Emergency Management Policy Implementation & Analysis - Research Paper Example

 Emergency Management Policy Implementation & Analysis Introduction Disaster management can be described as the management and organization of responsibilities and resources to deal with the humanitarian issues related to emergencies. There is not a single country that is invulnerable to disasters. There are mainly four types of natural disasters, natural disasters, environmental emergencies, complex emergencies and pandemic emergencies. Natural disasters include hurricanes, floods, earthquake, etc. Environmental emergencies include industrial or technological accidents. Complex emergencies include break down of installations and authorities. These mainly include war and other conflict situations. Pandemic emergencies involve sudden emergence of serious diseases that may affect health or even disrupt businesses and services. Irrespective of the type of the disaster it is important for authorities of a country to react efficiently and effectively to the disaster to minimize the damage made. This study however focuses on a natural disaster called Hurricane Katrina. Hurricane Katrina hit the gulf coast states and New Orleans Florida towards the end of 2005. The disaster would be long remembered for the destruction it caused. The hurricane disrupted families, changed and ended lives of many. Hurricane Katrina is believed to be the most devastating natural disaster in the United States. It affected 92,000 square miles of areas and destroyed major portions of the city. More than 1,800 people lost their lives and tens of thousands were homeless without the basic supplies. Here is needs to mentioned that this disaster happened four years after the 9/11 attacks. To make things worse it was followed by Hurricanes Rita and Wilma within weeks. The hurricane forced the US authorities to think again about the risk and vulnerability and overall disaster management strategies. The disaster acted as an active catalyst leading to a lot of significant changes in the federal policies and the modus operand of Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The study looks to analyze the key factors related to the response system and analyze the effectiveness of the system. Based on the critical issues analyzed the study proposes an effective emergency management policy. Key Factors related to system operations Responding to early warnings The disasters related to Katrina cannot be treated as a surprise. Ample amount of warnings were issued regarding the potential natural disaster. But still it is believed that the disaster was dealt with below – per preparations. The results of major hurricane in New Orleans had been anticipated long times back. But still FEMA authorities took five years to find out funding to run a simulation model. The exercise called Hurricane Pam happened in the year 2004. The exercise was believed to be quite useful. The FEMA authorities also distributed a few copies of plans. However those copies were not total operational guides. The simulation procedure was also not fully exploited due to the funding issues. As a matter of fact the workshop to be followed after the simulation was delayed as FEMA failed to manage $1500 for travel expenses. As the dark clouds of Katrina emerged the weather department issues several grave warnings. The weather authorities urged FEMA and other state departments to declare a state of emergency on Friday. But still the Mayor of New Orleans called for mandatory evacuation on Sunday morning. The federal responders also blamed for the relative late response. Senior staffs of the White House had not reached Washington even when the disaster seemed imminent. Add to that the authorities also lacked internal communication among each other. It is believed that FEMA administrator neither Michael Brown nor DHS Secretary Michael Chertof seemed unaware of the fact that the convention center was being used as a shelter until it was informed to them by the reporters (Kutz, 2006). Dealing with dispersed responsibilities The US government authorities mainly followed an intergovernmental approach to respond to the disaster. This means that the government gradually got involved in the process as the local responders needed help. This can be treated as a pull strategy. The pull strategy however struggled as the capacity of the local authorities got damaged seriously. The government failed waited long for the requests from the state authorities rather than following a more aggressive push strategy. Confusion regarding responsibilities rose due to the complicated dispersed responsibilities. Such situations also lead to lack of centralization and authority. The lack of authority also encouraged the responders to freelance without the permission of authorities. For example the heroic efforts of the coast guards were praised. But there was lack of co-ordination between FEMA and coast guards. As far as co-ordination is concerned the situation was not much different between FEMA, National guards or even the department of defense (Jenkins, 2009). Ability to understand complex systems In the very initial period of the disaster the federal government failed to understand the nature of the risk. The size of the natural disaster made some of the most extra ordinary efforts seem insufficient. The scope of the natural disaster drastically reduced the ability to effectively use transportation systems to deliver food, medical supplies and water. The buses were flooded despite of the fact that the busses were placed at a place that is not supposed to get affected by the storm. Most of the potential drivers of the buses had already evacuated the city. Just like he civilian vehicles many police vehicles got flooded. The disaster damaged much of the communication systems including many 911 call centers. Even the warless services got affected. Organizational capacity The nature of Katrina Hurricane made it impossible for any network to prevent the disaster. However, problems related to capacity made the response far less effective. FEMA had become operationally weak during the Bush administration. The failures related to deployment of personnel, insufficiency in deploying communication possessions, lack of planning when it comes to the response of catastrophic events, failures related to evacuation. Experts believe that after 9/11 the US government shifted to terrorism related disasters and neglected n natural disasters. DHS was given far more attention as compared to FEMA. FEMA also lost influence and resources. The organization was led by people having very little or even no experience in dealing with emergency situations related to natural disasters. Due to the shift towards the possible problems related to the terrorism the FEMA authorities lost influence. Also the relations of FEMA and other state authorities had weakened. Due to all these factors the organization lost the most important function when it comes to emergency management- preparedness. Failure of Sense Making Natural disasters like Katrina are quite different from usual emergencies. Such situation needs leadership that is unorthodox in nature. During non-crisis situations a leader is usually judged by the successful implementation of practices to predictable observable facts. But crisis leadership calls for a mental state that is prepared to take an approach and action that is a lot more creative than usual procedural approaches. The crisis leaders have to deal with situations where very little information is available. Such leadership approach needs the ability to indulge in to sense making. Sense making needs organizational reactors to identify proper responses to the new challenges. In the case of Katrina there were many examples off innovative leadership at the ground level. But such leadership was most of the time undo-ordinate. Due to this such innovative leadership failed to make up for the failure of sense making among the federal authorities. Also the leaders tried to follow a similar approach like 9/11 to deal with Katrina. But Katrina was not a terrorist attack or an accident. It was a natural disaster. This happened as the t of FEMA leadership lacked experience in dealing with such disasters. Also prior to the landfalls the emergency operation centers in Louisiana had organized calls with many federal officials, Red Cross society members and some local parishes. But due to the aftermath of Katrina such communications were not possible (Awasthy, 2009). Political Controversies and electoral Consequences The flood protection was designed and constructed by the engineers of Federal US Army Corps. The protection was completely misguided. This particular issue is complicated by the design goals that were given to Corps of engineers. The huge variation of maintenance and weather budgets finds the suitable threshold difficult. Due to weather forecasting ability and the factor of Cost efficiency/diminishing returns, the primary flood situation protection is the appropriate evacuation of flood-prone areas. The loss of coastal wetlands has increased the flooding more inland. Channeling of flood waters through levees may increase the storm surge height. The negligent stage environmental rules and regulations for the toxic chemical storage have increased the flood waters contamination. Long-term Issues Relating to Government Response Several long-term issues relating to government response that has been raised after the disaster Hurricane Katrina are listed below. The federal US Army Corps of Engineers need to reform the design and structure policies. Whether the Congress needs to redevelop the projects of flood protection that are undertaken and funded. Whether the policy like bankruptcy legislation need to be reformed in order to help the poor who are affected badly by the disaster. Whether the electoral changes are necessary due to outsized migration of poor displaced people. The question of exclusive government assistance like the compensation funds should be available for the people who are badly affected by Hurricane Katrina. Policies Affecting Hurricane Defenses The homeland security department had assumed responsibility according to the National Response Plan in order to ensure that professionals of emergency response are effectively prepared for any kind of emergency situation. It is evidenced that The Bus Administration divergent to offer the promises and a policy of wetland protection that was maintained since 1990, ended the federal wetland protections. Federal Evaluation Policy Generally the federal policies reschedules to the states to ratify evacuation laws pertinent. Implementing authorities from local ordinances and state laws, the local and state officials need to suggest the evacuation of residents. Brief description of four federal evaluation policies is discussed below. Stafford Act before Hurricane Katrina The relief emergency and disaster act of Robert Stafford empowers president to direct the secretary of defense in order to use the resources that are necessary to preserve property and life of human beings in emergency situations (Janda, Berry & Goldman, 2008). It should take place before the president announces emergency declaration. The president may also announce the declaration before the matter to advert the threat of calamity by providing aid for precautionary evacuations. Stafford Act after Hurricane Katrina The final constituent of estimation is the evacuees return to the alternative locations. According to the Post Hurricane Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act, the Stafford act states that the President may provide transportation aid to relocate the displaced people and provide a short-term or a long term accommodation for the affected individuals. According to this authority the Federal Government’s role is to assist the people who are affected by the calamities. National Response Framework The federal government aids evacuations through the responsibilities and roles of various federal agencies, non-profit organizations and states and localities. The national response Framework has been controlled by the Department of Homeland Society and Federal Emergency management agency. The National Response Framework ascertains the responsibilities and roles of Federal and Non-Federal units when the occurrences overwhelm local or state governments. For an example, The National Response Framework identifies, local, state and tribal governments as containing the responsibility of evacuation ordering of people from any part of the state that is threatened by the occurrence, considering to the requirements of unique-needs populations. National Hurricane Program The national Hurricane Program was established in the year 1985. It is one of the significant entities of FEMA. It helps to protect the individuals and communities from the hazards of Hurricane through various project and actions. The National Hurricane Program also provides aid to the local and state agencies in order to develop the Hurricane migration program (Haddow & Bullock, 2005). It can be achieved through Hurricane Evacuation study of National Hurricane program. Hurricane evacuation study helps the localities and states to identify the probable Hurricane effects. Moreover, predict victim’s response and appropriate shelters to a hurricane advisories can be identified through this study. National Hurricane program conducts vulnerability and hazard analysis for the coastal communities. These kind of analysis include Hurricane’s impact assessment, review of existing transportation systems and roads and effective analysis of the populations. The information that is achieved from the analysis can be develop disaster map and determine the clearance times. Impending Policy Issues Several policies related to the disaster named Hurricane Katrina has failed to overcome the difficult scenarios in US. Evacuation studies have identified various techniques that can make evacuation more effective (Lindsay, 2010). For an example, informing the people of whole nation about the shelter locations and evacuation routes will be an effective part of population preparedness activity. It can reduce valuable time for the households in order to relocate to the safe locations. The implementation of evacuation and hazard analysis would produce more significant evacuation. Hazard Analysis helps to identify place susceptible to a calamity’s impact. Evacuation analysis determines the size of affected population. Moreover, this analysis will help to determine the transportation modes that should be used in the potential evacuation routes. Lessons Learned from Hurricane Katrina The effect of Hurricane Katrina should increase the knowledge of evacuation. Generally, several studies found out some techniques that should make the evacuation more effective. Implementation of evacuation on the affected people by the disaster like Hurricane Katrina went smoothly due to the successful evacuation producers. Traffic management technique like Contra-Flow may significantly enhance the evacuation process. The implementation of conference calls by traffic directors and emergency managers should improve the evacuation process. Moreover, these techniques may result positive outputs. However, various reports related to this subject have also asserted that several aspects of the evacuation process should be significantly improves. The evacuation of Jefferson Parish and New Orleans were scrupulously troublesome. Especially, they are so hard to handle that they had created negative public perception of the evacuation process as a whole. The evacuation of Hurricane Katrina has also underscored the implication of duration of an evacuation process. Large and developed Metropolitan areas need 48 hours to evacuate. Therefore, it is feasible that the order of early evacuation can limit the impact of the calamities on the societies and population. The lack of ability to predict a calamity or storm increases the difficulties of evacuation decision making process. The late declaration of evacuation by the president has affected the coastal areas badly. A congressional report had concluded that the incomplete and inadequate evacuation process led the need for another evacuation after the calamities of Hurricane Katrina. Major of the post Hurricane Katrina policies, rules and regulations had directed several problems. For an example, some of the legislations and policies that are implemented after Hurricane Katrina include evacuation development plans for localities and states in order to ensure the provisions for unique needs population. The individuals who are disadvantaged economically also experienced several difficulties at the period of evacuations. Several households who need to evacuate to the safe area, does not able to relocate due to the lack of special-needs population and transportation. Some of the households started to depend on service animals. Due to these problems and inadequate evacuation policies major of the people could not evacuate to the safe locations. According to the House report, the evacuate responsibility did not inhabit solely within the government. The government should need to aware all of the affected individuals for the evacuation, but they have failed to do so. Some of them were waiting for Hurricane to come; in fact they have neglected the incidents and matters. Some of them had failed to determine the seriousness of this storm. Therefore, the policy makers and government should be careful about the evacuation process related to any kind of natural calamity in order to reduce the affects of these. Theories of emergency management The disaster management theory has been applied in this study in order to apply the conceptual framework that is discusses in the above analysis. Most of the Americans are well aware of two incidents, such as the terrorist attack in 2001 and the impact of Hurricane Katrina that occurred in the year 2005. This natural calamity has affected several resources and populations of the country. It stimulated the major reorganization of the federal government of US and established the homeland security. The balance sheet for Hurricane Katrina with the hindsight benefit is roughly described below. An effective well-developed system need to be designed in order to forecast the timing of Hurricane landfall. This will help in actual emergency management process. Scenario that had been written in order to predict the effects of Hurricane Katrina including the evaluation of emergency management needs. However, these had not adequate effect on the disaster preparedness. Structural protection of larger urban places was typically inadequate. The relief and evacuation operations were inadequately co-ordinate. The disaster as a genre likes to represent major emergencies as the incidents caused the breakdown of the society. This section will offer some welfare and resources for emergency preparedness. The disaster relief and recovery program involve replacement of consumed assets. The balance between market capitalism, profit function and social assistance welfare functions has been temporarily altered. Generally the local government negotiates support from national to regional, regional to national and national from the global community. Degree of political influence, relatedness has helped the communities to stay connected with the national and domestic political hierarchy. There are several combinations of forces that are designed under the disaster management. It involves several relief camps, military supports and many more. The effects of Hurricane Katrina Was managed at huge expense due to the lack of preliminary awareness. At the most supreme level, it represented a triumph over the anarchy. Various reports related to this subject have also asserted that several aspects of the evacuation process should be significantly improved. The evacuation of Jefferson Parish and New Orleans were scrupulously troublesome. Especially, they are so hard to handle that they had created negative public perception of the evacuation process as a whole. When disaster like Hurricane Katrina strikes, local knowledge, seer back-up and imported assistance is required in order to save the communities. In adequate local knowledge and response is another reason for the huge loss. The federal government aids evacuations through the responsibilities and roles of various federal agencies, non-profit organizations and states and localities. The national response Framework has been controlled by the Department of Homeland Society and Federal Emergency management agency. The National Response Framework ascertains the responsibilities and roles of Federal and Non-Federal units when the occurrences overwhelm local or state governments. It is the responsibility of both the people and government to take responsibilities in order to face the challenges that are created due to the natural calamities. Policy alternatives for effective future emergency management Emergency management policies should be flexible, simple, tested, written and reviewed. The policies should be prepared to make sure that is the emergency management plan is ready in every sense to deal with any kind of emergency. Such policies should be reviewed annually and reissued if required. It is very important that the people indulged in developing the plan consults with other experts such as respondents from the local council, fire brigade, building owner or even employees. This always helps in determining the appropriateness of the plan from independent sources. The policies should be easily accessible by the staffs and significantly exhibited at all the centers. The policies should be based on evaluation of hazards; as such hazards may affect safety of the citizens across different ages. The policies may not need to be too complex. However, the policies should clearly state the probable measures to be taken by the staffs during the course of a natural emergency. The policies should clearly state the different types probable emergencies, appropriate responses to emergencies, allocation of responsibilities among the respondents, important contacts such as police department, fire department, local council, DEECD, the procedures to develop evacuation packs that may contain family contact details, first aid kits, batteries, mobile phone with charged batteries, emergency management drills, frequency of such drills, people responsible for initiation and supervision of such drills, different evacuation procedures, proximity to other geographic locations, different elements of the external environment such as surrounding vegetation, volume of road traffic, vehicle exit and entries, building site maps, weather conditions at the time of emergency evacuation, inclusion of volunteers, contingency plans during a time when most of the staffs are on a leave, etc. Conclusion The federal authorities must understand that the impact of Katrina was largely due to the size of the disaster. Good management might have modified the disasters, but could not have eliminated them. However, the aspect of human failure should not be overlooked. It is quite clear that a better sense of urgency, experience management related to the risks, better communication and coordination among the state and federal respondents would most certainly minimized the damages to some extent. Lack of quick response and preparedness are the two major factors to be blamed. Also it needs to remembered that Katrina occurred during the aftermath of 9/11 attacks. It also exposed that there exists lack of co-ordination among the authorities, confusion among the official about the roles and, most importantly lack of experienced crisis leadership during the course non-terrorist events. The study also suggests the probable benefits of having a set of crisis respondents. The study also shows that the capacity of the network largely depends upon the ability of the members. Moreover, it is feasible that the effect of Hurricane Katrina should increase the knowledge of evacuation. Traffic management technique like Contra-Flow may significantly enhance the evacuation process. Evacuation analysis determines the size of affected population. The implementation of conference calls by traffic directors and emergency managers should improve the evacuation process. Various reports related to this subject have also asserted that several aspects of the evacuation process should be significantly improved. The evacuation of Jefferson Parish and New Orleans were scrupulously troublesome. Especially, they are so hard to handle that they had created negative public perception of the evacuation process as a whole. FEMA can be treated as the HUB while other elements of the networks could be the ground level authorities including the volunteers. The study also points out the importance of having simple and easily accessible alternative policies to ensure better response during the course of nay natural disasters. . Crisis managers require to do a, lot more to incorporate such factors into the overall network even before the disaster occurs. References Awasthy, A. (2009). Disaster Management: Warning Response and Community Relocation. India: Global India Publications Haddow, G., & Bullock, J. (2005). Introduction to Emergency Management (2nd ed.). Burlington: Butterworth-Heinemann. Janda, K., Berry, J., & Goldman, J. (2008). The Change of Democracy: American Government in a Global World (10th ed.). Stamford: Cengage Learning. Jenkins, W. (2009). Emergency Management: Actions to Implement Select Provisions of the Post-Katrina Emergency Act: Congressional Testimony.US: DIANE Publishing Kutz, D. G. (2006) Expedited Assistance for Victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita: Fema's Control Weaknesses Exposed the Government to Significant Fraud and Abuse. US: DIANE Publishing Lindsay, B. (2010). Federal Evacuation Policy: Issues for Congress. Darby: Diane publishing. Read More