We have explored the idea that the history of Emergency Management has evolved based on the hazards to the United States, and the development of the United States from a pioneer developing nation, to a sophisticated developed nation. As a result of that industrial and technological advance, hazards seem to have more impact on more populated areas, infrastructure and technology. Additionally, new technologies have their own potential to be a hazard and cause risks.
Define Emergency, Disasters and Catastrophe. Which is the most severe and least severe and why?
According to the UN, an emergency is an event that can be responded to using the resources available at hand, implying that there is no need to request external assistance(http://www.un-spider.org/risks-and-disasters/emergency-and-disaster-management). According to the text book, Emergency is any expected or unexpected event that puts life or property in danger. It needs immediate response but can be handled using the normal resources and infrastructure of the community. Disaster means event that demands substantial crisis response requiring the use of governmental powers and resources beyond the scope of one line agency or service and exceeds the capacity of emergency services in one or more critical areas. It may be natural or man-made and related to loss of life, deterioration of health, or damage to infrastructure and services. Catastrophe is the result of a disaster so severe that the community ceases to exist or its continued survival is drawn into question. Therefore, based on the definition on these three categories, the most serve should be emergency, follow by disaster and the least serve will be catastrophe. The reasons for this order is emergency events cause both huge life or property in danger and take long time to recover, disaster cause great amount of loss in life and property but required less time to recover, and the catastrophe is the situation is sufficient but need time to recover.
Define, compare and contrast natural and technological hazards, providing two examples of each hazard, using case studies to illustrate your answer. Identify at least two risks for each hazard you choose to discuss.
According to the text book, it defines natural hazard as exist in the natural environment and pose a threat to human populations and communities, there are three general types of natural hazards which is meteorological, hydrological, and geophysical. Also, it explains technological hazards is existing because of human innovation and activity which is newer and less understood than natural hazards. According to the definition, we could said that natural hazards result from a lack of control, whereas technological hazards result from a loss of control. There are two remarkable natural hazard and technological hazard which could explain the difference between them.
On August 2005, hurricane Katrina has destroyed thousands of people’s families and government loos $108 billions in this disaster. Hurricane is a typical natural disaster and also the top five most common natural disaster happen in the United States. According to FEMA, it defines that an effective risk assessment informs proposed actions by focusing attention and resources on the greatest risks, there are four basic components of a risk assessment are: 1) hazard identification, 2) profiling of hazard events, 3) inventory of assets, and 4) estimation of potential human and economic losses based on the exposure and vulnerability of people, buildings, and infrastructure. Based on hurricane Katrina, there must be abundant of risks after it happened, such as damage to assets and physical property, and damage to raw materials.
On March 2011, in Japan, after a major earth quake, a tsunami disabled the power supply and cooling of three Fukushima Daiichi reactors and causing a nuclear accident. In this accident, there is rated 7 on the INES scale due to thigh radioactive releases over days and days. Basically it means that the cooling system was broken which is the major tasks to prevent release of redioactive materials. This is a typical example of a technology hazards and also remarkable.There are also plenty of risks in this hazard, such as surrounding area got radioactive where is not good for people to live, and populated surrounding areas ocean eco-environment.
How do each of your chosen hazards above cause additional hazards or risks?
In hurricane Katrina, there are another major risk which will be the supply chain disruptions and people could not work until the government help them to rebuild their community. In Fukushima’s case, it caused surrounding people’s health decreased in a significant rate and also a certain number of people has the chance to get chronic diseases due to exposed to the radioactive.
Rephrasing the famous quote from Justice Potter Stewart, do we “know terrorism when we see it?” Over the course of the semester, we have evaluated several concepts of what the terrorism hazard is and could be. One challenge, seems to be that there is no consensus definition in the literature. Moreover, federal law varies on what terrorism is. For this question, evaluate the following:
Discuss the actions our government took immediately following 9/11. What changes were made in our concept of domestic security? How did those changes impact Emergency Management policy from 2001-2005?
The 9/11 terrorist attacks has let the US government has another new look on preventing terrorism and change abundant of useless policies. During 9/11, the Nunn-Lugar legislation provided primary authority and focus for domestic terrorism preparedness, several agencies were involved, jockeyed for leadership; each pursued own agenda because funding disparity with DOD and DOJ contolling most of the funds; State and local governments confused, unprepared, and underfunded. According to the text book, there are several major changes in domestic security and also Emergency Management. First of all, the very first responder practices and protocols, prepare for terrorist acts, funding the war on terrorism, creation of DHS, shift in focus of the nation’s EM system from natural hazards to the War of Terrorism. The government also published Homeland Security Act of 2002 which is key to the EM that it moves FEMA into the DHS organization structure which DHS was created after the 9/11.
Haddow explores the history of terrorism and the kinds of hazards terrorism presents. Why is it difficult to plan for the terrorism “hazard?” What risks does this unique hazard present?
In the text book, Haddow expand the meaning of what a terrorism is, “As a class of hazards, terrorism is actually broad in scope. Terrorists may or may not have a tangible ideological or phiosophical reason for carrying out their attacks, and they may be ‘home-grown’ or internationally based”. Also he mentioned that “But the terrorism hazard is unique in regards to what the threat means to the emergency manager and how it is handled both prior to an attack and after one occurs.” Emergency manager need to have various plan to handled various side effect that brings in from the terrorism attack. There is no any prediction on when and where a terroris attack will occur, that is the reason why emergency management team difficult to deal with it. Massive of injuries must be the top risks in this unique hazard present.
Based on the case studies, how can EM principles inform terrorism planning and response?
In each hazards, EM has a first responder to act first to respond to the hazard and making sure there is emergency relief at the first place to rescue people. Post 9/11, the first responder will be the Arlington Country Fire Department which they established its command presence within minutes of the attack. Their reaction perfectly fits with the EM principles when responding. The Arlington Country Fire Department team from Ft Myer Fire Station were onsite at the Pent
agon when Flight 77 crashed into the building.
Citizens can play a unique role in disaster response, from being individually prepared to becoming more formally involved as a volunteer. We explored in readings the myriad ways that citizens can become involved in preparedness.
What roles do the public play in disaster preparedness?
First of all, other than focus on preparing the government for disaster response, public education and communication is also important mission for EM. Since we could not predict when and where and what type of terrorism will happen, the only thing we could do is to prepare the people around in order to response to the event quick and accurate. Also the reason for EM teaching the public about prepare for the terrorism is helping recovery operations afterwards. Therefore, there are three categories that need education, individual and family preparedness, government sponsored organizations, and anon-governmental organizations. For example, the public could beomce spontaneous rescuers, and NGO’s that organize people into response, and coordinate in the EM structures. If they seek from outsiders help, it may caused a delayed for days or weeks.
On the other hand, since all the disaster are local events, local responders are on the scene before any others to provide essential services. So the local responders can be first responders but are often just citizens helping one another. Among all the disasters or any other events, federal disaster response is slow; federal organizations is disorganized, inadequate, and unable to reach the disaster site in a timely manner. Therefore, they need a group of well-trained public to help in the first place.
As a volunteer response in a disaster, the role should be able to arrive at an emergency site prior to first responders, and can provide additional assistance to first responders
Name at least two federal partner programs discussed in readings and lecture, their roles in disaster response, and the potential advantage those partner programs present for preparedness.
USA Freedom Corps and Citizens Corps was Created on April 8, 2002, it provides training opportunities for citizens to make their families and neighborhoods safer in the event of a disaster, strengthen and organize numerous volunteer organizations in both the U.S. and abroad. However it disbanded in 2005, but component organizations remain which is the Citizens Corps. A component of the former USA Freedom Corps, it designed to coordinate volunteer pursuits across the country, supports training and educating volunteers at all levels, creates volunteer opportunities for those who want to participate in the event of a disaster, seeks to produce a network of community volunteers, develops collaborative efforts between government officials and community leaders. Inside of the Citizens Corps, there is another department to oversee their job. Citizens Coprs Councils designed to oversee Citizen Corps activities at the local level, managed by local governments. The core mission is to engage the entire community to support preparedness in all phases of emergency management, provide participating communities with educational information and training courses that target key populations in that area, cooperate with other organizations and local businesses to organize first responders and volunteers. The Citizens Corps partner programs are federally sponsored programs that help build the potential capacity for first responders by using skilled volunteers. It has five programs in total, they are, Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), Medical Reserve Corps (MRC), USAOnWatch/Neighborhood Watch, Volunteers in Public Services (VIPS), and Fire Corps.
CERT, which stands for Community Emergency Response Team, created in Los Angeles, CA in 1985. It was adapted of a community-based program in Tokyo and aimed to Test citizen skills and responses during and after an earthquake. Program became national and adopted by FEMA in 1993. Trained CERT members can support first responders and provide immediate assistance to affected individuals. Administered by FEMA but usually managed at the local government level.
MRC, which stands for medical reserve corps, established July 2002.Taps the skills of both active and retired medical and mental health professionals. Volunteers coordinate with local emergency response teams to provide medical assistance as needed. MRC programs advance public health initiatives in the community during non-emergency times. Program is administered by the Department of Health and Human Services, and the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) but is community-based and functions locally.
Discuss at least two advantages and two disadvantages in relying upon citizen volunteers in disaster response, generally speaking. Provide specific examples of these advantages and disadvantages.
The advantages should be Tasks can be done more quickly, and no cost. While maintaining FEMA and EM has cost a lot of money, the volunteer will be another form of gaining more resources as first responder with low cost or no cost and react to the disaster as soon as possible.
The disadvantages will be untrained volunteers can create an impediment to providing assistance, and training process should include programs geared toward preparing members of the general public. For example, if a untrained volunteers showed up in a disaster scene and try to help those injured people, this injured people would be in a serious danger.
The National Guard represents one of the oldest tools for how to provide domestic homeland defense and emergency management, but there are numerous limitations on the ways that support is given. Using the course materials:
Explain the three “duty status” that the National Guard may be deployed. In each example, provide which elected official is commander-in-chief, what level of government pays for the activity.
There are three Dusty Status, State Active Duty, Title 32 Duty, and Title 10 Duty. Fist of all, the State Active Duty is deployed by National Guard for state purpose. State pays and reimburses federal government fours of equipment expenses, performs roles as specified in state constitution. Governors are the Commander in Chief. Adjutant General is lead for governor. Adjutant General is the senior military officer in a state government, now represented on the Joint Chiefs of Staff and can command any forces in state jurisdiction. The State Active Duty is deployed for disasters, riots, suppress insurrection, and lawless violence. On the pay level, due to this is a state active duty, everything depends on the states.
Title 32 Duty is Federal Duties, but under state control which means that the governor will be their commander in chief. The President will ask the state’s to deploy their National Guard in response to a crisis. They paid for federal government, reimbursing states.
Title 10 Duty is Federal Control and Federal Mission. They are spending the Federal expense, usually Combat Missions, no under governor’s control. Not available for domestic response. Period removed from state includes battle readiness training. Title 10 Status within US is subject to Posse Comitatus. US deployments may include enforcement of federal code in a state jurisdiction. It cannot police unless Insurrection Act is used. National Guard integrates into Federal Command Structure.
Provide an example of the use of the National Guard under each “duty status”
In the State Active Duty, it response to man-made emergencies such as riots, civil unrest, and terrorist attacks. A good example of use of Title 32 Duty will be airport guards. The Title 10 military force are under the exclusive control of the President and the federal government and are beyond the access, control or supervision of the Governor even when operating within his or her state.
Suppose President Trump desired to use the National Guard for a federal mission to provide support
to Puerto Rico. He wants to use the National Guard as a policing power under a federal mission.
Is the president able to use the National Guard this way? Why?
The president does have the right to mobilize members of military, but only under certain limited circumstances. Literally, the National Guard troops report tot he governor of their state, not the president. Therefore, if President Trump want to do this way, the quickest way will be asking for a governor to issues the order.
What steps would he need to take or what laws would he need to use?
President Trump want to do this way, the quickest way will be asking for a governor to issues the order.
If you were the governor of Puerto Rico, would you want the president to “federalize” the Guard? Why or why not?
If I am the governor of Puerto Rico, I will not want the president to “federalize” the guard. The reason will be, first of all, the president has no rights to directly order National Guard like this. Also, if I approve in this case, there must be more and more request later on after this event and follow by a huge amount of citizens’s outrage and disagreement on the government’s decisions.
Effective communications are absolutely essential to responding to any emergency or disaster. Government executives must clearly communicate the risks facing the community, and develop strategic messages to guide the public in times of crisis.
How does the public see risk? How do the EM institutions see risk? How do decision makers work to reconcile differences of public/institutional perception of risks?
What is the mission of an effective disaster communications strategy? Who are the stakeholders? Describe the guidelines that should be followed when working with the media in disaster response.
What three (3) factors do the Department of Homeland Security/Federal Emergency Management Agency (DHS/FEMA) and its state and local partners need to address to improve its communications with the American people?