Emergency Managers Considerations In A Hurricane Emergency

When was the last time you or your family were affected by the path of a hurricane? How was your experience? Some hurricanes can leave devastation, but it can be more dangerous if you don’t prepare and expose your family to the hazards during the landfall and aftermath. To be fully prepared in the event of a and have ways of staying informed and keep family entertained to avoid anxiety hurricane you must have an emergency evacuation plan. Gather essential supplies, protect one’s home, and have ways of staying informed and keep the family entertained to avoid anxiety or panic attacks.

Katrina was a crisis primarily because of its scale and the mixture of challenges that it posed, not least the failure of the levees in New Orleans. Because of the novelty of a crisis, predetermined emergency plans and response behavior that may function quite well in dealing with routine emergencies are frequently grossly inadequate or even counterproductive. That proved true in New Orleans, for example, in terms of evacuation planning, law enforcement, rescue activities, sheltering, and provisions for the elderly and infirm.

One of the most intense, costliest, and deadliest hurricanes to impact the United States was Hurricane Katrina, a category 4 storm, in 2005 (Blake, Landsea, & Gibney, 2011). The National Hurricane Center estimates that 1200 deaths occurred as a direct result of Hurricane Katrina. Almost half of the victims were aged 74 years or older. Factors such as lack of evacuation facilities, infirmities and disabilities that make evacuation difficult or impossible, and higher levels of poverty and social isolation increase older individuals’ vulnerability

Their were storm shelters open to these people that had no other option. “It is estimated that around 1.2 million people evacuated the metropolitan New Orleans region and that about 100,000 people remained in New Orleans. Of those remaining, around 10,000 went to the Superdome shelter before the storm”(Hurricane Science). Due to their being so many people left behind, their were also a huge number in deaths from this tragic disaster. “Overall, more than 1,800 people lost their lives as a result of Hurricane Katrina. More than 1,500 death occurred in Louisiana”(Hurricane Science). This huge devastation affected many lives, not only in Louisiana but also Mississippi and Florida. People were shocked at how fast the water was rising and the weather conditions worsening. “Katrina is the third deadliest hurricane in U.S. history. In New Orleans, people were trapped in their houses and on their roofs as the rapidly rising water caught many people by surprise. The flooding and widespread damage from Katrina delayed rescue and aid efforts for days. Besides the death toll, hurricane Katrina left many people homeless as more than 800,000 housing units were destroyed or damaged in the storm”(Hurricane Science). Being one of the deadliest hurricanes in our history, Hurricane Katrina changed many

2015) The majority of people’s stress levels increased since the hurricane, which made post-traumatic stress disorder, serious mental illness, and suicide rates increase after the hurricane took place (Rhodes et al., n.d.). The rate of mental health disorders increased within two years after Hurricane Katrina hit (Rhodes et al., n.d.). Due to the lack of transportation and insurance, the rates of treatment of these illnesses decreased (Rhodes et al., n.d.). After Hurricane Katrina, 64% of victims stated their health issues occurred due to stress, anxiety, depression, asthma, arthritis, and chest infections (Ahern et al., 2005). Even children who are moving to a new place have a high risk of emotional health problems (Ahern et al., 2005). Even though the United States and United Kingdom are the two wealthiest countries in the world, flooding has really made a big health issue in both countries (Ahern et al., 2005). Due to a flooding,occurring in St. Augustine, the residents will have to evacuate to surrounding cities. While travel through the water, everyone needs to be cautious of waterborne diseases. Homeowners should have a flooding plan, just in case they may experience a flood. The owners will need to know where they may go if they

One of the main issues during a natural disaster like Hurricane Katrina revolves evacuating and relocating aspect of the event. The best way to prevent a situation is place yourself in a position in which you will be absent from it. Evacuating and relocating before Hurricane Katrina would do just this it would place residents out of harm’s way for the time being. This seemed to strike a problem in a city such as New Orleans due to the fact that it also has a lot of residents that live in low-income homes. For individuals that are not financially stable it may be a problem to relocate especially in such a hurry. Journalists and scholars variously proposed that racial discernments were at the basis of why some individuals and households fled

Taking this objective into consideration, it is surprising that even though hurricane Katrina was a category 3 hurricane, and it was anticipated, more than 1800 individuals died (Thiede & Brown, 2013). Many factors have a role in not being able to prevent this natural disaster well ahead of time and therefore, they will be examined in the paper. They are but not limited to: failure of design, construction and maintenance of levees and flood walls, social and psychological rejection of the hurricane and poverty and limited education of residents in the affect areas (Thiede & Brown, 2013). Even though this natural disaster could have been prevented, it demonstrated the importance of taking practical decisions when a hurricane warning or watch is broadcasted (Melton et al., 2010). Overall, analyzing why hurricane Katrina was unavoidable is essential because it can educate people on how to practically respond to hurricanes and not disregard precautionary actions (Melton et al.,

One of the major tasks of emergency management is successfully communicating with the public during the course of a disaster. Social media has taken the world by storm and used in almost every facet of a person’s daily life. As technology advances, so does the potential for social media within emergency management. One of the values of social media is that it not only allows emergency managers to transmit messages to the public, but it also permits interaction with the public that can keep managers better informed and use the public as an asset in emergency response. However, social media often remains a capability separate from operations, leveraged mostly by community and volunteer groups and within the public information or communications functions of emergency response organizations. Not until social media is incorporated within operations, as a communications and as an information source, will its full capabilities be recognized (Social Media in Disasters, 2014).

During the Hurricane Katrina in 2005, even though the National Weather Service (NWS) had forecasted the storm characteristics information on wind speed, storm surge and rainfall accurately, the local authorities responded inadequately (Kent, 2006; Basher, 2006). The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina pumps a series of discussions on emergency responses in a hurricane hazard (e.g., Basher, 2006; Kent, 2006; Kamarck, 2007; Spencer, 2013). Researches draw their attention to this discussion focused on three questions: (1) who should be in charge (e.g., Kamarck, 2007; Badiru and Racz, 2013; Barnhill, 2013; Cova et al., in press)? (2) To do what (e.g., Lindell and Perry 1992; Kim et al., 2006; Wu, Lindell & Prater, 2015; Cova et al.,

Collaboration involves various groups or groups of people working together to accomplish a desired outcome. It is a bit like teamwork. By strengthening connections during an emergency crisis, you have the ability to be more effective, faster, produce more, and have more personnel available. Collaboration offers more innovation and experience to a situation. This paper will discuss the roles of those that were involved in the collaborative efforts of FEMA. The basic reasoning for this paper is to provide knowledge and understanding the experience of emergency management and collaboration that took place during Hurricane Sandy.

Because of these parallel command centers, there was a failure in implementing a unified command operation, and this led to confusion and delays in coordinating the response.

If I thought a hurricane might affect my community, I would take the following steps to ensure safety and preparedness for my family and clients by completing a rapid need assessment. I would first determine the extent of the hurricane and then assess both my family and clients’ immediate needs. I would ensure that both my family and clients are protected by providing them with necessary skills and knowledge to help them cope with the hurricane. I would create a hurricane response plan and rehearse it with them. I would provide them with important phone numbers such as 911, Red cross and FEMA. I would teach them how and when to call 911. I would also remove or report any unsafe equipment or fix any potential hazards which may further endanger

Fluctuating demographics, persistent coastal expansion, and an accidental but rising storm complacency is elevating the vulnerability of those in the pathway of the next major hurricane arrival to extraordinary levels. A country’s fixation with the coast must come to grips with how the local coastline formation merged with past hurricane landfall records and common trends are raising the bar on community vulnerability. More compactly populated coastal communities lying at no more than ten feet over sea level and aided by a regulated number of evacuation paths compromise readiness efforts and pressure public safety. The entry of retirees over the past 10 years looking to live their finishing years in the absence of winter snow and cold enter

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.

The paper applied a sample of Rio Grande Valley, Texas and contributed to the hypothetical scenario experiments of evacuation decision making behaviors. Giving the fact, since Baker (1991) provided a big picture in respect with the impact factors of hurricane evacuation decision, this topic has been repeatedly studied by at least 40 empirical studies, 20 hypothetical scenario studies and 10 review or meta-analysis studies. Beyond those efforts, current studies moved this research on either comprehensive model/theory examinations (e.g., Huang et al., 2017), or mixed/new method attempts (e.g., DeYoung et al., 2016), or test on specific impact factor(s)/behavior(s) (e.g., Maghelal et al., 2017). Even though it seems that the authors tried to