Читать книгу Disaster Response and Recovery - David A. McEntire - Страница 65

Because of the significant consequences of disasters, you must be aware of the goals of response and recovery operations if you are to be an efficacious emergency manager. Such objectives include protecting lives, limiting property loss and overcoming the disruption that disasters cause. There are other priorities that must be considered as well. For instance, you must ensure care for special populations such as those in nursing homes. You must help to coordinate the efforts of all types of disaster participants, regardless if they are affiliated with the government or not. Another desire is to reduce further deterioration of the environment when a disaster occurs and rebuild with future hazards in mind. As you participate in post‐disaster operations, you may rely on both predetermined organizational arrangements and technology to complete these responsibilities. In most disasters, multiple activities will require your focused attention as well as flexibility. Resources should be tracked to help cover expenses. Extreme care should be taken to avoid possible lawsuits. It will be important to record what has transpired so you can learn from your successes and shortcomings.

As can be seen, your job during response and recovery operations is extremely challenging. There are many demands that have to be addressed, and two of them have been identified by Ronald Perry (1991, p. 201):

 Agent‐generated demands are the needs made evident by the hazard (e.g., problems resulting from the disaster agent itself). These demands appear immediately as the disaster unfolds, and some examples include sandbags to fight flooding, shelters to care for those made homeless and the restoration of electricity owing to power outages.Figure 1‐9 The damage of electricity infrastructure (an agent‐generated demand) in Crystal Beach, TX, after Hurricane Ike created the need to replace power poles (a response‐generated demand). Greg Henshall/FEMA. http://www.fema.gov/media‐library/assets/images/54764

 Response‐generated demands are the needs that are made evident as individuals, organizations, and communities attempt to meet agent‐generated demands. They are visible as people and agencies try to deal with the impact of flooding, earthquakes, and other hazards.

Acquiring sandbags, finding suitable shelter sites, and obtaining portable generators or electricians are examples of response‐generated demands. Response‐generated demands thus deal with the logistical issues pertaining to the reaction of people and organizations to agent‐generated demands (Figure 1‐9).

In addition to these demands, the author would add a few other expectations placed upon you after a disaster:

 Normalcy‐generated demands are the pressures to quickly get things back to pre‐disaster conditions. Returning people to their homes and restarting business activity are types of normalcy‐generated demands.

 Mitigation‐generated demands are the desires to prevent a recurrence of the disaster. Creating more stringent building codes and relocating residences to less‐hazardous areas are examples of mitigation‐generated demands.

 Preparedness‐generated demands are expectations that the mistakes made evident in response and recovery operations will not be repeated in the future. Improvements in planning, training, exercises, and the allocation of additional resources fall into this category.

All of these disaster‐related demands create priority problems for emergency managers. Normalcy‐generated demands sometimes run in opposition to the mitigation and preparedness‐generated demands. As an example, people wish to return to their homes even when it would be best to remove them permanently from the floodplain. Government officials may also desire to give attention to rebuilding schools rather than invest in emergency management personnel or planning activities. Too much attention on preparedness could limit necessary actions related to mitigation. In spite of these conflicts and challenges, you must take advantage of the increased public concern disasters provide to promote change during response and recovery. All of these immediate objectives and long‐term functional activities should be directed toward the goals of disaster resilience. Resilience may be described as the ability to react effectively and efficiently in time of disaster. It is the overarching goal of the remainder of this book.