A disaster is a serious disruption, occurring over a relatively short time, of the functioning of a community or a society involving widespread human, material, economic or environmental loss and impacts, which exceeds the ability of the affected community or society to cope using its own resources.
The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) is an inter-regional supportive network of independent emergency units throughout the Caribbean region. Formed on September 1, 2005 as the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency (CDERA) it underwent a name change to CDEMA in September 2009.
A humanitarian crisis is defined as a singular event or a series of events that are threatening in terms of health, safety or well being of a community or large group of people. It may be an internal or external conflict and usually occurs throughout a large land area. Local, national and international responses are necessary in such events.
Most emergency management in the United States is done at the local and state level. The Department of Homeland Security has attempted to standardize equipment, organizational structures, and terminology to create better response and preparedness to large and small-scale disasters across the country. The National Incident Management System is a collection of principles and methods that can be utilized by local, state, federal emergency managers as well as the private sector and NGOs. NIMS aims to better improve the nation's response to emergencies. Its goal is a better system that can more efficiently allocate resources in the event of a disaster and facilitate cooperation among diverse entities and agencies. Large-scale disasters in the past in the U.S. suffered from a lack of solid coordination and authority, as well as different entities utilizing different lingo when communication which led to confusion. NIMS attempts to solve these issues. To that end, FEMA developed the National Incident Management System (NIMS).
An early warning system can be implemented as a chain of information communication systems and comprises sensors, event detection and decision subsystems. They work together to forecast and signal disturbances that adversely affect the stability of the physical world, providing time for the response system to prepare for the adverse event and to minimize its impact.
A Humanitarian Information Centre (HIC) was a common service to the humanitarian community managed by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). HICs were operated in coordination with a number of partners which may include the United Nations Joint Logistics Centre (UNJLC), the Swedish Rescue Services Agency (SRSA), the European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO), and the NGO MapAction.
The National Agency for Disaster Countermeasure, abbreviated as BNPB, is the Indonesian board for natural disaster affairs. It was established in 2008 to replace the National Disaster Management Coordinating Board. BNPB is directly responsible to the President of Indonesia and the chairman is directly appointed by the President.
ReliefWeb is the largest humanitarian information portal in the world. Founded in 1996, the portal now hosts more than 720,000 humanitarian situation reports, press releases, evaluations, guidelines, assessments, maps and infographics. The portal is an independent vehicle of information, designed specifically to assist the international humanitarian community in effective delivery of emergency assistance. It provides information as humanitarian crises unfold, while emphasizing the coverage of "forgotten emergencies" at the same time. Its vision and strategy aim to make ReliefWeb a “one-stop shop for the global humanitarian community."
The Norwegian Refugee Council is a humanitarian, non-governmental organisation that protects the rights of people affected by displacement. This includes refugees and internally displaced persons who are forced to flee their homes as a result of conflict, human rights violations and acute violence, as well as climate change and natural disasters.
An environmental emergency is defined as a “sudden-onset disaster or accident resulting from natural, technological or human-induced factors, or a combination of these, that causes or threatens to cause severe environmental damage as well as loss of human lives and property.”
The International Search and Rescue Advisory Group (INSARAG) is a network of disaster-prone and disaster-responding countries and organizations dedicated to urban search and rescue (USAR) and operational field coordination. It aims to establish standards and classification for international USAR teams as well as methodology for international response coordination in the aftermath of earthquakes and collapsed structure disasters. The INSARAG Secretariat is located in the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
Logistics Support System (LSS) is a tool created by the Pan American Health Organization and six United Nations agencies for the purpose of facilitating the communication among humanitarian agencies, non-governmental organizations, donors, media or countries and enhancing the coordination of humanitarian supply chain. By creating matching tables to collect information from other tracking systems or by having access to already existing data in the systems' database, logistics support systems have the ability to provide decision supporting reports that show which relief supplies were received or delivered, where they have been stored, which relief supplies are requested and how useful they are at a specific moment. Sorting and classifying incoming supplies are also some functions of a logistics support system. Consequently, the function of the logistics support system enhances the proactivity of a humanitarian organization by improving problem traceability and performance monitoring and providing the advantage to timely change the plan of the supply chain without consequences.
The EUR-OPA Major Hazards Agreement is a Partial Agreement of the Council of Europe, set up in 1987 by Resolution (87) 2 of the Committee of Ministers. Its full name is "Co-operation Group for the Prevention of, Protection Against, and Organisation of Relief in Major Natural and Technological Disasters (EUR-OPA)".
The Mount Rainier Volcano Lahar Warning System consists of two separate components, operating in tandem: Acoustic Flow Monitors (AFM) and the All Hazard Alert Broadcast (AHAB) sirens. The AFM system was developed by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) in 1998 and is now maintained by Pierce County Emergency Management and the sirens are maintained by Pierce County Emergency Management. The purpose of the warning system is to assist in the evacuation of residents in the river valleys around Mount Rainier, a volcano in Washington, in the event of a lahar. Pierce County works in partnership with the USGS, the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network (PNSN), Washington Military Department's Emergency Management Division, and South Sound 9-1-1 to monitor and operate the system.
The National Coordination for Disaster Reduction of Guatemala is an entity created to prevent disasters or reduce their impact on society, and coordinate disaster relief efforts. Day-to-day management is carried out by the Executive Secretariat of CONRED, also known as SE-CONRED.
The United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) is part of the international emergency response system for sudden-onset emergencies. It is designed to help the United Nations and governments of disaster-affected countries during the first phase of a sudden-onset emergency. UNDAC also assists in the coordination of incoming international relief at national level and/or at the site of the emergency. UNDAC was created in 1993 and currently is composed by 259 national experts in emergency situations, as well as by OCHA personnel and regional and international organizations, including UN agencies.
The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction was created in December 1999. The successor to the secretariat of the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction, it was established to ensure the implementation of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction.
The 2018–19 Southern Africa drought is an ongoing period of drought taking place in Southern Africa. The drought began in late October 2018, and is negatively effecting food security in the region. As of mid-February 2019, the drought is classified as a level 2 Red-Class event by the Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System.
