Hurricane Harvey Case Study

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Recommended: Recovering from natural disasters

Dan Shelor, Fire Chief, is in-charge of the Champion Emergency Services District in the Harris County, City of Houston, Texas. Chief Shelor shared his experience and lessons learned from hurricane Harvey of August 25, 2017.

Hurricane Harvey, Category 4 with 120 miles per hour winds, caused catastrophic flooding across the Harris County. In general, hurricane Harvey brought record rain that devastated parts of south Texas and Louisiana, and buried the region in 27 trillion gallons of rainwater. Overwhelmingly, the death and damages incurred by hurricane Harvey included, at least 82 deaths, $180 billion damages in disrupted local economies and caused billions of dollars in property. By a prudent risk assessment, hurricane Harvey presented chaos …show more content…

(Nieto-Gomez, power of the few) To that end, the amoral FEMA’s phenomenon, trend, and “insights for strategic foresight initiative (SFI)” has already emerged. (Crisis Response and Disaster Resilience 2030: Forging Strategic Action in an Age of Uncertainty ---, January 2012) Holistically to break the monotony of failures or barriers to effective management of chaotic catastrophes, the future emergency managers must diligently acquire a unique leadership skills and abilities to impel creative and innovative “thinking outside the box.” (A Leader’s Framework for Decision Making by David J. Snowden and Mary E. Boone. PP 7, …show more content…

have already exploited the chaotic domain that were laced with tech-no-fix: high/low/no-tech communication framework. On a large scale, the leaders with the pattern-based quality values are required to swiftly reduce a chaotic crisis to the complex domain; contain and mitigate, and finally recover from it. This is the only way to achieve maximum survivor outcomes. (David J. Snowden and Mary E.

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