Every year, both natural and human-caused disasters lead to damage to infrastructure, financial costs, distress, injuries, and fatalities. Regrettably, climate change is enhancing the destructive capabilities of natural disasters. In this scenario, disaster detection and response systems based on the Internet of Things (IoT) have been suggested to manage disasters and emergencies more effectively by enhancing detection and Search and Rescue (SAR) operations during disaster response. Consequently, IoT devices are employed to gather data, which aids in identifying risks post-disaster and locating injured individuals. Nonetheless, relying solely on an IoT-based detection and response system may not be entirely adequate for emergency response in smart cities, as connectivity issues with IoT devices may arise due to damage in communication infrastructure or network overloads. Therefore, a new architecture is proposed for an intelligent disaster detection and response system tailored for smart cities. It outlines the key components of our proposed intelligent system and highlights the significant challenges that must be addressed in order to implement it successfully.