Life is full of unexpected disasters as well as calculated ones. As a whole, society cannot account for all disasters that will occur nor can we successful eliminate the results of these disasters. That’s why in most advanced societies there are people in place to manage and or monitor natural disasters. These people are in charge of the planning process and execution of emergency management systems or operations. They are essentially the people responsible for ensuring that when a disaster whether natural or acts of fate occur the effect on the community or society as whole is minimal. The emergency manager or planner is to follow a strategic planning process that encompasses a variety of aspects including but not limited to a …show more content…
The first step in the emergency process as stated in the introduction is to form a collaborative planning team that will take the emergency situation head on. The team must understand emergency planning as well as the ability to collaborate on an intellectual level with other team members. Each member must have the same goal as well as objective. These objectives include providing safety for people, property as well as facilities. The members must be comprehensive, which includes provisions to assess the severity of potential hazard. The team will then move on to take steps to eliminating the disaster or problem. In conclusion, the collaborative planning team must understand the four fundamental theories of disasters. This serves to develop the most effective plan or process for disaster relief. The four fundamental theories of disasters include acts of fate or God, acts of nature or natural disasters, joint effects of nature and society and social constructions. Although each disaster take on a different persona, the collaborative planning team can learn from past emergency situations to aide in the understanding of the situation. Understanding a situation is essentially gathering information and facts that arise from the situation. The emergency management team is to stick to the planning principle when gaining an
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.
According to Jack Herrmann is Asst. Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Rochester School of Medicine “Disaster management is the preparation for, response to, and recovery from disaster. While there are different understandings of Disaster Management, it is generally viewed as a cycle with the following five key phases:
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.
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
My city, West Lafayette Indiana is all hazard arrange that builds up a solitary, thorough system for the administration of city occurrences. It gives the structure and instruments to the coordination of state backing to the affected nearby governments and influenced people and organizations around it. This disaster preparedness plan clarifies the regular train and structures that have been practiced and developed at the neighborhood, tribal, state, and national levels after some time. In particular, it expands upon the National Incident Management System, which gives a reliable format to overseeing occurrences.
Throughout the response phase, the actions of the emergency management team are completed in a specific order, given the moment of the crisis. In this order of ideas, the first effort is that of managing the pre-impact of the crisis, followed by activities at the level of the immediate impact and completed with activities pegged to sustained management of the crisis. These three sub-phases are described below:
The purpose of the Emergency Preparedness Plan is to save lives and prevent injuries in case of emergencies such as nuclear attack, fire, natural disaster, civil disorder or other, and provide the necessary best practices to ensure all possible and relevant forms of communicating with our faculty, staff, students, and parents. Mrs. Patricia Harris of the International Studies Elementary Charter School was interviewed about the International Studies Elementary Charter School’s Emergency Management Plan and the role of the school counselor during emergencies. Surprisingly, the school counselor does not play as important of a role than one would have thought. Although, the counselor does serve as one of the Designated School Emergency Team Members, some the tasks that would seem likely the counselor would perform, are performed by other administrators. Tasks such as talking to parents or being there for the students are performed by the principal while the school counselor is delegated to direct traffic. Based on the Emergency Management Plan, it would seem that the school counselor’s role is still not clearly understood. With all the expertise that counselors can bring to a crisis situation, it’s disappointing that counselors are assigned such a miniscule task as delegating traffic. Counselor Harris did discuss the Dougherty County School System’s Crisis Team. That team is
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.
Situational awareness is a crucial cog in the wheel of an efficient disaster response. Information on casualties, extent of damage, infrastructure and the present response efforts give emergency planners the way forward in the allocation of resources available. It helps in promoting preparedness, which requires the emergency response team to have detailed information about the risk that they are getting into (Haddow & Haddow, 2013).
This plan should also describe the roles and responsibilities of the different agencies and other stakeholders that have jurisdiction in the emergency response activities. The plan should also require specific qualifications and training of the personnel responsible to respond to such emergencies. In case of a future emergency, the plan will help the government to act with an organizational framework in place, with assigned responsibilities to each of the accountable
When a disaster has taken place, first responders who provide fire and medical services will not be equipped to meet the demands for many services. Several issues such as the number of victims, communication failures and road blockages will stop people from accessing emergency services they have come to expect at a moment 's notice through 911 emergency services. Individuals will have to rely on others for help in order to meet their immediate lifesaving and life sustaining needs. If access is blocked or the agency’s capacity is exceeded, it may be hours or days before trained help arrives. There is a four-phase model that organizes the events of emergency managers. This model is known as the “life cycle” which includes dour
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
This subject aims to teach students the main elements of emergency management for natural disasters and to a lesser degree terrorist attack. Students will understand the principles involved in emergency
Alongside awareness is the issue of training of staff. Targeted training of the disaster team is often the most feasible method and is done in a number of organizations consulted. Where staff have experience of dealing with disasters, it may not be necessary to consult the plan because they know what to do. One case study sees staff awareness in terms only of the management directly involved in the planning. However, if other staffs are unaware of the existence of the plan or its location, how will they know how to activate it in a crisis situation? A more important point is perhaps the fact that an aware staff working regularly in building is the best defense against disaster. In the preparative stages,
Disaster management has become a hot issue in urban development and human security since threats from hazards and vulnerability are increasing, and have caused the damage from natural disasters to become more severe, and it has become crucial to lower the socio-economic loss. “Disaster,” is defined as a serious disruption to the functioning of a community or a society involving widespread human, material, economic or environmental losses and having an impact which exceeds the ability of the affected community or society to cope using its own resources (UNISDR, 2009). “Hazards,” are defined as a dangerous phenomenon, substance, human activity or condition that may cause loss of life, injury or other health impacts, property damage, loss of