Lessons Learned from Recent Evacuations
Training: Training of key personnel in emergency management agencies is well accepted as an integral part of ensuring readiness for catastrophic incidents. However, the skills and capabilities of personnel assigned to "surge teams" that deploy to assist with on-site support must also be maintained and updated through training and exercises. The after-action report for the ESF-1 program for the 2005 hurricane season found the volunteers from throughout the agency to be important resources to help meet the demands of a catastrophic incident, but that some needed more training in the established ESF-1 and NRP processes.
An integrated training program is needed, in part because of the steep learning curve for complex operations that cross jurisdictional boundaries and
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The DOD's U.S. Northern Command and its components have participated in a number of full-scale exercises where the exercise scenarios were designed to overwhelm local and State assets to evoke a response under the NRP, including the employment of DOD assets. In addition, DOD is preparing a review of its military assistance to civil authorities in response to Hurricane Katrina, which will be another important source of information. The lessons learned from the responses to recent hurricanes (e.g., Katrina, Rita, Charley, Ivan, and Opal) as well as earlier hurricanes (e.g., Camille, Hugo, and Andrew) continue to be valuable. Lessons learned from major exercises such as Hurricane Pam in New Orleans identified evacuation issues for the city. Federal, State, and local agencies should establish processes to ensure findings and lessons learned from after-action reports are addressed and incorporated into procedures and
I believe all of the strategies mentioned in the text can help someone during a crisis, but i believe the best coping strategies for a crisis are: friends & relatives, religion, and laughter. I believe that having a support system during any type of crisis helps make the situation that much better. According to David Knox and Caroline Schacht (2013) people are “less affected by the loss of material possessions” during a natural disaster when they know that their family is together (p. 409). I have noticed that when i have gone through some sort of crisis in my life that I was able to get through it with a smile on my face with the more support i had. Also, because of my faith, i believe that religion is another huge positive stress-management
EMS organizations also have their contract options for funding. According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (2013), they developed a fee schedule for ambulance services, in order to contain costs. This schedule is written into a contract. Many patients that are transported by ambulance are Medicare beneficiaries. The government will only reimburse the companies for services rendered during transport, unless contraindicated by the patient’s medical condition. There are codes associated with treatment that either replace or supplement ICD-9 codes. The fee schedule also corresponds with BLS and ALS levels of care, rating treatment from routine to complex (Brennan, 2012). Private insurance companies like Blue Cross Blue Shield include ambulance services for their patients when other transportation would otherwise harm the patient. Cities and hospitals create contract agreements with private ambulance companies for services.
Hurricane Katrina caused a great deal of destruction, death, and human suffering. Research from this event brings to light the limitations of both the National Guard and active-duty forces response capabilities, and whether changes in the roles and responsibilities of the National Guard and active-duty forces during emergencies would enable them to respond better. It is likely that the primary responsibility for national disasters will continue to be handled by local and state officials. They have the best understanding of situations, have the capability to handle the case, and can respond quickly. Hurricane Katrina generated the need to examine the federal response and to make any changes that are needed for the preparation of National Guard and active-duty Army during major domestic emergencies. Both the National Guard and active duty Army are changing to smaller modular and interoperable combat and support brigades that can provide the foundation for an expedited force that can deploy units to threats quickly. The Army
The Hurricane Katrina disaster highly challenged the operations of FEMA thereby leading to great changes in the agency. The Storm that is ranked as the third most intense U.S. landfalling intense caught the FEMA and at large the Department of Homeland Security unprepared thereby leading to severe losses. The hurricane claimed more than 1200 individuals and a total property of around $108 billion, of which could have minimized if FEMA could have carried out its operations effectively (Bea, 2006).
Disasters, whether natural or manmade, can happen anytime and anywhere, without warning. An earthquake, hurricane, tornado, fire, or hazardous material spill or even an act of terrorism can happen
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 purpose of the Emergency Preparedness Plan is to save lives and prevent injuries in case of emergencies such as nuclear attack, fire, natural disaster, civil disorder or other, and provide the necessary best practices to ensure all possible and relevant forms of communicating with our faculty, staff, students, and parents. Mrs. Patricia Harris of the International Studies Elementary Charter School was interviewed about the International Studies Elementary Charter School’s Emergency Management Plan and the role of the school counselor during emergencies. Surprisingly, the school counselor does not play as important of a role than one would have thought. Although, the counselor does serve as one of the Designated School Emergency Team Members, some the tasks that would seem likely the counselor would perform, are performed by other administrators. Tasks such as talking to parents or being there for the students are performed by the principal while the school counselor is delegated to direct traffic. Based on the Emergency Management Plan, it would seem that the school counselor’s role is still not clearly understood. With all the expertise that counselors can bring to a crisis situation, it’s disappointing that counselors are assigned such a miniscule task as delegating traffic. Counselor Harris did discuss the Dougherty County School System’s Crisis Team. That team is
“Your County Manager has just gone to a federally sponsored program on getting volunteers to support the management and administrative side of disaster and recovery portions of emergency management.
Hurricane Pam was an exercise for responders and citizens that took place in the summer of 2004, which helped prepare for a forecasted hurricane like Hurricane Katrina. After twenty days, the administration cut FEMA’s funding for the Pam exercise before it was even completed. Therefore, planning for the response to Hurricane Pam was not completed, causing many difficulties during the actual hurricane in 2005. In addition to Hurricane Pam, Project Impact was set forth to reduce the impact of natural disasters was also cut from its budget, causing difficulties to respond to Hurricane Katrina. Projects that are being cut from funding are affecting how responders and the federal government prepare for a natural disaster.
The lack of National guidance from Congress, the Bush Administration, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and the Army Corps of Engineers greatly exacerbated Hurricane Katrina’s damage. National Guidance fundamentally remains a process of direction and influence; how and when National guidance is applied determines the safety and the stability of the United States. The National guidance responsible for national preparedness, integrated use of military capabilities, and communications failed during Hurricane Katrina.
Many seniors have been using their oxygen more frequently. One client has told her he is coughing since the fire began. The geriatric nurse, Karen, who works at the center has advised many seniors to stay indoors and away from the irritants in the air. She has provided health screenings and education to
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
In less than two decades, social media has revolutionized modern communication and information sharing. What began as a simple form of social networking has turned into innumerable platforms for people around the globe to share ideas, create and share businesses, promote brands, read news from various sources, as well as share and find vast amounts of information, among many other uses. Thus, with a few clicks of a button, people are now able to interact with someone on the other side of the world. The capabilities created through social media’s many uses have forever changed global politics, business, and interpersonal communication.
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.
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