Responding to seismic activity and evaluating the response

Overview

The first hours and the critical seventy-two, the priorities of the following weeks, what long-term recovery involves, and the problems international aid brings as well as solves.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What has to happen in the first hours after a major earthquake?

   Model answer

   Establish what has happened and where the worst damage is, since communications will be down and the picture is initially unclear. Activate the command structure and mobilise the emergency services and the military. Begin search and rescue, prioritising collapsed buildings where survivors are most likely. Treat and triage casualties, and move them to hospitals that are still functioning. Extinguish fires and shut off ruptured gas supplies. Clear the main routes so that help can get in. Order coastal areas to evacuate if a tsunami may be coming, and evacuate buildings that are unsafe. Open shelters and start distributing water. Warn that aftershocks will follow.

2. 2

   Why is the first seventy-two hours after an earthquake so critical for search and rescue?

   Model answer

   Because the chance of finding people alive in collapsed buildings falls sharply with time. Survivors trapped in voids die of crush injuries, blood loss, hypothermia and, above all, dehydration, and few survive beyond three days without water, though there are exceptions. Rescue therefore has to begin immediately with whatever is available. In practice most people are pulled out by neighbours and passers-by in the first hours, before any organised team arrives, which is a strong argument for training local communities in light rescue rather than relying only on specialist teams flown in from abroad.

3. 3

   What are the priorities in the weeks following an earthquake?

   Model answer

   Shelter for those made homeless, moving people from open ground into tents and then into transitional housing before weather or winter sets in. A safe water supply and sanitation, since disease in crowded camps is a major secondary killer. Continuing medical care, including surgery, rehabilitation for those with crush injuries and amputations, and mental health support. Restoration of electricity, water, sewerage and communications. Inspection and tagging of buildings so that safe ones can be reoccupied and unsafe ones demolished. Clearing rubble. Reopening schools, both for education and for normality. Registering and reuniting separated families, and recording the dead.

4. 4

   What does long-term recovery from a major earthquake involve?

   Model answer

   Rebuilding housing, infrastructure and public buildings, ideally to a higher standard than before so the next earthquake causes less damage. Deciding whether districts on liquefied or unstable ground may be rebuilt or must be abandoned, and relocating those communities with land, services and transport if not. Restoring the economy and people's livelihoods, since jobs and businesses are lost with the buildings. Managing the transition out of temporary housing, which can otherwise last for years. Revising hazard maps, building codes and planning rules in the light of how buildings actually performed. Providing continuing psychological support, and financing all of this through insurance, government funds and, where necessary, international assistance.

5. 5

   Why is coordination the hardest part of the response to a large earthquake?

   Model answer

   Because a great many organisations arrive at once with no established relationships: national and local government, several emergency services, the military, utility companies, domestic charities, international rescue teams and dozens of foreign aid agencies. Without a single command they duplicate work in accessible areas while remote districts are missed, they compete for the same fuel, vehicles and translators, and they deliver supplies that are not needed while shortages persist elsewhere. Communications are down, roads are blocked, airports are congested with incoming flights, and the local officials who would normally coordinate may themselves be casualties. Coordination therefore has to be planned and rehearsed beforehand or it will not exist when it is needed.

6. 6

   What problems can international aid cause as well as solve?

   Model answer

   It can be slow to arrive, so foreign rescue teams often land after the window for finding survivors has closed, while consuming scarce fuel, transport and accommodation. Unsolicited donations of unsuitable goods clog ports and airports. Agencies may bypass local government and local organisations, undermining the institutions that must run the recovery long after the agencies leave. Free imported food and goods can destroy the local markets and farmers that survivors depend on for income. Media attention drives funding towards visible rescue rather than the unglamorous long-term work of rebuilding, and attention fades long before recovery is complete. Aid is most effective where it is requested, coordinated by the affected state and channelled through local capacity.

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