What
is the first thing logisticians do when they arrive on site
in the hours following a disaster? Run to the airport to unload
planes? No. They quickly set up their base camp, laptop computers,
satellite phones, check out the state of existing transportation
services (airport, roads), the availability of material (trucks,
forklifts) and warehousing capacity, in cooperation with local
authorities and teams, and with the essential help of local
translators.
In the midst of an emergency, logisticians must take the time
to be methodical and organized to make sure systems run smoothly.
This ensures the swift and efficient delivery of essential relief
goods to their colleagues in charge of distributing them as
well as the rapid deployment of emergency response units (ERU)
such as water and sanitation teams and field hospitals.
In Bam, the challenges were enormous, concedes Richard North,
one of the five members of a joint British-Danish Red Cross
logistics ERU, which arrived just two days after the violent
26 December earthquake devastated the Iranian city, leaving
more than 41,000 people dead, some 30,000 injured and 75,000
homeless.
Thankfully, the airport was functioning since the authorities
had brought in a mobile air control tower to replace the one
destroyed by the quake, as well as teams of air controllers.
Fortunately, the runway at Bam airport was also undamaged. Had
it been, the relief operation would have been severely hampered.
Bam airport normally handled about two planes a day, but national
and international response was so quick that up to 20 aircraft
at a time were on the tarmac, waiting to be unloaded. Adding
to the stress were aircraft turning up with no advance notification.
“It was unbelievable,” says North. “Planes
were zigzagging between other planes and sometimes the crews
got so frustrated at having to wait hours before they could
leave that they would rev up their engines, blowing away crates
of goods and equipment which were on the tarmac, to clear a
path.”
In the two weeks following the tremor, two thousand aircraft
landed at Bam airport. “Sometimes, we were trying to clear
five aircraft at the same time,” adds North.
Local teams were overwhelmed and needed support. Volunteers
were many and willing, but most were not trained to unload and
handle goods. “The Iranian Red Crescent were doing everything
they could to help us. They were able to mobilize 10,000 volunteers,”
explains North, “but as the teams rotated, we had to train
the new ones all over again.”
In some cases, the cargo had been loaded in great haste, in
what North qualifies as a “non-friendly” manner,
and this delayed the unloading.
Only two forklifts were available, too few to efficiently service
dozens of waiting cargo planes, so additional forklifts had
to be brought in from the capital, Tehran. In the meantime,
manual labour was used.
The trucks available on site were “tipper” trucks,
usually used to unload piles of earth or gravel at construction
sites and not suitable for palettes of humanitarian goods. What
the logistics team needed were flatbed trucks, whose long, flat
platform is ideal to pile up containers of equipment and relief
items.
“We saw the Turkish Red Crescent had come to Ban with
the right kind of trucks, so we ‘borrowed’ them
for the first few days. You have to be creative in these circumstances,”
notes North. The authorities provided free fuel in the days
following the earthquake.
The airport at Kerman, the provincial capital, about three hours’
drive away, was functioning normally, but the roads between
Kerman and Bam were completely blocked with cars and emergency
vehicles as people either fled the area, arrived to volunteer
their help or came to locate their family. So trucking goods
from Kerman to Bam was not an efficient option in those initial
days.
In the meantime, “Rubb Halls”, huge 2,000 square
metre tent warehouses, had to be set up where tents, blankets
and kitchen sets could be stored. The team was able to erect
eight Rubb Halls with the help of 50 Iranian Red Crescent volunteers.
“We could not have done anything without my counterpart
in the Iranian Red Crescent. If we needed trucks or volunteers
or anything else, he got it. His mobile phone was ringing all
the time,” notes North.
Working hours were long and tasks were varied. “We were
under pressure to get things moving quickly. We were working
till two in the morning and getting up at seven. And at the
same time, we were giving interviews on the satellite phone!”
says North.
“You just keep focused and you have no time to think.
One night, working in the office tent, all of a sudden someone
said ‘Hey, it’s New Year’s Eve’. So
we looked up and we said, ‘That’s great’,
and we continued working. That’s the most morose New Year’s
Eve I ever spent,” remembers North. “You can only
take pressure like that for so long, but it’s for a good
cause.”
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Richard
North (left) and John Kalhoeg of the Danish Red Cross
(right) coordinate with colleagues from the Iranian Red
Crescent (p11165)
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It
is New Year's Day, but works goes on to erect the Rubb
Halls, the large tented warehouses in which to store relief
goods (p11151)
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Work
went on round the clock to ensure that humanitarian aid
reached those in Bam who needed it (p11154)
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Thanks
to the coordination of the logistics ERU, Bam quickly
benefited from Rubb Halls and a field hospital (p11156)
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fact that Bam airport was still able to accept aircraft,
despite the destruction of its control tower, greatly
helped the relief operation. In the two weeks that followed
the disaster, 2,000 planes landed there (p11161)
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