Learn from Cyclone Freddy

It is 7 am and you are standing dismayed on the rubble of what was once your home.

You look around what used to be a vibrant neighbourhood at the foot of the once leafy mountain jam-packed with brick houses, Now it lies flat in a valley full of mud, sand, rocks and trees from uphill.

Then a thought comes, you have to run home, hope it was just a bad dream.

But it isn’t. This is the reality many people in southern Malawi, especially on the slopes of landslide-prone mountains in Blantyre and Phalombe have to live with since Cyclone Freddy struck southern Africa early last month.

When you locked up on Friday, everything in your workplace looked fine. Come Monday morning, you are greeted by the sound of endless torrents, floods and crumbling buildings. It is too late to save your valuable goods.

There is something the nation and relevant institutions can do about the two scenarios above.

Malawi needs a disaster preparedness plan. We needed this many decades before Cyclone Freddy struck.

Planning may not prevent a disaster from happening, but it will certainly help relevant institutions cope and recover should another one hit.

The plan describes the procedures devised to prevent and prepare for disasters as well as strategies to effectively respond to and recover from disasters when they occur.

Planning is never an easy process.

The disaster preparedness plan need not be a lengthy, detailed document, but easy to read, understand and implement by all players.

That way, should disaster strike, everyone will know what to do and will be ready to follow the dos and don’ts.

‘Failing to prepare is preparing to fail’ is not a new saying.

The importance of planning is essential for any institution and country to navigate and lessen potential mishaps.

Written plans everyone can use assist to smoothly run facilities, come rain or sunshine.

Primarily, the writing process includes an intensive review of circumstances and needs as well as consultations to capture more insights from more people. As they say, two heads are better than one.

It has to be written down because when disaster strikes, the person in charge of disaster response, who may be knowledgeable about a verbal or informal plan, may not be available to guide teams that are supposed to execute the plan.

The written plan will alleviate the confusion that arises during an emergency. It prioritises what should be salvaged and what should be dealt with immediately in an emergency.

When a disaster occurs, many volunteers come to the rescue of the affected population. For this reason, a written plan indicates the tasks that can be delegated to volunteers and those that require professional input.

Unfortunately, most government departments, non-governmental organisations and private firms do not have disaster preparedness plans.

To confirm this, stop at any nearby office and ask staff about their readiness and what they ought to do if a fire erupts. Many will show you a lonely fire extinguisher hanging in the corridor, but they do not know how and when to use it.  Others do not even know if it works and that they need different extinguishers to put out fires started by different triggers.

Cyclone Freddy is a wake-up call that the country needs a written disaster preparedness plan in all sectors.

Principally, we do not have such plans due to lack of time or money, as many claim.

Many people and institutions think they are safe or immune to disaster. They procrastinate because they feel that a disaster will never occur in their perceived world.

Yet others feel that writing a disaster preparedness plan will only tempt fate and bring them bad luck, but no one, not even a single institution, is free from a disaster.

A disaster preparedness plan will aid in the recovery process.