Emergency Preparedness : A Natural Part Of Life

One topic that is in the cross fire on debates all the time is the federal policy on disaster relief, and disaster preparedness. The federal government has programs put into place to help the victims of natural disasters, such as hurricanes and tornados. Some of these disaster relief programs are The Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (the Stafford Act), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and The Red Cross. These programs have many policies in place, but some feel that there is still a lot of work that needs to be done to improve these policies.

What can I or my family do to be better prepared for an emergency? What should we do during an emergency?

Throughout its history, FEMA has had two main missions. First, FEMA’s mission is to enhance the federal government 's capacity to deal with and survive foreign attacks. The main types of foreign attacks that FEMA is tasked to respond to relate to terrorist attacks and nuclear war. The second mission of FEMA is to assist state and local authori¬ties to respond to man-made and natural disasters that are to enormous for the local and state resources to respond to efficiently. While national security focuses more on civil defense, state and local authorities are more focused on natural disasters such as hurricanes, storms, floods and potential nuclear power accidents. These divergent focuses really presents FEMA with huge challenges since federal security authorities’ main objective is quite different from state or local authorities’ focus. Considering that FEMA designed the Federal Response Plan, the agency has the challenge of balancing these interests while working on its two key missions.

As Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma successively lashed the gulf coast starting in late August 2005, nature’s fury exposed serious weaknesses in the United States’ emergency response capabilities. Not all emergencies pose this magnitude of challenge. In the United States, the initial—and usually major—responsibility for disaster response rests with local authorities. This “bottom-up” system of emergency management has a long history and continues to make sense in most circumstances. Core Challenges for Large-Scale Disaster

By understanding the steps to prepare for countering and responding to a terrorist, the well-being of US national security interests can be promoted and the exposure to risk and susceptibility to experiencing harm can be efficiently managed for communities, families and individuals in the event of a terrorist incident. The welfare of US national security, citizens and property can be effectively safeguarded through the understanding of protection strategies administered collectively by local communities, families and individuals. Local emergency operations planning, family disaster planning, as well as self-protection planning each represent important protective measures, which serve to educate the nation and its citizens how to

The Homeland Security in the all-hazards helps with the coordination and transitioning between the agencies on the federal, state and local government. The purpose of have affect Homeland Security has to be establish and to be prepared in all critical hazards necessity. The preparation is at the utmost for homeland security for the variety of ranges man made or natural incidents. A natural disaster on Homeland Security has ready to handle any kind of threat to citizens ranging from first responder providing and specialty resource to reach hard areas. Hurricane Katrina in 2005 had except hard criticism for inadequate response and care for the individual that where in need. This storm was relentless causing major destruction up and down the Gulf Coast Region. The lessons we learned the positive and negative in this tragedy for the lack response and preparedness in this catastrophes. I hope America could see the serious of mistakes that are handle different in or society. The Federal government studies what specific hazardous and vital mistakes to improve in the overall action of Homeland Security. The National Response Plan helps the agencies to improve the ability and strengths individual to be in the right at the place at the right time in handling disasters. In Hurricane Katrina has help society to realize the

Later, the federal, state, and local government responses to disasters such as Hurricane Katrina expanded the concept of homeland security to include significant disasters, major public health emergencies, and other events that threaten the United States, its economy, the rule of law, and government operations (2). Homeland security is the combination of law enforcement, immigration, disaster relief, and terrorist activities within the United States’ borders. This would be based on the local agencies and civilian departments to safeguard the people from any threat within while being assisted by the government. In some aspects of terror attacks, there will be a combination of both homeland security and homeland defense. 9/11 is the perfect example as homeland security was responding to the local disasters and threats while the homeland defense, military, was deploying to get to the root of the threats. This is essential to the way homeland security operates because this will stop the attack on the nation’s soil before it reaches the borders and local government agencies are required. The biggest issue with the homeland security aspect is that the

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.

The Homeland Security Bill directly impacts the domestic preparedness cycle because emergency management became a primary duty of the Department of Homeland Security (Cordner, 2016). In addition, the newly formed federal agency created a six point agenda that identified specific goals, which directly contribute to domestic preparedness cycle (Cordner, 2016). Let us examine these goals and identify how they relate to the domestic preparedness cycle starting with prevention. Some of the initial six goals created by the Department of Homeland Security directly contribute to the prevention phase of domestic preparedness cycle. The goals of increasing overall preparedness for catastrophic events, strengthening border security and border enforcement and reforming immigration processes, and enhancing information sharing with our partners exhibit a direct

This information will be used to establish priorities and develop an incident action plan. Resources and capabilities are employed based on the size, scope, nature and complexity of the incident. Should the disaster exceed the local governments, they would request assistance through mutual aid and assistance agreements, the State, or the Federal Government. Mutual aid agreements establish the roles and responsibilities of both parties, the procedures for requesting assistance and communication protocols.

Hurricane Katrina in many cases was an unfortunate learning experience for emergency management and preparedness. Concentrating on the larger mitigation issues may prove to be the priority opposed to the smaller issues, along with focusing upon risk assessment (Averill, 2005). Risk assessment in emergency management is key to identifying those potential hazards that a particular threat may be likely to impact the area. For example, I reside on the east coast by the beach where the area has a higher threat for hurricanes compares to a community in Iowa. A higher risk assessment for specific threats require a plan and, or mitigation steps.

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.

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.

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

Hurricane Katrina exposed huge issues in the United States disaster preparedness and response programs. In 2005, the structure for homeland security was unable to manage catastrophic events like Hurricane Katrina. Unified management of national response