Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
experience. There is often the misconception that responding to a disaster is the
same as responding to any other emergency, only on a grander scale.
Another impediment to planning is that although an individual may have been
involved in disaster response, it is difficult to view the disaster from the perspective of
other organizations. Postdisaster critiques often turn out to be justifications of actions
taken, rather than impartial, objective assessments of problems and mistakes.
Disaster planning must have the support of the entire community if it is to be suc-
cessful. Lack of public awareness can often undercut the community's efforts to plan.
Key officials often neglect to read emergency plans. Even after a plan is written, it is
often not properly exercised, often resulting in failure of the plan during a true disaster.
Planning as a Blueprint
A disaster plan should serve as a community's blueprint for initiating, managing,
and performing operations that will most likely extend beyond the scope of func-
tions carried out in normal day-to-day operations. The disaster plan should serve
to coordinate the activities, logistics, and resources involved in disaster response.
Plans typically seek to establish the various sectors that need to be implemented in
the event of a disaster.
A comprehensive emergency management strategy includes four phases that
work in a pattern. The four phases are mitigation, preparedness, response, and
recovery. The phases are not linear in nature, but are more cyclical, as illustrated
in Figure 1.1.
The goal of prevention is to avert accidents and emergencies. This is not always
possible, however, thus creating the need for preparedness, the component of
planning in which steps are taken to ensure that all individuals and entities to be
involved in a disaster response ready themselves to perform during an emergency.
Figure 1.1
The four phases of comprehensive emergency management.
