A study of disaster preparedness of archives & museum in seismic zone - v, flood prone and conflict ridden Kashmir

Purpose The purpose of this study is to develop a sense of urgency and utmost care for careful disaster management to encourage disaster preparedness for museums and archives.x In particular, this study examines the techniques and methods to be used for response and recovery from different disasters to save valuable resources. Design/methodology/approach A thorough review of literature was done to identify existing plans, strategies, preparedness and management of archives and museums. On the basis of the knowledge and experience gained, it was decided to use a descriptive method for this study. Among the different data collection modes available in the descriptive method, the study framed a structured questionnaire for the collection of data. Thereafter, the questionnaire was tested for loopholes by conducting a pilot study. The questionnaire evolved as such was used to collect data from select archives and museums. The collected data has been tabulated and analyzed in tune with the set objectives. The findings of this study have been correlated with relevant findings and conclusions of previous studies in this domain to provide a better overview and sanctify the revelations further. Findings From the current study, the authors find that the topological location of most of the institutions is near or on river banks which is the cause of concern at the time of heavy rains, after heavy snow fall and at the time of floods. It was also found that the majority of these institutions are located near highways which is also a serious concern in terms of noise, smoke, dust and vibrations produced by the plying of different types of transports on these highways. These kinds of unwanted disturbances create a negative atmosphere on the holdings, visitors and staff of these institutions.Although all of the institutions have apparently strong looking buildings that are made up of good material, the matter of concern is that only one institution (SPS museum) has a building which was specifically made for the purpose. As the state of Jammu and Kashmir is politically and geographically unstable, it is found that most of the institutions are prone to disasters like floods, earthquake and bomb threats which pose a threat to these valuable institutions and their valuable holdings.The most necessary and important parameter that is the training of the staff for disaster preparedness is not provided in majority of these institutions.Despite the fact that funds for majority of these institutions are provided by the government, the funds provided are insufficient for having fool-proof disaster preparedness and management. Research limitations/implications Because of tremendous significance of archives and museums in propagation and preservation of historical and cultural identity of any nation, culture, ethnicity or nation state, the current study sheds light on the status of these important institutions in a very important part of Central Asia. Kashmir in past has been the cradle of knowledge evolution and sharing in the region. As such, it possesses some of the very rare manuscripts and artifacts preserved in her archives and museums. Practical implications As this study is limited to select archives and museums of Jammu and Kashmir, the findings of this study may or may not represent the wider region of Central Asia.

Hospital evacuations due to disasters in the United States in the twenty-first century

Hospitals, which care for some of the most vulnerable individuals, have been impacted by disasters in the past and are likely to be affected by future disasters. Yet data on hospital evacuations are infrequent and outdated, at best. This goal of this study was to determine the characteristics and frequency of disasters in the United States that have resulted in hospital evacuations by an appraisal of the literature from 2000 to 2017. There were 158 hospital evacuations in the United States over 18 years. The states with the highest number of evacuations were Florida (N = 39), California (N = 30), and. Texas (N = 15). The reason for the evacuation was “natural” in 114 (72.2 percent), made-man “intentional” 14 (8.9 percent), and man-made “unintentional” or technological related to internal hospital infrastructure 30 (19 percent).The most common natural threats were hurricanes (N = 65) (57 percent), wildfires (N = 21) (18.4 percent), floods (N = 10) (8.8 percent), and storms (N = 8) (7 percent). Bombs/ bomb threats were the most common reason (N = 8) (57.1 percent) for a hospital evacuation resulting from a manmade intentional disaster, followed by armed gunman (N = 4) (28.6 percent). The most frequent infrastructure problems included hospital fires/smoke (N = 9) (30 percent), and chemical fumes (N = 7) (23.3 percent). Of those that reported the duration and number of evacuees, 30 percent of evacuations lasted over 24 h and the number of evacuees was 100 in over half (55.2 percent) the evacuations. This information regarding hospital evacuations should allow hospital administrators, disaster planners, and others to better prepare for disasters that result in the need for hospital evacuation.

Reviewing Disasters: Hospital Evacuations in the United States from 2000 to 2017

Introduction:Between 2000 to 2017, there were over 150 hospital evacuations in the United States. Data received from approximately 35 states were primarily concentrated in California, Florida, and Texas. This analysis will provide disaster planners and administrators statistics on hazards that cause disruptions to hospital facilities.Aim:The aim of this study is to investigate US hospital evacuations by compiling the data into external, internal, and man-made disasters thus creating a risk assessment for disaster planning.Methods:Hospital reports were retrieved from LexisNexis, Google, and PubMed databases and categorized according to evacuees, duration, location, and type. These incidents were grouped into three classifications: external, internal, and man-made. Both partial and full evacuations were included in the study design.Results:There were a total of 154 reported evacuations in the United States. 110 (71%) were due to external threats, followed by 24 (16%) man-made threats, and 20 (13%) internal threats. Assessing the external causes, 60 (55%) were attributed to hurricanes, 21 (19%) to wildfires, and 8 (7%) to storms. From the internal threats, 8 (40%) were attributed to hospital fires and 4 (20%) chemical fumes. From the man-made threats, 6 (40%) were attributed to bomb threats and 4 (27%) gunmen. From the 20 total reported durations of evacuations, 9 (45%) lasted between 2 to 11:59 hours, 6 (30%) lasted over 24 hours, and 5 (25%) lasted up to 1:59 hours.Discussion:Over 70% of hospital evacuations in the US were due to natural disasters. Compared to 1971-1999, there was an increase in internal and man-made threats. Exact statistics on evacuees, durations, injuries, and mortality rates were unascertainable due to a lack of reporting. It is critical to implement a national registry to report specifics on incidences of evacuations to further assist with disaster and infrastructure planning.

Crafting a more integrated, specific, and community-sensitive approach to applied sociolinguistics

A sociolinguist's first reaction to Lewis’ critique of Labov's thirty-five-year-old principle of error correction (PEC) would likely be defensive or dismissive. While never formulated as the full-fledged ‘theory of social change’ Lewis portrays it to be, the PEC has indeed offered a valuable ‘theoretical starting place for diverse social-change efforts’ (Lewis, this issue, p. 326) by (socio)linguists over the years, repeatedly allowing us to use our technical training to provide more accurate diagnoses of language-related social issues than nonlinguists could, and thereby paving the way for their successful (re)solution. An early example is the 1985 trial of Paul Prinzivalli (see Labov 1988), who was rightfully found not guilty of making telephone bomb threats against Pan Am Airlines on the basis of Labov's careful phonetic evidence that his speech did not match the caller's recorded Boston accent. A more recent example is that of Voigt et al. (2017), whose computational analysis of police body-camera footage from 981 stops of Black and White drivers in Oakland, CA revealed that officers showed significantly more verbal respect to White than to Black drivers. This research is now being used to improve police training and police-community interactions in Oakland. In both cases, we could argue that, as in medicine, without an accurate diagnosis, a successful solution would elude us. And we might add that community beneficiaries of the (socio)linguist's on-the-ground ‘error correction and knowledge dissemination’ (Lewis, this issue, p. 339) might value this more than the critical race theorist's lofty theorizing.