Essay on Disaster Preparedness is for Everyone

Tragic events that cause damage to property and life may destroy the social, cultural and economic life of a community. Communities must be engaged in the various phases from prevention to recovery to build disaster resilient communities. In order to do this, there must be a disaster preparedness plan in place that involves multiple people in various roles.

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.

One method to determine disaster risk prioritization is to conduct risk and vulnerability assessments (Kapucu & Özerdem, 2013). Secondly, surveys can be given to citizens to determine how knowledgeable they are about what to do if a disaster was to occur. This could be crucial in disaster risk prioritization because if there is a noticeable disconnect in what to do should a disaster

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.

Natural disaster threats accompany people practically everywhere and often people are unaware of the fact that one day the disaster may strike and change their life drastically, such as the ones that can occur in Huskietown. In such a situation, it is important to get prepared for potential disasters and know how to act and behave in different situations. To make it clearer, it is necessary to have a clear plan of action in case of a disaster and, what is not less important, it is necessary to clearly understand what real natural disasters can really occur in the given area. In such a way, it is obvious that in order to come prepared to a disaster it is necessary to know as much information about the disaster itself, its effects

Within the first chapter of Crisis & Emergency Risk Communication (2001), there were many things that caught my attention. Prior to the reading, I hadn’t thought about how different disaster preparedness would affect the elderly population, and how much consideration and planning is needed for them compared to the general population. I also wasn’t aware that such a high percentage of the elderly population developed chronic diseases. It would, however, make sense for the elderly population to require different treatment for these chronic diseases, and have different reactions to these diseases than the rest of the general population (Crisis & Emergency Risk Communication, 2014).

There have been times when government agencies have not been able to assist those in need during an event, and if the public is aware of the needs of the community they may be able to contribute and assist during disaster. Having the community involved in preparedness is essential in the “success in achieving resilience and national preparedness” (DHS 2013).

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.

Protecting the public’s health historically has been a state and local responsibility. However, the growing threat of bioterrorism has highlighted the importance of a strong public health infrastructure to the nation’s homeland security and has focused increased attention on the preparedness of the public health system (Frist, 2011). Since the 2001 anthrax attacks Congress has passed new legislation to increase the strength of the nation’s public health system thus the funding has also rapidly increased to meet the potential demand. There is an ongoing debate however, as to what level of contribution local, state, and federal agency’s feel is an appropriate level of ongoing public health investments.

Security measures to be input into the firm to boost disaster recovery process include establishing firm registry in bomb proof vaults that will shield the firm’s documents and data from disasters such as terrorist attacks. Such will ensure that the records of the firm are not tampered with and as such the company is able to run business without fundamental data loss (Menken and Blokdjik, 2010).

Actions taken to minimize adverse impact of disasters. These including structural measures like building of flood defences and non-structural measures like training etcetera. Public awareness related to disaster risk reduction, contribute in promoting a "culture of prevention" by changing attitudes. It revolves around civil institutions responsible to prevent disasters.

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.

Disaster Recovery Planning is the critical factor that can prevent headaches or nightmares experienced by an organization in times of disaster. Having a disaster recovery plan marks the difference between organizations that can successfully manage crises with minimal cost, effort and with maximum speed, and those organizations that cannot. By having back-up plans, not only for equipment and network recovery, but also detailed disaster recovery plans that precisely outline what steps each person involved in recovery efforts should undertake, an organization can improve their recovery time and minimize the disrupted time for their normal business functions. Thus it is essential that disaster recovery plans are carefully laid

In a new form of protection and communication, social media is the main thing that everything is using in today’s times. Marketing employees have positions as titled as social media directors. Companies have people watching and monitoring everything that happens with their social media reputation all hours of the day everyday. Young people are seeing the power of social media everyday with teachers demonstrating how fast a picture can be shared across the world. Social media is relatively new and could possibly open many gates for communication. This depends heavily on who is publishing information and news on social media. If news spreads fast on social media, then the use of it can be used for emergencies. If many people are

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 community can recover will depend largely on how well they prepared in advance. Risk management includes identifying any potential risks to a community and proactively planning to minimize the threat. Proactive organization of resources and people to respond to emergencies can mean the difference between a community’s ability to regroup and recover, and the loss of life. To better