Emergency Management 3: Learning from Disasters
Both the creation of a suitable emergency plan, the setting up of scenarios and the actual implementation often fail due to a lack of experience with critical situations at large events. However, this is necessary in order to recognise the peculiarities and special features of certain scenarios and to define suitable measures.
Reviewing incidents is therefore a helpful tool in emergency planning, regardless of whether the events are comparable or the incident is recent or not. Learning from incidents that have happened to “others” and learning from the mistakes of others is an important tool for self-reflection and sensitisation.
The focus is always on the question “could something like this happen to me?” and “how would I react”. If the necessary information is available, a detailed, step-by-step reconstruction of the events is particularly helpful.
Flow chart showing some of the factors leading to the Loveparade incident.
Creating a flow chart allows you to systematise the causal relationships before, during and after the escalation. This makes it possible to work out the type and time of an individual error as well as cascade effects and escalation stages by answering the following questions:
- What happens when?
- Who was involved?
- What influenced what?
- Who influenced whom?
Looking back on emergencies and scrutinising one’s own options for action in relation to the specific incident can help to create meaningful scenarios even without personal experience of damage. This approach is also recommended for dealing with one’s own emergencies or near misses as part of regular follow-up, but requires an inter-organisationally transparent information basis and a suitable form of documentation.
Insightful documentations of disasters are for example:
- Loveparade: https://www.svpt.uni-wuppertal.de/fileadmin/bauing/svpt/Loveparade_2010/Loveparade_Aufarbeitung_Gerlach_vorl_Fassung.pdf
- Manchester Arena Attacks: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/manchester-arena-inquiry-reports
- Hillsborough: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7c9e4840f0b65b3de0a0ff/0581.pdf
