Disaster Preparedness Against Accidents or Terrorist Attack

The author elaborated in this book his personal reminiscences and experiences, what he gathered from being one of the eyewitnesses of the aftermath of the world's largest terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, when the Al-Qaida Terrorists destroyed the Twin Towers of the American Trade Center at Manhattan, New York. The author was going to his laboratory at the Beth Israel Hospital at Manhattan that day. Incidentally, the task of dealing with the aftermath of the world's largest toxic chemical disaster, which took place in the early morning of December 3, 1984 at the Union Carbide factory at Bhopal, India, was also fell upon him.

The author was the Director of ITRC, Lucknow at that time. He had personally witnessed the helplessness of the people who suffered from various types of casualties. He also had shared the sorrows and agonies of many people who lost their nearest and dearest ones or friends and other members of their families. The lack of preparedness at all quarters made the situation worse. The incident led to a chaotic condition. The question was who and where, where to go to seek help and guidance, who is in command, how to mobilize resources etc. Everywhere there was a disorderly situation. People were bewildered, kind of speechless and flabbergasted. The author felt that there exists an urgent necessity to educate the people at all level regarding what to do under similar such circumstances. What type of preparedness they should undertake and also equip them with.

The author strongly recommended that there exists a pressing need of establishing a well-planned preparedness plan all around the city to face such kind of circumstances. It must operate on wartime urgency and with equal competency. The present volume is the outcome of such a thought in order to help and educate the common citizen, the planners, administrators, law and order personnel, medical experts, hospital emergencies, philanthropic and religious organizations and the voluntary agencies such that they get themselves organized to deal with the aftermath of such kind of incidents, man-made or otherwise.