Sunday, June 10, 2018

First Critical Step To Disaster Damage Assessment And Recovery

By Eric Baker


The thing about emergencies is that they take advantage of surprise. There is also virtually no information that could aid a recovery plan. The loss of control experienced by parties could lead to panic and confusion. It also makes people focus on the short term, they lose sight of the bigger picture. The best and smartest thing to do is to take a deep breath and conduct disaster damage assessment.

The first thing is to describe the condition accurately. Only until the full scope of a situation has been understood can one start to make the necessary steps. Taking a step before fully understanding the instance is a sure way to fail. While time is being wasted going down the wrong path unknowingly, the condition might escalate. The best way to deal with an emergency is to act fast. Acting fast and blindly are two different things. The latter is vehemently discouraged.

How much loss has been experienced? How permanent is the loss? What can be done to mitigate? To provide some sort of soft landing for the people it directly affects. The nature of the loss is a great way to understand the course of action. It helps one understand what goals they should have in mind upon recovery.

When trying to understand an opponent, one has to have him or her pegged. How can the acquired knowledge best be applied and utilized in the situation? Thus, the need for categories. This is a grouping of similar situations as determined by common qualities. An emergency would be categorized as mild, severe or the middle ground, moderate. This way, by constantly examining the equalities, one knows when the situation has started to escalate.

In every situation, there is need to know at what point exactly recovery should begin. Which aspect is most broken down? Which aspect would most benefit the situation if attended to first? These questions will help determine how to best approach the issue from the three-dimensional inspection.

Once an emergency response is complete, there is a need for a recovery plan. One will be looking to remedy the present situation than later trying to get back to pre-fall condition. That means first aid first then finding a way to get medical attention.

After the plan is developed, the next thing is together all the tools required. It might be personnel or it could be machinery. In a business setting, it would be digging into the emergency recovery fund and getting consultants to help. After a terrorist attack, it would be getting blood donations and medical help for casualties.

This is a critical step to recovery from an emergency. If it is skimped on or compromised, the situation could get very dire very fast. It might end up being irrevocable. Accurate assessment is therefore paramount to full recovery.




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