JAKARTA POST: Disaster management agency busy already after 3 months

It has been a busy start for the Denpasar Disaster Management Agency, which has already tackled six disasters since it was established in December 2008, ranging from contagious diseases to floods and fires.

In the last four months, the agency has handled bird flu, Chikungunya and rabies outbreaks, flooding and a couple of major fires in the provincial capital.

"The agency was established because the city is prone to disease transmission," agency executive director Made Sudhana said Tuesday.

BAHAMAISLANDSINFO.COM: NEMA oversees training for disaster management personnel

The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) facilitated a workshop for key personnel in disaster management, to certify them as instructors in the proper presentation of information on disasters when they arise.

INLAND VALLEY DAILY BULLETIN: Upland resident prepared for disaster

UPLAND - What to do in the event of an emergency is not something many Southern Californian's think about, but Brenda Hunemiller is working to make sure every city has a plan.

Hunemiller is a disaster management area coordinator for Los Angeles County and received the Gold Award from the California Emergency Services Association at the organization's annual meeting in Palm Springs this fall.

As a disaster management area coordinator, Hunemiller specializes in emergency preparedness plans.

Her current work with local colleges and universities was acknowledged during the annual meeting.

NIGERIA PUNCH: How sustainable disaster management can enhance economic development – Stakeholders

Disaster is a universal phenomenon which, whenever it happens, has the tendency to impact on the economy of the world. And like all other nations of the world, Nigeria has had its own share of both natural and man-made occurrences. In this piece, OLUFEMI ADEOSUN, who was at a forum on disaster in Kaduna recently, examines the consequences of disasters on the socio-economic lives of the people

VANGUARD: Nigeria: New Approach to Disaster Management

Lagos — IT is widely agreed that disaster is a serious disruption of the functionary of a society causing wide-spread human, material or environmental losses which exceed the ability of the affected society to cope using only its own resources as well as any event or circumstances.

Most disasters happen without prior knowledge or warning which cause or threaten injury, disruption of the community, damage to property and lead to death. Unfortunately, on several occasions, the environment, so affected in large scale, cannot be handled by the emergency services and local authorities.

Disasters in Nigeria have often been attended and managed through fire-brigade-approach and as such, to tackle such emergencies require comprehensive, holistic strategies at local and national levels.

It is obvious that certain previous disasters witnessed in the country have shown lack of proactive policies and programmes to prevent reoccurrence. Usually the response to disaster has been that of crises management. A national disaster management policy is therefore, needed to define roles of relevant agencies, stakeholders, funding, partnership among other undertakings.

PRIVATE SECTOR DEVELOPMENT BLOG: Web 2.0 and disaster management

There's been quite a lot of attention in the media recently about the role of Web 2.0 in disaster management. Spurred by the Mumbai attacks, Jeremiah Owyang, a specialist in web strategy and social media, wrote an interesting article on "How Municipalities Should Integrate Social Media Into Disaster Planning." (For a different but also fascinating take on what municipalities can achieve through the web, see "a city that thinks like the web").

And it's not just man-made disasters that are getting attention. Aftershock is a website entirely devoted to "the world’s first massively collaborative disaster simulation about a major earthquake affecting much of Southern California."