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Pre-positioning of vital equipment
The Pakistan earthquake revealed considerable limitations in transporting heavy equipment, given the shortage of helicopters and the overwhelming need to reach isolated areas with medical and survival supplies. One solution is to pre-position essential heavy equipment at locations most likely to need a heavy equipment response. Bulldozers can be placed, for example, along the Karakoram highway which was cut off in places due to landslides.This would enable this arterial highway to remain open.
Lighter pneumatic powered digging and cutting tools are widely available in the major cities. Such equipment must be present in townships and villages in which concrete and brick construction has developed.
The identification of nodes for the rapid erection of Mobile Army Surgical Hospitals (MASH), based on proximity to population concentration and upon accessibility is another essential aspect of pre-earthquake planning. Given the absence of emergency hospitals in the earthquake-afflicted areas,the construction of such emergency facilities on a semi-permanent basis at these identified nodes must be considered a pressing responsibility of the government.
Housing / construction regulation by earthquake safe criteria
The 1980's saw a construction boom in the remote areas of Pakistan fuelled by international remittances. Most structures follow a basic template of concrete slab roofs weighing 2-3 tons, resting upon three single-block thickness walls. This is the normal construction pattern of schools and even some homes. A significant tremor would invariably turn such structures into concrete caskets.
A fundamental component of pre-earthquake preparedness will involve the deconstruction and then reconstruction of such structures consistent with principles of earthquake damage risk reduction. Such concepts are well understood in the construction industry and are ironically less expensive to implement than construction using slabs and pillars of concrete. The implementation of such measures will significantly reduce the numbers of those injured and killed following an earthquake.
Post-earthquake response
As for the post-earthquake response, the ERDMA will respond according to a thoroughly rehearsed and standardised response procedure, which would have been gamed on numerous occasions.
Intelligence
The first step is for the ERDMA command centre to initiate over-flights to gain an immediate and detailed analysis of the scope of the disaster, to determine the worst affected areas, to determine the magnitude and severity of the destruction, and to determine which nodes (medical and heavy equipment) must be activated immediately.
The first stage of response will involve the clearing of arterial routes needed for the transportation of rescue and relief supplies, equipment and personnel. Concurrently, pre-positioned light equipment will be used in each residential area by civilians and rescue and relief personnel in an effort to begin retrieving the trapped from collapsed structures.
MASH
The most severely injured patients will be brought to the MASH at previously selected nodes that, by now, will be up and running. MASH nodes will be served by dedicated helicopters, which will cover a predetermined area around the node. Civilians with earthquake education and basic medical training will tend to the more lightly injured wherever they are to prevent their condition from deteriorating.
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