaster in case it occurs.Managing risks takes place

in four stages as explained above. Each of the four stages must be properly executed in order to

achieve the desired results.

REFERENCES

Coppola, D.P. (2011).Introduction to International Disaster Management: Elsevier Science.

Veenema, T. G. (2013).Disaster nursing and emergency preparedness for chemical, biological

and radiological terrorism and other hazards. New York: Springer Publishing Company.