EMERGENCY AND DISASTER RESPONSE The cycle of emergency management continues with response to an emergency or disaster. The goal in this stage is to bring order to chaos. By alleviating confusion it allows an organized response. (Faggiano & McNall, 2012) An organized response to disasters is vital to mitigating the loss of lives and property. To properly respond during a disaster there must be a coordinated response, complete with information sharing and exceptional communication. Communication must involve all responding agencies and governments as well as the affected population. Of course, information is valuable and not all information should be shared, but the population must be informed of the disaster. When a disaster strikes, people first try the most familiar channels of information. This includes phone calls, emails, or text messages. When they are unable to find sufficient information through these means, “alternate means such as social networks become an important conduit for information gathering and sharing” (Simon, Goldberg, & Adini, 2015). Not only will they seek alternative means when they can’t find sufficient information, “they will seek any available venue of information” (Simon, Goldberg, & Adini, 2015). This is why it’s vital to be recognized as a reliable source of information before a disaster strikes. “During natural disasters social media provides… a feeling of connectedness” (Simon, Goldberg, & Adini, 2015). This feeling of connectedness prevents
“Social media makes the community part of the actual crisis communication response. For example…Twitter was used to quickly share initial information and updates during the 2007 and 2008 California wildfires, 2008 Mumbai massacre, 2009 crash of US Airways Flight 1549, 2010 Haiti earthquake, and 2011 Tunisian uprising.” This information, again in Veil’s 2011 article, reinforces the idea of how social media communication is highly beneficial and furthers an individual’s ability to remain informed on current events.
People respond to a natural disaster by gathering resources. There has been so much change by just getting people household materials. We have provided at least 10,000 families with resources(Doc A). Although some people are able to get resources, there are still thousands of people that haven’t been reached. They are getting better at gathering resources and delivering it to remote locations that cannot be easily gotten to.
My mother in law’s house began to flood early Wednesday morning, September 6th, she called 911, 311, The Cajun Navy, and another number 911 had given her specifically for the Port Arthur area, no one answered and if they did, no one could help her. Fortunately, my husband has a jacked up four-wheel drive truck and could get to her and bring her to our house safely. What I observed were people posting that they needed help and those who were not in rising waters responded by finding rescuers to that person’s address. Moreover, an emergency agency is unlikely to be able to check social media during a disaster (Liu, Fraustino, & Jin, 2015).
Crisis information during Hurricane Katrina was immediately available through mass media; television, radio, the emergency broadcast system, and social media. During emergencies, the importance of our country’s communications systems becomes clear. These
Appropriate technology, such as social media, affecting communication during the crisis situation and how these technologies may be used to enhance communication
Approaching and following major catastrophic events, it is crucial to have communication plans set in place for the community. Communication during disasters helps to spread information regarding evacuation, weather, and recovery (Guion et al, 25). It is important for rescue teams to be able to locate those in the community who cannot be found during a catastrophic event, however, with communication networks not working, this could be hard. During Hurricane Katrina, communication networks had stopped working due to high winds and power outages. This made it hard for individuals who were lost to be located, and hard for the government to coordinate the response needed (Comfort and Haase, 2). As stated by a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration study, “over 1.7 million” individuals living on the Gulf had lost power during Hurricane Katrina (Waple, 6). Different systems of communication let the community know of ways to become prepared when it comes to taking shelter and evacuation. Due to the poor preparation for Hurricane Katrina, the government learned lessons on communication strategies that would better inform the community on weather and evacuation plans for Hurricane Sandy.
Despite the key points of the development paradigm, there are no recognized indicators that this disaster was the result of human exploitation or marginalization of poor people. The study did show a vast difference in household income levels. The median household income in the US affected area was $25,347, compared to a median household income of $10,570 in the affected area of Mexico. Regardless of these income level differences, the study concluded that local television appeared to be the primary source of information for 44% of the participants, with 43% using two sources of information for hurricane warnings and updates and 88% found that information they received was helpful (Ruin et al., 2008). There were no complainants from the interviewees that they failed to have enough time to prepare for the hurricane. Military forces of both countries were deployed to conduct rescue missions for their respective
Communication is widely regarded as one of the most essential elements in successfully managing an emergency situation. The dissemination of information, which is both timely as well as accurate, to the parties concerned goes a long way to lend a hand in ensuring that the recovery activities in an emergency situation, together with its management takes place effectively. For that reason, five critical assumptions are used to provide the basis of disaster management strategy.
In “Wither the Emergency Manager,” Niel R. Britton comments on Drabek's “Human Responses to disaster: An Inventory of Sociological Findings.” Britton describes six positive and negative issues in emergency management as it is today. In this paper, we will discuss the implications on emergency management as a field and on the individual manager.
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.
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
CNA, a research facility, partnered with the National Emergency Management Association to provide research and information on the public’s expectations about emergency management’s use of social media. Before this research, the data about this connection was only done with case studies and unreliable accounts. CAN used a survey in this research to see how people felt about social media in connection with emergency management. The results found an positive approach. Many people in emergency management agencies, on local and national levels are very familiar with social media. It is usually the larger websites that are more widely known. Sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, are widely known and publicized. There are however many other social media sites that are not as widely known that are even more useful to nationwide security and communication such as crowdsourcing and Nixle and these are not as widely known (Su, Wardell, & Throkidsen, 2013). So while people in emergency management
Every emergency or disaster, from a small house fire to a hurricane that devastates entire communities, have a distinct cycle. This is
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.
In many instances, the natural disaster is so atrocious that communication mediums are disrupted and entrance is restricted only to emergency