Disaster Preparedness Poor

Insuring buildings against natural or man-made disasters is a crucial part of crisis management, said deputy head of the National Crisis Mitigation and Management Organization. “Less than 10% of the buildings in the country are covered by insurance,” said Mohammad Farid Latifi at the National Conference on Earthquakes on Thursday in Bojnourd, North Khorasan Province, ISNA reported. Lamenting the “confrontation-oriented approach towards risks and crises in the country rather than a preventive one,” he stressed the need for education and raising awareness regarding steps to take before and after a disaster occurs. “Right now only the Health Ministry has an emergency operation plan (EOP), while all state bodies should have such clearly defined plans to assume particular tasks in the event of a disaster,” he noted. EOPs describe how a facility will respond to and recover in a crisis.