EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT

Emergency Management



Emergency Management

Introduction

“I had seen people who had lost everything and everyone they loved to war, famine, and natural disasters”

Above are the words of Chelsea Clinton and the theme of this paper. Life is beautiful! But unanticipated events can destroy all the pleasure and delight. As the above statement, of Miss Clinton suggests, that natural disasters play a major role in destroying one's life to an extent that they have to leave the place where these disasters occur. When emergency strikes, all levels of government do what is required and spend but later worry about paying for all the spending. Some governments have contingency or emergency funds for disaster response. It is the responsibility of governments to protect their citizens from disasters but even if a disaster strikes they are responsible for helping them to recover. In most cases emergency funds are exhausted and most governments have to call for some emergency measures. In United States, special session of the legislature is called to seek additional appropriations. There are two categories of disasters: man-made disasters and natural disasters (Thevenot, 2005, pp. 24).

Whichever disaster strikes, its management typically follow four different chronological steps: mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery. The process of mitigation is applying the necessary measures to assist in preventing or reducing the disaster's hazards. Mitigation is different from the other steps as it focuses on measures which are long-term for the elimination or reduction of risks. The process of preparedness assists in preparing for the response when the disaster happens (Prewitt, 2003, pp. 74). The response step covers the actions to mobilize emergency services and responders in the region which has been affected. The last step is recovery which restores the areas of disasters. This step is a long-term process.

Part A: Emergency Management in Perspective of Pluralism and Elitism Theories

Disaster

Disaster preparedness consists of those actions taken by individuals, organizations, or communities to ready themselves to respond to and recover from emergency situations. As the word preparedness may indicate, these are actions taken prior to an impact, when disaster preparedness is in reality getting ready for a hazard, which is a potential threat to society. Disasters are events that cause a significant disruption to society or the environment. Risk, vulnerability, and resilience are related concepts in that they refer to a community's susceptibility to or capacity to withstand or bounce back from future hazardous events (Page, 2003, p. 651). Disaster preparedness is important because the better prepared an individual, organization, or community is for such an event, the smaller the disruption ought to be. Disaster preparedness is one phase of emergency management.

Disaster preparedness is one of the four phases of an emergency management model, along with mitigation, response, and recovery. Mitigation involves long-term practices that prevent or lessen the impact of disasters and includes actions such as improvements in forecasting and warning technologies, land use regulations, and building codes. The National Flood Insurance Program is considered mitigation. Preparedness activities include actions taken to prepare for an expected event, ...