IEEE publication-Hierarchy of Control of Lightning Risk

8/9/2019 IEEE publication-Hierarchy of Control of Lightning Risk

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2014 International Coference on Lightning Protection (ICLP), Shanghai, China

Hierarchy of Hazard Control to Minimize LightningRisk

Centre for Electromagnetics and Lightning Protection

Universiti Putra MalaysiaSerdang, Malaysia

[email protected]

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T k T I x j

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I. NTRODUCTION

The lightning related deaths and injuries have beendecreasing signicantly durng the last cent in severaldeveloped countries where data related to lightning-causedcasualt are documented over the time [1-4]. However, thesame trends could not be predicted in many developngcounies, basically due to the lack of such cronologicalinformation. On the other hand several papers publishedrecently with regad to shor-term data reveals that thelightning casualties, per unit population is much larger in suchcounies than those gures in developed countries in the sametime ames [5-8]. These information reveal that anual deathrate in developing counies at present is in par with that indeveloped countries about a centur ago [2].

There are no publications n the literature that provide

cronological ends in the variation of lightning relatedancial losses. Repors on lightning impacts on the economydepicts that the losses ae due to the damage to electronics andpublic services (power, communication, cable TV etc.), partialor total destruction of buildings and other man-made structures,death of live-stock and forest res [9]. Large scale monetarlosses due to secondar effects such as downtime in theindustrial and service sectors, data and information losses andcost of emergency services are most oen overlooked in thepreparation of lightning related loss-budgets [10]. Once in awhile, lightning causes desuction with signicantly large

97879935//$3. EEE

Centre for Electromagnetics and Lightning Protection

Universiti Putra MalaysiaSerdang, Malaysia

[email protected]

foorints on the enviroment, apart om monetar losses,when it trigger res in the oil and gas sector [11]. Several suchincidents have been reported n the last decade, which we willdiscuss in the next section.

The experience in lightning safet promotion in many parts

of the world shows that the suitabilit of methods of conveyingthe safet message to public, the success rates of implementingthe safet guidelines, the response of the public etc. have alarge variance over the globe. The level of education, livngstle and income, housng and sheltering methods,occupational practices, religious and social attitudes,isokeraunic level (or more precisely the ground ash densit)etc. have different degrees of impact on the nal count oflightning related deaths, injuries and propert damage in agiven region [12, 13]. The safet measures canot be expectedsolely om the potential victim. It should be conceed,designed and implemented at each layer of the societ sttngom the goveent. Faile to implement such disibuted

responsibilit may end up in faile of the target outcomes.This is applicable to all natural disasters, however, o focus in

this paper will only be on lighing.

Under such backdrop it is a need of the hour to develop amanagement model by which lightning risk can be minimizedby implementing a exible code of practice for a givencommunit taking into account the affordabilit of the societ.The affordabilit of the societ is specied here in terms of

money and time. The rst attempt in this regard was made byMar and Gomes [14]. They applied a hierarchy of hazardconol model for a sheries community at the shore of LakeVictoria in Uganda. In this study, we attempt to expand this

model to many other bound communities taking societdependent factors of the comunities into account. We alsodevelop a more formidable order of responsibilities that can beintegrated into the hierarchy of control mechanism.

II. METHODOLOGY

Information on eight lightning related incidents om theworld ont (om developing or less-developed countries) havebeen collected om various sources. The incidents wereperinent to multiple deaths occued in bound-communities.Other than those exacted om published scientic literature,

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information have been cross-examined om various soces toensure the data accuracy. In several cases, eyewitnesses of theincident or aermath of the incident have been interviewed toget detailed information.

The incidents have been analyzed to understand the level ofresponsibilities that should be taken by each layer of the

societ in preventing such mishaps in the ture. Theresponsibilit char is then integrated with the proposedhierarchy of hazard conol mechanism.

III. FORMA ON A DISCUSSION

A Success and faliure of lightning safe modules

Studies done on oods, earhquakes, and tropical cyclonesshow that a highly elevated proportion of deaths and propertdamage due to such disasters is pertinent to developngcounies [15]. This reference [15] explains that suchobservations are not necessarily be due to the highersusceptibilit of developing world to natural disasters, but theimpact is oen more prominent due to many socio-economicfactors. An under-privileged societ with poor inasucture,below pa literacy rate and mediocre income level is highlyunlikely to follow risk reduction guidelines in the event of anatural disaster such as lightnng, due to various consaints [6,13]. Studies done in Indonesia on oods and eathquakes show

that people live in areas which regularly encounter suchdisasters have a higher tendency of disaster aversion [16],however, in the case of lightning, as the occence localit isquite random, the chances of a single comunity experiencingsuch natural hazard more than once is rare. Such conditionsrequre more singent lightnng safet modules for the publicthan that for many other natural disasters.

However, the interviews conducted by the authors nseveral South Asian counies with a number of potentialvictim communities, revealed that many social and religiousleaders are conceed about the human safet against lightnngand they are willng to be educated. However, iespective ofsome effors taken in several regions in South Asia such as SriLaka and Bangladesh for the last many years, recent studiesshow that the accidents ae not that low in these countries [13,17]. On the other hand, several developed countries, such asUSA, where continuous lighing safet campaigns conductedover the years show remarkable reduction in lightningaccidents [1, 2]. Such scenario raises the inevitable question ofwhy lightning safet modules fail in some regions whereas

they work well in other regions. The issue needs an urgentanswer as the inteational lightning safety comunitiesprepare themselves to launch lightning awareness and safetpromotional programs in the vastly untouched areas of Aicaand Latin America where the lightning related incidents areremarkably high. As the lightning safety programs in SouthAsia has proven that the existing models are not as successlas the promoters expected at the initial stages, it is advisable toanalyze the possible scenarios before the existing modules areapplied again. In this background, it is high time that one

should investigate the causes of lightning incidents in countrieswhere such cases are prevalent.

B Lightning accidents of bound communities

To understand the requred augmentations in lightningsafety models that should be inoduced to the communities,especially in the developing and less-developed counies, we

have considered eight lightning accidents with multiple deaths,intentionally selected om Aica and South Asia. The victmscould be categorized as belong to a certain bound communitin each case.

Incident 1: On 27 June in 2011, 19 people (18 students andtheir teacher) were killed by a single lightning sike while thestudents were taking shelter in a school building in Uganda [6].Apart om those who succumb to their injies, 38 peoplewere admitted to the hospital with various degrees of personalinjies. The victims were beteen 7 and 16 years of age otherthan the teacher, who is an adult. The school was situated inMasindi area, about 260 kto the west of Kampala, the capital

cit. The lightning has suck the roof of the building around4.30 pm in the evening (prmary source: Uganda lightningstrike kills school children, BB World, 29 June 2011. Thepictures and eyewitness interviews revealed that the classroomwhere the accident took place is a brick-walled building withun-grounded metal room. A whole of diameter of 3-4 cm isvisible in the room where the lightning may have beenattached.

Incident 2: On 24 July in 2014 another school buildingwas strck by lightning killing eight students on the spot andcritically injuring 23 other students in Uganda (primar source:"8 pupils struck dead by lightning in Bushenyi, New Vision,24 July 2014. The incident has taken place in the evennghours, around 4.45 pm. Although not much information isgiven in the news reports, the residents in Kampala, contactedby the authors, said that the school building may most probablybe the one similar to that where the 2011 incident took place.Most of the school buildings n Uganda are made of wood, orbrick walls with a metal roof, which is le un-grounded(personal observations and interviews).

Incident 3: On 28 December in 2013 a Seventh DayAdventure Church building n Lilongwe, the capital city ofMalawi was struck by lighing while a congregation wasattending the service (primar source: "Eight people killed bylightning strike on church , The Independent, 29 December

2013. The lightning strike killed eight people and injedurevealed number of people The lightning has struck in thelate aeoon hours. An eyewitness has stated that she has rstheard a ightening loud sound and a few minutes later she hasnoticed a stapede. The victms include seven adults and onechild. Cross-coespondence reveals that the church is a brickwalled strcture with un-grounded metal roof and clay tiledoor.

Incident 4: On July in 2014, nine people were killedand ve more were injured as lightning sck a small temple

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in Kolia, a remote village in West Bengal, North Easte India(primar soce: Lightning strikes kill 11, The IndianExpress, 11 July 2014. All 14 people were working in aproject site close to the temple in which they have soughtshelter as the rain thickens in the aeoon. The project wasowned by a well-known organization in India, MahaaGandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act

(MGNEGA). The nature of the building of the temple is notknown to the authors however, om the appeaance of Hindutemples in the region, it can be guessed that the pertinenttemple may be an unprotected brick-walled sucte with tileor tin roofed.

Incident 5: On 13 August in 2010 a Quranic trainingcenter in Sarguilla, a remote village in Southe Darr, Sudanhas been suck by lightning killing seven children aged 10 -13years and injuring nine more who were atending the religiouseducation sessions (primar source: Lightning strike kills 7children at religious school in Sudan's Darfur region,Associated Press, 16 August 2010). The report states that the

building was a simple consuction and had a thatched roof. Itis not clea whether the cause of deaths is the lightning strkeitself or the consequent re that has been erupted (or both). Thenews report also stated that the heay rains made roads to thevillage inaccessible thus exa medical care could not beprovided in time. A non-cross-conrmed report obtain troughpersonal communication revealed that the accident hashappened in the aeoon hours.

Incident 6: On August in 2012, lightning suck amakeshi mosque in Saraswati, a remote village inBangladesh, which is situated about 200 k om the CapitalCit, Dhaka. The incident caused the death of 13 people andinjies to 20 more people who survived (primar source:Lightning strikes makesh mosque in Bangladesh, kills 13 ,CNN World, 10, August 2012. The incident took place in theevening as about 35 people gathered for a special serviceaanged ding the Islam holy month of fasting. The makeshi mosque was an ungroded tin-roofed tent on woodenpoles. The only way out to the hospital, a boat-ride across theSaraswati River that boarders the village, was hampered by theoods thus many victims succumbed to ther injies whilewaiting for their way to the hospital.

Incident 7: In few consecutive days in late May and earlyJune in 2014, 13 farm workers were killed in West Bengal,

North Easte India as thunderstorms swept over the region.

Twent other people who were affected by the lightning skessurvved wt njures vctms were worng on te openelds as they were affected. It has been reported that workers persisted in continung ther work in the open eldsdespite song winds, heay rains and thunderstorms prevailedin the region for the few days during which the mishaps tookplace (primar source: Lightning kills 13 people in easternIndia, Al Jazeera, 02 Jun 2014.

Incident 8: On the 1 of April 2008, fo soldiers werekilled and 59 others were njured when lightning struck a

nearby tree in an y trag center in Katukaleyawa,Minneriya, a cit, which is situated about 200 k omColombo, the capital cit of Sri Laka (prima source:Lightning kills 4 soldiers, wounds 59 in Sri Lanka, ABC

News, 2 Apr 2008. The incident has occued as the soldierswere engaged with routinely physical exercise in the evenng.The victims were on open grounds as the lightning strck

nearby. Not much information on the incident has beenrevealed due to the on-going militar operations in the cotrduring the time of incident. Evening thundershowers ae well

known to occur during Marchpril period in Sri Laka.

Need for Hirarchy of hazard control mechnaism

The incidents described in the section B show that in eachcase the victims belong to a certain societal layerinterconected by either cultural, religious, professional or

habitual uniformit. In the rst two incidents the victmsbelong to a school communit, in incident 3, 5 and 6 thevictims belong to a religious community and in incident 4, 7and 8 the subjects belong to a professional entit. Note that in

the case of incident 4, although the accident took place at areligious place, the victims were known to be om aprofessional comunity rather than the religious communit.

A group of people that is engaged with similar tpe ofemployment, regular recreational activit or routinely social,religious or aditional practices can be eated as a bodcommunit. A communit that has some bound-relationshipmost oen consists of several interacting subsystems and subprocesses with hierarchal leadership. In the event of a naturaldisaster with short-time waing such as lightning, a bodcommunit may take collective drectional actions in thepresence of a local leadership (most oen spontaneously arise)

or may create total chaos in panic if such leadership does notarise. Therefore the safet of such communit could not beensured either by centralized control alone or individual conolalone. However, the bound-nature of the comunity makesimplementation of safet measures feasible tough disibutedresponsibilit of control. Hence, in such cases, a hierarchalhazad conol approach with regard to lightning safet may behighly uitl in minimizing injuries and propert damage.

The concept of the hierarchy of hazard control mechanismthat may successlly be applied to the communities in highlightning risk regions is quite popular in many industrial andcommercial sectors [18, 19]. The hierarchy of hazard conol istpically applied in to work spaces with well-dened set ofpersonel and work-boundaries. Such enclosed workspaces areindustrial entities (factories, outdoor consuction sites, metalquaies, farms etc.) and service entities (seaports and arports,cargo terminals, power generation and distribution plants,communication hubs, network repar teams with taskboundaries, militar etc.). Reference [14] has investigated thefeasibility of adopting the hierarchy of hazard conolmechanism into lightning safet of much larger boundcommunities such as sheries, agriculture, livestock andanimal husbandr etc. In reference [14] a hazard conol

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mechanism has been proposed for a sheries community inLake Victoria shore in Uganda to minimize lightning hazards.They have proposed this mechanism for the said community asa recommendation to curb the unusually high lightningaccident rate in Uganda, especially among the sheriescommunity in the shores of Lake Victoria. In this study weexplore the possibilities of this concept to be extended to many

other communities bound by not only the profession butsocietal practices, religious activities, recreational activities,etc.

D Analysis of incidents

Incidents 1-6 have happened while the affected wereseeking shelter inside suctres. These structures have notbeen protected and in most cases were having ungroundedmetallic roofs or thatched roofs, which are ver muchvlnerable to igger side ashes or re in the event of alightning strike. Most of these victims may have been affectedby either side ashes or step potential [20]. The suctures werenot given at least basic low cost protection [21] iespective of

the fact that the owners/authorities had the prior knowledge ofpublic gathering.

In all incidents, except for no 7, the victims were attendingcollective activities, thus individual behavior is not responsiblefor the victimization. In all these cases (except case 7) there is awell-recognizable hierarchical ladder of command that couldprevent or minimize the mishaps (both during and post event).

It is unfortunate that aer the incident in 2011 in Uganda,which took 19 lives, a similar incident happened in the samecoun at a similar location. Such repetition took place despiteeven a research paper has published on lightning accidents inthe countr highlighting the incident 1 [6]. In both cases exceptone, all the victims were children. Incident 5 also reects acase where children of just-teen or preteen age were affectedby the lightning sike. Special attention should be given atvarious levels of the societal ladder in providing safetymeasures to places where minors will be housed, as they hadlyunderstand the safet guidelines in a disaster situation.

Incident 4 reects a common situation in many developingcounies. Companies or instittions employ labo forces foroutdoor activities without providing them safet insuctions orsafet shelters in the event of an emergency situation. Thiscompels the labour team to seek shelter in any public place in

the event of a natural exeme event, or be exposed to the

extreme condition at their site location. In the case of incident4 the employer is a well-known entity in India for rraldevelopment, thus, they could have easily developed safetshelters for ther outdoor workers as sub-projects within therwork ame.

Incident 5 and 6 shows the complex nature of humancatastrophes when several exeme events occ in paallel orin consequence. Most oen opical thunderstorms bring notonly lightning but also oods and rough waters, which makeislandic isolations, especially in remote areas. Under such

circumstances accessing medical facilities may seriously bedelayed due to ansporation consaints. Hence awareness ofgiving rst-aid and local medical facilities will be of highadvantage in these areas.

Incident 3 is a good example of the lack of scienticawareness and local conol command, which caused deaths

due to a stapede apar om the lightning effects. It is a wellknown fact that once lightning sikes, the immediate effectsare over within milliseconds thus, unless there is a re hazardthere will be no reason for panicking and immediate eviction ofoccupants om the location of hazad. In a bound communit,such as a congregation of a religious place, the leader of thehouse or any other religious leadership could have commandedthe gathering to act for minimum damage, if such leadershiphad safet awareness regarding the situation.

The incident 8 has occued in a well-bound communitwith highly orderly hierarchy of command, thus the mishapcould be easily avoided if the commanding ofcers had a goodunderstanding of the lightning safet procedures. In Sri Laka,

many such lightning accidents (usually single death, multipleinjies) in the milita are reported in the newspapers,especially under non-combatant situations. Such incidents arenot rare as per the news items coming om other South Asiancounies as well.

Incident 7 is the only case discussed in this paper where theaccidents are due to separate events, occued in the sameregion within few days. All victims were farm workers andthey have been affected while working in open elds. Weatherrepors on the period of incidents clearly show that the victmshave continued working outdoor iespective of the prevailingovercast conditions. The most probable reason for such

persistent eldwork is the lack of substitution for ther onlysource of eaing. Many of these people work on daily-wagebasis, thus iespective of the reason, the absence om workleads them to lose the day's wage. Many of these ercommunities at village level ae guided by cerain hierarchy ofleadership although many of them work on individual basis.Their immediate leader may most probably be the owner of thefaland. Apa om that, there may be an in chage of each

process such as ploughing, seeding, weeding, watermanagement, crop harvest etc.

E The order of responsibili

Based on the analysis of incidents, we would like to

propose the order of responsibility to maximize the lightningsafety of bound-communities in a given country as it isdepicted in Figure-.

Govement:

The responsibilit structe starts with the goveent orstate authorit of the coun. This should come in the form ofa national policy, safet guidelines and standards, which shouldbe imposed compulsor or volunt, based on the entit ofprotection. For example places with public gathering (schools,hospitals, libraries, religious places, auditoriums and cinema

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halls etc.), installations with consequential catasophes (gasand oil storages, chemical and explosive stores, power stationsetc.) and places of eversibilit in the event of damage(museums, national heritage, art galleries etc.) should be madecompulsor to adopt lightning protection measures accordingto national or inteational standards. Other installations builtat exposed topographical locations an/or at geographical

locations of high lightning densit can strongly berecommended to adopt protection measures. Depending on theavailabilit of state nding, the goveent can initiatedonations or affordable loan schemes to the public to obtainsuitable protection scheme for their houses or indusialinstallations.

Typically, the Department of Meteorology (DoM) in mostcounies comes under the goveent purview. Hence, it is astate responsibilit to enhance the capacit of meteorologysector to provide fast and accurate weather predictions to thegeneral pblic. The goveent can coordinate the DoM andmass media to increase the eciency of dissemination of

weather forecasting.The goveent can also take initiatives in promoting

lightning safet awareness guidelines among the public byincluding such information into school cuicula andsupporting organizations that promote lightning safetawareness in the countr.

Governmnt

N O

Local uthority and Pi

Counity Leship

ia Vti

Fge Order of Responsibilit

Non-goveental organizations:

Non-goveental organizations (NGOs), especially thoseworking on social welfare and natural disaster management canplay a vital role in taking the safet message to the public(trough, media presentations, trag programs and

workshops, public display systems, booklets and posters etc.),coordinating institutes of weather prediction (DoM andlightning detection system owners) and media, communication

providers etc. They can also support in arranging ancialfacilities for the low-income societies to purchase lightnngprotection systems.

Another important task that NGOs could focus on is theproviding of substitute sources of work/income for people whoreain om their routinely jobs under overcast conditions.

Local authorities and police:

The local authorities (municipalit, urban, village councils,enviromental authorities, other statutor bodies) and lawenforcement entities can ense that the public (both domesticand commercial) sectors follow goveent enforcedregulations on lightning safet and protection. They may alsoeducate the public on the safet procedures to be followedunder emergency situations.

It is also the responsibility of the local authorities toconce on the inastrcture that required to minimize thepost-event casualties. As it could be seen in incident 5 and 6,the inaccessibility to medical care in time aggravated thecasualties. The Local authorities could establish rst-aidcenes in the localit, plan emergency transportation inadvance and also emphasize on such incidents to prioritize thelocal vote of state budget in providing inasucture such ashospitals, roads, bridges and mproved modes of ansportationto the localit. These institutions are also responsible (tpicalpractice) for the post-disaster welfare management of a givenlocalit.

Communit leadership:

Political, social, religious and professional leaders in agiven locality should take the responsibilit of educating and

reeshing the awareness of the comunity on lightning safet,re-assing protection measures, having regular discussions onemergency plans, egresses and safet paths, disibution of ruleof command among lower layers of leadership and taking mostappropriate procedures in the event of disasters. As it can beseen om the incidents discussed, the safet of the minorsshould be a priorit aea that the local leadership should payattention.

For examples; The Head of a religious place, may addlightning safet tips at the weekly post-sermon sessions, ensethat the place of worship is having proper lightning protection,instrct sub-leaders how to act in the event of a disaster and theconsequential steps etc. If he is not able to meet technical

requrements for protection (due to lack of engineeringknowledge/skills) he may request his disciples or localauthorities for providing or ding expert suppor.

Another example is a company manager who sends teamsof employees for outdoor sites. He should ensure that there aeadequate safet sheltering facilities (refer reference [21] forlow cost safet shelters) available for the workers, within easy

reach, in the event of a thunderstorm. He should also insctthe subordinate team leaders on the safet procedes to befollowed in the event of emergency. If he is not able to conduct

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these duties either due to lack of knowledge or time constrants,he may appoint a safet manager to do so. The lower orderleaders (especially in-charge) should discuss regularly with siteworkers on the safety procedure that they have to follow. In theevent of overcast conditions, he should take the command inleading the workers for stop-work and take-shelter procedures.

Potential victim:The lowest in the ladder but the most important element of

this responsibilit order is the subject that could be thepotential victim. This may be any citizen that encounter thepresence of overcast conditions (member of a congregation,student, outdoor worker, er, soldier etc.). Despite thellment of duties by the higher order commands, if the

potential victim does not follow the procedures the entresystem of order will fail. It is highly advantageous that thepotential victim aware of the procedures to be followed.However, he may simply follow the instructions of thecommand if he has no knowledge on the situation. It should beemphasized that unless the subject is vested with responsibilitof command or he possesses ver good knowledge on thesafet procedures, he should not start commanding except forguiding his own family members that seek his guidance orminors who are in disaray. Multiple commanding may mostoen lead to total chaos resultng severe catasophes.

The hierarchy of hazard control mechanism

To integrate the above order of responsibilit, we proposeherewith a hierarchy of hazard control module as it is shown inFigure2. The elements of the pyramidal structure are adoptedom [14] with a few modications. The hierarchical suctreof the conol mechanism is depicted in Figure-2. We ague

that forecasting without awareness is not meaningl as thepublic that have no knowledge of the consequence of lightningand thunderstorms may not understand the signicance ofweather forecasting. Hence we have taken "Awareness to thetop of the pyramid. Application of tecnology (rather thantecnical conol) needs to be initiated at national level ratherthan at local level, thus it is taen two positions up on theladder. The substitution is a process requred at the lowest levelthus it was placed at the botom of the base of the pyramid.

Awareness:

The experience of authors in many countries in thedeveloping world [5-7, 12-14], reveals that dis-organized safet

promotion is as ineffective as no promotion, whereas, safetpromotions with vested audulent commercial interests may behighly detrimental to the societ [22]. In other words lightnngsafet schemes that forecast and nowcast adverse weather,documented safet guidelnes, protective measures andstructes formulated in the standards etc. will not be thateffective unless the communities conceed are aware of thepotential risks and hazards of lightning and need for thesuitable safet measures to be taken. It should be emphasizedthat even in indusialized countries such as Malaysia,audulent lightning protection systems, which are totally

rejected om national and inteational standards, havebecome abundant in the market due to the lack of tecnologicalawareness among the public [23].

For an example, during the safet promotion campaignsconducted in Sri Laka (2004-2006) under USAID nds(tough SAIEnergy program), the authors have found that

many campaigners have attempted conducting lightning safetpromotion programs in the sae school as such schools are inareas of few well-known accidents. The easy access to theschool and the iendly atitudes of school authorities have alsoprompted many paties to conduct programs in the saeschool. It is understood that safet promotion is not a once-andfor-all type activit. The communities should be educated andre-educated periodically due to various reasons, however, thepromoters should optimize the resources to give the maximumbenet to the societ, especially in regions where theawareness signicantly low. Repetition of the same tpe of

program, especially to school students with gaps of fewmonths, make them bored and star ridiculing the promoters.

It has also been observed in several parts of South Asia thatleaets, books and other printed materials in English languageare distributed in areas where the people hadly understandEnglish language. Such failures, most oen ae a result of themismanagement of resources and haphazard planing.

The reference [22, 23] describes the adverse effects ofawareness promotion, especially in the case of lightnngprotection systems, done by (or with the support o parties thathave vested vicious commercial agenda. In a large number ofcounies, including well-developed regions, audulentlightning protection systems rejected by many national andinteational standads are marketed in bulk though i

informed programs and promotional-ware.

o

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no

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Local Cntrl

Subsii

Fge 2: Hierarchy of hazard control mechanism


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One of the toughest challenges encountered by NGOs insome counies in conducting promotional programs at publicinstitutions is to overcome the red-tapes of geting permissionfor the events. In Sri Laka, a major incident happened on the16 of August 2011 which made hospitalizing of over 500students due to food poisoning ding a seminar conducted byan NGO, iggered an outcr among the leaders to ban all

NGOs om conducting such programs in schools. The foodpoisoning has been attributed to the snacks provided by theorganizers to the students (infoation primarily extractedom High-powered coab want NGOs out of schools ,Daily Mirror Sri Lanka, 16th August 2014. This tpe ofobstacles could only be overcome trough coordinationbetween NGOs and Local authorities or Police.

T BLE- : ORDER OF RESPONSIBILITI ES OF ON AWRENESSPROMOTION

Government

Develop and update national safety policies and guidelinesImplementation of directives on compulsory/voluntary protectionmeasures

2 Identi the potential promoters through various state owned institution

3 Monitor promotional activities through appointed expert bodies andensure that the programs comes under the purviews of establishednational policies

4 Scrutinize promotional modes and materials periodically with respect toimplemented safety guidelines and protection measures

5 Facilitate/provide potential promoters with required permissions,accessibility and ncial support

Non-governmental Organizations (GOs)I Coordinate with govement institutions for development and execution

of programs

2 Design, Strategize and execute programs

3 Self-scrutinize materials periodically with the help of experts in the eld

Evaluate the success of programs at least every 3 years

Local Authorities and Police

I Check and veri authentication of safety promoters

2 Facilitate smooth coordination between the authenticated safetypromoters and local institute

3 Monitor the programs during the period that they are conducted at localinstitutes

4 Facilitate display of safety promotion messages at public places

Community Leadership

I Encourage the community to aend awareness programs

2 Participate at aweness programs d disseminate the knowledgeamong community

3 Provide guidce according to the guidelines leat to the communityduring disaster situations

The above discussion stresses the need for awarenesspromotion in a pre-determined order of responsibilit that isdepicted in Fige-. The analysis of this study leads to therecommendation of the responsibilities of each layer of thehierarchy as it is given in Table-.

Forecasting:

Forecasting of lightning sikes (location and amplitude) isalmost impossible even with few minute lead-time with thecuently available tecnologies. Hence, the only possible ontime lightning strike information is "nowcasting with varioustechniques employed at present [24]. Such nowcasting mayprovide valuable information on the passage of a thundersto.

It should be the responsibilit of the goveent (troughDepartment of Meteorology) and a relevant private sector thatowns region-wide lightning detection system to provide

thunderstorm forecasting and lightning nowcasting informationto the general public.

The mass media, especially audio-visual media such asradio and television should be an integral par of thedissemination of infoation as such modes reach into the farcoers of the ral public. Eleconic media (mobilecommunication and inteet) is also fast reaching even thecommunities with low-income, in the present context, as perthe authors' experience in number of less-developed countries.

In many counies in South Asia, South East Asia andAica the public speak various local languages and manycommunities have no understanding at all in major Europeanlanguages (English, Spanish, French, and German etc.). In suchcases, the need of providing accate infoation in locallanguages, in news broadcast, is an essential component ofsuccessl safety promotion.

When approaching mass public in multi-lingual newsbroadcast, in countr with a wide spectrm of languages anddialects is not practically feasible, one should sategize thesafety plans by selecting most vlnerable communities forpriorit attention. One good example is the mobile phonealering service stated in the sheries communities at LakeVictoria shore in Uganda [14]. Especially for boatingcommunities that go into deep waters, such mobile alerts willbe of immense benets.

It is also of importance to remind general public regardingtpical ends of thunderstos during the multi-day weatherforecasting. For examples, in many parts of the Indiansubcontinent with monsoonal climate, the inter-monsoonperiods are characterized by aeoon and early eveningthunderstorms (eg. incident 4, 6 and 8). Similarly, several fewpars of Lake Victoria shore in Uganda, experience mongthundershowers ding June-August period [14]. Also note thatall 4 incidents om Aica discussed in this paper show that theaccidents have happened in the aeoon or early hours ofevening. Communities in such regions with anticipated


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thunderstorms during cerain time ames should be wellreminded during the news forecasting sessions, so that thepublic will ange their non-essential or pre-planed activitiesavoiding dangerous periods or unsafe shelters.

Tecnology:

Lightning protection systems, designed and implemented

according to inteational standads (eg. IEC 62305:2010) willbe the best solution for minimizing human casualties andpropert daage. However, one should not overlook the factthat in many parts of the developing world, the cost oflightning protection systems is beyond the reach ofaffordabilit, as per the family income of most of the loweaing societal layers [5, 6]. A majorit of houses in suchcommunities do not have belongings (including the housngstructe) that can be compared with the cost of a standardlightning protection system (personal communication withrural Ugandan communities). Hence, the chances of suchpeople adopting proper lightning protection systems with theintentions of securing the propert are almost zero. On theother hand most of these suctures ae exemely uhealthy asfar as lightning safet is conceed as it can be noticed in theindoor incidents discussed in this study. As it was discussed inreference [5, 6, 14, 21] a majorit of suctes in rural Aicaare wooden/clay walled and thatched/tin-sheet roofed. Undersuch circumstances it is more appropriate to promote low-costprotection systems within ther affordabilit that can provide atleast primar human safet [21].

In many communities of less-developed countries, stateintervention is highly essential in lllng the affordabilit atfamily level for implementing lightning protection systems. In

most of these counies the state budget will permit only a ver

limited number of cases to be subsidized. In such cases, localauthorities may be of assistance to identi the priorit cases.NGOs may also support in both nding and identiingvlnerable cases. Experts in the non-prot eaing elds(academics and goveent servants) may give ther assistancein designing, developing or selecting the most appropriatelightning protection systems.

As in the case of incident 4 where people are compelled towork outdoors even when the predictions are for an overcastday, on-site protection systems could be located for thepotential victims to seek shelter at least during thethunderstorm. Simple protection measures can be taken for safe

guarding boats and other water vessels whereas all-metalstructes such as abandoned cargo containers modied forhuman occupation for a shor period, placed at workplaces,open religion practicing yards, school grounds etc. will be of

high benets [21].

Local Control:

Despite the consensus that may be reached among thepublic regading the actions to be taken on receiving theforecasting of adverse weather information, in real situations of

natural hazards, public need local drectives in starting safet

procedures. Such directives and leadership are required in anysocietal layer; however the need of such is more signicant inless-educated and low income societies than in auentsocieties.

In the case of various natural disasters such as ooding,landslides, earthquakes, res etc. it has been observed that the

behavior and response of the victims becomes unpredictableand in most cases chaotic [25-27]. Eyewitnesses interviewedby the authors during the post-Tsunami period (2004) in SriLanka revealed that all comunities, which survived withminimal losses, were the ones that had local command by thesocietal leaders. In the absence of such local leadership or preimplemented waing/path directing systems, people have nottaken steps to follow even the ver basic and generalguidelines, such as moving to a solid elevated location. Similarinformation was obtained durng the informal interviews by theauthors with survivors of 2005 earthquake in Azad JammuKasmir in Pakistan.

Safet against an instantaneous random disaster event, such

as lightning, needs even better local conol than that isrequred for other events. Such local directives ae easier to beimplemented in a bound-comunit that in a loose communit.Lightning waning systems positioned at exposed andpotentially dangerous location is one such safet precaution.Open decks, elevated workspaces, open lands, riverbanks andsea/lake shore are few examples of such vlnerable places.Special attention should be given to the mode of waing,especially during the night-time where visibilit is poor. Localauthorities and community leadership should take theresponsibilit of ensuring the uninterrupted operation of suchsystems. A non-working waing system may be moredangerous than having no waing system as people may begiven sense of false safet by such out-of-order systems.While the drectives such as waing systems and displaysystems for egresses etc. play a vital role in the event of adisaster, it is equally imporant that the steps to be taken by thepublic under such crcumstance should also be known to them.

There should also be a local command to give instructionson stop/star activities, drectng for appropriate sheltering, andstar substitute work etc. under thunderstorm conditions. Thecommanding leadership should have proper training to take thebest decision on timing. The local comanding entit may bethe superiors in a workspace, village/community head, landlord, religious leaders, teachers, responsible civil servants,

doctors, police etc.The experience in 004 Tsami in Sri Laka and 005

Earthquake in Pakistan shows that most oen the local conolbecomes successl only when the local leadership thatcommand the drectives has a natural tendency to inuence the

potential victims during the event.

Substitution:

It is a well-established fact that in the event of naturaldisasters, wealth is negatively associated with risk [16]. Such


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trends are not applicable to lightning as pre-disaster evacuation(leaving death behind) is not requred in almost all cases. On

the other hand wealth at both domestic and indusial levelsencourage the owners to seek lightning protection. However,issue that arises in lightning risk management is the aversionfor abandoning the planed work to avoid potential lighinghazards in many communities [14]. In many low-income

societies, the people who work for daily wages, may ignorelightning risk waing, as the loss of day's payment may causeunbearable ramications for them. This is evident in the case ofaccidents in incident 7. Many other accidents repored in SouthAsia and Aica [5-8] show similar ends in the underprivileged societies that have resulted large number oflightning related accidents.

Such adverse human tendencies canot be rectied solelyby promoting awareness and education. A suitable mechanismis requred to compensate for the lost wages of people whodecide to abandon ther work on lightning risk waing. NGOs,local authorities and local leadership may support the potential

victim to achieve this task. Reference [14] give one examplefor such substitution. That is; providing indoor activit such assoring and processing harvest, reparing of agricultural tools,discussions on water management and weeding etc., to theagricultural comunities when they have to stop outdoorfarming. Another example could be the arangement of worksuch as net and boat reparing, processing harvestedcommodities (dried sh, salted sh etc.), repairing orreishing pier etc.

However, one should note that such substitution will bequite subjective as the replacement jobs are ver muchcommunity dependent. The alteative tasks should be planedwithout hurting the other members of the community whoseregular job may be the substitution. Hence, although manyhierarchies higher up on the pyramid may provide or facilitatesubstitute work, drectives to take up such work should be doneby pre-deteined communit leaders.

IV. CONCLUSIONS

Eight lightning accidents that caused multiple deaths havebeen analyzed. The accidents ae selected om developngcounies om South Asia and Aica. Lightning risk scenaiosof both indoor and outdoor, pertinent to the incidents presented

have been analyzed and discussed. It has been identied that

there is no uniform safet promotion module that may beapplicable to all communities with success This observationleads us to develop a hierarchy of hazard conol mechanismthat may be applicable to any given bound community. Asocial group can be eated as a bound community if they haveuniformit with respect to profession, religion, social practicesand living stle. An order of responsibilit and hierarchy ofhazard conol mechanism have been developed based onvarious observations. The developed module could be adoptedby designers of lightning safet promotion at various levels(state, NGO, academia, local authorities etc.), especially in

developing world, and modi with appropriately selectedmodes and tools to minimize deaths and injies as well aspropert damage due to lightnng.

COWLEDGMENT

The authors would like to thank Centre for Electromagneticsand Lightning Protection (CELP), and Department of

Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Universiti PutraMalaysia for the invaluable support in making this study asuccess

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