Case Study: Disaster Paid Volunteer Responder

Disaster is anything that can occur causing damages, an ecological disruption and deterioration of health and the health services. Disaster can be manmade or natural disasters such as floods. When disasters like flooding or tornadoes that may be accompanied by floods occur, the public health personnel and public health nurses are normally the first people who respond to the emergency, given that they are the people who understand and know the available resources used in providing first aids to the affected victims.

“Due to numerous regulations from FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security, training is now required for all disaster relief volunteers before they are allowed into a disaster area.” (How to become a Salvation Army volunteer) There are two ways to register as a disaster volunteer. The first way is to call a local Salvation Army, or register online at www.disaster.salvationarmyusa.org. At this website there is a complete list of the training classes offered by the Salvation Army and a calendar of upcoming

Organizations over the past few decades have come to realize two things, there are a limited number of people in the government that are able to respond to natural disasters or large scale disaster effectively and that the government only has so many available resources to offer during a time of crisis. Another fact is, that private sector companies and non-profit entities, such as the Red Cross, have the ability to be more prepared due to their vast network of stores and distribution centers and their leisure, they indeed do have a unique responsibility

This program is the Department of Homeland Security’s final priority to “plan, train, and equip police, fire, and paramedics to react successfully to terrorism; and promotes recovery with the assistance of disaster specialists.” (Homeland Security, 2015) One of the examples of disaster specialists that help assist in disasters like Hurricane Katrina is the Federal Emergency Management Agency also known as FEMA. FEMA helps communities with reducing their risk, helps its different agency officials prepare for all types of hazards, and also helps people in communities get back on their

Floods are common natural disasters that occur all over the world. Flooding has devastating impacts on the lives of people who are affected by the disaster. Floods can ruin crops, demolish homes, take innocent lives and cause many other types of hardships. These disasters can also leave people with a financial burden and emotional effects. Studies have shown that floods have led to various sickness and health complications. This common disaster has recently taken place in the state of Louisiana. Louisiana has been suffering from an enormous flood and has left people without homes, without food, and without personal belongings.

Natural disaster currently has become a large part of US economy, from tornadoes, fire, floods and hurricanes. These natural disasters have lead to death of people but also a billion dollar damage to several cities or states. According to National center of Environmental Information, in 2015 there were at least ten weather disasters that lead to property damages exceeding one billion dollar across United States. The natural disasters are found in many ways, the one most famous is Hurricane Katrina and another Hurricane Sandy. These two hurricanes are Atlantic hurricanes, Hurricane Katrina hit the Southern States and Hurricane Sandy hit near Atlantic City affecting many eastern States. Although the two hurricanes have occurred in separate years, yet they have caused a lot of damage in large cities leaving thousands of people without home. Furthermore due to these natural disasters has questioned the government how to prepare for natural disaster in near future. The hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Sandy are both consider Natural disaster that has lead to heavy damages but one has more devastating effect than the other.

CERTs are deployed progressively and as needs in the area dictate but members are taught to assess their own needs and those in their immediate environment first. Spontaneous volunteers, our neighbors and ordinary citizens, often arrive on-site at a disaster ready to help. Yet because they are not associated with any part of the existing emergency management response system, their offers of help are often underutilized. Specialized planning, information sharing, and a management structure are necessary to coordinate efforts and maximize the benefits of volunteer involvement. Emergency management experts are encouraged to identify and utilize all existing capacity for integrating unaffiliated volunteers. Some CERT teams are able to be deployed outside of the immediate area to assist other local governments during times of emergency. These teams must receive additional training in order to be able to be

Natural disasters affect thousands of lives each year, and have the potential to drastically alter a country/state and its people. Because of the destructive force Mother Nature can bring about, it is imperative to have mitigation plans set up in populated areas to protect people and reduce the structural damage to buildings, houses, etc. There are some mitigation plans, however, that have been unsuccessful, resulting in catastrophic disasters. Best examples of these are the Connecticut Flood of 1955 and Hurricane Katrina. Even though these are two different types of natural disasters; the level of destruction, preparedness, mitigation strategies, and the overall aftermaths had profound and lasting changes on the areas inflicted, mainly Connecticut and Louisiana.

A flood can be defined in many depths but is simply water where it isn’t wanted. In late 2010 Queensland was affected by major flash flooding this continued on into the beginning of 2011 and ¾ of Queensland was declared a disaster zone.

Disasters, whether natural or manmade, can happen anytime and anywhere, without warning. An earthquake, hurricane, tornado, fire, or hazardous material spill or even an act of terrorism can happen

It addresses procedures to coordinate volunteer and donations management activities, such as receiving, processing, and distributing large masses of donations in an emergency. Depending on the magnitude of a disaster, the Volunteer and Donations Management Unit may be active for several weeks. It should be noted that not all volunteers may be used during a disaster. The number of volunteers, who are deployed, depends on the size and type of disaster as well as the skills, needed to carry out response and recovery operations.

Looking at the first dilemma, I would present the volunteer opportunity to employees as a way to help give back to the community they work in. I would also try to approach union leadership to see if they wanted to collaborate with the company on the volunteer opportunity. If there was a lot of negative feedback about volunteering their personal time I would allow any one that volunteered the day off with pay to work at the retirement home. This would allow the company to say the employees volunteered their time and care about their social responsibility. A drawback to this plan may be a delay to work that had been going on at the plant due to the loss of a work day.

While natural disasters such as floods, drought and hurricanes are commonly thought to occur due to environmental forces such as weather, climate and tectonic movements; a deeper investigation into the ‘disaster’ displays other contributing forces. Human factors have a large, if not equal, contribution to the occurrance and outcome of such disasters (Pelling, 2001). As Pelling (2001) argues, there is both a physical and human dimension to ‘natural disasters’. The extent to which the natural occurrence of a physical process, such as a flood or earthquake, impacts on society is constructed by that society, creating a ‘disaster’ as measured by a

Natural disasters are anything from floods, earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires, or anything else nature could develop that causes massive amounts of damage, or cause a large losses of life. Such events are not anything caused because of human beings, but only by the actions of atmospheric conditions, or due to the changes of continental drifts that these disasters occur. Technology has come a long way since the early days before the industrial revolution where predictions can be made and warnings can be issued. This helps reduce the amount of possible loss of lives that would occur in 21st century. However, that is not what happened during Hurricane Katrina, a category 5 Hurricane.

A disaster is a highly disruptive event that causes suffering, hardship, injury, and even death (Anderson & McFarlane, 2015). A disaster can cause interruptions in businesses, and can cause partial or total destruction to infrastructure, such as homes or hospitals (Anderson & McFarlane, 2015). A disaster can cause downed power lines, loss of transportation, loss of food, and sanitation problems. Disasters are caused by naturally occurring events or man-made events. Examples of naturally occurring disasters are earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, and tornadoes. Man-made disasters are accidental, unintentional, or deliberately caused (Anderson & McFarlane, 2015). An accidental man-made disaster example would be a toxic spill, or a nuclear power plant event. A deliberately caused man-made disaster would be a terrorist attack, school violence, or a bombing. Certain types of natural disasters are more likely to occur in certain areas than others. For instance, areas along the coastline are more likely to experience a hurricane than areas more inland. Every place one can live is prone to having a natural disaster occur. Also, a man-made disaster can happen anywhere; no place is safe from the threat of terrorism. In my community of Mt. Lebanon, the biggest natural disaster that has happened was flooding. About fifteen years ago, Mt. Lebanon had a terroristic attack. The terroristic attack was a deliberate man-made disaster. A man went on a racially motivated crime spree, killing five