Surveillance and Disaster Planning

Scenario: Earthquake

- This is a HYPOTHETICAL Scenario.

- You are required to prepare a Response Plan to the scenario below. The response plan should include: relevant stakeholders in the response, logistics, special considerations as a result of the scenario context (season, location etc), challenges, likely outcomes, conclusions and recommendations for the future.

Scene:
It is 16th August, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The city is hosting the Olympic Games and there are thousands of additional tourists and athletes in the city. Over the past few days there have been slight earth tremors, but because of the Olympics, the authorities have made light of them and attempted not to worry the tourists.

On the evening of the 17th August there is an earthquake situated at about 10km underground 50km outside the main city of Rio de Janeiro. Buildings collapse and many are injured and even more killed. A lot of the injured are tourists.

Role:
You are the head of the Emergency Response Team in Rio. What would your response plan be given the situation and the location of this disaster event?

Students will be randomly allocated to one of several pre-written disaster scenarios and asked to complete a disaster response plan. Students will be provided their disaster scenario in Week 3 of the semester to allow for sufficient time to design a disaster response plan. The plan must cover all the relevant elements described in the unit and be an appropriate response for the disaster scenario.

A comprehensive disaster management plan should:

- Provide a critical analysis of the disaster event.
- Identify all relevant stakeholders with a detailed description of their role within the disaster management plan.
- Provide for appropriate management of resources.
- Consider factors that may impact the disaster response plan including, but not limited to, vulnerable groups, animal welfare and environmental factors.
- Provide a plan for managing the psychological stressors of a disaster event for those affected, including any response personnel.
- Provide strategies for evaluating the effectiveness of the disaster management plan following the disaster event.
- Provide evidence from scholarly resources to support all areas of the disaster response plan to ensure response strategy is in accordance with best practice approaches.