Diaster and Response
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For this project I am going to use the community of Virginia Beach, Virginia. I have been stationed in Virginia Beach for seven years now and have seen some disasters and what may have been disasters if it was not for proper planning. Due to the nature of my job in the Navy, I have had to witness many of these disasters from overseas in foreign lands hoping that my family is safe.
Like many communities, Virginia Beach has many unique challenges when it comes to disasters and emergencies. Virginia Beach is a large area in the Mid Atlantic region along the coast. This area is subject to hurricanes and tropical storms every year, but there are also tornados and snow storms that can be as devastating. What also makes this area unique is the it is one of the largest military areas in the country with a huge population of Navy personnel. A large portion of the Navys fleet, both ships and aircraft are in the Virginia Beach area and this also comes into play when dealing with emergencies.
The first disaster I intend to plan for are hurricanes. We hear about them every year in this area and they can be devastating. They can be very unpredictable and difficult to plan for. Many of the population in this area live near water, either the beach or inter-coastal water ways. One of the big challenges in this area can be the roadways. There are many bridges and tunnels in this area that cause major traffic and when there is any kind of emergency or disaster traffic can come to a standstill especially near or on the bridges and tunnels. This makes it extremely difficult for emergency vehicles to get anywhere.
On the positive side of being in Virginia Beach, there is a large population of military and military bases. Although the ships will have to pull out to sea if there is a hurricane there are many other assets in this area. Every base has Federal Fire Departments, there are many search and rescue vehicles and aircraft, as well as the number of trained medical professionals.
The second emergency I choose was an airplane malfunction/crash. This area is home to many Navy flight squadrons that conduct training every day with all types of Navy aircrafts. There is also the Norfolk International Airport in which the flight path for these commercial planes is directly over Virginia Beach.
The reason I have choose this particular emergency is because on a few weeks ago on 6 April a Navy training jet crashed into an apartment complex here in Virginia Beach and destroyed forty apartments. Only seven people, including the pilots, were injured. The pilots quick thinking of dumping the fuel tanks helped to mitigate what may have been a much larger disaster. This is not the first time there has been an accident in this area. Although an actual plane crash is rare, there have been other incidents where parts fall off or training bombs have fallen off and landed in residential areas.
The third emergency is an active shooter. This has been something in the news and seems to be on the rise, there was Virginia Tech shooting on 16 April 2007 and the Ft Hood shoot on 5 November 2009 and only a few weeks ago there was another shooting linked to the Navy in a neighboring town. Many of the shootings do not make the news in this area but there are a great number of them. This may be due to how easily accessible guns are in this area, it may be due to the gang activity or it may be due to such a large population of people from all over the world. Whatever the reason is, this is something that could take place any day.
I wanted to pick a variety of disasters/emergencies both natural and man-made. I also wanted to pick scenarios that could be handled at the local levels, state, federal and also may need multi agencies. All three are very real for this area and something that you need to think about when you are living in the area of Virginia Beach.
Question 1:
Complete the following table by identifying hazards as described in the Hazard Analysis section in the Module 2 Home page.
Hazard
Magnitude
Frequency
Seasonal Pattern
Duration
Speed of Onset
Priority
Hurricane
catastrophic
Highly Likely
End of summer- fall(hurricane season)
Days-weeks
More than 24 hours
Plane/Jet crash
catastrophic
Likely
Not specific
Hours-days
minimal
Active Shooter
critical
Highly Likely
Not specific
Hours-days
minimal
Question 2:
How vulnerable is your population to each of the hazards? Describe the potential impact in terms of property damage, cost, loss of critical services and infrastructure, displacement, morbidity and mortality. Assign severity ratings using the scale described in the reading. Refer to the section on vulnerability analysis.
The highest priority of the three disasters would be hurricanes. Hurricanes are almost a given each year in Virginia Beach, in fact there is a hurricane season lasting from 1 June through 30 November. A Hurricane does not have to be large in order to cause significant damage in the Virginia Beach area. The winds from the hurricane can cause severe coastal flooding and major damages to the beaches, residential housing and businesses. The flooding also causes roads to be blocked and making it nearly impossible for emergency vehicles to pass.
The high winds and rains/hail can also cause major damage to infrastructure, damaging or taking out utilities. The flooding, wind and rain can create millions of dollars in destruction alone. Hurricanes also affect tourism areas which is a large part of the Virginia Beach economy. Once a hurricane is predicted, shops begin closing up in preparation for the incoming storm and the tourists start to head home. There is generally plenty of warning of a hurricane up to weeks ahead of time. This is good to give time for preparations the down side is if the hurricane does not hit all that time and money has been spent preparing for nothing. If and when a hurricane does hit, they can last up to a few days depending on the wind speed. With all the destruction that a hurricane can cause the death toll stays relatively low. In 2011, eight people died during hurricane Irene.
Active shooter is next in the vulnerability analysis in Virginia Beach. This has especially in the forefront now since the massacre at Virginia Tech and FT Hood. These are big news worthy stories but what people do not see are the shootings that take place almost weekly. They may not be massacres but they are still an issue. Violent crimes have been