Tornado: Necessary Government Response

Understanding that certain regions of a country (in particular the United States) are more susceptible to tornados, national governments must employ an compound of techniques to mitigate damage from tornados.

Buildings in susceptible regions must be held to a higher structural standard, with strong support systems built upon iron and brickwork. Additionally, buildings in these areas must be constructed with a skew towards practicality as opposed to aesthetic designs. Heeding these warnings will mitigate structural damage and save communities millions in rehabilitative damages.

Education and awareness programs should be highly emphasized in these susceptible regions.

Education and awareness programs should be highly emphasized in these susceptible regions to ensure that the populace is well versed in how to react should such a situation arise. Such measures would include where to retreat, what supplies to bring and how to keep one’s house in structurally sound condition.

Despite all these preventative measures, response to tornados is a necessity insofar as the damage potential reached by these destructive phenomena in their relatively short time on land is phenomenally high.

One of the most damaging factors of tornados is unnecessary public involvement in the time directly following "touchdown" in which unwitting civilians attempt superhero acts of courage and bravery, hurting themselves in the process.

First, depending on the magnitude of the tornado (i.e. an F3 or F4 tornado in a high density area or an F5 in any area), national authorities should be contacted and solicited for their resource (both financial and structural) availability. While national authorities are en route to the disaster zone, regional officials should immediately deploy emergency vehicles and military personnel or law enforcement officers to keep order on the scene. This is a fundamental point because one of the most damaging factors of tornados is unnecessary public involvement in the time directly following "touchdown" in which unwitting civilians attempt superhero acts of courage and bravery, hurting themselves in the process.

After order is established, the deployed emergency officials should begin work with the military personnel to clear out rubble and extract clearly visible survivors; in this case, such a delineation refers to individuals whose bodies are fully above rubble or any wreckage caused by the tornado. After these individuals are administered first aid or loaded in the emergency vehicles, emergency management teams in coordination with military personnel should begin manual work for partially visible individuals. Such manual work should, for greatest effectiveness, use scent trained search dogs and voice calling, to ascertain the location of submerged, or partially submerged victims. Upon finding an individual, measures should be taken to carefully and methodically extract them from the wreckage and transport them to an emergency vehicle for precautionary testing and tending.

At this point, with government officials hopefully on the scene, work would begin using machinery like towing trucks and small scale cranes to sift through the rubble for fully submerged individuals not found during the previous search. Any individuals found during this stage should be immediately transferred to a fast moving helicopter, cargo airplane or medical treatment vehicle which can quickly transport them to a hospital for testing and treatment for ailments suffered.

With individuals extracted and provided for, the immediately following step would be to fully remove all the wreckage. This speedy removal helps in mitigating the development of pest, rodent and disease spawning sites. Additionally, this removal helps create a foundation for eventual redevelopment of the region.

After clean up is addressed, concern must be given to providing for the lost livelihoods of afflicted citizens. With homes and possessions lost, citizens must be given some sort of financial payment or compensation with which to pay bills, procure new housing, purchase food and water and provide for basic needs.

Sources Consulted

Sources

  • Douglas, Paul. Restless Skies. Sterling Company, 2004. 81
  • Stoltman, Joseph, John Lidstone,  and Lisa Dechano. International Perspectives On Natural Disasters: Occurrence, Mitigation and Consequences. 2005.
  • "Tornado." Disaster Center. 1999. 12 Jan. 2006 <http://www.disastercenter.com/guide/tornado.html>.