A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggested this week that climate-related disasters increase the risk of armed conflict breaking out in a country.

In African countries and other ethnically fractionalized countries, 23% of armed conflicts have coincided with natural disaster. This finding had me thinking about the nature of coastal emergency preparedness and policymaking in the context of armed conflict. Given the ubiquitous breakdown of governance structures in countries affected by conflict, I fear that this finding will become more and more important to monitor in the future.

Looking at this finding through the lens of the emergency management cycle, here are a couple of ways that I feel that the breakdown of governance structures related to disasters resulting from coastal hazards could influence mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery in the context of coastal African cities:

• mitigation – although mitigation efforts may have been developed in some African coastal areas, it is likely that they are inadequate and in poor shape due to lack of upkeep. Conflict conditions are notoriously devastating to infrastructure, so as rates of conflict increase, rate of deteriorating coastal protections will likely also increase, posing a greater hazard for coastal communities.
• preparedness – preparedness requires a degree of impetus from the higher echelons of local and national government. Given that many African governments are already notoriously underconcerned about developing real policy to prepare for the occurrence of a natural disaster, increased conflict resulting from disaster and consequent inaction to respond and recover from said disaster will develop a feedback loop wherein populations remain unprepared, uneducated on risks and preparation strategies, and economically damaged.
• response – similarly, and for many reasons, African governments are slow to respond to population demands for support. For example, inadequate infrastructure disallows quick access to populations in need. With respect to this article’s suggestion that with increasing disasters there will be increasing conflict, governments’ ability and inclination to response to emergencies will proceed to decline even further.
• Finally and much like the other aspects of the emergency management cycle, recovery will prove slow and agonizing for communities affected by both coastal disaster and related armed conflict. In summary, this article and the course material covered this week highlight the importance of supporting good governance and effective policymaking in the context of African coastal countries. Emergency management is key to ensuring population well-being and coastal protection for the future, as if a country is able to mitigate natural hazards, perhaps it will also be able to mitigate the risk of armed conflict related to those hazards.

References:

Climate-related disasters raise conflict risk, study says

This week we moved into our new home near the outer banks in North Carolina, and insurance, floods, and hurricane threats were all buzzing through my mind.  As we are settling into our new home, this week’s lesson was all about planning, preparing, and responding to coastal hazards which made me think about preparing a hurricane emergency kit.  We are out of the storm surge threat, but we are still vulnerable to the rest of intense weather conditions associated with tropical storms and hurricanes.

I did a quick search and an article on WTKR, a local news station, popped up titled “Emergency management teams prepare for hurricane season in the Outer Banks”.  The article highlighted that the Dare County Emergency Management team was looking over evacuation routes and response plans to prepare for the upcoming hurricane season.  The Team was holding an open house which would discuss and showcase emergency supply kits, have insurance representatives available, and provide education on flood zones and pro-active measures.

The article highlighted important aspects of preparedness as discussed in this week’s module, however from just this information in the article I feel like this particular event may not take into account different social barriers that some residents may encounter.  The article did not mention transportation, which could be an issue for some residents.  The article also did not indicate that there would be future open houses in case someone could not attend this particular one.  This week’s lesson touched on the different factors that create barriers to emergency communication, and after reading the module I was able to look at this article with a different perspective.  I believe holding open houses such as this, is a great pro-active measure to encourage and help residents prepare for possible hazards, but I think it is important to take multiple steps and different forms of communication to ensure you reach the bulk of the population.  I plan on taking the information from this week’s module along with suggestions from the local emergency management team when preparing my emergency supply kit, but I do wonder how many residents are unable to obtain the resources to make this kits for themselves and their families?  This course has opened my eyes to wide scope of variables that are associated with coastal hazards and those affected by coastal hazards.

References:

Harmon, G., & Corillo, T. (2016, May 18). Emergency management teams prepare for hurricane season in the Outer Banks. Retrieved July 31, 2016, from http://wtkr.com/2016/05/18/the-outer-banks-is-getting-you-ready-for-hurricane-season/

 

Reading through these lesson commentaries and articles, I have realized how important evacuation plans are. There are many policies that are in place for natural hazards and disasters like a places mitigation processes, preparedness, recovery, and response. A coastal areas preparedness is also very important, this includes the communications of government agencies to the public about evacuation plans and what to do during natural disasters. Although many places have evacuation plans in place, many people choose not to participate or listen to what the government is saying about impeding storms. I found an article about the problems that the people of New Orleans faced during hurricane Katrina. The plans in 2005 for evacuation were close to meaningless. Federal levees broke and even though evacuation plans were set up, no contracts were set in place for busses or trains to help people leave the city. Many people chose to stay, and practiced “vertical evacuation”, where people stayed with family members that lived on higher ground or rented hotel rooms that were said to be safe because of instances in the past.

Because of how horrible Louisiana’s evacuation plan was, they have changed their plan and wrinkled out some problems during some trial and error. Now, if the city has declared a mandatory evacuation, federal agencies can implement that within 36 hours, all city residents and their pets will be moved to safety. The cities emergency planers also use computer simulation models developed at Louisiana State University. The article from Next City, also states that the plan was put into action in 2008, when hurricane Gustav turned toward the city. I think that it is great that Louisiana has changed their evacuation plan, because they saw how horrible it was. Even though some people stayed and tried other practices at being safe, I’m glad that a mandatory evacuation had been put in place to bring people to safety. I also like that the city is taking advantage of volunteer services, and are training people on how to help others during a crisis. I’m also happy that their new evacuation plans includes animals, I know I could never leave my cat behind, and now people wont have to. I also like the fact that they are using computer models to predict how bad storms will be and will be able to see the storms direct path. As happy as I am that they have improved their plans, it still makes me a little upset seeing as their original evacuation plans were pointless and not helpful. They left many people in the city still and didn’t push the urgency of the storm.

Reference:

Why New Orleans’ Katrina Evacuation Debacle Will Never Happen Again. (n.d.). Retrieved July 28, 2016, from https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/new-orleans-evacuation-hurricane-katrina-will-never-happen-again