PAACT Earthquake Response Types  
   

The Disaster Response for a disaster of such a caliber can be divided into three phases:

IMMEDIATE:

The people in the vicinity are the ones who are able to make the biggest difference by launching the immediate response. The success of this depends on the existing peace time management plans and systems. The first responders are able to help out in the golden hours after a disaster. Usually communities very far away from the disaster are unable to make a difference unless they are specially trained and equipped.

INTERMEDIATE:

This phase of the disaster is different as here the immediate needs and preventive management needs of survivors is initiated and systems are placed to reduce the risk of further damage. Immediate needs of the survivors includes:

Food,
Shelter, 
Weather protection
Safe water
Nutrition
Medication
Tetanus and other immunizations
Triage of treatment to appropriate level.
etc.

The access to the victims in the remote areas is the biggest challenge. This current disaster is in the northern parts of Pakistan with very poor access. This has resulted in an inability of the many organizations and help to reach there. It would require use of helicopters etc to reach there. Under the current situation, it appears that the management of this phase can be best carried out by Government of Pakistan with support from the well established NGOs in the area. 

 The enormity of the disaster requires that we consider conforming to universal principles of "value chain management". Waste would be minimal if goods are purchased and possibly delivered through a common source. The over-reaching power of "collective bargaining" should not be ignored in this instance.
In this instance the best conduit of providing optimum relief to the victims would be the President of Pakistan relief fund, with a request to provide us regular updates on the pace of progress.

Please do keep in mind, vast majority of people affected are marooned in remote areas which can only be accessed by the Government of Pakistan currently through the help of US military forces.

LONG TERM:

Rehabilitation needs for the people would be yet another large challenge. The difficulties faced ion this phase include the multiple different levels of focused activities which would provide some sense of normalcy in the lives of the victims. There is a need for a local needs assessment for rehabilitation and evaluation of the ground work and delivery mechanisms of the entities involved the project. This phase would require proposal evaluations and management plans, with implantation evaluation systems as well.

 

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