Social Research On Natural Disasters And The Disaster

This paper is designed to show you the differences between the way conservatives and progressives view the federal role in emergency management. Furthermore, the advantages and disadvantages of each them. Also, we will discuss what you should expect as a practitioner of the profession on how to prepare yourself when you would like to switch from one to the other. Most importantly discuss the criteria of a natural disaster and how human and social perception factors inter play with each other. One question at hand is do we blame the victim? What does “blaming the victim” means? Is there any validity to this or not? Does this concept influence the way our society responds to disaster or any other event that may occur? These are some of

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.

In reading through Eric Klinenberg’s essay “Denaturalizing Disaster”, I was struck by passages that, although written over seventeen years ago, felt quite prevalent in today’s society. I was personally disturbed in reading the analysis and the deconstruction of the sociological impacts of the Chicago heat wave. (Klinenberg) The effects of the heat wave, an otherwise “natural” event, resulted in an unprecedented mortality rate, leaving me to question how something so seemingly natural could result in a fatality rate that is in itself, unnatural. The mortality rate of Chicago residence would imply that:

And it involves interaction with familiar faces, tasks, procedures, and organizations. (Auf der Heide, Erik. 1989) An emergency is generally personal in nature. A disaster is “an event associated with the impact of a natural hazard, which leads to increased mortality, illness and/or injury, and destroys or disrupts livelihoods, affecting the people or an area such that they (and/or outsiders) perceive it as being exceptional and requiring external assistance for recovery” (Cannon 1994, 29, fn.2). Finally, a catastrophe can be viewed as “…any disaster that overwhelms the ability of state, local, and volunteer agencies to adequately provide victims with such life-sustaining mass care services as food, shelter, and medical assistance within the first 12 to 24 hours.” (GAO, Disaster Management, 1993, p. 3).

and Dentistry and Director of the Program in Disaster Mental Health in the Department of Psychiatry and the UR Center for Disaster Medicine and Emergency Preparedness. For over a decade, he has responded to numerous national disasters as a volunteer with the American Red Cross. He has also developed comprehensive disaster mental health training programs for the New York State Office of Mental Health and the New York State Department of Health currently being disseminated throughout every county, state psychiatric center and acute healthcare facility throughout New York State.

Natural disaster threats accompany people practically everywhere and often people are unaware of the fact that one day the disaster may strike and change their life drastically, such as the ones that can occur in Huskietown. In such a situation, it is important to get prepared for potential disasters and know how to act and behave in different situations. To make it clearer, it is necessary to have a clear plan of action in case of a disaster and, what is not less important, it is necessary to clearly understand what real natural disasters can really occur in the given area. In such a way, it is obvious that in order to come prepared to a disaster it is necessary to know as much information about the disaster itself, its effects

These layers further expand on Mitchell's awareness, information, and action components. The inner layer is composed of the local community networks and their ability to self organize, learn, adapt, and recover to disasters. Disaster preparedness, prevention, response, and recovery is influenced by the local economy, government, education, social development, infrastructure, and ecosystems. The middle layer is the consideration of climate change when implementing recovery, response, and prevention efforts. The outer layer is composed of the willingness of the governing bodies to adapt (Djalante, Holley, Thomalla, & Carnegie, 2013). Flexibility and innovation support learning, collaboration, and self organization. All of which contribute to better manage disasters (Djalante et al.,

Regardless of their causes, disasters invoke human reactions in the context of social institution, small communities or long-term care facilities. The attempt to reestablish the social order of the culture after a disaster requires anticipation and collaborative planning prior to any disaster. Planning is acquired through government officials and scientists in an attempt to avoid future

An important part of being able to rebuild after a natural disaster, according to Daniel Aldrich, is to build social capital (Building Resilience 2). Throughout Building Resilience: Social Capital in Post-Disaster Recovery, Aldrich uses examples from both Hurricane Katrina and the 1923 Tokyo Earthquake to show how effective strong societal bonds can be in repopulating cities that have suffered large natural disasters. A clear example, Aldrich articulates, is the difference between rebuilding efforts in the Village de L’Est and the Lower Ninth Ward. Originally these areas had roughly the same levels of poverty but Village de L’Est rebuilt a majority of the area while the Lower Ninth Ward is still mostly deserted (Building Resilience 1). The strong bonds that existed between the Village de L’Est residents allowed them to become more committed to reestablishing their community. For many of the areas in both conflicts, the reliance on societal bonds prompts an understanding that allows all members of the community to feel tied to the area and keeps the desire to rebuild

Discrediting empathy as a valid response to disaster, or creating legal-based norms that encourage citizens to treat disaster relief as a government, not personal, task may also diminish vital informal disaster efforts. Indeed, informal social capital and interpersonal empathy can save lives. For instance, in one famous week-long heat wave in 1995, over 700 Chicago residents died. African Americans were the group most at risk, being 1.5 times more likely to die than whites. But Latinos were the least likely of any group to be victims. Although their “overall level of poverty placed them at a heightened risk of mortality,” they “experienced a surprisingly low death rate.” The discrepancy has subsequently been explained as the result of strong

Data obtained by assessing social vulnerability must be implemented within each phase of the emergency management process; mitigation, response, and recovery. First, to effectively respond and recover from incidents emergency management agencies must concentrate on the mitigation phase to prevent incidents from happening in the first place. This is achieved through a thorough hazard/vulnerability analysis (HVA). This type of analysis assesses the risk of physical, economic, and social vulnerability within all communities of a given jurisdiction (Lindell et al., 2006, p. 165). Additionally, the basis of the HVA allows emergency managers to effectively plan for disaster by creating pre-planned responses to disasters (rather than improvised response) and staging resources to locations with the highest probability of risk; ultimately contributing to the mitigation and response phases.

Every emergency or disaster, from a small house fire to a hurricane that devastates entire communities, have a distinct cycle. This is

While natural disasters such as floods, drought and hurricanes are commonly thought to occur due to environmental forces such as weather, climate and tectonic movements; a deeper investigation into the ‘disaster’ displays other contributing forces. Human factors have a large, if not equal, contribution to the occurrance and outcome of such disasters (Pelling, 2001). As Pelling (2001) argues, there is both a physical and human dimension to ‘natural disasters’. The extent to which the natural occurrence of a physical process, such as a flood or earthquake, impacts on society is constructed by that society, creating a ‘disaster’ as measured by a

First, one must understand what human flourishing entails, in order to understand what might compromise it. Several different events in the United States provide examples of members of society coming together. Generally, disasters represent the events that bring members of society together, such as the September 11, 2001 disaster involving the Twin Towers in New York City, the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, Louisiana, and the destruction caused by severe tornados in Oklahoma (Grossheim & Brodak, 2015). After each of these disasters, members from all over the United States participated in donating essential items, such as clothing, food, and shelter, to those who were negatively effected

Some or maybe all of us have been a part of some event that has taken place throughout their existence. The events that you or other people may have taken part in have been for enjoyment or for pleasure as for others or there are people who have gone through a series of events that has completely ruined their lives in a matter of days. Just to throw this out there, some events that could ruin people lives are natural disasters or manmade disasters, losing someone that you cared about most in this world. These events leave us looking hopeless, needing a sense of direction and a big contribution from the man upstairs. I’m here to talk to you about a natural disaster that happen just a little over 10 years ago and the event that had taken place was Hurricane Katrina. What comes to mind when we think of the word natural disaster? Well my take on it is that it’s a major adverse event resulting from the natural processes of the Earth. Natural disasters can claim properties, damage the economy, and can even result in death. You know as well as I know what happened in Hurricane Katrina. I went through it back in 2005. I’m here to research and provide a summary of the event, to examine the precautions (preparations) that were taken beforehand when the storm was still in the tropics, to take a look at how the local, state, and federal governments responded to the event and talk about the recovery process and where the state of Louisiana is today.