Natural Disaster Management : The Challenges Of Natural Disaster Management

The author starts off with a rhetorical question: “What kind of problem is a library?” urging the readers to think about this question as they continue to read the article. The question grabs the readers’ attention, and intrigues them to read on to find and answer. She further utilizes this technique of rhetorical questions throughout the article for the same purpose of emphasis on the vitality of the role of public libraries. Moreover, Smith extensively employs the use of metaphors and personification. For example, she describes the internet as libraries’ “universal death knell”, which portrays the internet’s negative impact on the development of

Disaster is anything that can occur causing damages, an ecological disruption and deterioration of health and the health services. Disaster can be manmade or natural disasters such as floods. When disasters like flooding or tornadoes that may be accompanied by floods occur, the public health personnel and public health nurses are normally the first people who respond to the emergency, given that they are the people who understand and know the available resources used in providing first aids to the affected victims.

Every year, there are approximately 150,000 deaths and 200 million people affected by natural disasters and humanitarian crises (Thomas, 2003). Natural disasters alone, which include various occurrences, cause substantial disruptions such as the temporary displacement of more than five million people. According to the Fritz institute, statistics show that uprooted people from humanitarian crises such as civil conflict and war is greater, with an average of 13 million refugees and 20 million internally displaced people each year. As the biggest worldwide participants in the relief effort in the global community, disaster relief organizations are the forerunners of the help supplied to people affected by catastrophic events.

There has been a great development in the way the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) responds to natural disasters. Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Sandy, and wildfires in California are three major disasters that required a large FEMA response and recovery effort. These three natural disasters stressed the resources and abilities FEMA has in their arsenal. As any good organization does, FEMA learned from their experiences and mistakes in order to handle the next challenge they have to face accordingly. Hurricane Katrina affected over 15 million people, caused $81 billion in property damages, and 90,000 square miles (11 Facts About Hurricane Katrina). There was much controversy over the response of the Federal Emergency Management Agency

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,

Deterioration of library materials is one of the basic challenges confronting the libraries which have become a global phenomenon. It becomes difficult to replace materials that are stolen, mutilated or plagued by flood or fire at this period of economic recession coupled with the dwindling budgetary allocation to the library, libraries should put all necessary measures in place to avoid potential risk. This study investigates security control and disaster preparedness as panacea for preservation and conservation practices in university libraries in South-west, Nigeria. The study adopted a descriptive survey design. A total enumeration technique was used for selecting 308 respondents for the study. Questionnaire was used for data collection and was analyzed using descriptive statistics.

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).

The PARs refer to those actions which can efficiently mitigate loss of life and property damage that an emergency manager should advice risk area households to take or get the permission from elected officials (e.g., mayor, county governor) to activate (Lindell and Perry, 1992; Kim et al., 2006; Barnhill, 2013). There has been many studies indicated the PARs options in an emergency. For example, Barnhill (2013) specified that ten PARs an emergency managers should take into considerations when an incident occurred. They are: (1) clarify the situation; (2) activate the Incident Command System (ICS); (3) clarify the objectives and priorities; (4) secure the area; (5) evaluate the damages; (6) seal the area; (7) commit tactical units; (8) activate

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.

In this paper we will discuss the history of Emergency Management and the political influence shrouding this field for the past two hundred years. Political influence has been steadily increasing and this can be attributed in part to the rise in social media and the increased involvement by local leaders during disaster recovery and response. To support this theory we will also analyze Hurricane Sandy and looking at three politically charged components of the disaster. Finally, we will discuss disaster policy and the future of emergency management.

As global climate continues to change, emergency managers must prepare communities around the world for frequent catastrophic focusing events. Specific disasters vary from location to location; consequently, many emergency preparedness plans in many jurisdictions are ineffective. As a result, government officials and emergency managers under evaluate and wrongly assess areas of vulnerability. I present some of the special needs groups that emergency managers can include in vulnerability assessments. Lastly, I explain how emergency managers can collect resources to create concrete assessments for responding effectively to vulnerable populations before and after disasters.

In the United States, people who live in poverty are already one of the most vulnerable populations and it is this population that is heavily impacted by public policy relating to natural disasters. Often, public policies relating to disaster preparedness and recovery are not discussed until after a natural disaster takes place which is too late to do any good for the people affected and who are devastated almost beyond comprehension. The role of government in disaster preparedness and recovery became a “hot button” issue especially after Hurricane Katrina when the federal and local governments seemed to protect/help those who already had resources and not those with little to no resources. According to a Gallup Poll by Jones & Carroll (2005), forty-nine percent of respondents said that FEMA was most helpful to them while thirty-one percent of respondents said that nothing was helpful to them during recovery from Hurricane Katrina. This information indicates that there is a gap in services disaster relief policies and programs that needs to be filled.

Actions taken to minimize adverse impact of disasters. These including structural measures like building of flood defences and non-structural measures like training etcetera. Public awareness related to disaster risk reduction, contribute in promoting a "culture of prevention" by changing attitudes. It revolves around civil institutions responsible to prevent disasters.

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

On August 29, 2009, Hurricane Katrina struck the United States Gulf Coast. It was a Category 3 Hurricane, according to the Saffir Simpson Scale. Winds gusted to up to 140 miles per hour, and the hurricane was almost 400 miles wide . The storm itself did a tremendous amount of damage, but the storm’s aftermath was cataclysmic. Many claimed that the federal government was slow to meet the needs of the hundreds of thousands of people affected by the storm. This paper will examine the four elements of disaster management – preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation – as well as an analysis on the data presented.