Emergency Management - Department of Housing and Urban Development - Assignment Example

Emergency Management - Department of Housing and Urban Development Response to Question 1 Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is one of the largest agencies in the US that facilitate emergency recovery processes. Department of Housing and Urban Development is the vehicle through which the federal government disburses funds that are made accessible to the civilian population during disasters. The operations of HUD are run through a national program known Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR). Under CDBG-DR program, recovery activity entails availing funds in case of property destruction due to disaster related activities. Disaster related activities refer to activities that indicate the relationship between the impacts of the disaster being covered and the contribution of the activity being undertaken to the recovery of the community. The purpose of HUD in disaster recovery is simply to initiate the reconstruction of houses and infrastructure destroyed during a disaster. It also assists business people whose ventures were damaged by the disaster. It allocates funds for the same to grantees who expend the allocations in the most affected areas. Relatively speaking, the Federal Emergency Management Agency conducts many emergency programs compared to other federal agencies. First, FEMA holds a position that no other disaster management agency holds in the entire scope of disaster management processes. It is an agency of the Department of Homeland Security. That alone puts the agency in a critical position to manage all forms of disaster, whether natural, technological and man-induced such terrorism. In this case, FEMA plans for a wide range of disasters compared to other agencies (Haddow, Bullock, & Coppola 2011). Response to Question 2 In the above scenario, the authors demonstrate that the when the Hurricane Katrina did strike, it left a trail of destruction much of which had immense economic effects. The result was loss of jobs, destruction of property and stagnation of the overall economic development. For this reason, State and Federal government had to go an extra mile to mitigate virtually every sector of the economy. Liu and Plier observe that health, education, commerce, trade, construction and housing were amongst some of the subsectors of the industry that needed quick response. The relationship between economic conditions and recovery efforts is best seen through the prism of the reconstruction efforts. The author reveals that when people started returning to rebuild, the cost of housing did improve although it remained at 40% higher than it was prior to the disaster. The recovery meant that new jobs were being created as destroyed premises resuscitated. Reconstruction attracted new population. As new business and premises were erected, the attracted population ensured that the state government was not short of labor and that it was able to tax a slightly more people. Additional efforts that can be made to help New Orleans with recovery following the Hurricane Katrina can be in the forms of investment incentives by the Federal Government. The state and the Federal government should establish a joint incentive program particularly in the development of critical services such as housing projects, education and emergency response. That should give investor confidence in New Orleans. Besides, insurance companies should be encouraged to start formulating policies aimed at insuring strategic services such as hospitals and education in partnership with the government. That should give people confidence in the economy. Such an approach would go a long way in helping New Orleans pick up very fast. Response to Question 3 Both emergency response and emergency recovery as applied in the context of emergency management entail the efforts designed to minimize the impacts of a disaster upon the civilians. However, emergency response and emergency recovery differ significantly. In this case, emergency response efforts are initiated to combat immediate conditions of emergency that are a result of disaster. On the other hand, emergency recovery efforts are undertaken to reinstate the losses of the civilian populations that have been caused by the hazard. In other words, emergency response aims at effecting emergency repairs. In addition, the emergency response phase of emergency management aim at providing humanitarian assistance so as to reduce the level of difficulties that civilians are exposed to during the disastrous period. The emergency recovery efforts focus on the restoration of significant facilities and utilities damaged by the disaster. In this case, it is easy to observe that emergency response focus on the short-term impacts or the direct effects of emergency on the lives of the civilian population. The emergency recovery aims to returning the community to the state it was before the disaster stroke (Baird 2010). Emergency response entails provision of emergency assistance to the casualties of a disaster. For instance, it encompasses the provision of mass feeding, medical care, emergency shelter or search and rescue efforts. In addition, emergency responses also entail the effort undertaken to mitigate the possibility of secondary impacts. For example, in the case of an earthquake, the survivors or casualties may be advised not to enter into the buildings that were not destroyed by the quake. This would eliminate the chances of further injuries in case of a series of aftershocks. Emergency recovery is a long-term initiative that goes on until the affected community returns to its normal state or at least better. It may include activities such as putting up temporary housing or cleanup services. Some other, activities entailed in emergency recovery include restoring the economic activities of the affected community, offering redevelopment loans and identification of vital lessons from the incidence of emergency to prevent future incidences of similar nature. All the activities listed above under the respective categories are typical examples of each phase of the stated emergency management. For instance, providing temporary is an example of emergency response teams would respond to minimize the impacts of the disaster to the lives of the civilians. In this case, the response is aimed at reducing the severity associated with loss of housing facilities. Restoring economic stability of the affected community is an example of emergency response because it aims at bringing back the affected community to the state it was before the disaster. Both emergency response and recovery activities may concur. For instance, assessing the damage caused by the disaster can be both a response activity and a recovery activity as well. Assessing the situation of the emergency enables the response team to understand the kind of response needed by the affected community, such medical evacuation, and provision of mass feeding or temporary shelters. At the same time, assessing the situation enable the initiation of emergency recovery processes. Response to Question 4 The National Incident Management System (NIMS) entails comprehensive approaches undertaken at the national level to manage incidences that apply to all jurisdictional levels and throughout all functional disciplines. For this reason, NIMS are designed with intent to be applied across the entire spectrum of hazards, incidences and impacts that can potentially occur irrespective of their complexity, location or even size. They are also intended to improve cooperation and coordination between private and public entities in various activities intended to manage the incidences. Furthermore, NIMS provides conventional standards that act as foundations for management. NIMS provides all levels of governments such as State, Federal, local, or tribal governments, with a consistent national approaches that enable all stakeholders to prepare and mitigate, or respond to the impacts of disaster irrespective of its cause, complexity, location or size. Applying NIMS consistently provide the foundation for effective and efficient response. Such response criteria may range from one form of response at the national level to a multiagency, international hazard response or to terrorism response. NIMS are constituted by components that link together to create a comprehensive system of managing incidences of disasters. They include: a) Preparedness- this component provides guidelines that enable development of emergency operation plans. In other words, preparedness enables planning across every sector of emergency management. b) Communication and information management c) Resource management- this entails all the activities such as coordination and processes associated with the provision of appropriate resources in a timely manner in case of an emergency incident. d) Command and Management- this component enhances provision of flexible and standardized incidence management structure e) Ongoing Management and Maintenance NIMS and ICS differ or jurisdictional response coverage. ICS enable cross-jurisdictional incidence management while NIMS are designed to manage domestic incidences. Assessment VII Response to Question 1 United Nation is objectively concerned with the elimination of any form of human suffering or any threat to their survival or well being. It is majorly concerned mostly with the vulnerable groups and would assure any form of during or after development of any form of emergency. The UN plays two fundamental roles in disaster response and management. One way is through establishment of elaborate and holistic disaster preparedness. This allows effective and calculated response during or after the occurrence of disaster. The high rates of technological, natural or human-caused disasters imply that the trend is likely to be on the rise. For this reason, planning for their possibility of their occurrences creates room for early preparations for effective response. This has enhanced efficiency in mitigating disaster cases. For instance, it is evident that the UN has always been on the ground, providing humanitarian assistance, relief or support. It is also important to note that the UN is a multi-faceted global agency that consists of various agencies that are uniformly coordinated to achieve the objectives the organization. For instance, agencies such as the World Food Program (WFP) and Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) always ensure that there is food in the affected areas. These efforts are always initiated alongside the World Health Organization (WHO), another agency of the UN that ensures that people affected by the disaster are treated. Secondly, the UN has been working to mitigate disasters. It has endorsed a 10-year plan referred to as the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-20015 (HFA) to build resilience of nations and communities to disaster. As mentioned earlier, World Food Program is an agency of the UN that ensures that the affected civilian population does not stay hungry. In most cases, WFP target conflict torn zone and poor countries. For instance, the program has been grounded in South Sudan to provide food for the poor households in the area. In addition, it has been in Pakistan since 1968. Yes the actions were effective. The agency has managed to provide assistance to over 40,000 in South Sudan. In 2013 the agency managed to feed 4 million Pakistanis. Response to Question 2 Disasters do not choose countries they strike. In other words, this implies that both developing and developed countries may be hit on equal, higher or lower scale relatively. The significant difference can be noted in the number of fatalities, the response strategy and disaster recovery efforts. Low income countries and middle income countries are usually severely affected during disaster incidences compared to developed countries. This implies that low and middle-income countries record large number of deaths per disaster event in comparison to the developed countries. In addition, disasters have severe negative implications on the economy of developing countries than developed countries. However, the developed countries feel the financial burden when disasters hit developing countries. One of the major factors that shape the degree and severity of the disaster attack is the extent of vulnerability of the country. Poor countries are more vulnerable to events of disasters. For this reason, the events of disaster exceed their capacity to withstand such occurrences. As a result, they are incapacitated when disaster occurs. The effects of disaster are sometimes overwhelming that they may not be able to recover after the disaster. Some of the developing countries that have been severely hit by natural disaster in the past decade in include Haiti and Burma. In the case of Haiti, a 7.0 Magnitude earthquake that hit near Port au Prince on January 12, 2010 struck the country. The quake affected the lives of almost 3.5 million people with a death toll varying between 220,000 to 316,000 people. Burma was struck by the most devastating natural disaster in its history in 2008. The country was hit by Cyclone Nargis and resulted in nearly 138,000 fatalities. It also resulted in the catastrophic destruction of facilities and properties. Response to Question 3 The Hurricane Katrina storm struck the US on August 29, 2005, resulting in extraordinary destruction. The lessons learnt from the devastating impacts of the disaster have since served as vital foundation for disaster preparedness in the US. In other words, the aftermaths of the Hurricane were an indication of what the US can expect from the acts of terrorism. The event of the disaster can be viewed as a wakeup call to point out that unpreparedness is so dangerous. For this reason, the incident has put the country into a position that it thinks of the effects of possible terrorist attacks with the devastating impacts of the disaster. Subsequently, the US has aligned its security apparatus in counter possible challenges of terrorism. For instance, various strategies such as counter terrorism, national security and Homeland security have been put in place for this purpose. In addition, there significant plans, guidelines and policies have been structured for this course. For instance, the National Incident Management System, the National Response Plan and Interim Preparedness Goal have been put in place in preparation to encounter and respond to disaster. Yes. Though the responsibilities of FEMA and Homeland security are intertwined, the two can effectively work separately and deliver on their respective mandates. It has gained sufficient experience that can enable it to stand alone and deliver its mandates in its own capacity. Granting FEMA independence from Department of Homeland Security is just one of the ways of improving its effectiveness. Knowing that it an independent agency with state mandates may significantly elevate the level of performance. Granting FEMA independence is equally important to creating an agency and placing in charge of security threats. It is one of the mechanism of increasing dynamics and scope of fighting terrorism and ensuring disaster preparedness. Response to Question 4 United States has experienced series of terrorist attacks that has improved its cognizance of possible activities of terrorists in the US soil. The September 1, 2001 attacks at the World Trade Center in the New York City played a significant role in strengthening emergency management in the USA. Although the country had been planning for all risks and hazards before the 9-11 attack, the occurrence of the attack reminded the US how vulnerable and exposed it was to such activities. Since the 9-1 event, the issues regarding Operational Security have significantly become critical to every state agency and officials. Emergency Management activities have been integrated into government operations. In addition, the attack has also reinforced unified response the emergencies. The 9-11 attacks resulted in a change in the culture of response and planning for disaster. The status of the emergency management profession has since then been elevated. However, it worth noting that emergency management is not a onetime process. Instead, it is a process that evolves and it is consistently changing for the better. This is partly because some forms of, such as terrorism also change tactics and mode in which such activities are carried out. It is evident that both short term and long term emergency response have significantly improved since the 9-11 attack. There has been a rapid assessment of the events of disaster, which leads to initiation of timely mitigation efforts. References Haddow, G. D., Bullock, J. A., & Coppola, D. P. (2011). Introduction to emergency management (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Butterworth-Heinemann. Baird, M. E. (2010). The “Phases” of Emergency Management. 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