EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT IN DEERFIELD BEACH, FL

Emergency management in Deerfield Beach, FL



Emergency management in Deerfield Beach, FL

Introduction

Deerfield Beach is a city in Broward County, Florida, USA. The city has its name in reference to the numerous deer that once grazed in the area (Milanich, 1998). In 2004, the population estimated by the U.S. Census Bureau was 76.478. It is part of the metropolitan area of South Florida South Florida metropolitan area, which includes 5,463,857 people (Milanich, 1998). The municipality's emergency planning and management activities includes comprehensive emergency plan, which is the guide for the City in an emergency, natural disaster or power outage. The Plan is a strategic document and a template for the City and its employees to use for many years to make Deerfield Beach a safe place to live. Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan would be used to assist the community in a state of emergency (Murry, 2006).

The Department's constructive relationship with several City departments and area fire departments are maintained and enhanced, which is an effort to provide highly effective emergency services the citizens of Deerfield Beach. The Deerfield Beach Department of Fire and Rescue is an “All Hazards” type of emergency service delivery organization. One that is involved in incident prevention, and highly effective in providing responses to incidents that actually occur. Deerfield Beach municipality involvement in emergency management has harvest important dividends for the City through successful activities with several past hurricanes (Murry, 2006). The organization will carry on its work with partners of the city, state, county, and at national levels to further strengthen this critical mitigation and response capability, along with the associated recovery strategies. In the event of a major community health emergency, it is expected that the Deerfield Beach Department of Fire and Rescue will play a significant role in terms of preventative measures such as mass immunizations and emergency medical response to the critical situations.

Environmental degradation

In the emerging global environmental crisis, many disasters are generated or exacerbated by environmental degradation is, for instance, deforestation leads to flooding, because nothing hinders water runoff from catchments, the destruction of mangroves (coastal) wetlands reduces the ability of the coastal strip to resist tropical winds and storm surges etc. Drought, as well as its duration and severity - is a natural phenomenon. Drought may worsen: invalid scheme planting, over-grazing, topsoil erosion, lack of land reclamation works, the depletion of both surface and groundwater, and, to a certain extent, the construction, reflected in particular in the uncontrolled growth of cities, which is associated with errors in the regional environmental planning and town planning (Grunwald, 2005).

The unpreparedness of the population and the lack of information

Catastrophes can also occur because people in an area threatened, just do not know about them and even less knowledgeable about how to avoid them, or what protective measures should be taken. Ignorance in this case is not necessarily a consequence of poverty - it may simply be lack of knowledge as to how to build a safe house ...