Introduction
Lin et al (2011) indicate that on the 14th of August 2003, New York was engulfed in a number of a series of power generation interruptions which subsequently triggered a shutdown for protective purposes. Although the shutdown was intended for good purpose, million of New Yorkers in the Northeastern US experienced over 31 hours of blackout beginning on August 14th 4.11 p. m. DeBlasio et al (2004) attest to the arguments of Lin et al (2011) and add that the real effect of the blackout was very significant to human safety and health as a survey by US Department of Transportation found out. For instance, they indicate that 11, 600 traffic lights went off coupled with around 413 subway trains being stopped thereby affecting approximately 400,000 passengers. U.S-Canada Power System Outage Task Force (2003) reports that approximately 800 instances of people caught in elevators who need rescue were recorded. The report also indicated that the high rise buildings of New York within the affected area lacked water since they rely on electric pumps to transport the water to all the floors. Additionally, recycling plants were unable to recycle raw sewage during the period of the black out (Lin et al, 2011). Therefore, some waste was pumped to rivers and hence becoming a health hazard.
A plethora of studies have been undertaken to determine and illustrate the health hazards that were posed by the August 2003 New York black out. Studies such as Freese et al (2006) and Kile et al (2005) have succinctly explained how the blackout affected the health system in the affected area. For instance, there was significant surge in the number of emergency service and 9.1.1 calls. Kile et al (2005) posit that during the blackout period, hospita...
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... be fostered. Nevertheless, current coordination is not bad as the MTA is the overall umbrella agency that has coordinated diverse emergency response organizations in the city of New York. For instance, during the time of the blackout, diverse stakeholders shared information although communication systems were weak. The impact of the blackout on the transportation sector and health of New York City was severe and key lessons can be learnt. Learning from past experience such as the blackout in 2003 has been attested by Volpe (2004) who indicates that experience would help improve future emergency response. This can also help design effective emergency policies and plans. Personnel had previously become familiar with each other through day-to-day operations and joint terrorism exercises. However, further research is recommended to expound more on this issue in detail.
The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire not only affected the city of New York, but also the rest of the country. It forever changed the way our country would look at safety regulations in factories and buildings. The fire proved to America what can and will happen if we over-look safety regulations and over-crowd buildings. Unfortunately, 146 lives are taken before we fully understand this concept.
Waugh, William L, and Gregory Streib. "Collaboration and Leadership for Effective Emergency Management." Public Administration Review, 66.6 (2006): 131-140.
In the book Heat Wave A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago, by Eric Klinenberg expose how a number of social, political, and economical factors created one of the largest and most traumatic events in recent history. The Chicago heat wave in 1995 was a disaster, which led to over 700 heat-related deaths in Chicago over a five days period creating. Most of the victims of the heat wave were poor elderly residents of the city, who didn’t have any relative or were neglected by the public officials and was unable to purchase air-conditioning units for their home. Most of the elderly isolated themselves and refused to open windows or sleep outside in fear of crime. Alot of lives were loss or in destress because of isolation, poverty and media who played a major role by portraying the countless deaths on the natural disaster and highlighting of negative activities especially in the urban area
In the early twentieth century, San Francisco, a bustling city full of people with diverse cultures, stood in the midst of the Second Industrial Revolution. At this time, the brilliant inventions of airplanes, automobiles, and radios were changing the everyday lives of many. San Francisco had just recovered from the four-year burden of the bubonic plague (“Bubonic”). However, right when things were getting back to normal, a destructive earthquake hit the city on April 18, 1906. Although the shaking lasted for less than a minute, the devastated city had crumbled buildings and a substantial loss of lives. The San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 had a lasting effect on the city and its people, and it proved to be one of the most catastrophic disasters in history.
July through October only had a few showers that did not contain much water, and even when it did rain, it flooded. They were going through a very long drought, and they had already had a fire the night before and the blaze destroyed four blocks. The wind wasn’t on their side either. The wind was rushing up from the south east, and the gust of wind spread the fire from building to building in a matter of seconds. The fire alarms were not helpful either, because many of them were very hard to get to. And of course back then, at that time, there were no phones! When William Lee raced to the fire alarm at Gull’s drug store the “ fire was only 15 minutes old. What followed was a series of fatal errors that set the fire free and doomed the city of Chicago to a fiery
Hazards pose risk to everyone. Our acceptance of the risks associated with hazards dictates where and how we live. As humans, we accept a certain amount of risk when choosing to live our daily lives. From time to time, a hazard becomes an emergent situation. Tornadoes in the Midwest, hurricanes along the Gulf Coast or earthquakes in California are all hazards that residents in those regions accept and live with. This paper will examine one hazard that caused a disaster requiring a response from emergency management personnel. Specifically, the hazard more closely examined here is an earthquake. With the recent twenty year anniversary covered by many media outlets, the January 17, 1994, Northridge, California earthquake to date is the most expensive earthquake in American history.
September 11th 2001 marks a day in US history that no one will ever forget. The terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center that occurred that day resulted in the biggest emergency service response ever in US history. Hundreds of police officers, EMS, and firefighters surrounded the area. However, according to a New York Times article, “The New York Police Department's response to the Sept. 11 attack was effective in many areas but suffered from lapses in leadership and coordination and a lack of proper planning and training, according to a draft report by an independent consultant for the department.” (Rashbaum, 2002)
People stuck in the big mess, civil disorders began to characterize by arson, heavy looting in everywhere without controls. From the Washington Post, the academic article “How the 1977 blackout unleashed New York City's tough-on-crime politics” by a historian of twentieth-century American politics Kimberly Phillips-Fein, she also described the vile situation of the blackout (1977). There was the data pointed out after power outage for twenty-five hours, “more than 1,600 stores throughout the city were robbed …In some parts of the city, stores and buildings were torched as well. This wave of spontaneous property destruction, occurring in all five boroughs and at least 31 neighborhoods.”, could be imagined the public situation was serious and the level of destruct by the
Communities must come together in order to be aware of the steps that must be taken to reduce or prevent risk. “The guidance, programs, processes, and systems that support each component of the National Preparedness System enable a collaborative, whole community approach to national preparedness that engages individuals, families, communities, private and nonprofit sectors, faith based organizations and all levels of government.” (FEMA, 2011). Resources within a community are prioritized and customized based on community-based issues and local security programs. The resources used as the front line of defense are first responders, such as police officers, firefighters and medical personnel. The resources are provided and prioritized based on the priority of threat and risks to a specific community. Therefore, the threats and risks targeted towards a community must be analyzed and acknowledged in order to apply the correct resources to the opposing prioritized threats. Disasters and emergencies typically begin at the local level and eventually require resources from state and federal
For the purpose of this paper, we will discuss a weather event that few think of regarding natural disasters; winter storms. Winter storms are different from a snowy day in that a winter storm can include heavy snow, damage-causing ice, high winds, dangerously low temperatures, low visibility, or any combination thereof (America’s PrepareAthon, 2015) and makes travel extremely hazardous. A winter storm can affect an entire region and victims may experience loss of utility services, limited mobility, among various personal crises (illnesses, accidents, or death). For example, between November 17 and November 20, 2014 Buffalo, New York was buried under 7 feet of snow causing thirteen fatalities, hundreds of roof collapses/structural failures, thousands of stranded motorists, downed trees, and power outages in addition to food and gas shortages (National Weather Service, n.d.). In the most severe winter storms, snow plows, and emergency services personnel often have a difficult time keeping up with the needs of the region; therefore, it may be hours, days or even weeks until conditions are safe and services are
According to the 911 Commission, fire departments from New York, Port Authority Police and Mayor’s Office responded swiftly. However, some mishaps in technology hurt the whole rescue mission. For instance, the fire fighters’ “radio system failed frequently that morning” thus failure to get information promptly (Dwyer, Flynn, and Fessenden para. 3). The 911 Commission explains that although the radio calls were of high frequency, they were locally connected and had low wattage leading to command transfer failures (281-283). Hamilton points out that the internet might have played a great role in the September 11 attacks (2).
Several tons of toxic chemicals contaminated the air making about 2,500 people sick. By 2010 nearly 40 percent of these sick people were not yet cured. This shows that nearly half of the people who were sick due to the attacks were not yet cured 9 years after. Many of these people suffered from lung related illnesses. On this day, 135 New York Police Department Officers lost their lives. On top of that, 343 New York City Firefighters
Entire forests ' worth of trees were falling across Long Island, roads were flooding, and streetlights and power lines were being ripped out of the ground like cheap lawn signs. Over 1.5 million people lost power, including my father and grandmother. Four people died, thankfully not including my relatives, not even the one who had taken off right at the start. All in all, the storm would go on to cause up to $100 million of damage, less than half of which would later be repaid by federal and state relief funds (Wikipedia,
Public health disasters happen more than we might hear about since they are usually kept pretty well contained by any means possible. Occasionally, they cannot be and they spread like wildfire. The Love Canal Tragedy that took place in Niagara Falls, NY, is just one example of a public health disaster that affected hundreds of people and even forced them to abandon their homes. What started out as a dream of Mr. William T. Love, a dream of a model city fueled by power generated from digging a canal between the upper and lower Niagara Rivers, eventually turned into a nightmare for so many people (Beck, 2016).
The blackout originated in an area around the Ontario- New York border, at the Niagara generating station. Like any other ordinary generation station in the 1950’s, it held many strongly interconnected generators. The location of the facility played a big role in the areas that were affected by the blackout. Certain areas throughout New York, Ontario, most of New England, and parts of New Jersey and Pennsylvania lost their power. These areas were made up of the Ontario Hydro System, St Lawrence-Oswego, Upstate New York, and New England systems (Handwerk). Within these areas, some small portions were left unaffected. Holyoke, Massachusetts, Hartford, Connecticut, Braintree, Massachusetts and Taunton, Massachusetts, Fairport, New York and Walden, New York had their own power plants, which operators disconnected from the grid which caused them not to lose power (U.S.). Exactly where the power was lost depended on whether or not the transmission lines for the electricity were connected to generators that were strongly interconnected with each other.