Phases of Emergency Management

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Emergency Management

Emergency management is often described in terms of “phases,” using terms such as mitigate, prepare, respond and recover. The main purpose of this assignment is to examine the origins, underlying concepts, variations, limitations, and implications of the “phases of emergency management.” In this paper we will look at definitions and descriptions of each phase or component of emergency management, the importance of understanding interrelationships and responsibilities for each phase, some newer language and associated concepts (e.g., disaster resistance, sustainability, resilience, business continuity, risk management), and the diversity of research perspectives.

Emergency management has been described for the past three decades as a “four phase” process, involving:
• Mitigation;
• Preparedness;
• Response;
• Recover.

These terms have been widely used by policy makers, practitioners, trainers, educators, and researchers. As illustrated in Figure 1 the four phases are often described as part of a continuous process.

Sometimes one phase of the emergency management tends to overlap of adjacent phase. The concept of “phases” has been used since the 1930’s to help describe, examine, and understand disasters and to help organize the practice of emergency management. In an article titled Reconsidering the Phases of Disaster, David Neal cites different examples of different researchers using five, six, seven, and up to eight phases long before the four phases became the standard. (Neal 1997) This acknowledges that critical activities frequently cover more than one phase, and the boundaries between phases are seldom precise. Most sources also emphasize that important interrelationships exist among all the ph...

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...mmunities; and the many agencies responsible for our roads, wild lands and parks, housing, sewer and water infrastructure, social services, and so on. Without these partnerships and a system in place to coordinate mitigation activities, the efforts will be piecemeal and could miss critical components of the system.
In the end I would like to say that disasters are inevitable so the authorities should be prepare beforehand and when the disaster actually occurs the response should be fast and effective. There after the recovery from the loss occurred should be well planned and future planning should be done so that much better protection steps can prevent larger damage.

Reference:
• ACP - Association of Contingency Planners. 2007. BCP 101. http://www.acp-international.com/ know_bcp101.asp (October 1, 2009);
• onlinepubs.trb.org
• www.riskinstitute.org/peri/index.ph

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