Tehran Dust Storm Early Warning System: Corrective Measures

This report focuses mostly on sending alerts and enhancing response capacity to present the most important lessons learned at Tehran dust storm in 2014. Method Data for this report were collected through Tehran emergency operations center reports and documents, interview with the manager of Tehran Emergency Management Center and from news websites. It was backed up with literature review through “PubMed” with the following key word: “dust storm” and “early warning”. Results This incident had a death toll of five (two persons because of falling from buildings, two persons due to falling objects and one is unknown) and 44 injured, who mostly were surprised by the powerful winds. Other impacts were knocked down trees, floating debris, car crashes due to low visibility, temporary power outages, affected Internet and telephone services, delayed flights, and damaged buildings 3. Local news agencies notified that the head of meteorological organization had warned the disaster management organization of Tehran municipality a few minutes before the storm reached the capital city. News agencies also claimed that shortly before the incident, forecasters on the state television initially warned citizens of Tehran to stay indoors, while outdoor people were much at risk. In this incident, the alarm was not transferred to at risk populations and the related organizations in time and in the right manner. Additionally, no safety measures regarding this type of inci...
Source: PLOS Currents Disasters - Category: Global & Universal Authors: Source Type: research