The world continues to experience extreme weather, and natural disasters are happening with greater frequency—and greater intensity. From destructive storms and floods to parching droughts and catastrophic fires, these disasters can devastate communities in just a few hours, destroying homes, schools, businesses, and lives.
To weather these storms, it is imperative for communities to develop resiliency strategies and disaster preparedness plans. While no one can completely insulate themselves from the risk of disasters, it’s possible to put protocols into place that can mitigate the effects of a natural disaster and facilitate recovery and rebuilding. All communities need strong disaster preparedness plans, wherever they are.
Community Preparedness
Physical disaster preparedness includes infrastructure that either protects communities or helps them to rebuild after disaster strikes. Japan offers a great example of this. The country is frequently hit by typhoons that bring not only torrential rain and strong winds, but also huge waves that can inundate coastal areas. At the same time, it sits close to many active fault lines and is subject to tsunamis, like the one that like the Tōhoku region after the huge 9.0 earthquake on March 11, 2011. That disaster left 20,000 people dead and wiped away entire towns.
Knowing this, Japan has built what essentially amounts to a 400-kilometer-long tsunami wall that also serves to protect the country from typhoon flooding. This series of concrete seawalls, jetties, and related structures protects coastal towns and residents. When combined with a robust alert system, these walls have made Japan more resilient to major storms and tsunamis. The Japanese government spent $12 billion on these reinforcements.
Other countries and communities are also working to increase their resiliency to their own specific vulnerabilities. Places prone to wildfires can manage forest land by thinning undergrowth, reducing deadfall, and otherwise clearing highly flammable wood and brush. In the U.S., land management techniques long used by Native Americans are gaining more attention as effective ways to prevent large, destructive wildfires. Tribes like the Yurok in California and Apache in the Southwest used low-intensity, controlled burns of wildlands to cultivate specific plants and remove the brush and undergrowth that fuel fast-moving, catastrophic fires.
Disaster preparedness also includes creating protocols for what to do when a disaster strikes and communicating them—for example, creating a community warning system; establishing evacuation routes, shelters, and evacuation centers for survivors; and plans for coordinating efforts by first responders and relief agencies.
Disaster Preparedness for Families
Cities, states, and countries all have a major role to play in ensuring communities are prepared to withstand natural disasters and rebuild.
However, there’s a lot that individuals and families can do to prepare themselves:
- Be aware of the disaster risks in your area. For example, do you live in an area prone to wildfires? Does your home sit in a low-lying coastal area where it might be vulnerable to tsunamis?
- Create an emergency plan and make sure every family member knows it. Designate a local meeting place that everyone can get to and plan a few routes you might take to leave the area if necessary.
- Create an emergency kit with non-perishable food, three days of water, a first aid kit, flashlight, batteries, maps, and copies of important documents. If you have a pet, make sure you have a carrier ready to go and include pet food and water in your emergency kit.
- Sign up for community warning systems if your community offers them. Be aware of other emergency notification systems, like tornado sirens, so you know what to do when you hear them.
- Be a good neighbor—look out for your friends and other community members. If possible, check in on elderly, disabled, or isolated neighbors and keep each other aware of emergency alerts.
How Disaster Preparedness Fits into the UN Sustainable Development Goals
The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) includes disaster risk reduction as a target under SDG 11, which aims to make cities “inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable.” Similarly, one of the targets of SDG 9 is to build resilient infrastructure.
IRUSA and Disaster Preparedness and Relief
Nonprofit organization Islamic Relief USA (IRUSA) works to eradicate poverty, relieve suffering, and promote resilient communities around the world. As part of this effort, the organization provides emergency relief in communities affected by natural disasters. Over the past few years, a few examples include areas Bangladesh that have been affected by widespread, destructive flooding; communities in Kenya that have been inundated by rainfall; and earthquake relief in Afghanistan. In the U.S., the IRUSA disaster relief team has deployed to assist in the wake of several hurricanes. IRUSA has responded to these crises by providing food, clean water, medical care, hygiene kits, temporary shelter, and support for displaced persons and refugees. Those interested in supporting the nonprofit’s disaster response efforts are encouraged to visit https://irusa.org/our-work/emergency-response/.