Emergency Management
Emergency management is a relatively new discipline that deals with the prevention of natural disasters and recovery from them. The discipline involves mitigation, which is the practice of preventing natural hazards from developing into natural disasters, preparation for the natural disasters occurring, response to them, and finally the recovery process. Emergency management is a term that replaced the term Civil defense after the Cold War, a term used to protect the public from a military attack. The ideas and principals are largely the same, but they have been refined and focused on natural disasters and man-made disasters.
Natural Disaster Preparation:
Natural disaster relief and recovery are smaller and less complicated jobs if the proper acts of preparation are done to minimize damage and casualties resulting from a natural disaster. Preparation in emergency management involves communication plans where information can be easily passed from one party to another and easily understandable. Proper maintenance and adequately-trained emergency services are essential to help prepare first-response teams in dealing with a natural disaster relief. Lines of communication to the general public are also important so that the population understands what actions will help in their survival in the event of natural disaster. Finally, inventory and supplies should be readily available if a natural disaster occurs. Preparation is not always a methodical process. It should be flexible enough to cater to the situation at hand. It should have a structure however, as to avoid confusion and weak communication.
Natural Disaster Response:
During natural disaster response, first teams are dispatched in emergency management. This usually includes firefighters, policemen, ambulance crews, and other emergency services. A response team organized by the military is usually referred to as a Disaster Relief Operation and a non-combatant evacuation operation may also be needed. Natural disaster response is aided greatly by the quality of the preparedness of the public and the emergency workers. Search and rescue teams may also be dispatched during a natural disaster response, although many victims that are affected by a disaster die within 72 hours.
Natural Disaster Recovery:
The natural disaster recovery phase occurs soon after the response phase. The aim of it is to return the area devastated by the disaster to its original state. The main difference between natural disaster recovery and relief is that recovery is all the decisions and actions done after immediate needs are met during the relief effort, such as saving lives and eliminating threats.
The most important part of the natural disaster recovery process is using windows of opportunity to recovery teams’ advantage. Recovery and mitigation usually overlap because lessons learned during the disaster can be applied to the recovery process so as to prevent a future incident from happening again. Mitigation changes to a region during natural disaster recovery is more likely to occur directly after an incident because it is still “fresh” in people’s minds. They realize that the disaster can happen again at any time and they do not want to go through the same pain and suffering.
