Community Emergency Response Team ( Cert )

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

Having these plans in place give the Disaster Recovery team the instructions they need when disaster strikes

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

Editor’s Note: This Chapter is the continuation of an adaptation of a state plan for disaster preparation and response. In total, the original chapter comprises Chapters 1, 14, 16-18.

Natural and man-made disasters have increased in the past decade, and due to these changes, Emergency Managers had to make drastic changes in order to improve the way first responders operate in a disaster area.

Two specific areas of concern are noted in the majority of studies conducted. The first area of concern was that there was not a clear delineation of roles and responsibilities or organizational leaders (Haddow et al., 2014, p. 322). Since this event this has been an area that has shown considerable improvement. This has been accomplished through the use of NIMS and collaborative efforts of first responder leaders to craft an all hazards model of response. By doing both of these things, partner agencies are better able to fold into the rescue

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) coordinates the federal government's position in preparing for, preventing, mitigating the effects of, responding to, and recovering from all domestic disasters, whether natural or man-made, which now including acts of terror. FEMA leads and supports the nation in a risk-based, comprehensive emergency management system of preparedness, protection, response, recovery and mitigation. A key component of community preparedness and participation is the citizen. The CERT program strives to familiarize citizens with the facts about what to expect following a major disaster in their community and to deliver the message about their responsibility for mitigation and preparedness. CERT educates individuals

The disaster which hit the Maricopa County in the State of Arizona in September 2014 was a major disaster that necessitated the community preparedness for leading successful response and a prompt recovery. Besides emergency managers, many officials and the private are involved in the processes. Some of these stakeholders are public health, public safety, and municipal officials. Collaboration is needed for getting all those involved in the processes to interact accordingly. This paper addresses the major collaboration strengths between emergency responders, public health, public safety, and municipal officials to deliver accurate response and recovery during the event, the main weaknesses of the collaboration among all those that were involved in the efforts, and recommendations for improving the collaboration between the stakeholders.

Our world is complex there has always been and always will be disasters that can happen anywhere anytime. There can be natural disasters, for example floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, wild fires and drought. There are also man-made and technology types of disasters from hazardous material spills, biological weapons, cyber-attacks to even civil unrest. According to PEMA, the history of emergency management can date all the way back the first civil defense program which was started during World War I and later during World War II the office of civil defense (OCD) was created by Pres. Roosevelt. In the past emergency management, has always been event driven. With each new crisis that our nation has gone through, the reason for and the avenue in which to accomplish emergency management has changed. No more so than when the terrorist attacked on 9/11. The 9/11 commission report states that the Incident Command System is a “proven framework for emergency response” (911 CR). The incident command system is a proven framework for emergency response by providing clear leadership and organizational structure, improving the effectiveness of resource efforts, and maintaining safety for responders.

Disasters are human made or natural and occur sudden and unexpected. As disasters cannot be prevented, government has to be prepared for any emergency situation. According to Stanhope and Lancaster (2014), there are four stages in the disaster management: Prevention, Preparedness, Response and Recovery. According to Stanhope and Lancaster (2014, p 250), public health professionals study disaster effects on populations while American Red Cross work with local and other communities in preparedness, response and recovery phase of disaster.

The Department of Homeland Security sponsors a program called “Ready Business.” “DHS has adopted the National Fire Protection Association 1600 (NFPA 1600) as the American National Standard for developing a preparedness program” (Department of Homeland Security, 2015). FEMA spreads this strategy in efforts to establish effective emergency response preparedness from the businesses initially affected by disasters. This type of program is in place in hopes that it will alleviate a large amount of identified hazards associated

Additionally, the preparation phase covers all fundamentals of an incident response plan, reports interaction among basics, and increases to emergency response planning at some point in the life of an incident in order to develop the necessary trust relationships that will be fully exercised during the stress of a real crisis. According to Whitman (2012) “The Disaster Recovery Plan Similar in structure to the IR plan, the DR plan provides detailed guidance in the event of a disaster. It is organized by the type or nature of the disaster, and specifies recovery procedures during and after each type of disaster. It also provides details on the roles and responsibilities of the people involved in the disaster recovery effort, and identifies the personnel and agencies that must be notified. Just as the IR plan must be tested, so must the DR plan, using the same testing mechanisms.” (P. 231). Many of the same principles of incident response apply to disaster recovery such as fundamentals must be clearly established, roles and responsibilities must be visibly outlined, someone must initiate the alert schedule and notify key personnel, someone must have the responsibility of the documentation of the disaster and only if it is possible, attempts must be made to moderate the impact of the disaster on the operations of the organization.

When a crisis arises, we as professional counselors are always looking for new and creative ways to help respond to the needs of the clients we service that have been through a traumatic situation or crisis. Finding the right techniques or response plans that can help resolve the problems or crisis, is what we as professionals feel are important tools needed in creating a better environment for the healing process in addition to save lives. When creating crisis response plans, counselors have to make sure that the plans are equipped to handle any crisis that

Life is full of unexpected disasters as well as calculated ones. As a whole, society cannot account for all disasters that will occur nor can we successful eliminate the results of these disasters. That’s why in most advanced societies there are people in place to manage and or monitor natural disasters. These people are in charge of the planning process and execution of emergency management systems or operations. They are essentially the people responsible for ensuring that when a disaster whether natural or acts of fate occur the effect on the community or society as whole is minimal. The emergency manager or planner is to follow a strategic planning process that encompasses a variety of aspects including but not limited to a

The burden of emergency management has grown great deal in the last few decades. We have seen an increase in natural disasters, a new threat of terrorism on our front door and an increase in manmade disasters. All of these have tested emergency management in a number of cities and towns across the nation. It is not always disasters that present problems for emergency managers. We have to look beyond our traditional view of emergency management of helping us during times of disasters and view what issues they consider may affect their emergency response. Issues that emergency management see that are moving into the critical area are issues of urbanization and hazard exposure, the rising costs of disaster recovery, and low priority of emergency management.