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Disaster Management and Government Intervention in PNG: The Case of Lae
Author(s) -
KAITILLA S.,
YAMBUI A.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
disasters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.744
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1467-7717
pISSN - 0361-3666
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-7717.1996.tb00515.x
Subject(s) - intervention (counseling) , government (linguistics) , emergency management , flood myth , disaster response , business , new guinea , medical emergency , poison control , economic interventionism , computer security , risk analysis (engineering) , operations management , engineering , medicine , political science , computer science , economic growth , geography , nursing , sociology , economics , linguistics , philosophy , ethnology , archaeology , politics , law
This paper describes government intervention in two flood disasters in Lae before and after the establishment of the Papua New Guinea disaster management body. It first describes the objectives behind the establishment of this, and second, it examines the organisational response to the 1983 and 1992 disasters in Lae. Disaster response in terms of relief operations is generally prompt and spontaneous but can at best be described as haphazard, unsystematic and often uncoordinated. Both national and provincial disaster committees are, in many aspects, ill equipped in terms of capabilities, skills and resources. Many disaster operations are unable to ensure an immediate return of the victim's lives to normality – the ultimate objective of any disaster management.