Narrative Effective emergency management is achieved when three key elements of the emergency management system are executed. These elements are preparedness, mitigation, and response to natural and man-made emergencies. Furthermore, there are several critical events that must occur to deliver effective emergency management. The material discussed in week six of this course highlighted the most important aspects to the delivery of effective emergency management before and after a disaster event.
Successful emergency management practices begin with emergency preparedness. Regardless of the level of government or the type of disaster that a community is impacted by, preparation and planning are paramount. Emergency managers and government
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The steps in order are: form a collaborative planning team, understand the situation, determine the goals and objectives, plan development, plan preparation/review/approval, and plan implementation/maintenance (FEMA). Step one focuses on identifying the planning team and engaging the community in planning (FEMA). Step two identifies threats and hazards while assessing the risks associated with them (FEMA). Step three determines the operational priorities and sets forth concrete objectives and goals (FEMA). Step four analyzes courses of actions and identifies resources, information, and intelligence needs (FEMA). Step five is the formal creation of a written plan that will be presented for approval (FEMA). Finally, step six is carrying out the final plans and monitoring their effectiveness and improving them when necessary (FEMA). The reoccurring theme in disaster preparedness is communication. FEMA’s planning process is exhaustive and is meant to have a reaction to every possible issue that may arise in the aftermath of any disaster. This preparation is entirely dependent upon how well communities and government officials communicate with one another before an emergency ever …show more content…
Government officials at all levels should have continuity of operations (COOP) plans in place that can be activated immediately following a disaster event. COOP plans are defined as an effort with businesses and government agencies that ensures the continued performance of essential functions during a wide range of potential emergencies (PublicResourceOrg). Incident response under COOP should provide plans for alternative facilities, additional personnel, resource allocation, interoperable communication, and vital records collection (PublicResourceOrg). Moreover, COOP is designed to ensure safety of all those involved, continue operational functionality, protect assets, minimize damage, survival of leadership positions, and administer response and recovery to those impacted by a disaster (PublicResourceOrg). Overall, response planning when comparing natural disasters and attacks using weapons of mass destruction (WMD) are similar. Notwithstanding, WMD’s elicit a heavier law enforcement response, especially from a federal level, because these attacks are deemed federal crimes (PublicResourceOrg). Additionally, natural disasters provide some level of warning compared to the use of WMD’s which are labeled no-notice events. However, similar response action plans are initiated in response to natural and man-made disaster
The National response plan outlines four key actions the disaster coordinator should take. They are gaining and maintaining situational awareness, activate and deploy key resources and capabilities, coordinating response actions and demobilizing. Throughout the response it is essential that responders have access to critical information. During the initial response effort the situation is will change rapidly. Situational awareness starts at the incident site. For this reason it is essential that decision makers have access to the right information at the right time. By establishing an Emergency Operations Center (EOC) all key responders are brought ...
Both man-made and natural disasters are often devastating, resource draining and disruptive. Having a basic plan ready for these types of disaster events is key to the success of executing and implementing, as well as assessing the aftermath. There are many different ways to create an emergency operations plan (EOP) to encompass a natural and/or man-made disaster, including following the six stage planning process, collection of information, and identification of threats and hazards. The most important aspect of the US emergency management system in preparing for, mitigating, and responding to man-made and natural disasters is the creation, implementation and assessment of a community’s EOP.
Haddow, G. D., Bullock, J. A., & Coppola, D. P. (2014). The disciplines of emergency management: Preparedness. Introduction to emergency management (Fifth ed., ). Waltham: Elsevier.
Bissell, R. (2010). Catastrophic Readiness and Response Course, Session 6 – Social and Economic Issues. Accessed at http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/edu/crr.asp
The CPP is inherently different from traditional models developed by federal entities in several ways, the most important being that it is a “bottom-up” planning method as dictated by one of the directives of the Act of 2007. FEMA was asked to partner with State, local and tribal governments, emergency responders, the private sector, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in addition to other federal agencies typically involved with disaster preparedness, response and recovery efforts. Most FEMA and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) systems and methods in the past have been driven from the “top down”, such as the Incident Command System (ICS) and the National Incident Management Systems (NIMS) and have focused on the structure of command and control rather than coordinated partnerships (Ruback et al., 2010). Another significant directive of the Act of 2007 is the specific focus on preparedness for catastrophic events rather than disasters, which are more regional in scope.
Emergency Management has always been an important role in government, communities, and some organizations when dealing with planning and response to emergencies and disasters. However, since the September 11th attacks and other terrorist attacks on United States soil such as the Oklahoma City bombing, or the Boston terror attack, emergency management now has a more active and upfront role. Planning for terrorist attacks is no longer if but when.
Perry, R. W., & Lindell, M. K. (2007). Disaster Response. In W. L. Waugh, & K. Tiernery, Emergency Management: Principles and Practice for Local Government (pp. 162-163). Washington D.C.: International City/County Management Association.
Haddow, G. D., Bullock, J. A., & Coppola, D. P. (2010).Introduction to emergency management. (4th ed., pp. 1-26). Burlington, MA: Butterworth-Heinemann.
Bibliography Kutner, M. (1999). Disaster Recovery Journal. The Contingency Planner, <http://www.drj.com/drworld/content/w4_002.htm> Lerbinger, O. (1997). The Crisis Manager. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
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.
Background Emergency management, also known as EM, is the function of government charged with creating the framework to cope with disasters and reduce the vulnerability of hazards . To accomplish this mission, DHS has created an emergency management cycle – a series of pillars used as an outline to handle disaster scenarios. The cycle is as follows: preparation, prevention, response, recovery and mitigation. Hypothetical Disaster A strong, category five hurricane is headed toward the gulf coast of Alabama and Florida.
In order to prepare for a disaster, there are some specific steps that need to be taken to ensure that the least amount of preventable damage and distress is caused. This type of preparation is typically referred to as a disaster plan. In module one, we learned the different components of a disaster plan and why they are all necessary in order to handle a disaster in the best measurable manner. We also learned that when disaster plans are not implemented fully and accurately, how detrimental the outcome can be as the tsunami in 2004 exemplified.
With the advent of the electronic age of the Twenty First century, emergency risk communication faces new and ever-evolving challenges. Broad societal developments, biomedical revolution, the increased movement of people and goods, and varying levels of public trust in government are all associated with the increasing challenges emergency communicators have to overcome. Emergency Risk Communications is listed as one of the eight core capacities by the World Health Organization needed for detecting and responding to public health threats (Savoia, Lin, & Gamgewage, 2017). Risk communication focuses on communicating disaster preparedness information and mitigation strategies to the public before an event occurs to help minimize the damage and effects. Proper communication involves truthfulness, dealing with the news media, planning, and evaluation.
The first aspect ensures that plans are in place to prevent emergency cases. The first element of the duty requires the maintenance of strategies within a short period before an emergency happens. The prevention aspect strategy ensures when an emergency happens; the BCM can perform various functions to prevent the emergency. In other terms, prevention points out to the BCM’s works in ways that prevent an emergency that is threatening or predictable (Seeger, 2003). The second aspect constitutes of the maintenance of the plans in reducing and mitigating the consequences of an emergency.
Of the four phases of emergency management, mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery, perhaps the place that individuals can make the biggest difference in their own state of resiliency and survival of a disaster is in the preparedness phase. Being prepared before a disaster strikes makes sense yet many people fail to take even simple, precautionary steps to reduce the consequences of destruction and mayhem produced by natural events such as earthquakes, volcanos and tornados (see Paton et al, 2001, Mileti and Peek, 2002; Tierney, 1993, Tierney et al, 2001).