Disaster Management Days 2 and 3

Rather briefer report from remainder of conference...


Met a nice man from Mexico who had just arrived and was (like me) expecting to be able to walk to the venue.  We shared a taxi.  His talk was on Physical vulnerability of critical facilities in Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands


Other papers I found especially interesting included several reporting various indices and tools to assess and compare disaster preparedness, readiness and resilience, including these from the Argonne National Laboratory:


Assessing community and region emergency-services capabilities 
Community resilience: measuring a community’s ability to withstand

I was also fascinated by a couple of presentations on emergency services responses.  One of these highlighted a fairly simple problem that ought to be fairly straightforward to address.  Apparently emergency responders (n the US state of Alabama at least) often report that traffic congestion significantly affects their ability to reach people in need, and that they are rarely given traffic information when setting off to jobs. Yet emergency dispatchers report that they often give this information but feel it makes little difference to outcomes. A case for dispatchers/controllers to spend the occasional shift in the vehicle with responders? And/or to use existing traffic information systems?

A much more complicated issue is how to co-ordinate responses to exceptional events, such as  the July 2005 bombings on the London public transport system. One paper reported the use of mathematical modelling to optimise the use of resources when responding to mass casualties across multiple incident scenes.    A major issue with this work may be persuading key decision makers that mathematical models have something valuable to offer, and helping them to understand how and why the models may work.

Trauma, resilience and future preparedness

The inquests into the deaths of the 52 people killed in the July 2005 attacks on London's public transport system opened today.



I have been thinking about the applied research work that has been done to document and address the psychosocial impacts, and help with future emergency preparedness. I am particularly interested in (and inspired by) the resilience displayed by individuals, groups and organisations affected.


Work on the psychosocial impact


Bux, S. M., & Coyne, S. M. (2009). The effects of terrorism: The aftermath of the London terror attacks. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 39(12), 2936-2966. doi:10.1111/j.1559-1816.2009.00556.x


Handley, R. V., Salkovskis, P. M., Scragg, P., & Ehlers, A. (2009). Clinically significant avoidance of public transport following the London bombings: Travel phobia or subthreshold posttraumatic stress disorder? Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 23(8), 1170-1176. doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2009.07.023

Misra, M., Greenberg, N., Hutchinson, C., Brain, A., & Glozier, N. (2009). Psychological impact upon London Ambulance Service of the 2005 bombings. Occupational Medicine, 59(6), 428-433. doi:10.1093/occmed/kqp100


Rubin, G. J., Brewin, C. R., Greenberg, N., Hughes, J. H., Simpson, J., & Wessely, S. (2007). Enduring consequences of terrorism: 7-month follow-up survey of reactions to the bombings in London on 7 July 2005. British Journal of Psychiatry, 190(APR.), 350-356. doi:10.1192/bjp.bp.106.029785


Rubin, G. J., Brewin, C. R., Greenberg, N., Simpson, J., & Wessely, S. (2005). Psychological and behavioural reactions to the bombings in London on 7 July 2005: Cross sectional survey of a representative sample of londoners. British Medical Journal, 331(7517), 606-611. doi:10.1136/bmj.38583.728484.3A


Whalley, M. G., Farmer, E., & Brewin, C. R. (2007). Pain flashbacks following the July 7th 2005 London bombings. Pain, 132(3), 332-336. doi:10.1016/j.pain.2007.08.011




Work on future preparedness


Bland, S. A., Lockey, D. J., Davies, G. E., & Kehoe, A. D. (2006). Military perspective on the civilian response to the London bombings July 2005. Journal of the Royal Army Medical Corps., 152(1), 13-16.


Hughes, G. (2006). The London bombings of 7 July 2005: What is the main lesson? Emergency Medicine Journal, 23(9), 666. doi:10.1136/emj.2006.039586


Jacobs, L. M., & Burns, K. J. (2006). Terrorism preparedness: Web-based resource management and the TOPOFF 3 exercise. Journal of Trauma - Injury, Infection and Critical Care, 60(3), 566-571. doi:10.1097/01.ta.0000197379.40878.c7

Langdon, P., & Hosking, I. (2010). Inclusive wireless technology for emergency communications in the UK. International Journal of Emergency Management, 7(1), 47-58. doi:10.1504/IJEM.2010.032044


Lockey, D. J., MacKenzie, R., Redhead, J., Wise, D., Harris, T., Weaver, A., Hines, K., & Davies, G. E. (2005). London bombings July 2005: The immediate pre-hospital medical response. Resuscitation, 66(2) doi:10.1016/j.resuscitation.2005.07.005


Page, L., Rubin, J., Amlôt, R., Simpson, J., & Wessely, S. (2008). Are Londoners prepared for an emergency? A longitudinal study following the London bombings. Biosecurity and Bioterrorism, 6(4), 309-319. doi:10.1089/bsp.2008.0043


Shirley, P. J. (2006). Critical care delivery: The experience of a civilian terrorist attack. Journal of the Royal Army Medical Corps., 152(1), 17-21.


Shirley, P. J., & Mandersloot, G. (2008). Clinical review: The role of the intensive care physician in mass casualty incidents: Planning, organisation, and leadership. Critical Care, 12(3) doi:10.1186/cc6876


Wilson, J., Murray, V., & Kettle, J. N. (2009). The July 2005 London bombings: Environmental monitoring, health risk assessment and lessons identified for major incident response. Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 66(10), 642-643. doi:10.1136/oem.2008.039933

Picture credit: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/7-7_Memorial.JPG