Flood Related Emergency Response Plan (Essay Sample)

Super Storm Sandy: The Efficacy of Moonachie City Council Flood Related Emergency Response Plan.
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Superstorm Sandy: The Efficacy of Moonachie City Council Flood Related Emergency Response Plan.
1.0 Background
Superstorm Sandy formed and hit the Atlantic Coast, New Jersey on October the 29th of 2012. The combination of high tide, massive pressure system and sustained winds of 80 miles per hour formed a powerful storm that hit the North east, from New York to New Jersey including Moonachie city (American Red Cross, 2013). The entire city was flooded and so were homes, trees, and power lines were also knocked down. It is estimated that 70% of both public and private property in the flood prone were damaged including residential homes, business premises, roads, and bridges. This is an investigative report on the effectiveness of community’s emergency management plan in reducing property loss. This paper is organized as follows. The first part will comprise of a short investigative plan. The second part will look at the causes of floods during Superstorm Sandy. This will be followed by an insight into the systemic failures of the present mitigation strategies then concluded by precise recommendations for future effective mitigation measures.
2.0 Investigation Plan
DATEISSUE TO INVESTIGATEPERSONNEL TO MEETOUTCOMES
2.12.2014Disaster management and responseCity Disaster Management Committee Existing gaps in disaster management.3.12.2014 Disaster Management CollaborationFEMA coordinator The levels of federal government’s collaboration and local administrative levels of reciprocity.4.12.2014 Flood Mitigation InfrastructureNew Jersey Institute of Technology To appreciate the structural deficiency and possible mitigation measures available5.12.2014 Flood Insurance.Moonachie Association of Insurers To understand the level of flood insurance uptake and the current risk levels. 6.12.2014 American Red Cross (ARC)New Jersey Disaster coordinator for ARC To learn the best practices in Disaster Management.
3.0 Causes of flooding during Hurricane Sandy
The flooding in Moonachie that accompanied hurricane Sandy was as a result of the heavy storms and the hurricane force winds. This led to the flooding of streets, homes and power lines were also knocked down (ARC, 2013). Consequently, thousands of people were left without power, many were displaced, and property was destroyed. The drainage systems were unable to cope with the massive flows of water to the city’s streets (NJIT, 2014).
3.0 Disaster Response: Moonachie City Case Study
3.1 The General Principles of Disaster Management
A sound disaster management system should be able to respond effectively to the immediate needs of the affected communities. It should also be able to adequately co-ordinate the relief efforts required to support recovery guided by responsible leadership at all levels (Waugh & Streib, 2006). It is important to note that disaster response, mitigation and recovery is a shared responsibility between the federal government, the states, and cities (Birkland & Waterman, 2008). The timing of disaster response is also fundamental, it should be guided by principles of due diligence. For example, the American Red Cross began response activities even before Sandy made a landfall with donations from individuals and corporate partners (ARC, 2013).
Disaster response also calls for preparedness through detailed documentation, mitigation, planning, and community education (FEMA, 2013). The focus should be on emergency management rather than response which includes, hazard mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery (Waugh & Streib, 2006).
3.2 Moonachie City Disaster Management; Failures
There was a systemic failure in the Moonachie flood Mitigation program due to the following reasons
The City authorities over reliance on American Red Cross, the Federal Government and New Jersey government instead of making pro-active efforts to manage the floods.
The apparent lack of allocation of resources to finance the flood mitigation plan for flood prone areas such as the construction of the levee system and public education.
The city’s concentration on disaster response and neglect of disaster management. They only prepared in terms of rescue, emergency medical services, temporary shelter, and feeding.
The city does not have a documented plan on the flood prone sections of the area to facilitate evacuation and hazard mitigation. I was able to gather that they were relying on FEMA to provide the necessary data.
The city’s storm water management system is ineffective coupled with blocked waterways, drainages, and ditches. This worsened the flooding since storm water did not have an outlet.
4.0 Recommendations
Hurricane Katrina provided an opportunity for the all levels of government to learn on how to manage disasters (Waugh Jr. & Streib, 2006). The following are recommendations for the city of Moonachie for effective disaster management in the future;
The city must have a flood mitigation strategy. This will ensure that it goes beyond disaster response and embrace flood management. All flood prone areas must be documented using...