Disaster Research 172

July 11, 1995

This newsletter is reprinted with the full knowledge and consent of the Natural HazardsResearch and Applications Information Center in Boulder, CO.

Table of contents

  1. A Note from Oz
  2. Ambulance Services
  3. NPOs That Help Victims of Disasters
  4. LP/HC Risks
  5. Simulation of Rescue Activities After an Earthquake
  6. Incident Command Systems
  7. About the WGET - Another List You May Be Interested In
  8. A Preliminary Call for Papers
  9. A Message Cadged from Nets Re: GIS+EM
  10. Update from SAF-Net(sm)
  11. The Flood Remote Sensing Home Page
  12. EERI to Assess Earthquake Engineering Research and Testing Facility Needs
  13. New Information from the USGS: By Web, Fax, Phone, or Mail
  14. A Couple of New Quick Response Reports from the Hazards Center
  15. Questions on the Use of ICS in Interagency Response


A Note from Oz

Greetings again from the land of the big brown kangaroo. . .

INFOrecent, the quarterly bulletin that lists new material in theInformation and Research Centre at the Australian Emergency ManagementInstitute (AEMI), is now available on the Internet.

The latest edition, Winter 1995, No.26, is now available, along with theprevious six editions. The information can be searched both by issuenumber and also by subject area, which covers all seven issues.Information on loan conditions is also available. INFOrecent can beaccessed via the AEMI homepage, which has the URL:

http://www.vifp.monash.edu.au/~davidt/aemi.html

Paul Bladen
Information and Research Centre
Australian Emergency Management Institute
Mt. Macedon Victoria 3441 AUSTRALIA
Ph +6154 261-205
Fax: +6154 263-266
E-mail: robf@vifp.monash.edu.au


Ambulance Services

The Belgian Red Cross is reorganizing its ambulance service and issearching for information about:

great thanks to send us your experiences and information by E-mail

Frederic de Thysebaert

***************************************************
Belgian Red Cross - Relief Service
Ch de Vleurgat, 98 - B 1050 Brussel - BELGIUM
phone 332 645.46.88
fax 332 645.46.85
telex B 24.266 - belcro
E-mail
belgian.red.cross@infoboard.be
frederic.de.thysebaert@infoboard.be
***************************************************


NPOs That Help Victims of Disasters

I am a research intern at Japan Pacific Resource Network (JPRN), anonprofit organization in Oakland, CA. We are going to publish a book ondisaster relief in Japan, responding to an increasing need of active rolesof nonprofits and volunteer help in disaster relief there since Januarywhen a disastrous earthquake hit Kobe, Japan.

In the book, I am in charge of chapters on a) how nonprofit organizationssupply food, water and necessities to earthquake victims, and b) how NPOsrespond to disasters in the stage of emergency relief. In addition to theAmerican Red Cross and the Salvation Army, I would like to know of otherorganizations whose primary missions are not to provide help for victimsbut to provide services to a certain class (the elderly, people withdisabilities, the youth, HIV+, homeless people and so on). The kind ofdisasters do not matter, although your experience in earthquakes would bethe best. If you are with one of these organizations, or if you know suchorganizations, please send us information on the organizations with nameand telephone (and fax) number(s) via e-mail.

We would like to empower the NPO sector and encourage voluntary help inJapan. So, please help us!

Mika Nakahara
Japan Pacific Resource Network
jprn@igc.apc.org


LP/HC Risks

I've been asked by an industrial colleague about convincing decision-makers, such as plant managers, of the benefits of taking steps to avoidlow-probability, high-consequence risks. A related question is how to docost benefit analysis in this kind of situation.Does anyone have experience and/or references in this area?

Thanks,
Vincent Hand
Miami University
Institute of Environmental Sciences
Oxford, Ohio 45056 USA
vchand@miamiu.muohio.edu
513-529-5811 voice
513-529-5814 FAX


Simulation of Rescue Activities After an Earthquake

Within the scope of a dissertation at the University of Karlsruhe inGermany, I am dealing with the planning of the optimal use of rescue teamsin a disaster area during the first 100 hours after an earthquake.

It is my task to allocate a certain number of rescue teams, which are ableto fulfill different jobs (e.g. the saving of people buried alive or therepair work of damaged streets), in the disaster area so that the numberof people rescued alive reaches a maximum. I am trying to find a solutionto this problem by simulating all the relevant dynamic activities in thearea. Therefore it is necessary to apply certain strategies in order toimitate the behaviour of a central rescue office in the disaster area.

I would like to contact people who are experienced with the planning ofrescue activities in this context. Especially I am interested in thearguments which are decisive for the use of a rescue team at a certainplace at a certain time in the disaster area. It would be very friendly ifyou could help me to find such persons or organisations. Please do nothesitate to contact me for further information concerning our concept andmodel.

Peter Hofmann
Lachnerstr.7
76131 Karlsruhe
Tel.: 0721/698362
Fax: 0721/695245
E-Mail:
ulkv@rz.uni-karlsruhe.de
Germany


Incident Command Systems

I am working on a doctoral dissertation regarding Incident Command Systemsin natural disasters (or human created). . . I am interested in roles ofpersonnel, communication, & decision making in the ICS. I would also liketo look at interdependency among ICS, other organizations, and schooldistricts. Any help, guidance or direction is much appreciated. Thank youReplies to: LUdell@aol.com


About the WGET - Another List You May Be Interested In

The Working Group on Emergency Telecommunications (WGET), convened by theUnited Nations Department of Humanitarian Affairs (DHA), includes all UNagencies as well as many other international and national, governmentaland nongovernmental institutions involved in humanitarian assistance.

The WGET meets periodically, the next meeting is scheduled for 20/21 July1995 at UN Headquarters in New York, and deals with regulatory and legalas well as operational and technical issues of emergency telecommuni-cations. It works towards the implementation of the ITU Resolutionsconcerning Telecommunications for Disaster Mitigation and Disaster ReliefOperation and towards an efficient co-ordination of field telecommuni-cations.

The WGET maintains an e-mail list, subscription to which is open toinstitutions or individuals with a bona fide interest in the subject. Toapply for subscription, please send an e-mail message to:

mailserv@itu.ch

(subject is ignored) with the text:

subscribe emergency-telecoms

and a second e-mail message directly to the list-owner:

hans.zimmermann@itu.ch

with very brief information about your or your institution's link toemergency telecommunications.

Some basic documents on the WGET can also be found on the www at:
http://ife.ee.ethz.ch/~rs/sdr/
under the directory "WGET". This site is maintained by the facilitator ofthe WGET sub-group on operational issues.

Best regards,
Hans Zimmermann
United Nations Department of Humanitarian Affairs
Palais des Nations, CH-1211 Geneva 10
Phone +41 22 917-3516, Fax +41 22 917-0023
HANS.ZIMMERMANN@ITU.CH


A Preliminary Call for Papers

Dear Colleagues,Thanks,
Christos Douligeris

Call for Papers
TELECOMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS Special Issue on
TELECOMMUNICATIONS IN EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT

Original manuscripts are sought for a special issue of TelecommunicationsSystems whose objective is to report on the most recent research advances in the field of Telecommunications in Emergency Management.

Authors wishing to submit manuscripts for possible publication in thisspecial issue should submit five copies of their manuscripts to one of theguest editors by September 1, 1995. All manuscripts will be thoroughlyreviewed according to standard Telecommunications Systems reviewingpractices.

GUEST CO-EDITORS:

Prof. Christos Douligeris
Elec. and Comp. Eng.
P.O. Box 248294
University of Miami
Coral Gables, Fl 33124
tel: (305) 284 3597
fax: (305) 284 4044
christos@eng.miami.edu

Prof. William A. Wallace
Dep. of Decision Sciences and Engineering Systems
Rensselaer Polytechnic
Troy, NY 12180
tel: (518) 276-2895
fax: (518) 276-8227
wallaw@rpi.edu

John F. Houpt II
ATZH-DPS-PSB (Houpt)
US Army Signal Corps
Safety Office
Fort Gordon, GA 30905-5291
tel: (706) 791-3227
fax: (706)791-7233
JohnHoupt@aol.com


GIS+EM

[This message is re-posted from the "Networks in Emergency Management"list ("Nets" - nets@hoshi.cic.sfu.ca)]

Hello!We are a Geographical Information Systems shop ramping up to work with astate level Emergency Management agency. Anybody out there makingextensive use of GIS? We would be especially interested in finding outabout outfits using ESRI products (our "native tongue," so to speak), butwould benefit from any kind of pertinent information. In fact, if you justalways wished that a computer could do XXX with a map, feel free to dropme a line and I'll take a minute to tell you if it's possible.

Chuck Horne
Program Specialist
University of Georgia
201 N. Milledge Ave.
Athens, GA 30601
horne@gis.lislab.uga.edu


Update from SAF-Net(sm)

[Received the following from Dan Guenthner - dguenth@xmission.com]

As of 3 July 95, this system has changed its domain name. It may take afew days, or even up to a week, for all the name servers to recognize thename of SAFNET.COM. We will be switching all the listservers and mail overfrom SAFNET.CHIGATE.COM to SAFNET.COM in the next few weeks. Please bearwith us in this changing process. E-mail can be sent to dguenth@xmission.com instead of safnet.chigate.com. Additionally, we have set up anew web page at:

http://www.xmission.com/~dguenth/iesn.html

Come check it out, as it is for Emergency Services Personnel around theworld. Some of it is still under construction, so please forgive some ofthe things that do not work yet.

-----------------------------------------------------------------
International Emergency Services Network, Inc. (IESN)
Home of SAF-Net(sm) The network for Emergency Services Providers
info@safnet.com / support@safnet.com / subscribe@safnet.com
Listserver(s) SAFNET-L, FIREMEN-L, MEDICAL-L, HAZMAT-L, SAFETY-L
-----------------------------------------------------------------


The Flood Remote Sensing Home Page

[Received the following from G. Robert Brakenridge - G.Robert.Brakenridge@Dartmouth.EDU]

http://www.dartmouth.edu/artsci/geog/floods/Index.htmlis the Dartmouth Flood Remote Sensing Home Page on the Internet. Orbitalsynthetic aperture radar-based maps of major flood events are frequentlyposted at this site. In the future, we hope to reduce lag times from imageacquisition to posting down to a matter of some hours. Comments would bewelcomed.


EERI to Assess Earthquake Engineering Research and Testing Facility Needs

[Taken from the EERI Newsletter - June 1995]

The most recent reauthorization of the National Earthquake HazardsReduction Act calls for an extensive assessment of earthquake engineeringresearch and testing capabilities in the U.S., including the feasibilityand advisability of developing a comprehensive earthquake engineeringresearch and testing program within the National Earthquake HazardsReduction Program. The National Science Foundation and the NationalInstitute of Standards and Technology have awarded a grant to theEarthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) to conduct thisassessment and prepare a summary report to be submitted to Congress thisfall. For more information on this project, contact EERI, 499 14th Street,Suite 320, Oakland, CA 94612-1934; (510) 451-0905; fax: (510) 451-5411;e-mail: susant@rock.eerc.berkeley.


New Information from the USGS: By Web, Fax, Phone, or Mail

To get more information on water and earth resources and hazards in yourstate, try the new state fact sheet series by the U.S. Geological Survey.The fact sheets summarize key USGS investigations and assessments of knownand potential resources and hazards in each state and suggest sources foradditional information. The sheets identify specific studies on a widerange of topics, including earthquakes, floods, and other geologichazards. The Survey also has sheets available on specific topics (such ashazards) rather than on specific sites. The USGS is experimenting with newways to get this information to the public, including on-line accessthrough the Internet: http://www.usgs.gov

as well as through the USGS EarthFax service: (703) 648-4888

via telephone: 1-800-USA-MAPS

and postal service:
USGS
119-G National Center
Reston, VA 22092


A Couple of New Quick Response Reports from the Hazards Center

The Hazards Center has two new QR reports available for the cost ofduplication and shipping:

QR74
"Self Organization in Disaster Response and Recovery: The Maharashtra, India Earthquake of September 30, 1993," by Louise K. Comfort. 1995. 42 pp. $5.00, plus shipping: Domestic: $3.50 (printed matter), $4.00 (first class); Canada and Mexico: $3.50 (surface), $4.50 (air); International: $5.00 (surface), $6.00 (air).

QR75
"Final Report of Preliminary Analyses: Impact of the Magnitude 4.5 Aftershock of December 5, 1994, on San Fernando Residents' Levels of Earthquake Preparedness and Selected Psychosocial Variables," by T. Shelley Duval, John-Paul Mulilis, and Neal Lalwani. 1995. 24 pp. $5.00, plus shipping: Domestic: $3.00 (printed matter), $3.00 (first class); Canada and Mexico: $3.00 (surface), $3.00 (air); International: $4.00 (surface), $5.00 (air).


Questions on the Use of ICS in Interagency Response

The issue of command identification seems to arise once in a while as anissue at local and national levels with regard to multiple casualtyincident management. Most Incident Command/Incident Management modelsstate that the incident commander is the fire chief; this is notsurprising in that ICS and IMS were developed by the fire service; whichBTW, is by far the most effective way to manage major emergencies. Theissue seems moot, though, when there are multiple victims where trueeffective interagency/interjurisdictional operations are called for.

  1. Does your agency use an incident management system to manage multiple casualty incidents and other major emergencies?
  2. Does your jurisdiction use a single or unified command model?
  3. In the hierarchy, is EMS a component of the command team or a functional component within the overall ICS/IMS organizational chart? Are strategic decisions made by commanders from all involved agencies: fire, law enforcement, EMS, emergency management, etc?
  4. Does your agency employ any emergency management principles to prepare for major emergencies?
  5. What type of system do you function in: fire; third service; hospital-based, commercial for-profit; PUM, etc?
Thank you in advance for your time and input.
Steven Kuhr, CEM, EMT-P
New York City
SKuhr@aol.com



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