Emergency Management and Planning - Assignment Example

Solution No Emergency is a serious condition or such of affairs which happens without any notice or so much suddenly that we can’t expect. And then it needs a proper and immediate action to manage the specific situation. The process of dealing and managing the upset situation is said to be emergency management. Now, coming to four different phases of emergency planning, let’s discuss them one by one: 1. Mitigation Mitigation can be said as the most important phase of the whole process. It is the foundation of the process. If proper measures are taken in this phase, the least sufferings will take place from any major hazard. Some main processes involved in mitigation are to use fire-retardant materials in any new building or houses, maintaining and applying proper structural codes and issues regarding development of buildings, preparing such roads and buildings which can resist earthquakes and many more like these. “Incorporation of indigenous knowledge of natural disasters into modern mitigation practices is a benefit not only to the emergency managers tasked with constructing disaster mitigation plans, but the countless other lives these practices will save from future disasters” (Stevens, 2009).So, we can say that emergency planning has four steps and mitigation is the basis of all steps. 2. Preparedness Preparedness means to design those steps and procedures which will be followed by the emergency management staff to protect the lives of the people and make them secure thus letting the least damage and causalities to take place. The major steps required to be taken in this phase are to plan the measures to be taken, train the staff to apply those measures and then follow the decided plan of actions to ensure least causalities and make lives of people safe and secure. 3. Response The third phase included in emergency management process is response. Response means to take appropriate steps and actions to protect the people from any further injuries. It means to act as a shield for people to ensure them that no more damage to them will take place. We can also say that response is the application of preparedness as response means by applying those set of actions which are developed in the preparedness phase. 3. Recovery The last step in the emergency management process is called recovery. As the name suggests, recovery means to recover people from hazards and accidents. It means to get people recover from injuries and to repair the damage done to their properties and buildings. Restoration of affected areas and buildings is the purpose of this step of emergency planning. Now, coming to the second part of the question, emergency managers should take most of the time in mitigation and response phases. The reason is that mitigation phase of the process should be strong enough to protect people from suffering. As mitigation is the foundation of the whole process, so when the basis will be strong, whole building will be strong enough to face and disaster. As we told earlier, mitigation is the process of assessment of possible risks and making efficient plans to prevent any disaster from happening. And the second most contemplating phase is response. Quicker the response time to face any disaster, lesser will be the number of causalities caused from that specific disaster. Talking about the last part of the question, emphases have really diverted towards preparedness. As in 9/11 a lot of causalities took place, so now the American government has taken proper measures to ensure that if any disaster takes place, their emergency management department will be fully prepared to face it. Solution No. 2 Risk is the irrefutable probability of occurrence or incidence of loss or we can say getting less return than was expected. Let’s now describe the risk analysis process. Risk process starts with identification of such threats which are to be faced by any organization or individual and then analyzing the probable causalities and vulnerabilities which will happen due to occurrence of these threats. In risk assessment stage, the emergency planners assess the existing capabilities of an organization to face any specific threat and the adequacy level of their capabilities and controls to face any kind of threat. Risk assessment process involves such methods which can actually assess and evaluate an organization’s ability to meet any coming challenge or risk. Then the planning stage comes whose purpose is to recognize and determine the possibility of any specific threat or risk and its impact on any company or business. Like if there any identified risk to any specific organization, what the impact it will make to that organization if that risk or threat actually occurs. In this stage, various threats and their vulnerability levels are measured as to know what are the upcoming threats and challenges which are to be faced by the organization. If I were the city manager of any city, following steps I would take to analyze the risk. At first, the investigation of frequency level of that specific risk would be made. Then the level of predictability of that risk would be calculated. After that the vulnerability level of the threat would be checked. Then the duration of the disaster would be calculated. In the end, the redundancy level would be checked and the estimated potential dollar loss would be calculated. “Losses can be measured in a variety of ways—with deaths, injuries, and property damage being the most common indexes” (Fundamentals of Emergency Management, n.d.). I would never eye ball the risk rather I would make proper risk assessment and would apply proper measures to secure public from facing any disaster. Solution No. 3 An emergency plan is always of great importance for any organization or community. An emergency plan helps organizations to deal with any sort of emergency situations. Because of emergency plans, various risks and hazards can be identified which are suspected to occur. Each and every member of the management department should be efficient. “Members of the emergency response team must be trained in their roles and responsibilities in the event of an emergency” (Anderson, 2009). Then by having a perfect emergency plan and trained members, the organization can face various risks efficiently. If there is no emergency plan with a company, then various damages and causalities can occur because of any hazard. Preplanning is always necessary for any organization to prevent any sort of risk. So, a perfect emergency plan is of critical importance these days for any organization or community. In making or revising an emergency plan for my company, I would make sure that each and every necessary component is present in the plan to handle any sort of difficult situation. Because I think revisiting of any emergency plan is of great importance because technology is advancing day by day and we should have the latest technology to prevent ant sort of risk and danger. I would implement latest fire fighting system and latest medical care technologies in my plan to ensure safety and security of public. Solution No. 4 In any mass-causalities incident, the role of emergency manager is of critical importance. To ensure medical care is one of the chief roles of an emergency manager. The responsibilities included in ensuring medical relief to the public, who has faced a disaster, are: assessment of the number of causalities assessment of resources available for medical treatment of patients assessment of the medical supplies to set up a proper medical triage place arrange medical staff as soon as possible arrange medical equipment that is needed coordinate transport for medical facilitation arrange medicines which may be needed for the mass-incident’s patients Public safety agencies can play a vital role in provided medical aid to wounded persons in any mass-casualties incident begetting in touch with all emergency management departments. There should be a proper contact between all medical hospitals and emergency management departments so that if any hazard occurs, both the departments work in proper collaboration with each other to ensure least amount of causalities and proper medical treatment to the wounded persons. Solution No. 5 To be an effective and efficient emergency manager or disaster planner, a manager should be able to make a proper risk or disaster analysis as to know which areas of any department are suspected of risk or threat. He should be able to be aware of any sort of potential threat to the organization. He should be able to know what plan of action should be taken to cop with any difficult situation. Then he should also know what are the outcomes of any disaster and how can he be able to put off the danger of disaster. He should be able to carry out proper medical and recovery operations after any disaster. An emergency planner should have up to date knowledge of management programs and activities related to them. He should be able to coordinate all departments of emergency management during any disaster. He should be able to accurately supervise all the activities of emergency management process. He should revise the plans and make any improvement where needed. I would say that in these days, an emergency management department should be fully equipped with the latest technologies in order to properly manage any kind of disaster. Without having proper facilities and equipments, no emergency manager can proficiently manage any sort of hazardous conditions. These days, emergency management departments are fully equipped with disaster management technologies but still they should try to achieve excellence through proper collaboration with hospitals, support from police department and gaining public trust by providing them with increased safety and security. References Fundamentals of Emergency Management. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/edu/fem.asp Stevens, A. (2009). How Indigenous Knowledge Is Changing Natural Hazard Mitigation. Retrieved from http://www.emergencymgmt.com/disaster/Indigenous-Knowledge-Natural-Hazard-Mitigation.html Anderson, D. (2009). Emergency Preparedness: Developing an Emergency Response Management Plan. Retrieved from http://www.pfonline.com/articles/pc/03-040804-pc.html Read More