Читать книгу Disaster Response and Recovery - David A. McEntire - Страница 111

All types of people may become involved in a variety of post‐disaster activities ranging from volunteering to the contribution of donations. As an emergency manager, you must be aware that citizens will be some of the first people to respond to disasters when they occur. Generally, they are located at scene of an incident since they are present everywhere – at home, at work, at school, at the grocery store or at the ballpark.

Citizens fulfill an important niche in response and recovery operations. After virtually all emergencies and disasters, citizens create and participate in emergent groups. Emergent groups are individuals who work together to perform common goals but do not yet have a formalized organization (Stallings and Quarantelli, 1985, p. 84). Put differently, an emergent group is a collection of people that unite for the sole purpose of addressing disaster needs. The people that make up emergent groups become involved in activities that they have never performed before or do not participate in frequently. Emergent organizations are typically disbanded once the emergency situation is resolved. In some cases, however, the emergent organization is formalized and becomes a permanent part of the emergency management organizational landscape.

Scholars have long recognized the role of emergent groups in disasters. Samuel Prince, a doctoral student at Columbia University, examined an explosion that occurred when a French munitioner ran into a Belgian relief ship in a harbor in Halifax, Canada during World War I. His dissertation is the forerunner of modern disaster sociology. It illustrated that strangers, friends, relatives, neighbors, and even the victims themselves interact to care for the injured, gather the dead, and fulfill other important post‐disaster actions.