Essay about Emergency Management During a Tornado

A low pressure system was over Northwest Arkansas and Southwest Missouri moving towards the northeast. To the east of the low pressure system there was a warm front advancing north and a cold front trailing to the southwest. The temperatures recorded just before 1 p.m. was over 60o F. We can assume there was a 100-knot upper-level jet max moving from the west/southwest given the speed of the tornado. Wind shear was also present, helping with the rotation (National Weather Service, 2011). With these factors there was everything to make the perfect tornado.

evacuation, making emergency repairs to the levees, and providing food and law and order in an unprepared shelter). These measures, born of necessity, may be quite different from or exceed in scale anything responders have done before. They must be creative and extremely adaptable to execute improvised tactics. Equipping organizations to recognize the novelty in a crisis and improvise skillfully is thus a far different (and far more difficult) matter from preparing mainly to implement preset emergency plans. Scalability and Surge Capacity In many disasters, as Katrina well illustrated, responders must cope with far greater numbers of endangered people or more extensive damage than usual. To scale up operations to handle this surge of demand, emergency agencies require access to resources in larger quantities than normal and frequently to specialized equipment or

It was a seemingly normal, sunny day in Kansas. It did began to rain, but that was normal, rain happens everywhere. I still remember everything from what I was doing, and where I was at. This is the story of the tornado that ripped through my town in 2011.

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.

Communities, according to Kapucu and Özerdem (2011) have a drastic effect on the recovery process. In the end, by having a recovery place in plan within the community, it will ensure economic and resident resiliency for when a crisis is to occur. In order to ensure such a plan is in place, it is up to the American Red Cross to partner with and focus on the citizen involvement in decision making, from the beginning stages of planning all through mitigation; increase the buy in within the community; and provide for the community in an effective manner after a disaster has occurred Kapucu and Özerdem

Often, the government responds to natural disasters with thorough preparation and planning. The federal, state, and local levels of government do this in an effort to help reduce injury and property damage as well as ensure the overall safety of the general population. The 2005 Atlantic hurricane season saw the costliest and one of the deadliest storms in United States history. This storm was Hurricane Katrina. Hurricane Katrina displaced of an estimated 645,000 Louisiana citizens (Cepeda, Valdez, Kaplan, & Hill, 2010). This paper will examine…

In 2011, an EF-5 tornado tears through Joplin, Missouri. In 2011, it was the biggest year for tornadoes. Supercell tornadoes were spawning up to 50 tornadoes that year. They were spawning in Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, and Missouri. It was a multi-vortex, one mile tornado that tore through the town of Joplin, Missouri. The Tornado struck in late afternoon of May 22, 2011, this was the days where it was memorable and people couldn't forget that day. The EF-5 tornado was one of the most powerful tornadoes in history. The winds that the tornado produced were over 200 miles per hour.

In the articles, “Joplin Tornado: The Evil Swirling Darkness” and “A Storm Chaser’s First-Hand Account of the Joplin Tornado,” they both explain how disastrous the Joplin Tornado was, and how it affected the people who experienced it. The articles detail how the people in Joplin were so panicked. They both explain how, everyone started to panic and find out that it was not a false alarm tornado, they knew the tornado was on the ground. In fact, they both state what people did to prevent getting hurt, by going into different types of shelter. Of course it was a disastrous tornado, but people still helped each other after the disaster, because there were no firemen or police to help everyone trapped in the fallen buildings. Therefore, both articles explain how the Joplin tornado was not only terrifying, but traumatizing.

Having a basic understanding of community or national emergency plans can assist families in disaster. This is especially true during the response phase. The National Response Framework (NRF) is a great example of a national community reference. According to FEMA’s publication, “The National Response Framework,” from 2013, the NRF is a guide which describes the basis of national response to any form of disaster. The NRF was developed from a long line of response guidance plans. The first was the Federal Response plan which was replaced by the National Response Plan. Then in 2008, the NRF was developed to make national response guidance more efficient as well as to include practices created after Hurricane Katrina. The NRF is comprised

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.

The next item needing attention is search and rescue. Time is critical, as the tornado likely has left an unknown number of people wounded or trapped. A slow response could cost people their lives, as well as increase anxiety and panic levels among those with missing family members. Calling in the Federal Search and Rescue team(s) would be the most appropriate way to deal with this situation. In this particular case, the

The liberation behind Mother Nature’s persona, has demonstrated to be at times overwhelming. Accidents that causes destruction, violence or even bereavement can be callous and merciless. The understanding that we have no control over what happens in life is kind of hard to fathom, simply because there are professions that are trained to make a positive influence within the society. Agencies across America are not trained to hurt people, there trained to make a difference. So why is it that there has been many failures when it comes to a response time, such as the effects of Hurricane Katrina? Well the answer is simple it could narrow down to leadership, complacency, communication, vision, untrained responders, and unappreciative individuals. What are the key success factors in managing large, multi-agency and multi-jurisdictional response programs? How can we determine or measure “success” in response? How can we design drills and tests that specifically evaluate the key success factors for response? All of these questions can be directed to the statement above, and will correlate with each other. Leadership, communication, and vision is the key to triumph.

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

Tornadoes are one of the deadliest and most unpredictable villains mankind will ever face. There is no rhyme or reason, no rhythm to it’s madness. Tornados are one of the most terrifying natural events that occur, destroying homes and ending lives every year. April 29th, 1995, a calm, muggy, spring night I may never forget. Jason, a buddy I grew up with, just agreed to travel across state with me so we could visit a friend in Lubbock. Jason and I were admiring the beautiful blue bonnets, which traveled for miles like little blue birds flying close to the ground. The warm breeze brushed across the tips of the blue bonnets and allowed them to dance under the perfectly clear blue sky. In the distance, however, we

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.