Concepts and principles of emergency management - Essay Example

In Australia, latest statistics on car accidents seem to indicate that road accidents are increasing in frequency; road deaths associated to such car accidents are also increasing. In 2005, Australia already ranked 7th out of 15 developed nations for road deaths per 100 million vehicle kilometres travelled (Fallah, 2007). Emergencies -- are “incidents that threaten public safety, health and welfare (Department of Environmental Management, n.d, p. 1). Emergencies may also vary in size, location, causes, and effects; but regardless of differences in such elements, they all register with various environmental effects.

They are also defined by the Emergency Management Institute (n.d) as unexpected incidents or events which endanger lives or property, consequently requiring urgent and routine responses through community resources and procedures. Examples include: road-blocking landslides, long power outages, forest fires, outbreaks of diseases, and heat waves (Central Coast Center Independent Living, n.d). There were two slides in Australia from 1939 to 2007; 28 were killed and about 101 individuals were affected (CRED, 2007).

There were 28 wild fires from 1939 to 2007 and this caused the death of about 300 individuals and damages up to 1.2 million US dollars (CRED, 2007). There was one epidemic from 1939 to 2007. No deaths and no damages were reported but 6 people were affected (CRED, 2007). Disasters are defined by Emergency Management Australia (2004, p. ix) as “a condition or situation of significant destruction, disruption and/or distress to a community”. The United Nations (1992) define a disaster as “a serious disruption of the functioning of society, causing widespread human, material, or environmental losses which exceed the ability of affected society to cope using its own resources” (UN Glossary, 1992).