Disasters And Democracy By Rutherford H. Platt Essay

This paper is designed to show you the differences between the way conservatives and progressives view the federal role in emergency management. Furthermore, the advantages and disadvantages of each them. Also, we will discuss what you should expect as a practitioner of the profession on how to prepare yourself when you would like to switch from one to the other. Most importantly discuss the criteria of a natural disaster and how human and social perception factors inter play with each other. One question at hand is do we blame the victim? What does “blaming the victim” means? Is there any validity to this or not? Does this concept influence the way our society responds to disaster or any other event that may occur? These are some of

As Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma successively lashed the gulf coast starting in late August 2005, nature’s fury exposed serious weaknesses in the United States’ emergency response capabilities. Not all emergencies pose this magnitude of challenge. In the United States, the initial—and usually major—responsibility for disaster response rests with local authorities. This “bottom-up” system of emergency management has a long history and continues to make sense in most circumstances. Core Challenges for Large-Scale Disaster

In chapter 3, titled “Congress and the Agencies”, we learn of a few of the many laws, processes and agencies that have been created to better prepare the United States for a national emergency. Since the origins of the United States, the President has always been the lead on emergencies that required attention by the federal government, but the legislative and judicial branches of the government have become more and more involved in making sure that it is done constitutionally. One of the main reasons for this is because of the statutes that have been created because of the response to emergencies. These statutes have been separated into three separate categories.

The whole world observed as the administration responders appeared incapable to provide essential protection from the effects of nature. The deprived response results from a failure to accomplish a number of risk factors (Moynihan, 2009). The dangers of a major hurricane striking New Orleans had been measured, and there was sufficient warning of the threat of Katrina that announcements of emergency were made days in advance of landfall (Moynihan, 2009). Nonetheless, the responders were unsuccessful to change this information into a level of preparation suitable with the possibility of the approaching disaster. Federal responders failed to recognize the need to more actively engage (Moynihan, 2009). These improvements include improved ability to provide support to states and tribes ahead of a disaster; developed a national disaster recovery strategy to guide recovery efforts after major disasters and emergencies; and the Establishment of Incident Management Assistance Teams in which these full time, rapid response teams are able to deploy within two hours and arrive at an incident within 12 hours to support the local incident commander (FEMA,

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) would become the central point-of-contact within the national government in responding to incidents. Since formation in 1979, FEMA’s core missions were to enhance the government’s ability to survive a foreign attack, and to assist state and local authorities in disaster response (Carafano, 2005). And while the two core missions seem heterogenous in scope at times from an outside perspective, the biggest difference between the two tasks is duration. A man-made disaster may be over in a matter of minutes as compared to a hurricane lasting several days, but in both instances the road to recovery is long. In order to streamline response and recovery in either scenario, FEMA was reorganized with new directives to support comprehensive emergency management practices (CRS, 2006). Today, FEMA provides the standard approach and guidance that many local communities may not have due to funding, training, and

This chapter provides an overview that describes the basic types of hazards threatening the United States and provides definitions for some basic terms such as hazards, emergencies, and disasters. The chapter also provides a brief history of emergency management in the federal government and a general description of the current emergency management system—including the basic functions performed by local emergency managers. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the all-hazards approach and its implications for local emergency management.

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

The NRF describes the roles and responsibilities not only of public-sector agencies but also of the private sector, NGOs, and individuals and households. The extent to which a community can endure and survive a major disaster or terrorist attack reflects how its emergency plan was constructed; using the four classical phases as a guide. The National Response Framework describes not only how the Federal government organizes itself to respond to natural disasters, terrorist attacks, and other catastrophic events but also the importance of the whole community in assisting with response efforts. The intended audience for this document is individuals, families, communities, the private and nonprofit sectors,

Another issue the was presented when Hurricane Katrina hit American soil revolved around the how the United States governments agencies at all levels approached the environment that was damaged. As was stated earlier the local government is always first to come to the rescue when disasters hit, but when has such as immense as Katrina would call for the likes of the federal government. The Federal Emergency Management Agency was among many of the agencies that would be called into questioning during this dreadful disaster.

Based upon the research results obtained regarding policy issues of how funding of grants is obtained and the policy processes that are in place. There are areas of these said policies that are being reformed after going through a process called, lessons learned. These lessons are learned from prior disasters/incidents through a hazard mitigation process that is always going on before, during, and after an incident. In past incidents some policies are not existent and need to be produced through the use of policy tools from the support of the private sector and government agencies collaborates with one another to build a new policy such as FEMA grants for use by state and local governments. The grant funding process is important to the

A reasonable national flood control policy has been instituted yet (Rubin, 2012). Federal government agencies like FEMA, were initiated to make disaster response better, but still major disasters are unpredictable (Rubin, 2012). FEMA covered all aspects of emergency management such as mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery, a paradigm generated by the National Governors Association (Rubin,

In this assignment the researcher will be looking at the events that unfolded in the 9/11 disaster in America, specifically the circumstances that led up to it, what happened during the disaster and the roles and responsibilities of the public services. This incident would class as a disaster as apposed to an emergency due to the size and scope of the event and the fact that it could not have been handled locally. A disaster is defined as a major disruption of a community or society which causes widespread losses and impacts, and exceeds the ability of the affected community to handle with its own resources. Whereas an emergency is a situation that poses an immediate threat to health, the environment, property or life. In most cases these two words can overlap and be used interchangeably because they are similar but not the same. ‘Though both emergencies and disasters present situations that demand quick action, one can prepare for emergencies but not disasters.’ (Online, 2010)

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.

Every emergency or disaster, from a small house fire to a hurricane that devastates entire communities, have a distinct cycle. This is

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.