Discuss below in a 150 words each:
1. The response phase of disaster management should be defined as the steps taken to lessen the impact pre-disaster and to reduce casualties by providing necessary emergency management personnel to the scene of the disaster; caring for any wounded or sick individuals; assessment of potential hazards. As an emergency manager, I would initiate my emergency action plan and coordinate with local, state and governmental resources to prepare for the possible event. Local and social media would be contacted to spread the word and to ensure a rationale, truth-based message is conveyed. Local volunteer units to include the Red Cross and Salvation Army would be contacted. I would also contact any emergency personnel staff that they should coordinate with their immediate place of employment in order to maintain a flexible schedule. "Effective disaster response emphasizes coordination, communication, and flexibility" (Phillips, Neal, & Webb, 2012). I found the reading interesting this week with regards to fact vs myth based disaster response views. I guess the research proves that people tend be resilient in the aftermath of a disaster. My role as the emergency manager would be to keep people focused on the task at hand and to provide the necessary resources for recovery.
2. The Disaster management cycle illustrates the ongoing process by which governments, businesses, and civil society plan for and reduce the impact of disasters, react during and immediately following a disaster, and take steps to recover after a disaster has occurred. Appropriate actions at all points in the cycle lead to greater preparedness, better warnings, reduced vulnerability or the prevention of disasters during the next iteration of the cycle. The complete disaster management cycle includes the shaping of public policies and plans that either modify the causes of disasters or mitigate their effects on people, property, and infrastructure.
The aim of emergency response is to provide immediate assistance to maintain life, improve health and support the morale of the affected population. Such assistance may range from providing specific but limited aid, such as assisting refugees with transport, temporary shelter, and food, to establishing semi-permanent settlement in camps and other locations. It also may involve initial repairs to damaged infrastructure. The focus in the response phase is on meeting the basic needs of the people until more permanent and sustainable solutions can be found. Humanitarian organizations are often strongly present in this phase of the disaster management cycle.
"In an effort to more accurately describe response activities, Drabek (1986) separates them into pre-impact mobilization and post-impact emergency action sub phases. Pre-impact involves warning the public, initiating evacuation, and establishing shelters. Post-impact includes searching for survivors and providing medical care the injured." (Phillips, Neal, & Webb, p. 253, 2012)
After the immediate response phase of the disaster cycle has been completed, the disaster turns toward recovery, focusing on the longer-term response to the disaster. During the recovery phase of the disaster cycle, officials are interested in cleanup and rebuilding. During the recovery phase, lessons learned are collected and shared within the emergency response community.
3. Recovery as a process will consist of stages or steps. Recovery is a process that incorporates short term and long term consequences. While short term efforts will address the rapid restoration of services, long term efforts focus on rebuilding infrastructure. Short term efforts address the availability of foods and shelter to the affected population. Long term efforts are typically managed by professionals, emergency managers.
An emphasis on steps will influence recovery planning in order to make the process much more methodical. As an example, I will briefly cover sheltering and housing. There are four phases involved in sheltering and housing after an emergency. It only makes sense to incorporate accurate recovery planning in order to properly assist victims. It is not impossible but rather, not feasible to attempt to move victims to permanent housing immediately following a disaster. Rather, moving individuals into temporary shelter alleviates pressure on emergency management individuals. As citizens are housed in these temporary shelters, the emergency managers are allotted time to properly plan recovery in the long term.
4. Recovery planning encompasses a series of steps focusing on short and long term measures. Practical implications of these steps as a process would be prevention of loss of life, property and infrastructure damage, negative financial ramifications and historical and cultural loss to name a few. By viewing the recovery stage of disaster planning as a process, it gives the community the ability to understand and hopefully react properly in the event of a disaster. Recovery planning encompasses possible restoration of damage, rehabilitation "typically in a way that improves some element of a structure of a community" and restitution which suggests "that some kind of legal action or compensation is expected" (Phillips, Neal, & Webb, 2012). By emphasizing the different steps and stages within the recovery process, the community will have a better understanding of what type and the means of recovery that will be available to them. Emergency managers will be involved mostly in the short-term recovery stage which is vital for many reasons but one big one is the "restoration of key utilities and infrastructure and placing people into temporary housing" (Phillips, Neal, & Webb, 2012). Without emphasizing the various step and stages within the recovery process to the local community, some essential post-disaster restitution will not occur, and if they do, will not happen effectively.