Читать книгу Disaster Response and Recovery - David A. McEntire - Страница 17

Everyday people around the world are impacted by events that produce injuries, cause death, damage buildings/infrastructure, destroy personal belongings and interrupt daily activities. These disturbing experiences are categorized as accidents, crises, emergencies, disasters, calamities or catastrophes. Such incidents adversely affect individuals, groups, communities and even nations. Each of these events is similar in that they require action from government officials, businesses, nonprofit organizations, citizens/bystanders, and the victims and survivors themselves. However, these occurrences vary dramatically in terms of magnitude, extent of duration and scope. For example, a routine traffic accident can typically be handled within minutes or hours by a few police officers who file reports and a tow truck that removes wreckage. A structural conflagration may require one or two fire departments, but it can displace the resident or family for weeks or months. When a mass shooting occurs, resources are needed to neutralize the threat, investigate the incident, and address the longer‐term psychological toll that may possibly result from these intentional acts of violence. Alternatively, an airplane crash may necessitate the participation of firefighters and emergency medical service (EMS) personnel as well as airline officials and government employees such as a coroner or public information officer. If the plane crash does not take the lives of all of the passengers and crew, the victims and survivors of the ordeal may be injured or permanently disabled and require long‐term medical care. Finally, when a major earthquake or hurricane affects an urban area, many organizations will become involved. Besides first responders, additional personnel will be needed to remove debris, repair utilities, provide relief assistance and coordinate rebuilding endeavors that could take years. Thus, the impact of a minor accident is both quantitatively and qualitatively different than a major disaster or catastrophe (see Table 1‐1) (Quarantelli, 2006). While this book does discuss common emergencies and less frequent catastrophes, it focuses most of its attention on larger disasters and how to deal with them in a more effective manner.