Technologies for improving national disaster response capabilities

¶ … technology that can be used to respond to disasters in developing nations. The writer explores sirens as well as other possibilities as a way to respond to disaster in nations that may not have cellular and other advanced abilities. There were two sources used to complete this paper.

DEFINING WARNING SYSTEMS FOR UNDERDEVELOPED AREAS

Disasters are a part of life. Whether they are caused by Mother Nature, such as tornadoes, tsunamis, or hurricanes, or by man such as terrorist attacks or fires, they are part of what mankind has to live with and will forever have to live with. The importance of being able to warn society of impending disaster as well as respond following a disaster continues to grow as the world becomes more populated and disasters continue to occur. For many nations early warning systems are extremely advanced technological breakthroughs that show great promise for success, however, there are still many nations in which the technology is not yet as clearly developed or defined. In these nations it is important to come up with the ability to warn residents of a coming disaster as well as respond to one that has already occurred. The use of warning sirens as well as tsunamis detectors can help save thousands of lives during future disasters.

OUTDOOR WARNING SYSTEMS

An outdoor warning system can be used almost worldwide to alert residents to a coming disaster or one that has already occurred. These warning system have been used in America for many years to warn of tornado activity and to a lesser extent other disaster issues that have happened.

While technology has become much more advanced than it was when outdoor warning system was first invented it is still "the most effective method to warn the population at large in the shortest amount of time. People who may be outdoors at ball games, in their yard, or anywhere else where they are not in contact with the normal news media channels such as radio, TV or local public address systems. Even with the global conflict reduced, there are still many areas that sirens still are effectively used to warn people of possible threats to their safety (Outdoor Warning System http://www.gocolumbiamo.com/EM/Disaster_Preparedness/sirens.php)."

The method by which they are activated is also important to nations that have underdeveloped technical abilities. They use radio control which is a relatively simple and old method of communication (Outdoor Warning System http://www.gocolumbiamo.com/EM/Disaster_Preparedness/sirens.php).

To activate the siren system, the operator presses a button and a radio signal is transmitted. The signals are picked up by the receivers at the sirens. They decode the paging signals to determine what they are to do. A particular signal may instruct the sirens to give a weather warning call, while still another may cause the sirens to stop their sounding. With the new generation of communication signal processors, the variations are limitless (Outdoor Warning System http://www.gocolumbiamo.com/EM/Disaster_Preparedness/sirens.php)."

The use of an outdoor warning system is effective because it is cost efficient when compared to the more advanced technological abilities on the market, they do not require an overly developed system to put into place and they can be used in almost any part of the world for any type of disaster.

The area that they are in will have specific disasters that are typical for that area. For example in the Midwest of America tornadoes are the most commonly cited disaster, therefore any outdoor warning system that was installed would most likely be sounded in the event of a coming tornado. If the area they were placed in was prone to blizzards, earthquakes, terrorist outbreaks or anything else the public to be educated that if it heard the sirens it meant that specific disaster was likely occurring, had occurred or was about to occur.

The sirens are also universally recognized as a warning system therefore the process of installation and public education would not be significantly difficult to complete.

TSUNAMI WARNING SYSTEM

The world was shocked and traumatized when the Indian Ocean Tsunami hit a few years ago and hundreds of thousands of people died as a result of that disaster.

When it struck there was very little or no warning for most of those who were impacted by its arrival.

Most people did not know it was coming until they saw the giant wave coming toward them as they stood on shore (Indian Ocean tsunami warning system (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4524642.stm).

While the Pacific Ocean areas have warning systems in place the Indian Ocean areas did not and as a result of that hundreds of thousands of people were killed within a few minutes.

Seismic gauges are relatively simple from a technical standpoint but have the potential and ability to save millions of lives if another tsunami ever hits that region.

One of the concerns with using a seismic indicator to predict a tsunami is that those tools have a high rate of false alarms. This could lead to people in the area to grow accustomed to false alarms and begin ignoring them when they went off. Then when the system tried to warn of a true tsunami on its way they would also ignore it until it was too late.