Emergency Disaster Preparedness Planning

(p.2) With that, he prepared literature summaries on the distinction of disasters from hazards; social dimensions of disasters; and emergency management. Then, he introduced two main debatable issues, including: (1) the context of "disaster" and (2) paradigms on vulnerability/risk. In the first issue, the author enumerated simple connotations of disaster in several languages and jumped to precise event-based definitions as mentioned in Britton (1987) and Fisher (2003)'s studies. As for the second issue, he emphasized that many scholars are built upon the framework of Barton (1969) on collective stress. (p.8) With that, paradigm shifts (mentioned in the article) led to the focus on "vulnerability" in studying disasters. For example, the author cited the 9/11 attack in New York as a "national" disaster on the basis of the city’s “vulnerability” in terrorist attacks. In the later parts of the article, the author summed up by listing 5 principle-recommendations for emergency managers and addressed 2 key priorities for future research: (1) alternative theoretical perspectives and (2) develop a global

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.

Ensuring Resilience to Disasters has more tasking’s than another mission and involves many different agencies to accomplish those tasks. The four tasks are to mitigate hazards, enhance preparedness, ensure effective emergency response, and rapidly recover. The main agency that is responsible for these tasking’s is FEMA. FEMA’s mission is to “reduce the loss of life and property and protect communities nationwide from all hazards, including natural disasters, acts of terrorism, and other man-made disasters” (FEMA, 2017, p.2). FEMA works with federal and State services to assist them in accomplishing their goals. They also assist local services by assisting in setting up emergency management agencies (LEMA) and set guidance for Emergency Operations Planning (EOP). EOP’s are “plans that provide an overview of the jurisdiction’s preparedness and response strategies. It describes expected hazards, outlines agency roles and responsibilities, and explains how the jurisdiction keeps the plan current.” (FEMA, 2010,

Question One: What populations are vulnerable and what resources are available for vulnerable citizens? The vulnerable populations in Houston are the low income communities (including homeless people), the elderly, people with disabilities, immigrants, and the "linguistically isolated communities…Chinese, Somali, Spanish, and Vietnamese speaking groups" (Nepal, et al, 2009). The St. Luke's Episcopal Health Charities prepared a report on disaster preparedness for the Houston Department of Health and Human Services (Peranteau, et al, 2009). The report explains that vulnerable populations tend to be more impacted by hurricanes and other disasters than the middle class and upper middle class communities in Houston. The report state that "…Failure to address the needs of low income communities and individuals, who are disproportionately affected by natural disasters," hampers the recovery from a hurricane for all communities. "Low income communities" (i.e., vulnerable communities) are "disproportionately affected by natural disasters, and are disadvantaged again when the recovery process does not take their unique needs into account" (Peranteau, p. 3). The point of the research was to determine how best to serve this population during hurricanes and tropical storms, which are very common in Houston.

In the years after the 9/11 tragedy, the United States continues to face risks from all forms of major disasters, from potentially dangerous terrorist attacks to catastrophic acts of nature. Professionals in the fields of emergency management and homeland security have responsibilities for ensuring that all levels of government, urban areas and communities, nongovernmental organizations, businesses, and individual citizens are prepared to deal with such hazards though actions that reduce risks to lives and property. Regrettably, the overall efficiency and effectiveness of the nation's ability to deal with disasters is unnecessarily challenged by the absence of a common understanding on how these fields are related in the workforce and educational

The project aims to educate the Latino community in Worcester, Massachusetts about emergency and disaster preparedness. In determining this project, we consulted Healthy People 2020 topics, and selected from among the new topics the one which most spoke to our experiences. As is supported by the literature, we recognized the recent difficulties over the last ten years in community preparedness for and response to natural disasters and public emergencies (Pokras, Zambrana, Mora, & Aaby, 2007). While communities across the United States have been tested in terms of their resources and organization in responding to emergencies ranging from hurricanes to terrorist attacks and subsequently put in place improved strategies, there are still populations which remain vulnerable (Pokras et al., 2007, Eisenman, Glik, Maranon, Gonzales & Asch, 2009b). Despite the resources which communities have put in place in order to ensure that citizens are prepared for disasters and emergencies, the ability of these resources to reach immigrant populations which may experience barriers due to language, etc. is uncertain (Pokras et al., 2007, Eisenman, et. al., 2009b). One population which has suffered from this uncertainty is the Latino population

Basic disaster assistance falls into three categories as specified by the Federal government: assistance for individuals and businesses, public assistance, and hazard mitigation assistance. The scope of this paper will cover the analysis of the elements of eligibility for disaster assistance and will follow up with a conclusion about the Public Assistance Process, utilizing the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Public Assistance (PA) Guide as the major resource for information.

The goals of the city Emergency Management operations unit are “to save lives, protect property and the environment, stabilize the incident and provide for basic human needs” (U.S. Department of Homeland Security 2013). A well developed emergency mitigation plan for this community will help to reduce the impact of disasters and save life and property. This paper will explore how different social groups of people react to disaster and various ways people react to disasters. Some of the key points to highlights on this paper include the importance of mitigation, each mitigation strategy listed, special needs population considerations. The paper will also access the applicability of the five hazard mitigation strategies including; hazard source control, community protection works, land-use practices, building construction practices, and building contents protection to the community.

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.

In disaster prone areas, such as river, ocean, mountain front homes, there are current residents who supports functions of the public. These can be emergency workers, school teachers, public safety officers, or just ordinary families who continue to live there to work and thrive. In the event of a disaster, the government still has an obligation to protect its people on the

Data obtained by assessing social vulnerability must be implemented within each phase of the emergency management process; mitigation, response, and recovery. First, to effectively respond and recover from incidents emergency management agencies must concentrate on the mitigation phase to prevent incidents from happening in the first place. This is achieved through a thorough hazard/vulnerability analysis (HVA). This type of analysis assesses the risk of physical, economic, and social vulnerability within all communities of a given jurisdiction (Lindell et al., 2006, p. 165). Additionally, the basis of the HVA allows emergency managers to effectively plan for disaster by creating pre-planned responses to disasters (rather than improvised response) and staging resources to locations with the highest probability of risk; ultimately contributing to the mitigation and response phases.

Emergency management systems range from informal arrangements of neighbors helping neighbors, typically found in rural areas, to complex and formal programs offered in larger cities or at higher levels of government. All players have the same goal to increase community and national resiliency, which requires collaboration of many parties from local citizens to the president. This section focuses on key actors that shape emergency management programs in reference to people with access and functional needs.

Natural disasters can severely damage communities and must be properly prepared for. Minority groups in the low income population generally held a greater risk in suffering from natural disasters than other groups. This was largely due to the fact that low income populations do not trust the government and traditional methods using social media were ineffective on them. To solve this problem the authors applied the grassroots approach and created the Guide to Enhance Risk Communication Among Low-Income Populations. The Grassroots System utilizes community, faith, and business organizations that serve low income minority populations. The Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and Morgan State University’s School of Community

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

Rural communities have largely been left out of the discussion when it comes to disaster preparation and planning. Most global planners hail from urban areas, governments are located in urban areas, and most NGOs in the disaster sphere are headquartered in urban areas. Naturally, the urban areas are the priority of effort for funding and preparation. The responsibility for incorporating rural communities is in dispute among stakeholders and little to no action has been taken to help them prepare for natural and manmade catastrophes. Some in the disaster risk field are aware of this glaring omission, yet have received little support in advancing strategies to address the shortfall. No doubt, cities pose a significant challenge for planners. Population densities alone mandate that urban areas should be a priority. However, long term recovery for an affected region depends largely on food security issues that mainly need to be addressed by the agrarian sector in rural areas. Thus, the ability to more effectively prepare rural populations to deal with disasters serves both demographics. As population levels continue to increase and aid resources become strained, it will be imperative to engage with rural groups as early as possible.