Emergency response ahead of severe weather season

According to US natural hazard statistics, there have been significant increases in severe weather-related fatalities in the world. Many of these have become a seasonable phenomenon. Weather changes that happen regularly such as flood, heat, tornado, lightning, hurricane, wildfire, extreme cold, and wind and earthquakes have been dominating the headlines of newspapers throughout the world. It has now gone to the extent that not even a single day passes without having been heard about at least one such incident taking valuable lives and properties somewhere in the world.  

Preparedness to mitigate the effects and rescue people has been taking all across the planet with efficient response and management teams being trained to cope with all types of emergencies. There are private agencies with trained officers ready to manage such crisis when an emergency hit. Some big corporations are assigning such organizations with the duty of protecting their employers and properties to efficiently respond to such emergencies. When they are tasked with the duty, they will be responsible for down to top operations such as issuing protocols, supplying necessary equipment, facilitating transportation, and providing required means to stay at a spot for an indefinite period. 

With each new change in weather becoming seasonal and unpredictable, investing more time and resources in the field of security response venture will be a relevant idea for this time in particular. 

Hurricanes, wildfires, and floods have been frequently hitting more parts of the world. Countless acres of land have been burnt in a wildfire in recent years. Hurricane takes hundreds of thousands of lives and other properties. Floods have also become a regular phenomenon claiming lives and destroying livelihoods. Since the root cause of this severe change in weather is environmental pollutions and other toxic-substance emissions, the future is likely to be more dark and hopeless as there has no visible practice in letter and spirit towards the reduction of pollution in the world. For this reason, at least equipping personnel to tackle emergencies by taking strategies that can rescue the most vulnerable people and mitigate the effects of the disaster should be the urgent priority of the security leaders and disaster management teams. Here you will be exposed to some smart emergency response ideas helpful for successfully engaging with rescue operations. 

Informing the communities 

The first and most basic thing one can do to respond to an emergency weather season is to pass the news of potential danger that is on its way. Security teams are expected to have the most advanced communication channels to reach out to residents to facilitate information sharing more effectively so that they can take enough precautions and demand help in a critical situation. Security leaders must also be careful about not turning the people in panic with their interaction rather they should communicate only the most critical information in a strategic and timely manner. Enabling a rapid and coordinated response requires proper communication between all the stakeholders of a situation. They should be very thoughtful about what this announcement means to the public and how they will respond as each one assess that in varying degrees. They must find proper channels and systems to convey the message and ensure that the message has reached the target audience. This is the fundamental duty of security leaders to manage severe weather conditions and natural calamities. 

Defining the vulnerable areas and people  

When communicating with people who are going to meet the calamity, the security team has to bear in mind that giving a message should be confined into the specific areas and it is also advised to inform the nearby area that is going to have its consequences. For example, if a hurricane hits an area near the ocean, it may cause the water to overflow to areas where people are living. In such circumstances, security personnel is indulging in rescue operation teams have to proactively foresee the entire probable follow-ups. 

Making proper planning and preparation for the operation  

We have Emergency operation centers these days in several places. It functions keeping in mind the protection of lives and properties as its core goal. They are a set of trained security professionals ready to manage the communication activities and support and operate emergency response activities in a sheer professional and creative manner. Such a safety operation team is entrusted to prepare for the worst disaster with meticulous planning and response strategies. This involves providing adequate training and skills for the personnel and devising the course of action. For security leaders, it is important to assign specific roles to the personnel and maintain a commanding power without creating confusion during the rescue operations. There should be established communication among the security personnel and also with the affected communities. Preparation again involves testing the efficiency and functionality of the tools and technologies that they are going to use in the operation. Identifying potential points of failure and finding ways to minimize the inevitable casualties are among the prime concerns of the security leaders.   

How much collaboration valued during the operation 

Total collaboration between all the concerned stakeholders of a particular emergency is paramount for the successful operation of an emergency response team. Collaboration between private and public security agencies, security management, and other rescue forces need to be well-coordinated to have a smooth function while the work goes on. During a severe weather emergency, immediate informing of the community, establishing the separate responsibilities, and making a clear direction for the entire operation all these vitals will not be possible if there was no active collaboration among the stakeholders. Constituting an integrated commanding system will be a highly recommended way to establish collaboration. 

Now let us take three examples of weather response activity  

Flood management; has become a frequently required operation nowadays as floods continue to be a recurring process. Searching and rescuing, cleaning up some hazardous materials, utility restoration, and other critical activities should only be carried out by experienced and trained personnel. For example, if there is full of water near an electric circuit and the electric nuance touches the water, it will be catastrophic if it was not properly managed. And removing debris, rescuing isolated people trapped in a place surrounded by water, using technological tools to facilitate the operation, taking enough self-defenses against drowning, insects, chemical dangers, fire, and exhaustion are all things security personnel involved in flood management have to understand. 

Hurricane management; primarily requires a thorough evacuation plan in the entire areas that the hurricane is expected to hit. It includes evacuation procedures, a chain of commands, tools for the personnel, and other essential accessories. The flow of information must be assured from the sources only. Anticipating the potential consequences, responding accordingly, planning relief and recovery course of action, leveraging the relationship with other agencies, mobilizing volunteers, calling the first responders are among the factors a security leader managing the hurricane has to address. Other components such as the use of technology and post-storm assessments also come under the duty of the Hurricane management team.  

Wildfire management; is a very important issue because of the extensive damage it causes and the threat it poses to the safety of people and the property. It is urgent in sites packed with inflammable vegetation to have an effective wildfire plan at all times. Some key elements to keep in mind while engaging with wildfire are defining the exact location of the site, preparing a detailed description of the site, identifying the location of fire-sensitive features, narrating the procedure to be followed, creating communication procedures including radio frequencies of responding agencies and map identification such as entry spot, exit spot, water source and location of flammable fuels. And last but not least, maintaining a close relationship and liaisons with the local fire agency is very important. Conducting training exercises and sometimes joint training with the local agencies will help to sharpen the efficiency of the whole operation. 

As most countries fail to keep their promise of reducing greenhouse emissions and other polluting components, things don’t seem to change. When elements producing such emissions are on a skyrocketing pace, the only reliance, government, and private agencies have before them is to equip security personnel to respond and manage the changing weather emergencies. Security leaders both from the public and private sectors alike have a lot to learn and do in the coming days as many of the corporations starts to employ security agencies to respond to the emergencies in the face of seasonal and frequent weather-related casualties across the world