Disaster Management Of Risky Locations

The differing needs of a vulnerable population have to be addressed in order to alleviate issues that were noted after Katrina. In particular, the needs which are known prior to a disaster, such as evacuation for the infirmed, elderly, impoverished, and those who lack the means to evacuate. The Department of Homeland Security represented a solution to addressing these needs via a three phase response: “pre-event planning and preparation, the event, and recovery” (Dept. Homeland Security, 2008). It has been widely studied that residents of a vulnerable community may be impacted more severely and are disproportionately affected than those with means following a disaster. Assessing how to prepare for each of the phases represents an issue for emergency managers especially when it comes to those who lack the means to prepare for themselves. Quickly rebuilding homes in a devastated area won’t help a community when a disaster strikes again. Platt stated that “disasters offer a window of opportunity to strengthen communities”, via “construction and change land uses to prevent a recurrence of a disaster”. (Platt, 1998) It also can be argued that following a disastrous event, this is when a true opportunity arises, by providing an opportunity to work through solving the societal issues that are the basis for a vulnerable populous via comprehensive political reforms and

Disasters are totalizing events, impacting and influencing every aspect of a community when they occur. As the anthropology of disaster grows, both in the number of publications and the number of researchers, the scope of topics related to disasters will also grow. Economic implications, vulnerable populations, and human ecology already contribute heavily to the

When a disaster hits an area it does not discriminate on where it hits or who is affected. When it comes to effective emergency management it is important that managers take into account certain preimpact conditions in order to properly prepare, mitigate, respond and recover from a disaster regardless of the magnitude. One preimpact condition that is important to consider is the Social Vulnerability. Social vulnerability is important because it assesses the resilience of communities and how disasters or external stressors can impact them (Lindell et al, 2006, pg. 153). It is important for emergency personnel to understand the social vulnerability of a community in order to alleviate the amount of human suffering and economic loss that can occur post disaster.

The objective of this study is to become more sensitized and knowledgeable about preparations, impact, and response to disaster. Recommendations for improvement will be made. If one will, then imagine for a moment the condition of one who is, following a major weather-related disaster, homeless, wet, cold, hungry, tired, hungry and scared having lost possessions and nearly one's life. Upon applying for assistance from FEMA, those applying are instructed to access FEMA online for assistance. Consider that there is no power and will not be for days and possibly weeks and even if there were, one cannot return home to use their computer because it is flooded or washed away by the sea. This is just one example of the horrors that were suffered by victims of Hurricane Sandy along the north-eastern U.S. coast most recently. This is an example of a poor and cold response to individuals who are in real and dire need. It is reported in the work of Reynolds (2012) "After Sandy struck, some areas did worse than others, and FEMA as with Katrina got bad press. Manhattan was hit hard, but the outer boroughs suffered more. Staten Island residents say they were forgotten by relief efforts and one press report called the island "a giant mud puddle of dead dreams." (p.1) The problem is however, how to reach the masses who are scattered and dispersed in all direction following such an event as a Hurricane. This same problem was experienced by FEMA during the aftermath of

The term social vulnerability is defined as the threat to a community’s ability to cope with an emergency or disaster (Lindell, Prater, Perry, & Nicholson, 2006, p. 153). This threat level can vary between community segments as well as through each phase of the emergency management process. First, within the pre-impact condition scope, social vulnerability is not much different the definition of the term itself. It is the ability for communities to anticipate, cope, mitigate, and recover from an incident prior to the incident occurring (Lindell et al., 2006, p. 155). However, it is important to note this factor level changes from community to community, household to household, and based on location to hazard-prone areas which make it difficult to determine who may be impacted due to the unequal distribution of vulnerability. Next, within the incident event condition scope, emergency managers could see a wide variety of social impacts (psychosocial, demographic, economic, and political). Though not considered to be long-term, psychosocial impacts could prompt citizens to respond with fatigue, nausea, and/or inability to concentrate in the face of disaster (Lindell, Perry, & Perry, 2007, p. 164). In addition, disaster events cause people to leave the area for temporary shelter. This is only temporary however, communities could experience demographic

In this text, Dr. Jorn Birkmann takes an in-depth look at the interaction between society and natural hazards. Birkmann explores, among other things, the concept of vulnerability and how it relates to calamity. There is a focus on how the knowledge of particular natural hazard can be combined with information regarding the vulnerability of a society before a disaster to reduce risk. Overall, this text will provide me with relevant information on the complex interactions between natural hazards and society.

According to UNISDR (2009), disaster can be defined as “a serious disruption of the functioning of a community or a society involving widespread human, material, economic or environmental losses and impacts, which exceeds the ability of the affected community or society to cope using its own resources.” Disaster risk is the combination of likelihood of a catastrophic event occurring; the exposure to the affected areas; and vulnerability of the affected communities or country (Global Reinsurance Forum, 2014). The impacts of disaster risk include not only loss of life and physical damages but also increase the potential outbreak of secondary hazards such as diseases and negative effect on physical, mental and social wellbeing of human being, services, social, economic and environment sectors. Disaster risk management include avoiding or mitigating the potential of hazard occurrence and exposure and reducing the vulnerability level by strengthening the tangible and intangible capacities.

332); Due to this immense percentage, a greater portion of the inhabitants were vulnerable to the disastrous scenario due to unsuitable living conditions among multiple other factors. Several of these issues vary from mitigation techniques, economic effects, and social order. In addition, this storm system highlighted the aspects that need development and serves as an ideal example of how the sociopolitical-ecology theory can affect populations in a post-disaster scenario.

The weather has caused a lot of disaster and loss of life’s. Due to these situations many people

Various disasters throughout the Nation remain a great threat to our communities. In most cases, many of these disasters catch first responders and emergency managers off guard, and create disruption in the lives and livelihood of individuals, their families, and communities. In this paper, I provide an example and description of the three categories of disasters: natural disaster, accidental human-made disaster, and deliberate human-made disaster. Additionally, I discuss psychological effects of disasters and the differences that distinguish each disaster from each other. Lastly, I conclude with future recommendations for emergency management as it pertains to the three disasters.

In the United States there are 35 million homes that are at risk of being affected by a natural disaster.() These natural disasters are responsible for $6.6 trillion in property damage.() A city in the United States with a very hish risk of being affected by a natural disaster is Fayetteville, North Carolina. Here there is a risk of wildfires, hurricanes, and tornadoes.() A big problem caused by these storms is the loss of electricity. Without electricity people are left without light and are also not able to cook food. If a natural disaster is expected to happen people should stock up on emergency food that won’t spoil and a big water supply. () Unfortunatley, about 70% of people in Unites States are not prepared to deal with a big storm.() If a person is not prepared for an emergency, cooking food will be difficult if there is no electricity, grill,

He has the Interregional Civil Security Operational Co-ordination Centre (COZ) at his disposal in fulfilling this task.

In the past few decades, natural disasters, like earthquakes, hurricanes, and tsunamis, have significantly affected more people in the world due to an increase in population size. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the world’s population grew from 2.5 billion to 6.3 billion since 1950, and increasing globalization has directly affected how these individuals are affected by the natural disasters that occur in their respective cities. The most important factor in the way these disasters affect individuals is how both local and national governments respond to them. Funding for reconstruction and security thinking is what provides the direst care for individuals who are forced to endure these natural disasters. Most commonly, it is women

As the Marxist approach puts it, “underlying states of human marginalisation are conceived as the principle cause of disaster.” (Pelling, 2001, p. 179). This resource exclusion to particular categories of people within society creates their vulnerability to risk, and in turn disaster. McLaughlin and Dietz (2007) suggest there are three dimensions that make up vulnerability including exposure, sensitivity and resilience. An example displaying the vulnerability of lower classed social categories is in North Bihar, India, where floods have been managed through engineering works to create embankments. While the Government appears to be reducing the hazard, this has increased the vulnerability of the local people. Soil fertility has decreased reducing agricultural success, dangerous flash floods are occurring due to embankment walls collapsing and communities have settled on apparently safe embankments and are now highly exposed (Pelling, 2001). The natural flood hazard was dangerous, but these works by society have created a natural disaster (Pelling, 2001). Power inequalities have created this disastrous situation where lower classes are at high exposure to floods due to profit hungry management bodies. This technological approach is clearly failing but the Government and other managing groups make large profits off flood engineering works and have the power to decide how to control the issue (Pelling, 2001). This has resulted in creating

On August 29, 2009, Hurricane Katrina struck the United States Gulf Coast. It was a Category 3 Hurricane, according to the Saffir Simpson Scale. Winds gusted to up to 140 miles per hour, and the hurricane was almost 400 miles wide . The storm itself did a tremendous amount of damage, but the storm’s aftermath was cataclysmic. Many claimed that the federal government was slow to meet the needs of the hundreds of thousands of people affected by the storm. This paper will examine the four elements of disaster management – preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation – as well as an analysis on the data presented.