Disaster Amanda Ripley Analysis

When I lived in Los Angeles during high school, me and my neighbor Brandon would frequently take the Metro train to get to school. While we waited on the platform for the train to come, we would occasionally hear the automated intercom announcement say, “In case of an emergency, do not hesitate to locate the nearest emergency phones or Metro sheriff.” This recurring message was often ignored by not only us. Who seemed to also disregard the monotone voice were other passengers who either were occupied with other things or had earphones in and simply did not hear it. The problem with this is, if an emergency or disaster happened at that moment, how many of us would know the right way to react? If there was a fire, we wouldn’t know how to properly engage in saving ourselves. Unfortunately, the only warning us everyday citizens were given was to call officials. There were no specific instructions on what we could do in case an emergency arises at the train station. In Amanda Ripley’s The Unthinkable, she covers disasters when they happen and how humans that are involved respond to them. Ripley argues that when someone is involved in a disaster, they experience human responses such as being in denial or delaying proper reactions. Because we can not control the brain and our irrational thoughts tend to obscure us, we should raise more awareness of likely disasters and train regular citizens accordingly.

Since the 1900s, the field of crisis intervention has developed concepts and practices that focus on civilian populations and individuals exposed to harmful situations such as the military. Moreover, disaster mental health that targets first responders is a field of practice that has developed during the same period. The development of this field of crisis intervention that targets first responders was influenced by various factors i.e. the realization of occupational risk these individuals are exposed to, emergence of critical incident stress management, and the increase in global terrorism (Castellano & Plionis, 2006, p.327).

Role of Public Health Personnel 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

Phases of Disaster 11 1 Disaster Response Planning & Preparedness: PHASES OF DISASTER BY JACK HERRMANN and Dentistry and Director of the Program in Disaster Mental Health in the Department of Psychiatry and the UR Center for Disaster Medicine and Emergency Preparedness. For over a decade, he has responded to numerous national disasters as a volunteer with the American Red Cross. He has also developed comprehensive disaster mental health training programs for the New York State Office of Mental Health and the New York State Department of Health currently being disseminated throughout every county, state psychiatric center and acute healthcare facility throughout New York State.

Another reason the majority are not in readiness of an emergency situation is because, as Dennis Mileti stated, “ Individuals underperceive risk” (Ripley 43). As a person who has been studying ways to warn people of disasters for over 30 years, Mileti believes that we tend to discount low probability, high consequence events. When we think of a disaster, the routine thought is to assume that the probability is so low that it could never possibly happen to us. “Not this plane ride, not this drive, not this time” is what we tell ourselves, making us doubt the high risk situation. In Chapter 2 of Ripley’s book, she recounts an interview that she did with the daughter of a man who underestimated the power of Hurricane Katrina. The 85 year old man, Patrick Turner, had survived the past two hurricanes that hit Louisiana before Katrina did (Ripley 24). When he heard of the arrival of Hurricane Katrina, he did not take it as serious as he should have because the warnings the government gave about this tsunami were the same as the last two and the last two hurricanes ended up not being that bad. Before the last hurricane, Turner spent over 10 hours on the road evacuating only to find out that it was not severe. Because of the wrong preparation

The business community/ Supporters and benefactors of the service The community has a great deal of influence on the area’s values, including the appropriate methods of delivering care to survivors and living victims (Alexander 1993). Moreover, the business community’s ability to restart operation can change the perspective of the public as they can either see the entire locality being handicapped by the incident or their ability to recover and function effectively as a whole. Thus, when the general public experiences panic, the experience can further be applied to economic behavior connected with the operations of businesses (Alexander 1993).

Top Three Disasters According to Grand Canyon University (2011), disaster preparation can be a high stress activity. One reason for this is the fact that there are many disasters to take into consideration during planning. Some disasters are unique to geographic areas, such as hurricanes, and tornadoes. Yet, other disasters occur regardless of geography such as fires, or pandemic outbreaks (Grand Canyon University, 2011).

Moving forward to the 20th century, the 1979 film Alien and 1986 film Aliens depicts a very different hero to the ancient heroes like Achilles and Aeneas. Though there is a significant amount of variation in modern day heroes now than there was in the time of Homer and Virgil, these heroes are accepted for their character flaws as it makes them much more relatable to the modern audience, much like what Virgil was trying to do with Aeneas. Ellen Ripley, as introduced in Alien and seen in the , is a warrant officer on-board the spacecraft Nostromo, a commercial towing ship. Immediately, we see this person as being completely ordinary and would have lived a completely normal life if it weren't for the events to come later in the film. In fact, at first she seems like a side character. It is when the Alien is introduced into the narrative that she

Activity 3.4 - Essay on Rand's Ideas Using "The Ethics of Emergencies" by Ayn Rand (pp. 215-218), develop an essay between 2 to 3 pages discussing her ideas in today's moral environment. Provide one other reference in addition to our text. The Ethics of Emergencies describes how some people base their ethical

In emergency situations people act the way they do depending on how sever they think that the emergency is. For example if the emergency is really tragic then people could do irrational things because they are in shock or panicking. Also people usually panic and only think for their own survival not others in an emergency such as 9/11. People only want to get out of the building and away from the emergency because then they know that they are safe and not in harm’s way anymore. In the article Simplexity by Jeffery Kluger he points out how people can act like water particles in emergency situations.

This story is about a mouse, Abel and his wife, Amanda who lives in Mossville. They both went on a picnic on a faithful day and their day was ruined by a fierce rainstorm. As they were both running for their dear life, the wind blew Amanda’s scarf away. Abel decided to run after the scarf in order to retrieve it but he got swept away by the heavy wind into an island far away from home and all efforts to retrieve his way back home proved abortive. Abel became stranded in the Island, does not have any choice rather than to be patient and look for ways of survival in this lonely island. Abel was by himself for a while and then came the opportunity to return home after the water had dropped sufficiently for him to be able to swim across the river

I begin my emergency evacuation plan by asking myself what I would do and what might be the imaginable effect on my home and family and gadget suitable reactions.

Challenges in interpretation of Disaster recovery theories into practice In an attempt to interpret the vulnerability theory, there are several challenges that I identify such as: the vulnerability theory states that in the process of recovering from a disaster, the most life threatening situations must be the first priority. You may realize that is a basic requirement, but it may not be applicable in real life situations. An issue at hand, may be more demanding and require immediate attention As far as the theory states of the safety precautions that should be observed in the recovery process, sometimes one is compelled by the situation at hand to ignore the risk factors.

Community Emergency Preparedness and Response Paper University of Phoenix NUR/ 408 Kimberly Oatman Community Emergency Preparedness and Response Paper Risk for disasters is a part of life; emergency situations occur more frequently than many people believe. A wise person plans for the worse, and hopes for the best. After a disaster, how well a

Zyy06mku SWK Psychological Consequences of Earthquakes Natural disasters, such as earthquakes, hurricanes and cyclones, floods, and tornadoes are some of the traumatic experiences that may cause posttraumatic stress disorders. This type of disorders and other disaster related psychological problems are prevalent after natural disasters. As a result it is important to analyse those individuals that develop psychological problems especially to prepare and plan interventions both in the short and long term after disaster (Coşkun, Coşkun, 2000, p: 68). Earthquakes have quickly become one of the most highlighted natural disasters. Unlike other natural disasters, earthquakes occur without warning, the