Response Structure

Response Structure

Introduction

The process of organizing resources to manage future emergencies, crises, and disasters involves creating plans, protocols, and procedures. These should be based on reference scenarios that clarify the likely impact of major events in the future, and hence give an indication of the resources that will be needed when they occur. Emergency management is the process of matching urgent needs with available resources in a timely, efficient, and effective manner. The resources can broadly be classified as personnel, buildings, equipment (including vehicles), fuel, materials and supplies, decision support systems (including geographic information systems), communications, and organizational instruments (U.S. Department of Justice, 2006).

Discussion

Personnel

The first resource to be used in emergency response is manpower. Scores of different agencies and organizations may participate in major disasters. They can be divided into the following basic categories:

Blue-light services, such as fire brigades, police, emergency medical responders, and coast guards, as well as specialized technical emergency response services such as search-and-rescue

Public administrators at the local, regional, and national levels, with particular reference to emergency coordinators

Civil protection and humanitarian volunteer organizations, including Red Cross, Crescent, Star, and Crystal societies

Members of the scientific community involved in monitoring, forecasting, and predicting events, or in forensic investigation

Military and paramilitary forces (e.g., national guard corps) detailed to provide military assistance to civil communities

Representatives of international organizations, such as the agencies of the United Nations

Members of other organizations, such as telecommunications technicians.

In most of the American States, especially in Virginia, a service or organization that usually takes the commanding role during emergencies. In Virginia, where emergencies are considered to be primarily a question of public order and safety, the lead agency is the police; where buildings may collapse en masse in earthquakes, it is the Fire Brigades, which are adept at technical rescue.

With the exception of the coordinators of international aid, disaster managers or emergency coordinators are usually employees of the civil protection departments of public administrations. They may be present at the local, intermediate level (county, province, region, department, or state) and in national government departments. The traditional profile of the emergency manager is that of a middle-aged, male member of the local ethnic majority who has retired from a military career, has plenty of experience in managing crises (although not necessarily civilian emergencies), and has few or no qualifications in the field.

Unpredictable Environment

In the chaotic, rapidly changing, and somewhat unpredictable environment of an emergency, guidelines and regulations can help ensure that responses are safe, appropriate, and proportional. Guidelines are defined as nonbinding recommendations for action, while regulations (such as laws, ordinances, and norms) are legally or constitutionally binding. The four main reasons for developing such instruments are to ensure that emergency responses are ethical and have a suitable legal framework; efforts are harmonized efficiently; and when operations are likely to be dangerous, emergency responders are covered by health and safety regulations.

Standards are a subset of guidelines and regulations. A standard is a set of minimum specifications for the size, organization, or quality of a product or ...