Fema: Preparedness & Mitigation
THE FINAL 1. Regardless of conditions during a crisis, what are the strategic choices that a government must be able to make in order to guide local recovery?
Throughout history, we can now with certainty state that disaster happens, especially in my home of State of Florida. In Florida, we are of course known for hurricanes and everything else that comes with it. But we must also keep in mind that disasters are local and occurs in cities and counties of all sizes. The question that we can ask is what happens following a disaster? Well, the answer is that the people of that particular city or county is looking for the leadership of their elected officials in order to lead them through the devastating time; to act swiftly and quickly with an immediate response and reassuring the community that their lives will promptly return to normalcy. Nonetheless, no matter the size of the city, the local government leaders are responsible to oversee all four phases of the Emergency Management process, which are Preparedness, Response, Recovery and Mitigation.
Furthermore, whenever we discuss disaster, the first thought that comes to mind is “Hurricane Katrina” because of the blatant misguided approach and lack of timely and effective response during this disaster recovery. But if I were to guess the major reason for such disastrous approach is because the government was focusing on a short-term relief while disregarding the long-term recovery process. Based on the readings and research, it would appear that historically this has been the situation for many other cases.
When we are looking at “Long-Term Recovery”, it involves more than just removing and cleaning up wreckage, which many consider to be short-term recovery solutions. According to FEMA, long-term recovery refers to the "need to re-establish a healthy, functioning community that will sustain itself over time. Long-term recovery strategies will definitely depend on the magnitude of the disaster. For some
Throughout history, we can now with certainty state that disaster happens, especially in my home of State of Florida. In Florida, we are of course known for hurricanes and everything else that comes with it. But we must also keep in mind that disasters are local and occurs in cities and counties of all sizes. The question that we can ask is what happens following a disaster? Well, the answer is that the people of that particular city or county is looking for the leadership of their elected officials in order to lead them through the devastating time; to act swiftly and quickly with an immediate response and reassuring the community that their lives will promptly return to normalcy. Nonetheless, no matter the size of the city, the local government leaders are responsible to oversee all four phases of the Emergency Management process, which are Preparedness, Response, Recovery and Mitigation.
Furthermore, whenever we discuss disaster, the first thought that comes to mind is “Hurricane Katrina” because of the blatant misguided approach and lack of timely and effective response during this disaster recovery. But if I were to guess the major reason for such disastrous approach is because the government was focusing on a short-term relief while disregarding the long-term recovery process. Based on the readings and research, it would appear that historically this has been the situation for many other cases.
When we are looking at “Long-Term Recovery”, it involves more than just removing and cleaning up wreckage, which many consider to be short-term recovery solutions. According to FEMA, long-term recovery refers to the "need to re-establish a healthy, functioning community that will sustain itself over time. Long-term recovery strategies will definitely depend on the magnitude of the disaster. For some
References: Becker, Christine (2013), Disaster Recovery: A local government responsibility, retrieved on March 16, 2013 from http://webapps.icma.org/pm/9102/public/cover.cfm?christinedisaster %20recovery%3%20local%20government%20responsibility FEMA.GOV (2013) McMillan, Carla R. (2013), Natural Disasters, Prepare, Mitigate and Manage, retrieved on March 16, 2013 from http://www.csa.com/discoveryguides/archives/ndht.php Pittman, Elaine (2013), Disaster Dialog, Dealing with the Media, retrieved on March 16, 2013 from http://www.emergencymgmt.com/training/Disaster-Dialog-Tips-Media.html