Response and Mitigation

Response and Mitigation

Emergency Mgmt. – CRJ420

Response and Mitigation

Response Plan

In dealing with the scenario highlighted, a hurricane that hit the Southeast U.S. Gulf coast rendering over 500,000 people without homes. The first national response agency that would help in responding to the situation is the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). FEMA is an organization working under the United States Department of Homeland Security with the aim of ensuring that the federal government remains prepared in any given scenario towards dealing with disasters. The agency was created through a presidential order enacted on April 1, 1979, as part of the federal government’s strategy towards dealing with the rising number of disasters in the country. In any given disaster, FEMA is one of the first responders attributed to its role in protecting the safety of citizens while ensuring that it reduces the impacts of a given disaster.

The first duty of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is to set up a disaster response center that would help establish communication between all agencies, both state, and federal response agencies involved in the disaster response. Communication remains as one of the most important elements of consideration in disaster response since it acts as a guarantee that the teams are working on a given disaster focus on enhanced uniformity (Rogers, 2015). In this case, Southeast U.S. Gulf Coast is experiencing a huge demand for relief efforts as well as search and rescue all of which are part of the disaster response plan. This creates the need for FEMA to focus on the establishment of a center that would help in relaying all communication among all the agencies involved to avoid instances where some of the messages may not be precise as may be expected.

The second important role that the FEMA may play in dealing with the situation at hand is providing specific requests to the federal government concerning humanitarian efforts based on the magnitude of the disaster in question. FEMA is the only federal agency mandated with making formal requests from the federal government on humanitarian efforts since it can evaluate the underlying needs and expectations as part of the humanitarian efforts. In this case, the approximate number of people affected by the disaster in question is 500,000 who will require food and shelter as part of the emergency response strategy. Therefore, this means that FEMA must make the necessary requests that would assist provide food and basic shelter for the people affected by the catastrophe with the aim of protecting the people affected by the tragedy from further harm.

The third role that FEMA may have as part of its disaster response strategy is engaging in search and rescue efforts with the aim of ensuring that every individual is account for irrespective of the magnitude of the catastrophe. In any given disaster, search and rescue are one of the sole provisions of the disaster response teams all of which must focus more of their attention towards ensuring that they can rescue any individuals trapped in rubbles. In this case, the catastrophe in question is a hurricane, therefore, meaning that the level of damage is higher than may be expected. Eventually, this creates the need to engage in search and rescue efforts with the aim of ensuring that any individuals trapped within the areas affected would be rescued.

Lastly, FEMA has the mandate to create a budget that would help rebuild the areas affected by the disaster especially in restoring water and electricity supply. In the event of a disaster, the affected areas find themselves disconnected from the grid leading to a situation a situation where people are not able to access clean water or electricity. In such circumstances, FEMA is mandated with ensuring that it creates a budget that would help restore these services as part of the disaster response plan. Additionally, the funds would also incorporate relief funds that would be provided to the affected persons as part of allowing them to rebuild their lives. Rebuilding is one of the key steps that any affected areas must undertake since it works towards creating a provision where it is somewhat easier for the affected individuals to move on from the disaster.

In this case, the more than 500,000 people affected by the disaster would require being reconnected to a clean water supply with the aim of protecting them from increased diseases due to lack of clean water. Additionally, the affected persons would also require shelters that would protect them from the cold weather especially during the night especially for those people whose homes have been destroyed. The ultimate responsibility of providing the affected individuals with the services that they would require would fall under the mandate of FEMA. Therefore, this highlights the need to engage this particular agency in the disaster response efforts in the affected areas as a way of protecting the local communities from further impacts based on the disaster in question.

The second notable agency that would help in dealing with the tragedy highlighted is the National Guard of the United States which is a reserve of the United States Armed Forces working within the precincts of the United States borders. In disaster response, the National Guard plays a central role towards ensuring that it helps in containing the crowds from moving to the affected areas to allow for effective rescue efforts. In this case, the occurrence of the disaster may affect the entire Southeast U.S. Gulf Coast, therefore, meaning that the rescue efforts in the coast may take a particular period depending on the area affected. Therefore, it would be important to use the National Guard as part of the response team with the aim of reducing situations where crowds may surge or move back to the affected areas.

The National Guard would also work toward the distribution of relief food in some of the areas that may be impassable due to the destruction of the existing infrastructure. In the event of the hurricane, some of the roads would be destroyed, thus closing off some of the areas in the region affected. FEMA would not be in a position to deliver humanitarian relief to these areas which would mean that some of the people affected by the disaster would face significant challenges. Ultimately, this creates the need to use the National Guard which is an agency that is well equipped with the necessary equipment that would be valuable in moving around the affected areas. The National Guard would focus more on the areas of which FEMA is not able to reach with the aim of ensuring that it undertakes the necessary rescue efforts as well as delivers the requisite humanitarian relief food.

Mitigation Plan

As part of the mitigation plan, it would be important to focus on two major agencies that would help establish the overall success of the mitigation plan in preventing future occurrences of the disaster in question. First, it would be important to incorporate the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Agency as part of the mitigation plan with the focus being towards getting accurate data on severe weather patterns. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Agency is a federal agency mandated with conducting research in some of the key areas that are most likely to face natural disasters. The agency is mandated with providing information on severe weather patterns to allow for evacuation to avoid loss of lives.

In this case, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Agency would be valuable towards ensuring that it highlights its role in disaster preparedness especially in the area of minimized impacts. The agency will focus more on providing basic information on the weather patterns occurring within the affected regions with the aim of ensuring that the other agencies can prepare in the event of a disaster. One of the key aspects of the mitigation plan is that it would help highlight the steps that each state and federal agency mandated with disaster preparedness need to take in protecting the local population. For this agency, the primary role would involve providing accurate data on the weather patterns in the region as a way of defining the possibility of a disaster occurring.

Another key agency that would be valuable in the preparation of a mitigation plan is the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) which is a state agency that deals with protection of national security. DHS is one of the key agencies mandated with the determination of threats within a given scenario as part of finding viable solutions for the same. The department will play a central role in the preparation of the mitigation plan since it would highlight the steps and measures that the federal and state governments are supposed to take as part of disaster preparedness. Disaster preparedness is a measure that incorporates the idea of ensuring that every agency is well prepared for any underlying eventualities some of which may result in significant loss of lives and property (Yang & Shih, 2016). For the Department of Homeland Security, the primary expectation is to compute reports from different agencies mandated with responding to the disaster in question with the intention of determining the threat levels.

Department of Homeland Security will also focus on engaging with the local communities in training and development programs on disaster preparedness as a way of equipping the local communities with the knowledge that they would require in the event of a catastrophe. Training and development of the local communities are one of the most important steps that would help define success in disaster preparedness since it acts as a guarantee that every individual would be in that basic position allowing him or her to reduce the underlying impacts (Fast, Weaver, Miller, & Ferrin Jr, 2016). The Department of Homeland Security in collaboration with other state and federal agencies will focus more of its attention towards providing the local communities with the necessary information associated with preparation in the event of a disaster.

Challenges in Emergency Response

The first key challenge that would arise during emergency response based on the scenario in which a hurricane that struck the Southeast U.S. Gulf coast rendering more than 500,000 people without residence would be damages to infrastructure. During the emergency response, it would be essential to move around the affected areas with the aim of engaging in search and rescue as well as delivery of humanitarian relief food and shelter. However, this may not be possible because some of the areas would be completely cut off due to the immense destruction of the infrastructure including roads. Eventually, this would create a major challenge for the emergency response teams involved leading to reduced rescue efforts.

Secondly, the emergency response team anticipates communication problems attributed to the fact that most of the areas affected would not have the necessary connections that would aid in communication. As highlighted earlier, communication is one of the fundamental elements that the disaster response team would consider as part of its strategy towards effective search and rescue. However, the communication challenges arising would affect the efforts by the teams involved as part of their strategy towards engaging in effective search and rescue efforts. Ultimately, this creates the need to come up with a better strategy that would help in defining success in the rescue efforts.

Proposed Strategy

One proposed strategy for the emergency and crisis management team to conquer the problems would be the establishment of a singular command center that would handle communication through satellite phones. Usage of satellite phones acts as a guarantee that communication would remain as part of the search and rescue efforts with the aim of guaranteed success. Additionally, the team may also decide on using air transport to avoid some of the barriers associated with damages to infrastructure.

References

Fast, L. C., Weaver, J. F., Miller, S. D., & Ferrin Jr, T. E. (2016). Training Effects on Emergency Management Activation Response. Journal of Organizational Psychology16(1), 71-77.

Rogers, C. (2016). The critical need for animal disaster response plans. Journal of business continuity & emergency planning9(3), 262-271.

Yang, C. C., & Shih, C. L. (2016). A coordinated emergency response: a color dust explosion at a 2015 concert in Taiwan. American journal of public health106(9), 1582-1585.

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