Communication Response To 9 / 11 And The Boston Marathon Disaster

The city had learned from the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and had done contingency planning in the event of another similar terrorist attack. It established a state of the art Emergency Operations Center. It was evident that training was provided to all departments and officials as to what the priority would be in the case of a disaster, which is public safety. The first thing that was done was to seal off the area to allow first responders to respond quickly and evacuate the public from the area. Even in the absence of communication with the Emergency Operations Center, department heads and key ranking personnel knew exactly what the priority was and acted accordingly. The city’s preparedness left little room for doubt as to who was in charge, with that being said, state and federal agencies were mainly in the role of supporting the city in the efforts of evacuating, rescue and recovery. The leadership provided by the mayor calmed the already shocked public and reassured them of their safety. “The three steps of crisis management are prevention, preparation and containment” (Starling, 2008, p.222). The city itself could not have done much about preventing the situation, but the city’s preparation was evident by their public administrator’s and employee’s quick decisive response. The containment was also accomplished by the city action of closing off the area and

In the Disaster in Franklin County simulation (Regents of the University of Minnesota [UMN], 2006), there were several key personnel in the incident command team. This concept is utilized in real disasters when the Public

Face-to-face communication is how firefighters knew where to go to save more people. Captain Alexander Whitaker states that most firefighters often still used radios instead of face-to-face communication as they put more trust in technology. At times, some radio communication was able to function properly and worked well during the attack. Not always did it happen though, medical staff often used radios to set up portable clinics for survivors coming out of the buildings in waves. Some communication was handled well through radio systems.

The various local, state, and federal emergency management systems of the United States suffered a crude awakening in the decade of the 2000s. Systems expected to hold up were put to the test and failed to prepare for disaster, mitigate the damage, and, in some instances, actually hampered responses in life-or-death situations. Worse, all failings were highlighted in an age of global communication and mass media, on display first whether a man-made incident like September 11th attacks or natural disaster like Hurricane Katrina. The decade found the complacent government failing to maintain modern emergency management practices, stimulating began a series of doctrinal upgrades and training improvements. Yet, no matter the bureaucracy, writings, or money thrown at a problem, the first responder to the incident has and will continue to influence the outcome. While the individual responder stands as the most important part of

Advances in communication technology give the crisis teams the ability to reach out to communities and rural areas using reverse phone calls and the emergency broadcast system. Traditional communication methods, such as television and radio, allows the crisis teams to distribute correct information and help reduce the effects of errors that can be communicated through news spread by word of mouth.

International terrorism has greatly impacted the role of first responders throughout the U.S., not only in terms of large scale events like the attacks on 9/11, but the role of the first responder has needed to adapt to the widely varying methods of attacks that have been employed. First responders may face threats from biological, chemical, and radiological weapons of mass destruction. First responder heroes of 9/11 are still dealing with injuries, illness, and even still dying from the effects of that terrorist attack. (ODMP, 2017). First

Emergency services face vast difficulties in the operations field when handling emergency situations, whether it comes from handling a minor accident to a catastrophic catastrophy. Many of the difficulties do not come from the actual incident, but instead they arise from forming a rescue team containing different agencies and people. For the benefit off all individuals participating, it is imperative that there be a unified command structure in place to effectively coordinate and oversee the tasks that need to be accomplished. The need of a unified command was seen from the hardships faced in incidents, bringing forth the development of the Incident Command System that was designed to be used in an array of conditions, to bring all

Perhaps the most recognized terrorist attack on the United States was the World Trade Center attacks of September 11, 2011. The horrific events that unfolded as a result of these attacks will never be forgotten as well as the lessons learned by first responders. Tens of thousands of people were involved in rescue, recovery and clean-up work following the 9/11 World Trade Center (WTC) terrorist attacks. The diverse group of people who responded to this disaster included traditional first responders such as police officers, firefighters and emergency medical technicians, along with non-traditional responders such as construction workers, operating engineers and other volunteers, most of whom had no prior training in

According to American Police Beat, “the average response time for an emergency call is 10 minutes” (Women 's Self Defense Institute, 2014). When you think of the amount of time ten minutes actually is, you realize that that response time is not adequate. When it came to catastrophic situations like the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center and the elementary school shooting at Sandy Hook, the police weren’t as quick as they strived to be. After the first bombing at the World Trade Center occurred, New York City decided to set up an emergency management center, that way the police department and other first responders were able to communicate and join forces in case this type of situation were to happen again. However, this was not as successful as they had hoped when 9/11 happened. After 9/11 and other tragedies like it, the police have been trying to learn from their mistakes as much as possible that way they have a better outcome when problems like this arise again in the future. Police are continuing to train to make their response time quicker, to ensure police readiness and to strategize with other federal, state and local law enforcement agencies to make the outcome better. One situation that law enforcement put their training and knowledge to the test was at the Boston Marathon bombings. The Boston Marathon took place on April 15, 2013 in Boston, Massachusetts. A few hours after the first people crossed the finish line, the first

In everyday life communication is one of the most important aspects to receiving information. The information is not just verbal but reading or visual as well. Every morning we wake up and turn on the tv or sit down and read the newspaper. We begin to absorb the information and this continues throughout the day. The fire service no different. We rely on good communication to get our message across. Although, sometimes we fail to effectively use our communications well. This is not only at the company level, but as well in informing the public. I was once told, "information is power" and I certainly agree. Although, the key is to have effective and accurate information. Within the Incident Command System among the Command Staff rests a very

As the Disaster Coordinator for the city I am responsible for ensuring the public safety and welfare of the citizens within the city's jurisdiction. This requires me to have a full understanding on my role and responsibilities for managing disaster response and employing resources in order to save lives, protect property, the environment. Additionally I’m tasked to preserve the less tangible but equally important social, economic and political structures. My first reaction was to alert the regional Joint Terrorism Task Force to prepare them for possible activation. Next it is vital to gain situational awareness and develop a Common Operating Picture (COP). This COP is the who, what, where, when and how as it relates to the incident. Situational awareness starts at the incident site and includes continuous monitoring of reporting channels to gain

Today, the Incident Command System (ICS) is a major component of NIMS and is widely used in emergency management response. However, this was not always the case. According to David A. McEntire and Gregg Dawson, authors of the article, “The intergovernmental Context,” ICS was originally developed by the fire service in 1970. Its purpose was to assist in the command of wildfire events. It was unique because it standardized operations, yet offered flexibility so that it could be used on any number of events, regardless of size or type (McEntire & Dawson, 2007, p. 63).

Today’s technology has enabled communication to various parts of the world a 24-hour service, which means that, in any emergency response circumstance, there will always be a continuous claim for information (Haddow & Haddow, 2013).

* In The missing piece of NIMS: Teaching incident commanders how to function in the edge of Chaos, the author notes that first responders have to deal with a disaster situation already unfolding, and not “all the pieces fit together nicely.” The author writes about the Five Tenets of Working in Chaos.

This emergence of social media has also changed emergency management and disaster response. Emergency management as a whole is fairly new, only creating widely recognized, integrated emergency management systems beginning in the 1970s. Furthermore, at this same time people realized that the effects disasters have on the communities they strike can be mitigated by the creation of disaster plans ahead of time, proper disaster response training, and the efforts of human actions in these situations. Because social media has enabled mass amounts of instant information sharing, it allows not only locals and disaster response teams to help with the management of crises, but also many remote citizens.