Recovery After a Disaster

Recovery from Disasters

Recovery refers to the process of going back to the initial state after a disaster like flooding, hurricanes and other natural disasters strike. Bearing in mind that such tragedies are unplanned for, whenever they occur they, therefore, leave behind a lot of damages requiring the affected to recover from them and lead their healthy lives. In such an occurrence, the victims, therefore, deserves help either short-term to cater for immediate requirements or long-term recovery to make it possible for them to lead normal lives all over again. The FEMA public help grant offers help to the State, local and tribal governments and various non-profit private organizations to help cater for expenses associated with damage exposed to public infrastructures such as roads and bridges. Damage to roads and bridges may require both short-term and long-term recovery help since they can never be rebuilt faster yet people need them.

FEMA Help and Eligibility

FEMA provides monetary funds to the recovery program which the WEM oversees in the state. However, not all events are eligible to receive the FEMA help. To be qualified for the Presidential Disaster Declaration, the disaster must overpower the states local response and recovery efforts and be equal to the countrywide damage verges and also the statewide damage thresholds as dictated by the 2010 census. With the president’s approval, FEMA is entitled to seventy-five percent compensation of the qualified and recorded expenses. To qualify for a federal catastrophe declaration, FEMA must be invited to the affected counties for them to test the damaged public structures inclusive of bridges and roads. After the assessment, it is the duty of the FEMA superintendent to conclude whether the damage qualifies under the federal program or not (Kousky, 2013). The assessment report is expected to be later presented to the governor for them to appeal to the president to approve a national disaster declaration. Through a presidential disaster declaration, there are several assistance programs provided by FEMA. These programs include disaster help, crisis counseling, disaster legal services, disaster unemployment disaster program, and national flood insurance program.

Short-Term and Long-Term Recovery

Depending on the disaster to be recovered from, recovery may take short or long periods. The fact that accidents are unwelcome only means that recovering from them is inevitable to help the affected families and individuals return to their usual ways of life. Long-term recovery acts as a prevention to the reoccurrence of damage similar to the one an area recovered from earlier. That is realized through the employment of long-term recovery techniques grounded on the analysis of risk lessening and extenuation. A disaster consists of three main stages; preparedness, response, and recovery (Reid, 2013). Therefore, whenever a disaster strikes a community, the area is said to be in one phase of the accident. Restoring of structures, services, and systems is not all that a successful recovery entails but rather, helping families and individuals to recover from their fatalities and maintain their social, economic and physical comfort is all a recovery process should aim. Restoring back an area to a new normal after being overwhelmed by a catastrophe characterizes recovery. Recovery can either be long-term or short-term depending on the magnitude of the calamity.

Short-Term Recovery

A short-term recovery is characterized by various activities. They include numerous disaster and help programs completing their jobs. Refurbishment of infrastructure and multiple systems necessary for survival to support life without restoring back the community to a normal life. During short term-recovery, the community is bound to pinpointing the available resources to help create a long-term recovery group and planning for the permanent construction of housing structures starts over (Rawls & Turnquist, 2012). Short-term recovery offers no preventions concerning the future reoccurrence of the same calamity in the area. However, it restructures the damaged structures and thus aiding the community in continuing with their lives though not as normal as they used to before the disaster which damaged their properties and structures.

Long-Term Recovery

A long-term recovery entails restoring the lives of the people of a community to a new life more or less the same as they lived before the disaster struck. It is characterized by a transition occurring amongst a national team and the affected community. Implementation starts over for the calamity case management and reclamation inventiveness as administered by the affected local community. During the long-term recovery phase, repairing, reconstruction, and relocation of homes are conducted and executed with the recommencement of the day-to-day routines of the community also taking place. A long-term recovery group may ensure that the present resources are put into use to meet the recovery requirements. In long-term recovery, the damaged infrastructures are restored in such a way that, even in case of such a disaster in the future, the damage and effects will not be as severe as during the first occurrence and if possible, reoccurrence of a similar calamity is prevented (O’Brien et al., 2012).

Conclusion

In conclusion, recovery is inevitable in case a catastrophe occurs. Since disasters are unwelcome and unplanned for means that, whenever they strike a community, external aid is necessary. Thanks to FEMA for their support to communities whenever disasters strike them. Whenever a calamity strikes, long-term recovery should be considered since it ensures that people are restored to a new and normal life equivalent to the one they lived just before the disaster since the rebuilding of the structures and the infrastructures as dictated by short-term recovery is not justice and fair enough to the victims. It is also the duty of the government to put across preventive measures to counter occurrence of disasters where possible.

References

Kousky, C. (2013). Facts about FEMA household disaster aid: examining the 2008 floods and tornadoes in Missouri. Weather, Climate, and Society, 5(4), 332-344.

O’Brien, K., Pelling, M., Patwardhan, A., Hallegatte, S., Maskrey, A., Oki, T. & Yanda, P. Z. (2012). Toward a sustainable and resilient future.

Rawls, C. G., & Turnquist, M. A. (2012). Pre-positioning and dynamic delivery planning for short-term response following a natural disaster. Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, 46(1), 46-54.

Reid, M. (2013, December). Social Policy,“Deservingness,” and Sociotemporal Marginalization: Katrina Survivors and FEMA. In Sociological Forum (Vol. 28, No. 4, pp. 742-763).