Reading Summary 12- Randy Rask- Case Study on 2010 Haitian Earthquake

Randy Rask

Lesson 12 Reading Summary

 

Reference:  Coles J., Zhuang J., Yates J. (March 2012) Case study in Disaster Relief: A Descriptive Analysis of Agency Partnerships in the Aftermath of the January 12th, 2010 Haitian Earthquake. Socio-Economic Planning Sciences. Mar2012, Vol. 46 Issue 1, p67-77. 11p.

Theme:  This study analyzes the recovery and response of the January 12, 2012 Haitian earthquake through several different agencies and how these agencies cooperated with each other. 

Summary:

·         Research is based on 18 different agencies that responded to the earthquake. 

·         It studies how they cooperated, communicated, and understood each other during response.

·         Up to 250,000 people were presumed dead by the earthquake that measured 7.0 on the Richter scale.

·         Many different agencies had many different goals when trying to deal with the response. 

·         Research shows that data was pretty well shared among the different agencies. 

·         Partnerships between different agencies also seemed to be fairly good. 

·         4 partnerships were broken down in the study.  There are non-government organizations, faith based organizations, local agencies, and other agencies.

·         Partnerships were studied between all of these and dynamics turned out to be decent between them.

·         Research also showed that each agency had an understanding of what their job was in recovery.  Some agencies were covering demolition/construction.  Other recovery types were housing, medical, food distribution, and funding.  Each agency seemed to know what their duty was making things run more smoothly.

·         Things were not perfect however.  A lack of prior communication before response as well as a lack of trust between agencies seems to hinder the response efforts in some ways.

·         Haiti has does not have a governmental support for disasters such as this so inter-agency cooperation is even more important. 

Application to Lesson Topic:

      This particular case study does not directly apply to the lesson topic this week.  This week's topic was more about media impacts on different types of disasters.  It does relate though.  Cooperation between different agencies is important in any disaster.  Media is one of these agencies that needs to be aware of and cooperated with.  This will help all of the different agencies to have a more productive response during a disaster.  If we are not working together, then we get in each other's way and response efforts are less effective.

Application to Emergency Services:

      This applies to emergency services perfectly.  Although some of the agencies that were interviewed are not in the emergency service field but rather more of the relief efforts, it is still important that everybody is on the same page and cooperating.  Sharing information between all the different agencies helps to paint a clearer picture of what is happening, what still needs to be done, and who is going to do what.  Without cooperation, the scene of a disaster will be a cluster of a bunch of different agencies getting in each other's way and not solving problems in a timely manner.