Pre-Impact Planning Process

Disasters and crises become defining events in a hazard cycle that is marked by four temporal stages: mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. As such, according to Kathleen Tierney et al., primary agencies (law enforcement, medical, armed forces, city planners, governmental, contractors, etc.) are those that strive to “decrease vulnerability to major disaster by taking measures to reduce casualties and exposure to damage and disruption or that provide passive protection during disaster impact.” In this way, mitigation strategies aim toward reducing hazard exposures and developing emergency response plans in the event of major disaster or crisis. For emergency agency response to be effective, therefore, individual social units must be well versed in different forms of proactive response that is sensitive to the community in which the emergency plan is developed. [Page 748]Simply put, Tierney maintains that organizational preparedness includes developing “emergency response plans, training employees to proactively and response personnel on what to do in an emergency situation, acquiring needed equipment, supplies, and materials, and conducting drills and exercises.” Further, it is imperative that members of emergency response agencies participate in “drills” that enable them to keep their rescue and recovery skills as honed as possible. As such, in the event that a natural or technological disaster occurs, emergency plans and agencies need to be mobilized smoothly and effectively, so as to bring the greatest aid to the largest number of people within the shortest amount of time. For that reason, emergency response plans are put into place to mitigate the direct effects of whatever the emergency may entail by responding to the immediate needs of the disaster victims.

Because of the possibility of the occurrence of disasters of unprecedented size and destructiveness, it is necessary that each state create an emergency management agency that is charged with authorizing emergency management programs, to give the governor the power to declare a state of emergency should the need arise, and to coordinate varying offices during a state of emergency to charter appropriate aid to the areas most in need. The state emergency management agency is also charged with coordinating volunteer efforts (e.g., Red Cross, humanitarian aid, etc.) and remains effectively the “go to” arena for entities wishing to assist in the event of disaster after the state governor has declared a state of emergency.

When emergency agencies (police, fire, EMS, National Guard, armed forces, etc.) are mobilized, the primary emphasis of their actions must be to work to “reduce casualties, damage and disruption, and to respond to the immediate needs of disaster victims,” says Tierney. Mobilizing response agencies at the local, state, and governmental levels requires an ability to evaluate and neutralize potential threats, sending out necessary warnings to vulnerable populations regarding specific hazards in and around the disaster zone, evacuating populations requiring such, conducting search and rescue operations for victims of disasters, administering medical care, and providing emergency shelter and food until the situation is neutralized. Further, once the immediacy of the crisis has passed, emergency response agencies work to repair, rebuild, and reconstruct (if possible) damaged property, in an attempt to remove populations displaced by crisis and disaster from temporary shelters back to their permanent residences as quickly and as efficiently as possible.

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