The Basic Types of Hazards That Pose a Threat to the US

This chapter majorly focuses on the basic types of hazards that pose a threat to the US. Key points covered include emergency management's history in federal and local authorities, whereby the chapter emphasizes on how terrorism has initially been a low priority to authorities despite having a long history. Besides, the chapter covers some of the fundamental disaster theories. These are the acts of God, nature's act, society's common effects, and social constructions. The visions that emergency management has have also been covered. However, the new concepts learned from this chapter are that federal and local emergency management systems differ. On the other hand, some of the questions that stood out at the end of the reading are, how has terrorism never been prioritized from the past despite having a long history? And what possible responses should be undertaken by managers to aid in emergency management? This chapter emphasizes emergency management actors such as stakeholders and some issues that arise when dealing with complex emergency management policies. From stakeholders, several groups exist among them. These include the social, economic, and political groups, which are new concepts in this reading. Also, the chapter outlines stakeholders' power relations from the federal to local authorities. This forms the basis of a connection with previous readings since these power relations steps are related in both cases. Some of the theories, such as the act of God, appear in both, thus forming a connection. However, some of the questions that arise from the reading are why some political issues cannot be defined as political problems instantly. From this chapter, the key points covered are the principal environmental hazards of significance to emergency managers in the US. These include meteorological, hydrological, geophysical, technological, and biological hazards. However, these form the basis of the most common hazard agents that local emergency managers are forced to deal with in their daily operations. However, there exists a connection between this reading and the previous readings. In this case, this reading focuses on primary hazard causative agents, whereas the previous readings focus on managing these hazards. Besides, among the questions that arose is how managers respond to meteorological hazards such as hurricanes, which are naturally occurring, and how they can implement policies to ensure that technological hazards are prevented. 

Reference 

Lindell, M. K., Perry, R. W., Prater, C., & Nicholson, W. C. (2006).  Fundamentals of emergency management . Washington, DC, USA: FEMA.