Time implications

Without knowing what your selected event is I will attempt to address the different categories of emergencies relating to timing so that you can then see where your event fits in. In this section you will be introduced to a term 'speed of onset' - this is the amount of lead time communities/emergency managers have prior to the impact of the event.

The three different types of emergencies/disasters based on timing considerations/implications I was alluding to are:

• periodic slow onset events - these are events such as droughts, famine and conflicts, which may result in displaced populations, long term recovery etc.;
• sudden on-set events - these are events such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, storms (cyclones/hurricanes/tornadoes), bushfires, floods etc. These events may also cause possible secondary events such as fires, landslides, storm surge, etc.;
• rare sudden on-set events - transportation accidents (air/road/rail/sea), fires, hazardous chemical incidents, wildfires.

Example set of questions

• Did the emergency management plan identify such an event within its strategies? If yes, was there a detailed hazard analysis conducted for this type of event? What were the strategies provided in the plan to manage this type of event? Was the plan exercised?
  
• Although in this topic and for the assignment we are focussing on the pre-impact phase arrangements of your selected event, we have the ability to jump forward in time to when the event actually occurred to examine some aspects of the response in order that we can more comprehensively analyse the pre-impact preparedness. Therefore in order to more fully understand the implications of the pre-impact planning for the event examine the following questions: Was the plan implemented? Did the strategies identified and developed by the plan for this event work? If not, what were the problems? Did strategies have to be modified? From the answers to these questions you can then go back to see if agencies and planners could have foreseen these problems before the event occurred and thus have initiated some pre-impact activities to either prevent or mitigate the effects of these problems.
• In the pre-impact phase, was there public education and information disseminated about the hazard or potential event and what to do? Was this information adequate?
• Were early warning and alert strategies incorporated in the emergency management plans? Were warnings and alerts issued by the appropriate authorities? If so, what communication mediums were used to release timely warnings and alerts? Were they received by all the community, including non English speaking ethnic groups/disadvantaged persons (deaf/blind)? If received, were they heeded by the effected community or was the community apathetic towards the warnings? Were there any problems with the warnings and alerts that could be traced back to inappropriate planning of strategies in the pre-impact phase?
•  Were resources identified and procedures in place to access/mobilise them?

Having now gone through the above process does your selected event fit into the category originally selected by you? If you answered no - which category does your selected event fit into now?

Assignment preparation

You should now be able to sort through all the information you have gathered in relation to time implications for the pre-impact phase of your selected event.

Ensure that the information you are retaining addresses the assignment requirements.

Assignment Activity 4.4   Commence to draft the Time implications part of the Time and Geographic implications section for your major assignment (Assignment 2). Review the assignment guidelines and criteria required to be addressed and use the answers to the questions you have developed above to provide the content of your Time implications section.