An analysis of assistance needs during the storm Gudrun

We take as our starting point the view that one of the main objectives of an emergency response operation is to meet the assistance needs that arise in the affected population during an emergency. In Sweden, like in most of the world, there has been a substantial increase in societal emergency preparedness activities during the last few years. At the local level, municipalities are required by legislation to make preparations for the management of emergencies and crises that could affect the area. Furthermore, it is required that such preparations be based on thorough risk and vulnerability analysis. We argue that identifying and describing the potential assistance needs that may arise in different emergencies should be a key ingredient in such risk and vulnerability analysis work. One important source of information regarding this matter is the study of past emergencies.
On the 8th of January 2005 the south of Sweden was hit by a major storm, Gudrun, with long lasting gusts of hurricane strength. Trees corresponding to more than 75,000,000 cubic meters of wood were blown down, and a total of 341,000 homes lost power during the storm. In the municipality of Ljungby, the effects were severe in terms of loss of utilities such as electricity and telecommunications, infrastructure breakdowns that lasted for several weeks after the storm. This situation gave rise to a variety of assistance needs among the affected population. The objective of this paper is to evaluate a constructed categorisation of assistance needs against empirical findings from the response to the storm Gudrun in the municipality of Ljungby and discuss some implications for societal preparedness activities. The work is based on an analysis of interviews with mainly municipal actors of central importance during the response and of written documents describing experiences during and after the storm.