How Britain and developed countries respond to disaster relief

UK coordinated multisectoral response

The United Kingdom has established a relatively complete mechanism for emergency relief and post-disaster reconstruction. It has continuously learned lessons from specific events and strengthened its ability to respond to emergencies.

In Britain, after the disaster, local governments that can quickly respond to the crisis are the protagonists of crisis management. In the case of disasters that exceed the capacity of the local government, neighboring regions will provide help.

Emergency planning agencies have been set up in various regions of the United Kingdom to take charge of regional crisis warnings, formulate relevant plans and conduct emergency training. The head of the agency, the “Emergency Planning Officer,” is responsible for coordinating local resources to deal with the crisis and consulting and requesting support from government departments.

The Central Government of the United Kingdom is responsible for responding to certain types of events (such as nuclear accidents) or major events (such as major terrorist attacks) that affect more than the local scope. According to the disaster situation, relevant government departments will be designated as “leading government departments” responsible for coordinating actions at the central level, ensuring smooth communication between various departments and local governments, and responsible for collecting and publishing disaster information and disaster relief information.

In order to improve emergency response capacity, in July 2001, the British Cabinet Office established the “National Emergency Secretariat” to formulate crisis policies, risk assessments, departmental coordination and personnel training.

The highest government crisis management agency in the UK is the Cabinet Emergency Committee (COBRA), which is only activated in the event of a major crisis. The crisis dealt with by the Commission included the Kosovo War of 1999, the shortage of British fuel supply in September 2000, the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in the United Kingdom in 2001, the London terrorist attacks in July 2005, and the April 2006 bird flu.

On June 29 and 30, 2007, three attempted car bomb attacks occurred in London and Glasgow. The government raised the national security alert level to the highest level of “critical” status. COBRA held four meetings in three days.

It is a long-term task to restore industrial and agricultural production and the economy in the affected areas. In England, after the disaster, the local assessment office will assess the degree of loss and liability of the industrial and agricultural units in the affected areas, provide financial assistance according to actual conditions, and adopt tax relief and other measures so that the affected units can resume normal operations as soon as possible. Each local government department must also provide disaster-prone organizations with advice and support for the restoration of production, including continuous operations planning and financing advice. In the post-disaster recovery phase, local government expenditures on clean-up work, infrastructure maintenance and humanitarian assistance are partly paid by insurance companies and local financing agencies, and some are obtained from the central government.

The United Kingdom attaches great importance to the restoration and reconstruction of damaged traffic infrastructure in the affected areas. The agencies have clear division of labor and clear responsibilities. If roads are repaired after a disaster, the Highway Authority in England must do the following: develop a strategic road infrastructure recovery plan; support the work of the police and emergency departments; support emergency recovery work at the border with other regions; provide real-time traffic condition information; Technical support and advice; assist in the repair of damaged roads and vehicle cleanup.

In response to emergency relief work, the British government first focused on disaster prevention and mitigation, requiring organizations to incorporate crisis management into their daily work priorities, conduct risk assessments, and prevent disasters, and conduct necessary training and drills to make full preparations. Just in case.

The United Kingdom also pays attention to drawing lessons from specific incidents and improving the ability to respond to emergencies. In the summer of 2007, major floods occurred in England and Wales, 13 people died and 48,000 houses were destroyed. After floods, local governments made suggestions on disaster early warning, risk assessment, emergency facilities, and disaster information release to help improve the nation’s national emergency response mechanism, including strengthening the collection and dissemination of information on disaster situations and relief work. It facilitates communication at all levels and helps to calm the panic of the affected people.

In addition, after the floods, British local governments strengthened their emphasis on raising public awareness of disaster reduction. Citizens must be required to have emergency knowledge of floods and make relevant preparations. For example, listing the most needed phone numbers, knowing how to turn off water, electricity, and natural gas systems after a disaster. At the same time, it requires home-equipped flood disaster kits, including personal key information, insurance policies, emergency contact telephones, flashlights, batteries, radios, cell phones, rubber gloves, wet cloths, antibacterial dry-cleaning hand gels, and blankets.

In order to coordinate the emergency work and activities of various departments, the British government established the Secretariat of the Non-military Accidents in 2001 as part of the cabinet office. It specifically acts as an emergency relief agent for the coordination of government departments, non-government departments and volunteers and reports to the Prime Minister through the security and intelligence coordination officials of the Cabinet Office. The United Kingdom has also established an accident planning school that specializes in British emergency theory, emergency measures, and cross-departmental coordination of emergency operations. In addition, the British government has set up a special committee for non-military accidents. It is chaired by the Minister of the Interior and maintains a close working relationship with the secretariat of the unexpected affairs of the Cabinet Office.

Complete legal and regulatory system

In some developed countries, they attach great importance to popularizing knowledge about disasters. Some countries have set up special courses from elementary schools to educate children on how to cope with various types of disasters, such as heavy snowstorms and storms, so that people can know how to conduct self-rescue when dealing with bad weather. Help each other, but not in a passive state waiting for rescue. In 2005, the snowstorm in the Northeast of the United States caused severe snowstorms. Although the snowstorm caused 150,000 households to lose power, people did not make a great impact on people’s lives because people prepared for it and stored cold-proof materials at home. At the same time, due to the early release of the forecast of Blizzard disasters, the public transportation and sanitation departments in many cities took early action. For example, the New Jersey Department of Transportation prepared 600 snow-sweeping vehicles and was ready to hire 1,100 cars at any time. It also prepared 150,000 tons of snow-removing agents.

Strict vertical and horizontal cooperation mechanism

The UK's emergency disaster prevention mechanism was jointly established by the central and local governments. Various departments of the British government have formulated different early warning and disaster prevention systems according to their job responsibilities. In the event of a disaster, the government will mobilize all emergency mechanisms to provide first aid and support from land, waterways, and air. The U.K. Bureau of Meteorology used "National Severe Weather Alert Service" as a focal point for service to citizens and government agencies. In the event of severe winds, heavy rain, heavy snowstorms, dense fog, and large areas of frost, the British Meteorological Administration will initiate an early warning mechanism. After the warning is issued, the system will provide extreme weather information to 13 regions of the UK through the Internet, radio and television stations in a short period of time. In areas with frequent wind disasters, railways, highways, and subway administrations have all managed to reduce tree-planting on both sides of the road to prevent trees from being blown down and traffic obstruction when bad weather arrives. In the winter of 2007, floods occurred in the Welsh region. A complete disaster prevention system helped the government control the disaster in a short period of time without causing any casualties.

Emergency Prevention Mechanism

Germany's disaster prevention mechanism is organically composed of several agencies that perform different tasks. In the event of an outbreak and natural disasters such as floods, fires, and avalanches, they perform their duties and work together to minimize the damage caused by disasters and the impact on society.

Germany also attaches importance to environmental management and ecological protection. Although there is no “Flood Prevention Act,” specific regulations have been established on the planning, construction and management of flood prevention projects, flood warnings, flood prevention and emergency relief, and post-disaster relief, and designated executive departments. Rescue and relief work is carried out by the Ministry of the Interior of the German states. The entire disaster relief work is under the unified command of the State Minister of the Interior. If floods involve multiple states, the interior ministers of these states coordinate with each other. The funds required for disaster relief are mainly borne by insurance companies, Red Cross societies, churches and charities. The federal government has a very limited share.

Emphasizing Innovation in Disaster Reduction Technology

Switzerland is a world-famous ski resort and a place where avalanches occur frequently. Predicting and preventing avalanches is one of the most important tasks for each winter. In order to prevent avalanches, many ski resorts in Switzerland have established protective nets for snow slide monitoring and alert systems. In order to reduce the harm caused by avalanches, a number of remote automatic observation stations have been set up in the Alps, equipped with instruments for measuring wind speed, snow thickness and temperature. After the digital transmissions from the observation station arrived at Voss, the research institutions immediately analyzed and reported avalanche warnings to the public twice a day.

A Swiss sports company launches airbag ski suits called "Life Packs" to ski enthusiasts and it is said that they can help them save their lives in the event of an avalanche. The "life bag" is used like a life jacket. In the event of an emergency, the user pulls down the automatic inflation device drawstring and the airbag begins to inflate, providing head protection for the user, ensuring that the user does not roll over as the falling snow falls, and the head is always upward. This will prevent the user's head from being stunned by violent impact. According to statistics, about 20% of the avalanche victims died of coma. This airbag ski suit weighs 3kg. The inflatable state resembles that of airbags used by passengers on board aircraft, but it is much larger. Once buried in the snow, about 150L of air stored in the airbag can be used for oxygen replenishment to extend the life of the user.