Safety with E24|7: What to do in case of landslide

The National Emergency Crisis and Disasters Management Authority has launched a guidebook to help UAE residents enhance their capabilities in managing crises.

This week, Emirates 24| highlights guidelines on what to do in case of landslides. 

In its guidebook, the authority presents readers with a series of concepts and methods which will help them, in different cases of emergency, to avoid the dangers that might threaten their own lives and safety as well as the life and safety of their families and environment, or that they might need to address while on the road, at school or at
work.

This guidebook also shows readers how to protect their properties, as well as the individual and collective property of others, through instructions and advice that correspond to the different types and natures of hazards likely to occur in times of peace, war, turmoil and disasters.

Readers can learn how to deal with emergencies in times of peace, i.e. natural disasters and sudden power outages, and how to stock up on food supplies.

It also offers instructions on measures that should be taken in times of war to avoid crises, in terms of consumption levels, blood donation, warnings, shelters and personal defence.

In particular, the guidebook focuses on the importance of a “previously prepared emergency kit”, and helps readers to avoid potential chemical and biological terrorist threats as well as bomb attacks.

Landslides

A landslide is the displacement of huge soil clods along with their components such as soil, rocks and trees.

Landslides usually occur on top of mountains, in elevated areas, in the basins or sides of valleys and on slopes.

They are of two types: downward and translational.

The presence of water is not a requirement for such displacements. Rather, landslides occur when one or more of the following conditions are met:

1.    Gravity and presence of an unusual or tilting rock structure.

2.    Steep mountains, especially manmade slopes when building roads in mountainous regions.

3.    Saturation of the land with water from heavy rains or the thawing of snow and ice, and leakage from reservoirs, irrigation canals, etc.

4.    During or after earthquakes or volcano eruptions.

5.    Very high walls surrounding river gorges or glacial valleys.

6.    Removal of supporting strata or sub-layers of rocks, by natural processes or human activities, such as tunnel digging and mining.

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