Emergency Management

In the years after the 9/11 tragedy, the United States continues to face risks from all forms of major disasters, from potentially dangerous terrorist attacks to catastrophic acts of nature. Professionals in the fields of emergency management and homeland security have responsibilities for ensuring that all levels of government, urban areas and communities, nongovernmental organizations, businesses, and individual citizens are prepared to deal with such hazards though actions that reduce risks to lives and property. Regrettably, the overall efficiency and effectiveness of the nation's ability to deal with disasters is unnecessarily challenged by the absence of a common understanding on how these fields are related in the workforce and educational

In this paper we will discuss the history of Emergency Management and the political influence shrouding this field for the past two hundred years. Political influence has been steadily increasing and this can be attributed in part to the rise in social media and the increased involvement by local leaders during disaster recovery and response. To support this theory we will also analyze Hurricane Sandy and looking at three politically charged components of the disaster. Finally, we will discuss disaster policy and the future of emergency management.

Crisis Management Team – There are several events that constitute a crisis, including but not limited to, disruption of services, ethical misconduct of upper management, lawsuit, workplace violence, etc. In the case of the university, issues like power outage could cause complete disruption for the 350 employees or string winds breaking the glass and causing employee injuries could cause a medical emergency crisis. Since the crisis is so varied, the team involved could span multiple departments and agencies including private and public enterprises to work in tandem with university policies to handle the crisis. This team reports to the super umbrella of the Emergency Response Team.

Emergency management system has been in place systems have been in place in Michigan since the creation of Public Act 101 in 1988. The act were created with the intention of appointing emergency financial managers to assess and manage the finances of cities nearing bankruptcy. The role of emergency financial managers was amended in 2011 with the creation of Public Act 4. Under the revised act, emergency financial managers became known as “emergency managers” (EMs) and when needed, were tasked with taking control of the local government, balancing the books and returning governance to locally elected officials as quickly as possible.

Over the last ten years the issue of emergency management has been increasingly brought to the forefront. This is in response to a number of different events that highlighted the need for effective emergency management. As disasters ranging from the 911 terrorist attacks to Hurricane Katrina, underscore the need to have effective emergency management in place at all times. However, with the changing nature of the different threats requires that the emergency management system undergo a transformation, where it will eliminate the diverseness and rivalries of the past. This means that the various tools / tactics to change the situation should be examined and how the different silos (rivalries) can be resolved. These two factors together will provide administrators with the greatest insights as to how emergency management can adapt to the various threats in the future.

Looking back at the past eight weeks’, disasters have continued to occur across the United States. There have been riots in Baltimore Maryland, wildfires throughout the state of California and most of the Western United States, and more recently flooding in south-central New Orleans. As first responders, like the rest of the world, we wake up in the morning put both feet on the floor, go through some morning routine and most often fail to realize that today’s the day a disaster will occur. It may not be the people we serve, or in the community in which we live, but the potential is always there. Emergency planning is a pivotal key in being prepared for a worst case scenario. Since Hurricane Katrina, the federal government, state and local officials have stepped up their game in disaster planning. The federal government has established numerous guidelines and protocols for such events. The National Response Framework (NRF) superseded by the National Response Plan (NRP), the National Incident Management System (NIMS), and the Stafford Act are just a few of the government 's key programs. Recognized nationally bringing resources across the nation together and on the same page (Kramer Ph.D., 2009, p. 18).

Any disaster or event leaves questions in its wake. Who, what, where, when, and why? Preparing a plan with these questions in mind makes answering them when the time calls for it that much easier. An emergency response plan is prepared to react and correct to a wide spectrum of what makes a disaster, but it cannot do this effectively without buy-in from those who can best do the work to answer the definitive questions. Responding to an emergency means working together. By that end, cooperation is the most important aspect of the United States emergency management system in Preparing for, mitigating, and responding to man-made and natural disasters because it makes information sharing, specialization, and proper resource allocation

Out of the four phases of emergency management, 1) Mitigation, 2) Preparedness, 3) Response and 4) Recovery, the public most think of an emergency manager’s job as preparedness. “Preparation includes planning, training, public education and the tests of plans and training, called exercises (Sensenig, 1999). Since the 9/11 threats, the public has been educated on understanding the color-coded level of threat alerts and the importance of taking these threat levels seriously.

As future Emergency Managers, we will see new, dissimilar, and greater disasters. Natural and manufactured disasters are things that cannot be controlled and in the future, the emergency management is going to be increased to new level of understanding and organization. Since the terrorist attack in New York on Sept. 11th 2011, emergency managers have become more visible and played a enormous role in public safety. The future will hold the same and Emergency managers will be playing greater role in educating citizens about future disasters.

A disaster is an event that is a natural or man-made occurrence that can disrupt or destroy the lives of those it affects (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2014). Management of a disaster includes four phases; prevention, preparedness, response and recovery (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2014). Hawaii’s isolation in the pacific lends itself to the possibility of many disasters from; floods, hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, pandemics, and volcano eruptions (Schaefers, 2014). The purpose of this paper is to study emergency preparedness and response to

There are many roles an Emergency Managers will have to take in today’s emergency response and management field. The fact that emergency management covers such a vide field of concern means that the roles themselves will not be cookie cutter standardized throughout the world. In the United States there are Emergency Managers at the local, state, and federal level and each of these roles are similar. The fact that these Emergency Managers deal with separate issues that are not similar will cause these managers to have their own unique custom roles which will make them differ from one another. The purpose of this essay is to define and discuss the most important roles these managers fill.

As you may know, it does not matter where you are in the United States of America, you have the opportunity to call 911 and receive emergency medical care. Depending on where you are when you make that call may have an effect on how long it takes for someone to get to you. So, what defines the word emergency? Is it a life threading situation, or just an everyday illness? Community Paramedicine has many benefits, from helping cut down on people being re admitted to the hospital, to helping people not misuse the emergency 911 system even if they do not realize they are doing so. Some people may not realize that different emergency medical services run anywhere from one thousand calls a year to one million calls a year. Community Paramedicine can help the so called “ frequent flyers” to where they do not call as much and they are more independent thus freeing up time, money, and resources. For paramedics to respond to those life-threating emergencies.

Emergency Management is an important aspect in our everyday daily lives. Emergencies can arise any place at any time on any day. The nature of any disaster can be unpredictable and may change in scope and impact. When an emergency is encountered there is a threat of public safety, the community, properties, the economy, infrastructure, public health, etc. Disaster Management is not a problem solver it does not avert or eliminate the threats made, it mainly focuses on eradicating the severity of the disaster itself. In the article “Emergency Managers as change agents: Recognizing the value of management, leadership, and strategic management in the disaster profession” the readers begin to witness first hand the impact emergency

In the United States losses resulting from natural and man-made disasters have increased significantly due to catastrophic events. The natural and man-made disasters facing the United States can include acts of terrorism, wildland and urban fires, floods, hazardous material spills, nuclear accidents, hurricanes, earthquakes, and more. Emergency management is an essential role of government. The US emergency management is the organization and management of resources and responsibilities in the attempt to reduce the harmful effects of disasters (FEMA, 2010). The emergency management is based on phases of preparedness, mitigation, and recovery addressing extreme events and disasters.

Throughout history there has been a major shift in the hazards paradigm of emergency and hazard management. Major disasters, often resulting in catastrophes, have caused changes in emergency management and preparedness. As discussed in Disasters: Lessons from the past 105 years, “a disaster is a natural or man-made event that negatively affects life, property, livelihood or industry often resulting in permanent changes to human societies, ecosystems and environment” (Quarantelli,1998). Hurricane Katrina was one of the biggest emergency management catastrophes of this century (Waugh, 2007, p.4). This disaster was an astronomically devastating learning experience that sparked changes in emergency management at all levels of the government (Waugh, 2007, p. 4-7). The main premise of this paper is to discuss the evolution of the framework for hazard management. In doing so, I will evaluate errors made in previous disasters to explain how procedures and implementation can be improved to limit the economic and financial burdens of disasters to come (Mileti, 1999, p. 24).