Abstract
The massive 1994 Northridge earthquake in California resulted in considerable harm to public health, disclosing the shortcomings of emergency response mechanisms and expressing the critical position of healthcare workers in handling the crises. With a magnitude of 6.7, the quake wreaked massive havoc, claiming several lives, injuring the affected people, and leaving many uninhabitable houses. The physical aspect of the suffering involved a broad spectrum of injuries, while the psychological consequences were indeed as difficult to overcome; many victims suffered from long-term trauma and various mental health challenges such as PTSD, anxiety and depression. Nonetheless, a fragmented approach resulted in infrastructure setbacks and human resources deficiency because emergency services, healthcare providers, NGOs and government agencies worked together. Some suggestions for improvement are better preparedness, mitigation, response, and post-disaster care programs, which ensure vulnerable citizens are provided with mental health support, medical services, and the possibility to learn to resist adversities. Therefore, the Northridge earthquake underscored that a disaster preparedness regime should be operated all the time, and every attempt must be made to minimize the risks of natural disasters and create public health resilience in this connection.
Introduction
The earthquake that hit Los Angeles in 1994 became a turning point in California’s medical history, causing disastrous deaths and injuries among the world’s populated regions (Mavrouli et al., 2023). It was a rushing catastrophic, with 6.7 strength, on the edge of the greater Los Angeles area, causing massive damage to public infrastructure and homes. Nurses and emergency professionals were at the beat of the crisis, trying to tackle the problems that emerged fast for the medical services, rescue operations and long-term care for the sustained population. From their perspective, the importance of the disaster cannot be overstated; they were put to test their resilience, resourcefulness, and ability to respond appropriately to the adversities of extreme risk. The post-disaster situation put emergency teams and nurses in a position where a continuous supply of patients – ranging from severe physical injuries to psychologically distressed ones – was evident. Thus, a quick triage and treatment protocol was critical. This crisis highlighted the exceptional role of experiential workers in safeguarding public health and wellness during crises, leaving a deepening imprint on emergency response in disaster preparedness for the years to come.
Incidence
The Northridge Earthquake – which cropped up in the early morning of the 17th of January 1994 and was one of the most powerful earthquakes people of the South region had witnessed during the last couple of decades – shook North California with a magnitude of 6.7. The earthquake’s hypocenter was in the San Fernando Valley, 20 miles west of downtown Los Angeles(USGS). The earthquake broke through the Northridge blind thrust fault, which was unknown before, taking seismologists and emergency planning by surprise. The impact was seen in many houses that fell, freeway sparks broken, and failing infrastructure. It was not only the main quake that caused the problems but also the aftershocks that made the situation even worse and carried the saga of uncertainty and fear. In the wake, the number of dead people was recorded as above 60 people and thousands of people were injured. The economic damage was devastating, and it is estimated that property damage alone exceeded $20 billion. Earthquakes generated tremors that impacted human lives in two ways: the physical scenery and the social-psychological pattern of the harming communities. Apart from the devastating consequences, this event embodied geodynamic processes occurring in our state. Hence, it was an influential teacher of the significance of sensible development and emergency preparedness of the population. The Northridge Earthquake joins the chronicles of other devastating earthquakes from the past as the event that triggered awareness, strengthened seismic research and building codes, and saw the fusion of emergency response protocols to prevent earthquakes from causing more devastations in the future.
Impact on public health indicators such as injuries, deaths, and displacement
The Northridge earthquake’s significant influence on public health indicators shows how profound the consequences of this weather phenomenon are. This seismic event gave quite a lot of people a wide range of injuries, starting with minor scratches and bruises and ending with heavy injuries that demanded compassionate medical treatment. The incompleteness of buildings and infrastructure was a massive kill shelf for crush injuries, slices, and traumas, therefore affecting the limited healthcare entities and other available responders. Regretfully, the quake was also on 60 people’s death lists, which brought to attention the deadly results of such a natural phenomenon. Besides, those numerous homes and premises were severely damaged, so people had to flee their homes immediately. Still, these people had to live in temporary evacuation centers and shelters, which made them overcrowded. This displacement was particularly challenging to those who were already facing healthcare issues such as inadequate access to clean water and sanitation facilities, the spread of infectious diseases, and psychological problems that developed from losing homes, belongings, and some known faces. The elderly, kids and the people who were given pre-existing health conditions were the ones who were very much exposed during the period. The psychology of the Northridge Earthquake impact was not limited to physical injuries and fatalities; instead, many had mental health challenges and chronic stress and several years later, they had expensive to poor economic status. In the aftermath of the disaster, it has become evident that public health is the factor that was being tested, and the communities have united to reconstruct and recover to address the public health challenges that were now leading to the stability and resilience of the affected region.
Physiological and Psychological Responses
Followed closely behind was the physiological effect of the Northridge earthquake, through which people experienced different physical defects in the aftermath of the devastation. The violent shaking and collapse caused a widespread structural impact, resulting in severe crushing and trauma to the body and injuries to the people around the debris. Emergency and care centers were submerged patient after patient with no extra humans, machinery, or resources. They suffered not only from the physical injuries but also from the physiological stress responses, such as the rise in the heart rate, elevation of the level of blood pressure, and secretion of elevated levels of stress hormones, cortisol. It was the turmoil that the earthquake belonged to and the unease that came with the aftershocks that brought along these physiological reactions, and many individuals were under an elevated state of alertness and hypervigilance as a result. It is also important to mention that there was a lack of electricity, water and transportation services that made it impossible to reach emergency medical care and prescription drugs at times while worsening the existing health condition and aggravating the chronic disease treatment. Despite these overwhelming obstacles, first responders and health care providers worked nonstop to stabilize and eventually treat patients, using triage protocols guiding the first care priorities to the degree of injury suffered. The exposure of the deadly results of the earthquake that hit Northridge made the importance of disaster preparedness and a quick and seamless healthcare system crystal clear – for they were crucial for quickly getting rid of the crisis.
Psychological responses
As the Northridge Earthquake carried the seismic severity to 6.7, it was not the physical damage most survivors suffered. Conversely, the enduring psychological consequences causing a wide span of mental disorders in the long term were attributed to the quake in the second place. Because posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was prevalent in survivors with some manifestation of intrusive images, flashbacks or hypervigilance towards recurrent shocking consequences, the condition is linked with the disaster. The perpetuating atmosphere of common mistrust and fear because of the aftershocks contributed significantly to the intensity of such symptoms, with most survivors having high rates of insecurities and incapacitations to feel safe due to fear. Furthermore, both of these symptoms, which are anxiety and depression, were experienced among people affected because they quickly flash off their things like home, property, and, in some cases, family members. The aggravation of loneliness and a loss of support systems added to the problem as they hurt people’s mental health, mainly those who had weak mental health to start with. Although people were initially very anxious to help the survivors in the emergency rooms and give all possible assistance, the scars left by the disaster would be buried halfway through when the debris was cleared. The provision of psychosocial support services such as mental health care and community resilience promotion were identified as core components of the post-disaster recovery plan, reflecting that psychosocial services have a critical role in disaster responses and recovery.
Interagency Coordination/Discipline Collaboration
The response to the Northridge earthquake stimulated massive collaboration between different cognate fields and organizations on the part of multidisciplinary agencies. Emergency services had been a phenomenal actor. The fire departments, police forces, and search and rescue teams responded swiftly to rescue operations to evacuate the affected areas and establish mayhem security. Health care providers, which include hospitals, clinics, and emergency medical services, have a considerable share in managing patients, including first aid and treatment of the vast number of injured persons, and sometimes, they are faced with a shortage of resources and skill shortage. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and volunteer teams, such as the Red Cross or neighborhood alliances, enhanced the available support services, like shelving, food distribution, or medical attention, for those affected by the disaster and who had to move from their homes. Besides the local agencies that were also there to serve the same purpose, state and federal governments also stepped on the ladder to coordinate response efforts, help communication and facilitate resource allocation to emerging needs. Furthermore, the university, research institutes, public health agencies and epidemics branches also contributed their expertise on disaster management, epidemiology, and public health surveillance to inform the decision-making process of reducing the risks to health and mitigating the health risks. The extent of the catastrophe demanded a cooperative and multidisciplinary plan which involved the use of different talents, resources, and views to bring on board coordinated action in various ways with the main aim of addressing other needs of the affected communities and enabling recovery and resilience following the event of the quake.
Coordination of services during and after the crisis
The coordination of services after and during the Northridge Earthquake demonstrated the excellent teamwork of various agencies, units and organizations working together when multiple issues were experienced even as the catastrophe transpired. Mere minutes after the earthquake, emergency teams hurried into action to determine the amount of destruction, assign rescue squads to the areas needing help, and dispatch emergency units to the locations of the recent disaster. Interagency communal paths were built to facilitate information integration and solving problems, interspace voices of all sectors were heard, and their reaction was coherent. Healthcare facilities introduced surge capacity protocols to keep up with the number of injuries among people injured on the way; also, they cooperated with community partners for medical care and all kinds of assistance to displaced residents. NGOs and volunteer groups did tremendous things that the government actions could only partially satisfy the needs of less fortunate individuals. They went the extra mile to offer shelter, food and emotional support. Organizations’ attitudes towards collaboration have evolved in response to the situation where coordination efforts initially focused on meeting the immediate crisis. Humanitarian organizations have then shifted to concentrate on how long-term recovery and rebuilding can be achieved through collaboration by addressing issues such as infrastructure repair, housing assistance and mental health support. Organizing frequent links, providing people with joint planning sessions, and facilitating the information-sharing platforms were the tools that made regular coordination and adequate allocation possible as the needs were shifting. Plenty of issues and complexities sometimes arise during and after such tumultuous events. However, the combined action taken during and after the Northridge Earthquake represented the effort to bring community and cooperation to vital energies that bring down the amount of sinkage and contribute to the ability of the population to address the consequences of the disaster.
Outcomes and Recommendations
The effects of the Northridge Earthquake on public health were heart-rending and prolonged in both the long and short term, and they still vanished away from the residents of the affected communities. First of all, the most affected were individuals who were killed directly in the blast, those who were injured, and the staff and workers of the healthcare units, as well as the rescue teams who died, drained all their efforts. In addition, the interruption of the supply of basic amenities like water, electricity and transportation systems caused a much bigger problem for the people already living with health issues, which could cast them to infectious diseases and deter their access to health care. There was also a toll on human psychological resources as both survivors, as well as the deployed organizations faced the risks of PTSD, anxiety as well as depression, as the mental health support resources were fragmented due to the dispersion of organizations. The loss of a significant amount of inhabitants from their homes created social and economic instability, leading to more health inequalities in accessing healthcare with a divorce from the underlying conditions that were already there before the event occurred. On top of this, the fact that the earthquake had long-term health effects after the first day or two turned out to be another issue that caused pain to the survivors of the disaster. Some of these effects were chronic respiratory problems due to exposure to dust and debris, which continued for long after the original disaster had passed. Even though the volume of the destruction infrastructure and the prepared measures for emergencies have been improved, works that ought to be continued to sustainable facilities for public health, comprehensive emergency response systems as well as community resilience are the aftershocks of the Northridge earthquake that remind us to take all measures to decrease the effect of the disaster and to ensure the health of all residents.
Recommendations for improvements in emergency management phases
Some suggestions may come up for making enhancements to the plans and procedures of emergency management agencies, especially in the first three phases, which are preparedness, mitigation, and response. Firstly, adequately outlining the plans and exercises is essential during preparation. Communities should carry out routine risk assessments to identify hazards and vulnerabilities and develop relevant seismic risk measures in regions vulnerable to earthquakes, such as California. This calls for stakeholders from various sectors, including health and social sectors, government agencies, NGOs, and community organizations, to act in concert with the best plans aligned with local needs. First, engaging in public education campaigns and outreach programs is vital to educate the public about disaster preparedness and response issues and what they should do during such times. Through this process, you may provide directions on evacuation routes, shelters, and emergency communication channels in different kinds of mass media and through community meetings.
However, in the period of intervention, only preventive measures, such as activities that reduce the scale and significance of disasters, should be considered. This is to finance the strict implementation of infrastructure improvement and construction codes to minimize uncertainties. An instance of such an approach is when owners of older buildings are required to retrofit the structures to withstand seismic forces. Additionally, construction necessitates adherence to strict building codes that could considerably reduce structural damages and casualties if earthquakes strike. Similarly, incorporating land-use planning measures like staying clear of construction in areas with a high risk of liquefaction or landslides may significantly mitigate the damaging effects and loss of lives. In addition, building green infrastructure systems, including permeable paving and green roofs, will enhance water catchment and minimize the effects of flooding and storm surges, lessening the impact of diseases and pollution during emergencies(Ferreira et al., 2021).
Conversely, during the response phase, conducting the right actions in time and with coordination means saving lives and preventing further damage. During crisis, designating access routes and assigning responders to specific sectors should be among the policies within these response agencies, such as emergency services, healthcare providers and local authorities, to enhance collaboration and systematize resource utilization. Technology, including GIS mapping and real-time data analytics, can augment the ability of responders to get situated awareness and make decisions effectively, making them quickly deploy the necessary resources and determine areas that need immediate assistance (Lei et al., 2020). Furthermore, establishing neighbors’ cooperation and collapsing into regional and international institutions may support mutual aid agreements and joint resource allocation, increasing emergency response capabilities. Not only investing in the training and capacity-building programs for the emergency responders and healthcare professionals but their preparedness will have the unique challenges in addressing natural disaster hazards, including mass casualty incidents and emergencies of public health.
Recommendations for post-disaster care and recovery solutions
Critical benefits for disaster recovery efforts are given to communities impacted by the Northridge Earthquake by providing post-disaster healthcare and recovery services. Above all, the governments should encourage evolving the services of mental support counseling to help the victims cope with the ads and the lasting emotions. These are the activities that will be involved: mobilizing crisis teams to provide immediate assistance and organizing long-term clinics for mental health, offering regular therapy and support groups for people faced with PTSD, anxiety, depression, and other mental issues in the post-disaster stage. Moreover, we would be better equipped to tackle mental health requests by factoring in a mental health first aid approach for community outreach. With such an approach, the residents could recognize and respond to signs of distress in themselves and others. As a result, it promotes a culture of resilience and mutual support. In addition, the provision of medical services to those who require them to have short-term emergency medical needs and those with the long-term health consequences of the disaster is a factor that should be considered, too.
First and foremost, the response plan comprises setting up mobile health units in the affected areas to provide emergency care, including trauma, burns, and fractures care. Also, mobile health units would be deployed to reach the underserved population and the remote communities. Engage the local health care providers for the necessary services and telemedicine to address the gaps in space to accommodate those with chronic conditions and disability issues(Gallegos-Rejas et al., 2023). The task can be accomplished by applying relevant actions in public health, for instance, through vaccination campaigns and disease surveillance programs, which will reduce the possibility of disease outbreaks and meet the health challenges emerging post-disaster period. To progress on recovery and improve livelihoods, communities need requisite financing to restore quality of life. The help offered entails putting forward finances and microloans to the businesses and entrepreneurs facing the disaster’s challenges and also availing the job training programs and employment slots to the desolated workers.
On the other hand, some projects, such as repairing or constructing the infrastructure, can add more jobs to the sector to enhance growth. Finally, the repairs can strengthen the transportation, water, and energy systems by increasing resilience. Besides boosting resilience in future disasters through eco-friendly and equitable development models, it will aid in reducing the exposure of marginal populations to risks and enhancing their adaptive capacity.
References
Ferreira, C. S. S., Potočki, K., Kapović-Solomun, M., & Kalantari, Z. (2021). Nature-based solutions for flood mitigation and resilience in urban areas. In Nature-based solutions for flood mitigation: environmental and socio-economic aspects (pp. 59-78). Cham: Springer International Publishing.https://doi.org/10.1007/698_2021_758
Gallegos-Rejas, V. M., Thomas, E. E., Kelly, J. T., & Smith, A. C. (2023). A multi-stakeholder approach is needed to reduce the digital divide and encourage equitable access to telehealth. Journal of telemedicine and telecare, 29(1), 73-78.https://doi.org/10.1177/1357633X221107995
Lei, X., Chen, W., Avand, M., Janizadeh, S., Kariminejad, N., Shahabi, H., … & Mousavi, A. (2020). GIS-based machine learning algorithms for gully erosion susceptibility mapping in a semi-arid region of Iran. Remote Sensing, 12(15), 2478.https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12152478
Mavrouli, M., Mavroulis, S., Lekkas, E., & Tsakris, A. (2023). The impact of earthquakes on public health: A narrative review of infectious diseases in the post-disaster period aiming at disaster risk reduction. Microorganisms, 11(2), 419.https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms11020419
USGS.”50 Years Later an earthquake’s Legacy still continues.” https://www.usgs.gov/news/featured-story/disaster-helped-nation-prepare-future-earthquakes-remembering-san-fernando
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