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Five emergency management challenges
Today's emergency management
Today's emergency management
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Recommended: Five emergency management challenges
As explained by McKay,
Predicting the future is a tricky undertaking, but by looking at the recent past we can predict with relative certainty that these issues will come to the fore or continue to gain traction for the emergency management and public safety worlds…. Cutting the costs of recovery, assessing risk and communicating the way people prefer to communicate will continue to be key elements of managing natural and man-made disasters (para. 1).
The future of emergency management will be shaped by 1.) New technologies, 2.) The cost of disaster will be enormous and will exceed current budgets, 3.) Many in the emergency management field will be retiring and the new generation will bring different styles and new and different backgrounds
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The origin of emergency management was about reaction/response. In the beginning, the military was responsible. They concentrated on responding to wars or externally initiated attacks. The principal emphasis was managing post-event response, and little attention was given to preparation or optimization. Then, near the end of the Cold War, emergency management grew to be involved with or to include the consideration of natural and manmade events. The US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was founded in 1979, and during this time the four-phase cycle was …show more content…
Predictive analytics can run simulations to determine the outcomes of upgraded structures and planning. Flood mapping and geographic statistics systems can help in floodplain and insurance planning. During the preparedness phase, technologies enables numerous features of planned emergency drills to be automated, increasing the speed at which they can be run and decreasing the number of resources needed to complete an effective drill. Add to that, software and other technologies that will be able to assist in managing the planning and response, which would enable a faster assessment of current capabilities. In the response phase, I would take an educated guess and say the analytics we currently have will greatly improve which will assist in predicting the outcome for choosing the best response. Finally, technologies could bring about a more refined systems for evaluating the success of a response and forecasting the long-term recovery plan years
.... The lessons learned from the many events will provide an extensive knowledge base and benchmark that all emergency managers can draw from to better position citizens for survival of large scale evacuations and sheltering events.
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 ...
In 2003, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was rolled into the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. FEMA’s responsibilities are to prepare, protect, respond, and recover from diminish all hazards. There was a mass coverage about the failure for FEMA to act immediately to Katrina, but once they were able to get things organized such as giving food and water, and setting up the tent and shelters communities can be strong and move on.
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.
...rs and catastrophes. Other planning processes may address other scenarios or situations in better ways such as the Integrated Planning System approach also described by Ruback et al (2010) in FEMA’s Catastrophic Readiness and Response course, section 12.
Federal intervention in the aftermath of natural disasters began after the San Francisco earthquake in 1906. This 8.3 magnitude earthquake killed 478, and left over 250,000 homeless. While the disaster itself was obviously unavoidable, the subsequent fires that burned throughout the city were a result of poor planning. (1, 17) In an effort to consolidate existing programs, and to improve the nation’s level of preparedness, President Carter created FEMA in 1979. Initially, FEMA was praised for improving communication between various levels of government, and multiple agencies during a crisis. (1,19)
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.
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.
After receiving the grant, the Emergency Medical System (EMS) for Orange County came up with a comprehensive document that included the organization chart of the proposed implementations. The chart also covered the job descriptions of the staff to be involved in the new emergency management system (Autrey & Moss, 2006, p. 23). The HEICS system has a similar structure to the National Incident Management System structure, its standard procedures, and the terminology it uses. The design suits the management of several types of emergencies in the various hospitals based on the nature of the disaster at hand. The scope of the disasters covered by the structure includes external emergencies and disasters such as disease outbreaks, terrorism, or MCIs.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency is an organization of the United States Department of Homeland Security, initially formed by Presidential Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1978 and applied by two Executive Orders on April 1, 1979. The initial first response to a disaster is the job of local emergency services with the nearby help of the surrounding sources. A major disaster can be a result of tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, and floods. The event must be absolutely more than the state or local governments can handle alone. If confirmed, funding comes from the President's Disaster Relief Fund, managed by FEMA and the disaster aid programs of other joining federal agencies.
The Incident Command System (ICS) is a hierarchal system that enables the emergency personnel to appropriately manage an emergency scene to limit destruction property and loss of life. With the ever changing world comes ever changing emergencies; but how can a person manage a scene when they can’t predict what is going to happen? The ICS is flexible and allows scenarios ranging from large medical incidents to forest fires too be managed with a high degree of success (Badger et al.). Fires rage across the world daily, causing property damage and loss of life worldwide. The ICS is used on a daily basis, and continues to successfully manage any scenario that it encounters. In other countries, such as Australia, the ICS is nonexistent; the government control...
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.
The state CEMP describes the basic strategies, assumptions, operational objectives, and mechanisms through which the SERT will mobilize resources and conduct activities to guide and support local emergency management efforts through preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation. To facilitate effective operations, the CEMP adopts a functional approach that groups the types of assistance to be provided by the 18 Emergency Support Functions (ESFs). Each ESF is headed by a primary state agency selected based on its authorities, resources, and capabilities in that ESF’s functional area. The primary agency appoints an Emergency Coordination Officer (ECO) to manage the ESF’s function in the State Emergency Operations Center (SEOC). The ECOs and staff of the Division, other state agencies, and private volunteer organizations and non-governmental agencies form the SERT. The primary goal of emergency management in the State of Florida is to ensure readiness to respond to and recover from the many consequences that can be generated by a disaster, whether it is natural, technological or man-made. The State of Florida Enhanced Hazard Mitigation Plan, Section 3 (Hazard Assessment) contains a detailed risk assessment of
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).
The increase in unpredictable natural disasters events for a decade has led to put the disaster preparedness as a central issue in disaster management. Disaster preparedness reduces the risk of loss lives and injuries and increases a capacity for coping when hazard occurs. Considering the value of the preparatory behavior, governments, local, national and international institutions and non-government organizations made some efforts in promoting disaster preparedness. However, although a number of resources have been expended in an effort to promote behavioural preparedness, a common finding in research on natural disaster is that people fail to take preparation for such disaster events (Paton, 2005; Shaw 2004; Spittal, et.al, 2005; Tierney, 1993; Kenny, 2009; Kapucu, 2008; Coppola and Maloney, 2009). For example, the fact that nearly 91% of Americans live in a moderate to high risk of natural disasters, only 16% take a preparation for natural disaster (Ripley, 2006).