Resumo

Humanitarian Logistics consists of promoting the distribution of supplies and relocation of people in emergency situations to alleviate the victims of the emergency situation. The focus of this logistical process goes beyond the assistance to population directly affected by such disasters, including the planning before the occurrence of the disaster, support and assistance during the occurred and the subsequent restructuring. At the same time, this type of logistics intends in its foundations to carry out the immediate implementation of measures to reduce the extent of impacts.

At the beginning of 2022, a small city in Rio de Janeiro, Petropolis, suffered from a great storm that caused mudslides and flooding destroying central essential parts of the city. Several help initiatives from different organizations and individuals were observed just after the event. This study aims to understand how humanitarian logistics can help a city recuperate from a significant natural disaster.

When analyzing Humanitarian Logistics, Jilani et al. (2018) mention that conventional responses to natural disasters disturb the environment and all beings that surround it. When examining humanitarian operations in critical areas, it can be said that the environment is further damaged as the carbon emissions linked to logistical activities add to the already fragile environmental health of the place. This happens while abrupt responses to natural disasters are never simple, involving several variables to be considered, such as the emissions of pollutants from transport inputs.

As a methodological approach, the authors relied on humanitarian logistics literature to draw a different perspective where the citizen allied directly with political powers could provide immediate help for those who need it. The study inverviewed 10 people involved in aiding victims of the tragedy, after the software MaxQda was used to create codification. Three categories emerged: actions during the disaster; recuperating and prevention. The categories were illustrated by parts of the speech, indicating essential actiosn that should be taken by individuals.

A strong relationship was built between Recuperating and Relieving/Prevention. This happened during the interview when the subject talked about relieving actions that were strongly connected with recuperating, such as urban planning. In all interviews, they mentioned the difficulty of evacuating the areas, partly because people were still looking for survivors. One month after the first flood, there was a big storm that caused several mudslides with fewer victims, but there were 7 casualties in the second storm.

A study was conducted with several participants in aiding victims, among them members of the city hall, NGO's and Volunteer's, they also pointed into the direction of a co-joint action among the institutions to restore and recuperate the city. There were at least two implications of the study: first it was a contribution of a practical case that proved the theory to be correct. The second contribution was understanding the dynamics of the actions made after and during the disaster by social actors, such as individuals, NGO's and city hall.

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