Saturday, 3 February 2018

Instructions Regarding The Disaster Damage Assessment

By Carolyn Nelson


The evaluation of calamities is usually the first thing that is done before seeking a declaration of federal disaster to assist either individuals or public entities in the recovery process. After a catastrophe, the calamity specialists must conduct Disaster Damage Assessment, as well as the emergency managers in the locality and other officials, normally form two PDA teams to offer assistance to the people. The teams are public assistance or individual assistance that usually assesses that depth of the setback.

Usually, the teams that evaluate only ruins have to visit all the areas in the locality where the individuals applied for fiasco relief. They then offer initial assistance by providing temporary shelters for these people. The team also gives these victims any other kind of assistance and help with basic repairs as well as other needs that may not have been taken care of by the insurance company.

On the other hand, the public assistance evaluation teams normally assess calamities that have caused impairment to public entities like roads, schools, hospitals, bridges and other nonprofit entities. The team can thus offer assistance for the repair of a destroyed infrastructure and even take care of some costs. This will be helpful for ensuring quick repairs to the infrastructure so that things can go back to normal within a short time.

Hence, before any formal ruins estimation are done after the catastrophe, it is always important to perform a PDA as defined by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. FEMA is normally an evaluation that is conducted jointly in determining the depth and impact of calamities as well as finding solutions as soon as possible.

This agency team, as said earlier, will visit the local calamity relief applicants to view the ruins first-hand to evaluate the scope of impairment. This will help them to estimate the repair costs. The PDA will also help in identifying any other needs that may require attention immediately. More so, the assistance the agency offers helps the people to get back on their feet.

In the event the calamity is confined to an area like a hospital or office building thus it is small-scale, the PDA will also do the estimations of ruins. The personnel will be evacuated from the building then the activation of the first respondent done. This is important to ensure the safety of all people that are around or near the building.

On top of that, the entry to that particular building will be restricted until all dangers are eliminated. The PDA team will them ensure that it has assessed whether the wreckage has spread in case the calamity was caused by fire. The water supply, electricity supply, transformers, power feeds as well as other environmental controls will be disconnected immediately.

After the evaluation, depending on the depth of the ruins, the team will decide the next course of action. For example, if a hotel building is completely ruined, they can decide to close the place down until all the repairs have been done so that the hotel can be reopened and normal operations resume.




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