Emergency Management: What You Need to Know

Chapter 1 

The first chapter provided a historical approach to emergency management. Studying the history of emergency management was important to gain an understanding about how various emergencies were handled throughout history. It was interesting to note that the emergency management had its root in ancient history in the story of Noah where he warned his neoghbors of an impending flood. The chapter also provides the definition of emergency management as “a discipline that deals with risk and risk avoidance” (Bullock et al., 2021, p.2). The chapter also established the importance of emergency management by observing that it plays a critical role in the government that has the responsibility for public health and public safety. Another interesting fact to note was that there have been multiple changes in the approach to emergency management in the United States through the passing of various legislations. For instance, the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act came after Hurricane Katrina. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) were responsible in implementing some of the changes. The FEMA was involved in dealing with various emergency management crisis in the United States.

The chapter was insightful and interesting as it provided the specific history of emergency management in the United States. The history is dated in the early days of the establishment of the United States constitution in the 1800s where various policies were enacted such as the congressional Act in 1803 and the Flood Control Act of 1936. The first call for the nation to focus on emergency management took place in the 1970s and it led to the formation of the FEMA which had various responsibilities such as oversighting of the Earthquake hazards, coordination of dam safety, assistance to communities in developing a readiness plan, coordinating natural and nuclear disaster warnings, and coordinating preparedness planning (Bullock et al., 2021, p.7). From the reading, the two major events that caused major changes in the emergency management in the United States were the 2001 terrorist attacks and Hurricane Katrina. The 2001 attack led to the establishment of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 that resulted in the creation of a new DHS (Bullock et al., 2021, p.14). Hurricane Katrina led to various changes in the FEMA act. One of the key discussions of the chapter was that emergency management is now more important than ever before because of climate change. Such climate changes have resulted in changes in weather patterns and there are increased likelihoods of environmental disasters like hurricanes.

Chapter 2 

The second chapter discusses various hazards, emergencies, and disasters that can happen in the world. From reading the chapter, I find that technological disasters can produce the most risk and threat compared to any other disaster. The specific technological disaster that can have a massive negative impact is the nuclear and radiation accidents. There were various events throughout history of nuclear disasters that impacted the lives of many people, and it was more than the impact caused by most natural disaster. For instance, the book outlines the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine that traveled so far as in the neighboring county in Belarus and more than 336,000 people that had to be evacuated and permanently resettled (Bullock et al., 2021, p.68). Even after 35 years, the region is still uninhabitable and people may not be allowed to live in the region for the next thousands of years as the region is still radioactive. There were also other radioactive events in Japan that were later contained. From the observation, a nuclear disaster can have the largest negative impact and it can render a place uninhabitable for the next thousands of years.

Apart from the nuclear disasters, technological disasters could come in the form of structure fires, dam failures, and hazardous materials that can have a largescale negative impact. Structure fires were found to have a significant negative impact on both the people living in the regions and wildlife. There were approximately 1,319,500 fires in the Untied States in 2017 and the fires resulted in 3,400 fatalities, 14,670 injuries and about $23 billion in property loss (Bullock et al., 2021, p.66). Dam failures can occur due to the failures of dams from poor design. Hazardous material incidences occur due to the storage in explosive, flammable and corrosive material. While such incidences are not as large as fires and nuclear reactors, they can still cause a significant damage in terms of fatalities and environment damage.

There are natural disasters that can still have a large negative impact. Hurricanes can be described to produce the greatest risk and threat in natural disasters. For instance, Hurricane Katrina resulted in the death of 1,836 people and there were approximately $160 billion losses (Bullock et al., 2021, p.43). Hurricanes can have a negative impact because it can result in the destroying of property and flooding and limit the access to food, water, and electricity, rendering a place uninhabitable. Other natural disasters that can have a significant negative impact also include mass land movements, wildfires, tsunamis, and severe weather.

Chapter 3 

The aim of the third chapter was to discuss the various issues and processes in emergency management. One of the interesting points to observe in the chapter was the use of mitigation tools and the impact that the tools can have in reducing the number of deaths that can occur in case of a natural disaster. Some of the strategies that have been established include warning systems, building codes, and public education (Bullock et al., 2021, p.88). The tools that were established include hazard identification and mapping, financial incentives, design and construction applications, structural controls, and non-structural actions. Hazard identification and mapping can involve the use of various tools such as Geographic information systems (GIS) that an enable local planning and the superimposing of the hazards.

It was also interesting to note that financial incentives can be applied to promote mitigation of disasters. Some of the financial incentives that can be applied include “special tax assessments, passing tax increases or bonds to pay for mitigation, offering relocation assistance, and targeting federal community development or renewal grant funds for mitigation” (Bullock et al., 2021, p.88). It was interesting to observe that in instances where there has been repetitive flooding like California, the state can pass small tax increases to pay for the flood-mitigation activities. In any disaster situation, the local governments may be faced with an increase in costs or a decrease in the state or federal funding. The various sources of funding that the governments can have include grant programs and issuing of bonds to the residences to help with the financial disaster.

The section on structural controls was also interesting as it provided an overview of how technology is increasingly applied to mitigate natural disasters. Structural controls have been mostly applied to mitigate hazards caused by flooding. One of the most common form of structural control was through the use of levee that comes in the form of flood-control structures. However, it was also observed that there can be dangers to the use of such structural control like levees as it could give the residents a false sense of safety (Bullock et al., 2021, p.105). The aim of using the structural control was that it would provide sufficient time for evacuation. Other structural control technologies that can be implemented were jetties, groins, breakwaters, seawalls, and bulkheads. While the structural controls could be useful, they could also protect one area from damage and increase the negative impact in another location.

Chapter 4 

The aim of chapter 4 was to discuss the strategies to preparedness that have been implemented in emergency management to prepare for disasters. Preparedness was defined as “a state of readiness to respond to disaster crisis, or any other type of emergency situation” (Bullock et al., 2021, p.129). The preparedness cycle was identified as having four basic elements that involved preparing a plan, acquiring equipment, training to the plan, and exercising the plan. The most interesting part in the preparedness cycle was in the planning phase as there was more effort and increased sophistication required in the planning stage compared to any other stage. The planning stage could involve conducting a vulnerability assessment where the planners can understand why the disasters occur, where they are most likely to occur, where it will have the greatest impact, and what will amount as the appropriate responses to the disaster (Bullock et al., 2021, p.131). Planning was also found to be the activity that fills the majority of time spent by emergency management officials and the individuals that have been given the task with the management of organizations of business. The section made it clear that the success of any emergency preparedness and emergency management is in the planning phase.

The chapter was also insightful as it provided various tools that are used in emergency preparedness. The tools that were found to be critical in the planning were the emergency operations plan (EOP) and the National Preparedness System. The EOP acts as a playbook for emergency management and response. It was established that the tool is based on different components that include the base plan, functional annexes, and hazard or situational annexes (Bullock et al., 2021, p.136). The FEMA has developed its own planning tool and guidelines that outline various approaches to planning. The National Preparedness System is a tool used by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for emergency preparation. One of the key components of the tool is that it highlights five mission areas that can be used in emergency preparation through prevention, protection, mitigation, response, and recovery.

It was interesting to note that emergency preparedness was also a community approach and not just an activity undertaken by the FEMA and other emergency preparedness program. FEMA thus introduced the Whole Community concept that outlined a community-based approach to preparing for disasters. One of the observations was that “when the community is engaged in an authentic dialogue, it becomes empowered to identify its needs and existing resources that could be used to address them” (Bullock et al., 2021, p.138). The community was thus identified as a critical resource that can be used to facilitate an effective emergency plan and enable the mitigation of various hazards.

Reference 

Bullock, J. A., Haddow, G. D., & Coppola, D. P. (2021).  Introduction to emergency management . Butterworth-Heinemann.