Table of Contents
Introduction
Disaster and emergency preparedness are key aspects of engineering that protect human life both during and after completion of construction activities. Football stadiums are engineering products that might expose individuals to hazards especially when they collapse suddenly. This report focuses on the potential collapse of Burnley Football Stadium in the coming 2022 world cup. The Building Act 1984 is relevant to disaster and emergency planning and it forms a legal basis for this report. According to the Building Act 1984, the Secretary of State has a mandate to ensure that the welfare, convenience, and health of working in or living in buildings is secured (Tricker and Alford 2013, p.1). On the other hand, the stadium contains both the players who are the workers and the spectators. Therefore, the State must ensure that all individuals under this stadium roof are secure from any hazards. The first part of the report will focus on the key disaster management organizations before delving into the principles of emergency preparedness. Thirdly, it provides information about the key elements of potential conflict resolution and the role of the media in disaster response. The final part will present various guidance documents that are appropriate for the agency teams.
Report Findings
This section has five major parts and documents the main findings of the report. The discussions will link disaster management to a potential Football stadium collapse in 2022 world cup. Burnley Football Stadium is a typical stadium that the Prime Minister can review in relation to this report.
Key Organizations in Disaster Management and their Roles
The first stage of emergency and disaster planning is the identification of the members of the response team members in case the potential stadium collapse actualizes in 2022. The police unit, local council, health care bodies, local community, charitable organizations, and fire and rescue services are key organizations in the management of this potential disaster.
Police Unit. Police officers have a duty to ensure security and safety of all and they can provide vital support during disaster management. In the case of a collapse of the stadium, the police can help in evacuating the residents from the stadium and transferring them to a safer location. The police officers can extend their services to other potential victims who might be away from the stadium by blocking any entry to the collapsed stadium. Therefore, the Police Unit would ensure the safety of both the victims and other citizens afar.
Local Council. The local council at the location of this stadium in Lancashire would take responsibility of effecting emergency response and recovery. Local authorities intervene around emergency planning and response through local policy making in England (Shaw and Maythorne 2013, p.43). The focus of the local managers are transformation and recovery from the disaster. Therefore, the local councils can coordinate their services such as cleaning of the debris from the collapsed stadium. The local council also have a role to instruct its residents to avoid the site of the disaster because it can lead to further damages and physical injuries.
Health Care Bodies. Health care organizations have a role to revive the physical and psychological wellbeing of the victims of the stadium collapse. Some individuals might sustain injuries such as bone fractures, skin abrasions or inhalation of dust particles during the collapse. Therefore, the health care organizations such as hospitals and nursing homes around Burnley should admit these victims and treat them accordingly. Additionally, the residents of the stadium at the time of the collapse would witness a traumatic incident and this can lead to psychological trauma and stress. Therefore, counsellors and psychologists should accompany these health care bodies to deliver emotional support and counselling after the life-threatening event.
Local Community. The residents of Burnley area are important participants in rescuing the victims from further damage. World Cup is an international event and the local community should preserve its fame in case an emergency occurs. They can help in evacuating the victims from the site as volunteers through proper coordination with the local council.
Charitable Organizations. Red Cross is an example of a prominent and well-established charitable organization that can support the victims. They can activate their response team to evacuate, transport, and treat the victims. Charitable organizations can also act as tributaries through which other organizations can get funds to coordinate the recovery process. For instance, Red Cross can solicit funds from the public to use to run their operations.
Fire and Rescue Services. Fire is a major anticipation of stadium collapse because the stadium is connected to electric cables and wires that might cause electric sparks and fire eruption. The fire and rescue services can also be provided by the local fire brigades through mobilization by the local council. The fire service providers will help by extinguishing fire and removing the victims from the site of the disaster.
The stadium management. The management will have significant information about the residents of the stadium at the time of the collapse. For instance, the management has records of the number of the players and spectators in the stadium during the collapse. Therefore, it can convey such information to other organizations to determine the size of the population that they expect to rescue. Moreover, the management can liaise with the local authority to plan and initiate the construction of a new stadium after the collapse of the previous one.
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Principles of Emergency Preparedness for Response and Recovery from Natural and Man-Made Disasters
Emergency response and recovery should be flexible and reflective of the prevailing circumstances. Overall, search-and –rescue as well as emergency medical care services are the priorities during an emergency response and recovery. The response team should aim at meeting the needs of all the affected parties such as injured victims, uninjured, families and friends, children and the elderly, and the response team. The response team are part of the affected parties because they might get injured during the salvage process. Posttraumatic stress disorder is a mental ill-health that develops in individuals after exposure to traumatic events (McLaughlin et al. 2015, p.375). Therefore, the responders who are exposed to the traumatic event during evacuation might develop stressful symptoms and would require psychological support such as counselling as well. According to the UK Government (2013, p.1), the eight principles underpinning emergency response and recovery are anticipation, preparedness, subsidiarity, direction, information, integration, cooperation, and continuity. These principles also relate to the potential stadium collapse in the 2022 World Cup championships.
Anticipation. The emergency response team should conduct an ongoing risk stratification and analysis to manage the consequences of a disaster. For instance, the risks associated with stadium collapse such as fire eruption, physical injuries, and damage to properties should be evaluated.
Preparedness. In the preparedness phase, the organizations aforementioned align their roles and responsibilities in case the stadium collapse occurs. The organizations should evaluate their staff mix and ensure that they have all the professionals they require to execute their duties.
Subsidiarity. This principle posits that responders should make decisions at the lowest level possible while coordination at a higher level. This will enable the organizations to act with urgency to salvage the victims from the damages of the stadium collapse. Therefore, the local agencies and authorities will make quicker decisions as the national government coordinates all other organizations.
Direction. All the participants in the response team must understand and support all the objectives in the emergency preparedness strategic plan. Therefore, the team will achieve prioritization and direction of the recovery efforts. The team should pay attention to the needs of the displaced victims due to their unique needs. Furthermore, health care needs, food, and shelter should take precedence and they are unique according to the nature of the disaster.
Information. The authorities should avail suitable information management systems to help in the verification, dissemination, and assessment of critical information about the response resources, team, and the victims of the disaster. The response team management should establish effective lines of communicating to all agencies and the public during an emergency response (Robert 2016, p.1). For example, they can add security features on Google Maps to indicate the potential roads affected by the stadium collapse to enable the public make appropriate decision concerning their transport.
Integration. Coherence of the efforts produced by the response organizations will promote effective coordination both at the local and national levels. The response team management must ensure a robust coordination of resources, expertise, and knowledge between the private sector and government officials that will encourage an optimal response.
Cooperation. Information sharing between agencies at various levels will promote flexibility and positive engagement. This strategy will expose the potential hazards emanating from the stadium collapse so that the organizations respond without delays. The complexity of the disaster response actions emanates from the multi-agency collaboration that requires all the agencies to get access to same information faster. Therefore, all the agencies should be ready to receive and share information for the interest of the victims.
Continuity. The emergency response and recovery should integrate into the usual ways of operations of organizations. The local authorities should conduct their familiar surveillances on the sites of disaster to enable them capture the events right from their onsets. For instance, the local council should consider the reconstruction of the collapsed stadium as one of its annual development activities in the recovery process.
Key Elements of Potential Conflict to Disasters Resolution Arising from Various Agency Management Structures
Conflict resolution is important to ensure that all the agencies cooperate to achieve the shared goals during a disaster management. The first step will be the identification of the potential elements leading to conflicts between the agencies. Organizational policies can differ and this puts the organizations at conflict. For example, it can be difficult for business rescue teams or organizations that provides medical services to the victims to cooperate with charitable and non-profit organizations that might not be interested in the financial outcomes of the operation. Culture clash between different organizations and sectors increase the complexity of fostering the collaborative activities in disaster response (O’Sullivan et al. 2013, p.245). These disparities can lead to conflicting objectives during the search-and –rescue process.
On the other hand, informational gaps consist another element of potential conflict between the disaster management team members. Organizations can have a difference in their perceived facts and quite divergent viewpoints. For example, the organizations might differ on the best medical services to provide to the victims after the collapse and this can delay prioritization of their needs. Lastly, jurisdictional lines can restrict the operations of the response team and lead to conflicts between the organizations and local council.
Role of the Media in Disaster Response
The media can fall under social media or mainstream media categories as essential components for managing emergencies. Mapping technology, social networks, and mobile phones provides victims of a disaster to seek help and direction through various strategies. The media can provide an early warning and information dissemination about the events occurring during the disaster. Moreover, the residents of the disaster location can use the media for self-education to reduce risks during disaster preparedness (Romo-Murphy and Vos 2014, p.71). For instance, social media platforms such as Twitter can facilitate community interaction and motivation. Through these interactions, the potential victims would learn about risk reduction strategies such as the alternative exit routes to use in case the stadium collapse. On the other hand, the mainstream media such as radio and television stations reports on immediate damages and this necessitates needs assessment. The mainstream media can provide real time information about the occurrence of the collapse of the stadium and this can help the response team to plan evacuation strategies.
However, the media has a capacity to contribute negatively towards disaster preparedness and response and all these depends on media interest. Dissemination of rumors is one of the renowned negative side effect of using social media (Alexander 2014, p.717). The media can have contradicting interest with the responders and disseminate unverified information that might raise public anxiety. For instance, research shows that the media such as broadcasting houses can frame the disaster and response negatively by disseminating an accurate picture of the event (Romo-Murphy and Vos 2014, p.71). This challenge would in turn lead to public anxiety and sensationalizing of the disaster and discouragement to the response team. Therefore, the media stakeholders should be part of the response team and proper education of the media users and owners can help to make them responsible. This action will also prevent panic situations because the media will circulate the right information about the incidence.
Most importantly, the media can help in the resource mobilization phase of disaster response by seeking the support of volunteers worldwide. The media can post the help lines that the general public can send their financial aids and donations to assist salvage the situation. Volunteers can also receive invitations through the media so that they can acknowledge their roles in participating in the evacuation of the victims from the site of the disaster. The media action in circulating the need for financial aids can also be important in assessing the existing gaps during the response. Therefore, the government can chip in and give financial support during the response team.
Guidance Documents ̶ Response Procedures and Inter-Agency Team Working
Response procedures
UK Government has prepared guidance documents for response procedures and inter-agency team working to enable an effective mitigation of disasters. The UK Cabinet Office guidance document posits that the local responders should establish a Science and Technical Advice Cell to coordinate timely pieces of advice on technical and scientific issues (UK Cabinet Office 2013, p.50). The particular response actions include evacuation, sheltering, shelter-in-place, and lockdown. A warning system that can be heard throughout the stadium should enable a prompt evacuation of all the occupants at the time of collapse. The survivors should receive shelter in a safer place outside of the place of incidence.
Recovery should follow response whereby the response teams rebuilds, rehabilitates, and restores the materials lost during the disaster. The community is rebuilt to make it resilient in the future during similar emergencies. In the case of a stadium collapse, recovery would involve rebuilding of the collapsed structures, continued community education and counseling support for the victims, and installation of safety standards within the stadium to give early warning sounds during similar disasters.
Inter-agency team working
On the other hand, many agencies get involved in providing services such as first aid, food, and shelter during disasters. The agencies can include the military, emergency ministries, civil defense agency, and local fire brigades. Coordination between these agencies is important to ensure that as many victims as possible receive assistance rapidly. Inter-agency team work alleviates duplication and redundancy of services that might mitigate progress during response to the disaster. Therefore, each agency should identify and establish its activities and responsibilities during the response phase.
Even though multi-agency coordination can be a significant challenge to the responders, individuals can connect these agencies during disaster management. Liaison officers can work in strategic emergency centers to bridge the gaps in multi-agency response coordination (Curnin et al. 2015, p.300). These officers can pass information from one agent to another and synchronize their responses to avoid duplication of services. Duplication of response services means that the victims receive a given service more than once and this additional servicing does not benefit them. Therefore, effective communication channels are basic for inter-agency teamwork and the liaison officers can connect these agencies.
Conclusion
In conclusion, natural and human-made disasters can lead to significant mortalities and injuries to victims and the emergency response team require proper planning and disaster preparedness. This report reveals the key organizations and the emergency management principles that can apply to a potential stadium collapse in 2022. The government should remain stern in planning for disasters in order to save human live and minimize damages from such emergencies. Additionally, the media has a critical role to ensure that the potential occupants and victims receive updates about the disaster and get prior education on preparedness. Finally, the response team management should adhere to the guidance documents to control the response process and foster inter-agency collaboration to achieve the goals of disaster management.
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