Emergency Management Theory

According to Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), there are many factors that will affect the direction of emergency management in the coming years. These can be classified as global challenges, global opportunities, national challenges, national opportunities, professional challenges, and professional opportunities. Global Challenges include some issues like global climate change, increasing population and population density, increasing resource scarcities, rising income inequality, and increasing risk aversion. Global Opportunities has to do with increased scientific understanding of the hazards and societal responses, as well as revolutionary technologies. National Challenges involves increasing urbanization and hazard exposure, interdependencies in infrastructure, continued emphasis on growth, rising costs of disaster recovery, increasing population diversity, terrorist threats, low priority of emergency management, legal liability, and intergovernmental tensions. Due to these factors that will affect the direction of emergency management in the coming years, there is need for us at emergency management division to adjust operational plans to meet these challenges and especially changes emanating from constant changes expected in technology and other threats we face.

Hurricane Katrina was one of the most devastating natural disasters on record in the United States (Skinner, 2006) In August of 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall along the Gulf Coast destroying buildings, homes and communities (Skinner, 2006). Storm surges and levee failures resulted in an estimated $108 billion in physical property damage, specifically in the areas of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama (Skinner, 2006). Furthermore, Katrina proved itself to be one of the deadliest disasters in U.S. history as it claimed the lives of more than 1,800 people (Skinner, 2006).

According to http://www.ready.gov/business/implementation/emergency explains the steps that need to be taken and the importance of an emergency plan. “When an emergency occurs, the first priority is always life safety. The second priority is the stabilization of

A basic definition for the procurement is “the way the building is realised” and “involves assembling and organising the skills and services of a team of construction professionals”. (the Construction Round Table, 1995). More precisely, the construction industry describes procurement as “a system that establishes the roles and relationships which make up a project organisation”; hence the overall organisation and communication structure for the management, administration and control of a project is established by the procurement system. (D.C.H Coles, 2010)

Explain the importance of having an emergency plan in place to deal with unforeseen incidents

Aviii An explanation about the importance of having an emergency plan in place to deal with unforeseen circumstances.

Having these plans in place give the Disaster Recovery team the instructions they need when disaster strikes

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

There are many ways to describe emergency management and the importance of the tasks emergency managers perform. Indeed, in

Editor’s Note: This Chapter is the continuation of an adaptation of a state plan for disaster preparation and response. In total, the original chapter comprises Chapters 1, 14, 16-18.

Natural disaster currently has become a large part of US economy, from tornadoes, fire, floods and hurricanes. These natural disasters have lead to death of people but also a billion dollar damage to several cities or states. According to National center of Environmental Information, in 2015 there were at least ten weather disasters that lead to property damages exceeding one billion dollar across United States. The natural disasters are found in many ways, the one most famous is Hurricane Katrina and another Hurricane Sandy. These two hurricanes are Atlantic hurricanes, Hurricane Katrina hit the Southern States and Hurricane Sandy hit near Atlantic City affecting many eastern States. Although the two hurricanes have occurred in separate years, yet they have caused a lot of damage in large cities leaving thousands of people without home. Furthermore due to these natural disasters has questioned the government how to prepare for natural disaster in near future. The hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Sandy are both consider Natural disaster that has lead to heavy damages but one has more devastating effect than the other.

As a part of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) group during the tabletop exercise I was afforded the opportunity to take a closer look at segments of FEMA’s emergency response in crisis situations, specifically an earthquake affecting 35,000 people.

The hurricane that hit Galveston in 1900 is the deadliest in U.S. history according to Burton, (2012). There was no disaster relief other than the local community, the U.S. Army, and the Red Cross. At least 6000 people lost their lives during the event and that number could be doubled by some accounts. The city of Galveston failed in every emergency preparedness phase. Mitigation plans for a storm surge wall were brought to the attention of the city council, but rejected the idea leaving the city vulnerable to storm surge. The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and fire completely devastated the city. Although earthquakes are not unusual for San Francisco then as they are not today. The city had not prepared for a potential disaster. According to Butler, (2012) Dennis Sullivan the cities Fire Chief ?argued for years that the city was an tinderbox waiting to be struck? his pleas for the city to improve the water distribution system was rejected. Again, without a federal emergency management system the only help was the local community, the Military, and the Red Cross.

Emergency management faces many challenges in today’s modern society. In the years prior to 9/11 emergency management was primarily focused on natural disasters. That has since changed; we now face a diverse variety of risks and hazards on a constant basis. As we continue to grow in population current and newer have compounded into more problems that emergency planner must face and find solutions for.

This paper will discuss the differences between two different natural and man-made disasters. The disasters that will be discussed are Hurricane Katrina and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Additionally, this paper will look into the specifics of what constitutes a natural and man-made disaster. Specifically, this paper will look into each disaster to include the events surrounding them; the risks; and the assessments. Furthermore, this paper will look at some of the details of each disaster and why there was so much devastation. Finally, this paper will look at a few similarities, but mainly the differences between the two, and how the effects of each still linger today.