Essay On Emergency Management

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.

Effective disaster management is highly important when it comes to assisting in rescue and relief to affected. This does not only include post disaster rescue efforts but these disaster management activities should be proactive. They start right from taking preventive measures before the disaster actually occurs and goes on till the effected people are resettled back in their lives. This disaster management pertaining to human life is not only associated with physical well being but also focuses on psychological, emotional, and spiritual rehabilitation.

Ensuring Resilience to Disasters has more tasking’s than another mission and involves many different agencies to accomplish those tasks. The four tasks are to mitigate hazards, enhance preparedness, ensure effective emergency response, and rapidly recover. The main agency that is responsible for these tasking’s is FEMA. FEMA’s mission is to “reduce the loss of life and property and protect communities nationwide from all hazards, including natural disasters, acts of terrorism, and other man-made disasters” (FEMA, 2017, p.2). FEMA works with federal and State services to assist them in accomplishing their goals. They also assist local services by assisting in setting up emergency management agencies (LEMA) and set guidance for Emergency Operations Planning (EOP). EOP’s are “plans that provide an overview of the jurisdiction’s preparedness and response strategies. It describes expected hazards, outlines agency roles and responsibilities, and explains how the jurisdiction keeps the plan current.” (FEMA, 2010,

This chapter provides an overview that describes the basic types of hazards threatening the United States and provides definitions for some basic terms such as hazards, emergencies, and disasters. The chapter also provides a brief history of emergency management in the federal government and a general description of the current emergency management system—including the basic functions performed by local emergency managers. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the all-hazards approach and its implications for local emergency management.

This is a review of Emergency Management: The American Experience 1900-2010 by Claire B. Rubin and Butler (2012), chapters 1 and 2. Emergency management at the federal level was nonexistent before 1950 when the Federal Disaster relief Act was passed. Disaster relief was the responsibility of state and volunteer agencies like the Red Cross. Several disasters paved the way for emergency management. The Galveston Hurricane of 1900, the San Frisco Earthquake of 1906, and the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 were the disasters that laid the foundation for the 1950 Federal Disaster relief Act (Butler, 2012, pg. 17).

In attempt to provide background on the impacts of past natural disasters, condensed case studies of two major natural disasters are summarized, outlining the damage – both financial and physical. The aftermath of any natural disaster highlights the weaker areas of emergency management and as a result, the federal government has made significant efforts to strengthen those areas through preparedness and mitigation measures. Additionally, emphasis on mitigation and preparedness has increased following the vast number of natural disasters that the United States has endured, not only in the federal sector but also in the education and research sector. Today,

Disasters are bound to strike at a given time and they more often find us unaware, this is the sole reason why the majority of the disasters that happen are usually fatal and destructive. This then calls for the need to try as much as possible to prevent these disasters and in particular in our cities. This is due to the fact that in the cities there are large populations that live close to each other or work in offices crammed together hence the likelihood of a disaster turning absolutely fatal if and when it strikes. However, due to the inevitable nature of these disasters, it is upon us to make adequate preparations that can enable us to minimize the effects of the natural disasters as much as possible when and if they happen.

Disasters are human made or natural and occur sudden and unexpected. As disasters cannot be prevented, government has to be prepared for any emergency situation. According to Stanhope and Lancaster (2014), there are four stages in the disaster management: Prevention, Preparedness, Response and Recovery. According to Stanhope and Lancaster (2014, p 250), public health professionals study disaster effects on populations while American Red Cross work with local and other communities in preparedness, response and recovery phase of disaster.

The paramount goal of disaster management activities is to reduce, as much as possible, the degree to which a community’s condition is worsened by a disaster relative to its pre-disaster condition. If a disaster strikes it important to know what to do or were to find the information if do not know. First responders who are well-prepared will have the peace of mind to focus on the task at hand if well prepared and trained. First responders can also serve as role models for other members of the community, leading by example to encourage preparedness. First responders can encourage their communities to make family plans and to be informed about the types of emergencies and disasters. Law enforcement should look to do training such as the Emergency Management Institute (EMI) which offers self-paced courses free-of-charge courses [Department of Homeland Security. (2017)]. Planning and being prepared for a terrorist attack provides the structure and mechanisms for national level policy and operational coordination and provides emergency managers, the understanding, the knowledge, and the steps to prepare, counter and respond to a terrorist attack. It more importantly helps to instill confidence and cohesion within

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 Earth can be characterized by its unknown natural phenomenon There are different types of natural hazards that can happen, from Tsunamis, earthquakes, landslides ect. For instance, earthquakes are natural disasters that are characterized by vibrations and shaking within the ground, some earthquakes have the potential to become deadly. These quakes are among a number of natural disasters that can happen without warning. Earthquakes, tsunamis, landslides are some of these dangers that can vary in magnitude and size, from small, barely noticeable waves, shake, or slides to violent waves, shaking, or slides that carry the potential to destroy buildings and threaten life. Due to the uncertainty of when these disasters might happen, these

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

Throughout history natural disasters have terrorised mankind. The problem with natural disasters is humans cannot control them, they can create preventative measures and usually can find where the disaster is going to happen but that is the extent of human's ability to control them. When creating preventative measures there is always a budget in mind that keeps everything from being foolproof, which makes large scale disasters sometimes make those preventive measures not enough to completely stop them but only helps reduce cleanup time. In certain cases like large quantities of rain that cause flooding the flood waters are directed towards dams that can hold a certain amount of water before the dam breaks, at max capacity the dam must be opened in some cases causing more flooding downstream causing for a longer cleanup time. In Nick Stockton's article “How Will Huston Handle the Deluge Hurricane Harvey” from August 28, of 2017 in the online version of Wired, he effectively uses logos to show how the project manager is handling rain control during this natural disaster while also showing how casualties and property damage were minimized.

We all know that the number of natural disasters each year is on the rise. With each new natural disaster that hits, it seems to become the deadliest on record. There are all kinds of natural disasters to consider, like hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, and tornados. These events can level a city, cause a huge death toll and cost a lot of money for the city affected. For the purposes of this paper, we are only going to look at earthquakes and the effects they have in our cities. There are things that can be done to prevent all of the damage, but we choose not to do them. Why? With all of the natural disasters happening lately, we need to earthquake proof our buildings to minimize the damage and protect our people.

Disasters are a series of disruptions involving widespread human, material, economic or environmental losses and effects, which exceeds the capability of that affected community to cope up with its already present resources. Disasters have been happening ever since the beginning of time. Every disaster can be classified as either a human caused disaster which basically involves the negligence or irresponsibility of one single person or a group of people, or natural caused disasters. Natural disasters may happen due to volcanic eruption, earthquakes, tsunamis, etc. and many other causes. Sometimes disaster can also be intertwined between both human caused and natural disasters. In this essay we are going to talk about some of the most famous engineering disaster which has an intertwined fate with natural and human caused effects. The disasters also range from ground, to air, to sea and also space disasters.