Vocabulary List

(FEMA, n.d.-b)

• Disaster: An event in which a community experiences danger and suffers such losses to persons and/or property that the resources available within the community are placed in a challenging situation.

• Accident: An unexpected or undesirable event, especially one causing injury to a small number of individuals and/or modest damage to physical structures.

• Emergency: An unexpected event which places life and/or property in danger and requires an immediate response through the use of routine community resources and procedures.

• Hazard: A condition with the potential for harm to the community or environment.

• Crisis: A time of intense difficulty, trouble, or danger.

• Infrastructure: The basic physical and organizational structures and facilities (for example, buildings, roads, power supplies) needed for the operation of a community.

Objectives

This Week's Objectives:

• Define and distinguish among an emergency, disaster, and hazard.

• Identify the principles and phases of emergency management.

• Provide one sample activity of each phase of emergency management.

Emergency Management 

Welcome to the field of emergency management! This is an exciting career to consider with many opportunities available. The field is incredibly diverse in that emergency management organizations exist all over the world in virtually every community with many different sectors being represented. Sectors such as first responders (fire, police, emergency medical services, healthcare, and so on), information technology, volunteer coordinators, resource managers, communication specialists, training personnel and the like are all under the umbrella of emergency management. Emergency management is vital to the safety of any community, and it takes leaders who are committed and capable to manage all aspects of an emergency. 

According to various emergency management organizations (Emergency Management, n.d.), emergency management is the managerial function charged with creating the framework within which communities reduce vulnerability to hazards and cope with disasters. Ultimately, emergency management professionals seek to promote safer and better prepared communities with the capacity to cope with hazards and disasters. This is achieved by “coordinating and integrating all activities necessary to build, sustain, and improve the capability to mitigate against, prepare for, respond to, and recover from threatened or actual natural disasters, acts of terrorism or other man-made disasters.” Emergency management works well effectively when individuals, families, communities, organizations and government agencies fulfill their emergency management responsibilities. 

As one framework to consider, emergency management skills and attributes should include the following:

1. Comprehensive: emergency managers consider and take into account all hazards, all phases, all stakeholders and all impacts relevant to disasters.

2. Progressive: emergency managers anticipate future disasters and take preventive and preparatory measures to build disaster-resistant and disaster-resilient communities.

3. Risk-driven: emergency managers use sound risk management principles (hazard identification, risk analysis, and impact analysis) in assigning priorities and resources.

4. Integrated: emergency managers ensure unity of effort among all levels of government and all elements of a community.

5. Collaborative: emergency managers create and sustain broad and sincere relationships among individuals and organizations to encourage trust, advocate a team atmosphere, build consensus, and facilitate communication.

6. Coordinated: emergency managers synchronize the activities of all relevant stakeholders to achieve a common purpose.

7. Flexible: emergency managers use creative and innovative approaches in solving disaster challenges.

8. Professional: emergency managers value a science and knowledge-based approach based on education, training, experience, ethical practice, public stewardship and continuous improvement.

In other words, emergency management includes many of the leadership, management, and administrative skills that take place in many other forms of employment. These administrative skills include planning, coordination, collaboration, financial management, personnel management, building relationships with communities and government leaders, decision-making, problem solving, and critical thinking, among many more skills. 

Understanding the Terminology

The terms emergency, hazard, and disaster are related but have distinct meanings. For instance, an emergency is a serious, unexpected, and often dangerous situation requiring immediate action. An emergency is a small scale but serious problem or situation. Examples of emergencies could include a hazardous materials spill, a train derailment or a fire at a business or apartment complex. First responders such as police, fire, and emergency services are usually the first ones to arrive at the scene of the emergency. The impact of an emergency usually involves smaller numbers of people, injuries, deaths, and property damage.

(U.S. Department of Homeland Security, n.d.)

Hazards are severe and extreme weather events. Hazards can occur in any part of the world with some regions experiencing certain hazards more than others, such as hurricanes that could impact the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean. A hazard can become a disaster when lives and property are at the greatest risk. Natural hazards and natural disasters are related but are not the same. A natural hazard is the threat of an event that will likely have a negative impact. A natural disaster is the negative impact following an actual occurrence of natural hazard in the event that it significantly harms a community.

A disaster is usually a sudden problem caused by nature or people (in other words, natural and man-made disasters). As an important distinction, a disaster typically involves a large number of injuries, the displacement of many people, a potentially large number of casualties and considerable property damage or loss. Disasters are known to disrupt transportation systems, supply chains, businesses and the displacement of people from their homes and workplaces. 

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) defines disaster as

"an event that results in large numbers of deaths and injuries; causes extensive damage or destruction of facilities that provide and sustain human needs; produces an overwhelming demand on state and local response resources and mechanisms; causes a severe long-term effect on general economic activity; and severely affects state, local and private sector capabilities to begin and sustain response activities." (FEMA, n.d.-a) (pg. 6)

Examples of disasters include the terrorist attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001, the Ebola virus outbreak in certain parts of Africa, and the Indian Ocean earthquake of 2004 which produced a substantial tsunami. In fact, the initial surge of this tsunami reached a height of 33 meters (108 feet), making it one of the largest earthquake-produced tsunamis in recorded history. An estimated 228,000 people lost their lives, with 73% of the casualties occurring in Indonesia. 

(FEMA, n.d.-a)

The terms emergency and disaster are often used interchangeably, along with the term hazard. At times, it can be confusing to know which term to use. In review, it might help to understand the terms emergency and disaster as being at two ends of a scale, where the size of an incident and the resources to deal with the incident are relatively matched. 

As we learned in this lesson, an emergency is a local, small-scale incident using local resources. It is possible that a small-scale emergency can escalate into a disaster level response. A disaster, on the other hand, is a large-scale incident requiring resources beyond the local community. Lastly, a hazard is the threat or anticipation of an event that could have a negative impact. In the example used earlier, a hurricane is a hazard from June to November in the Caribbean but would only become a disaster if the hurricane makes landfall (in other words, it is anticipated that a hurricane hazard could occur in the Caribbean, but it is not a disaster unless the hurricane actually forms and causes damage to the mainland, islands, and/or people).

Principles of Emergency Management

(FEMA, n.d.-a)

The fundamental principles of emergency management are based on four phases: mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. Each of these four phases needs to be taken into account for proper emergency and disaster management purposes. 

(FEMA, n.d.-a)

Access the appendix for a description of the image.

The mitigation phase includes efforts to prevent or reduce the cause, impact, and consequences of emergencies and disasters. Examples of hazard mitigation include the following:

• Tying down furniture with anchors in a home or office to mitigate the effects of an earthquake.

• Creating channels to divert water and planting vegetation when a flood hazard is present.

• Installing fencing to prevent damage and protect animals and farms.

• Trimming trees in a forest in order to control wildfires (for example, removing lower branches so as to reduce fire-burning material).

• Constructing buildings and other structures to withstand hurricanes, winds, and so on.

As a real world example of the mitigation phase, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints started the construction of the San Juan Puerto Rico temple in May 2019, nearly two years after the destructive Hurricane Maria in 2017. The Church and many other businesses and organizations benefited from the lessons learned of a hurricane disaster such as the need to reinforce construction methods and materials in order to withstand intense winds and rains.

The preparedness phase deals with planning, training programs, and practicing emergency and disaster preparedness plans through drills and exercises. Examples of emergency and disaster preparedness include the following:

• Writing preparedness plans that include where to go, what to do, who to call for help, and so on.

• Practicing preparedness plans through tabletop exercises, functional exercises and full-scale exercises (more to come on exercises in Chapter 5). 

• Securing emergency preparedness supplies such as communication equipment, medicine, and first aid supplies. 

A real world example of the preparedness phase is when students in schools practice earthquake drills as part of an emergency preparedness plan. An approach that includes getting down, taking cover, and holding on is practiced by students around the world in the event that an earthquake were to strike at some point while they are in school. A similar approach can be taken when at home: taking cover in a door frame or other reinforced area of the home may provide protection during the shaking of an earthquake.  

The response phase takes place immediately after a disaster occurs. During the response phase, it is possible that businesses may not be operating normally. Personal safety is dependent on the preparedness achieved before the disaster strikes. Examples of response activities include the following:

• Implementing emergency and disaster response plans.

• Initiating and carrying out search and rescue operations.

• Taking care of yourself, your family, neighbors, animals, and others.

• Monitoring food and water safety in terms of potential contamination but also addressing safe and reasonable access to these resources. 

A real world example of the response phase is volcanic eruptions. There are approximately 1,300 active volcanoes around the world (U.S. Geological Survey, n.d.). The largest active volcano is Mauna Loa in Hawaii (on the big island of Hawaii) and it reaches a height of 13,680 feet above sea level. The volcano of Mount Nyiragongo in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Africa experienced an eruption in 2021 that fortunately had limited loss of life but destroyed over 1,000 homes and property. The disaster response for such a volcanic eruption includes monitoring communication channels (such as radio, internet, and television), evacuating homes and neighborhoods, seeking safe shelter, and coordinating with emergency management organizations to meet the day-to-day needs for individuals and families.

The recovery phase occurs at the same time as response operations and activities. It is a time to restore the standard services and resources to a community. The recovery period can take place over days, weeks, months, or even years depending on the severity and size of the disaster. For example, controlling and recovering from a wildfire will ultimately depend on the size of the impacted area. Recovering from a power outage may only be a matter of hours or days to restore some or all of the power to a community. Examples of recovery activities include the following:

• Providing services to the affected community. This could include stress reduction, anxiety management, and other mental health services for those who may need the assistance. In addition to behavioral health needs, physical health services may also be needed and are usually organized by government and non-governmental organizations. 

• Facilitating financial recovery resources at the family, community, city, or a larger geographic level.

• Rebuilding damaged structures and using historical data to prepare for future disasters.

• Identifying ways to learn from the current disaster in order to be prepared for the next one. 

There are many real world examples of the recovery phase. Whether the disaster involves floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, or extreme weather, the recovery phase of emergency management is almost automatic due to the definition of an emergency or disaster. Recovery is what communities do. By looking out for each other, friends and families help one another make it through the disaster. They are then supported by government and non-governmental organizations as described previously.

One real world example of the recovery phase is the period following Hurricane Dorian, which made landfall in the Bahamas in 2019. This hurricane was the worst natural disaster in Bahamas’s recorded history. As the islands of the Bahamas are in the Caribbean, and therefore in a hurricane risk zone, learning from the 2019 disaster helps them be better prepared for future hurricanes by fortifying buildings, constructing ways to divert water, and raising the foundations of new buildings due to the potential for widespread flooding that a hurricane can bring.

Making Emergency Management Work

(FEMA, n.d.-a)

Depending on where you live, a disaster declaration is likely different from a state of emergency. A state of emergency is declared when public health or the economic stability of a community is threatened, and substantial measures of control may be required. One example of a declared state of emergency is the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Disasters, on the other hand, are declared using established guidelines and procedures. As all disasters are local, they are initially declared at the local level, and depending on the government structure of the country, a disaster declaration will likely proceed through a review and approval process at various levels. At the local level, a local official at the city, town, or village level will determine if a disaster declaration should be made. If the local official determines that local resources capabilities have been or are expected to be exceeded, then they will request state, province, or region assistance. If the state chooses to respond to a disaster, the governor or elected governing official of the state will direct implementation of the state or region’s emergency plan. If the governor or elected governing official determines that the resource capabilities of the state are exceeded, this person could request that the President declare a major disaster in order to make federal resources and assistance available to qualified state and local governments. This ordered sequence is important to ensure appropriate financial assistance. 

Impact on Infrastructure

Understanding how emergencies and disasters may impact a community and its infrastructure is important to an emergency manager. Many communities and cities are dependent on an infrastructure system in order to provide for their residents and visitors. Components of an infrastructure system can include the following:

• Roads
• Highways
• Bridges
• Railroads
• Hospitals
• Schools
• Airports
• Buildings
• Farms
• Grocery stores
• Electrical, gas, solar, wind, and nuclear power
• Water
• Sewage
• Mass transit
• Communication equipment, such as cellular towers

A comprehensive assessment of hazards and their impact will help emergency managers identify the most effective approaches in light of the four phases of emergency management. A key consideration in assessing how emergencies and disasters affect infrastructure is their impact on critical systems such power, clean water access, and healthcare facilities. 

The four pictures below depict the impact that disasters can have on the infrastructure of a community: 

(Krausmann et al., 2019)

(a) The results of a tsunami in Japan and how it compromised a critical power source for the local communities. The tsunami claimed the lives of almost 20,000 people with 6,200 injured and 2,500 people missing.

(b) The results of an earthquake near Sichuan, China. The earthquake claimed the lives of nearly 70,000 people with 374,000 injured and another 18,000 missing.

(c) The results of Hurricane Katrina which impacted the New Orleans, Louisiana, area of the United States. The effects of the hurricane compromised a power source for New Orleans, which has a population of approximately 375,000 people. Hurricane Katrina is the most expensive and destructive hurricane to ever hit the United States with 1,400 deaths. 

(d) Supertyphoon Pongsona made landfall at the island of Guam in the central Pacific Ocean. The compromised jet fuel tanks impacted air travel at the local airport. This disaster amounted to more than $700 million in damages.  

Access the appendix for a description of the image. 

References

Emergency Management. (n.d.). https://www.iaem.org/portals/25/documents/Principles-of-Emergency-Management-Flyer.pdf

FEMA. (n.d.-a). Emergency Management in the United States. https://training.fema.gov/emiweb/downloads/is111_unit%204.pdf

FEMA. (n.d.-b). Key Definitions. https://training.fema.gov/emiweb/downloads/sdd/handout%202-1.pdf

Krausmann, E., Girgin, S., & Necci, A. (2019). Natural hazard impacts on industry and critical infrastructure: Natech risk drivers and risk management performance indicators. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 40, 101163. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2019.101163

U.S. Department of Homeland Security. (n.d.). Natural Hazards. FEMA. https://hazards.fema.gov/nri/natural-hazards

U.S. Geological Survey. (n.d.). How Do Volcanoes Erupt? USGS. https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/how-do-volcanoes-erupt