Emergency Management

Emergency management is the broad term used to describe the strategic planning and management process by which communities mitigate against, prepare for, respond to, and recover from varying types of emergencies, disasters, and catastrophes. Emergency management is similar to risk and crisis management and communication for an individual organization. However, emergency management also includes the strategic and tactical coordination of police, fire, ambulance, and other community services. Emergency managers must also coordinate efforts with county and state emergency management departments and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) depending on the size and scope of the disaster. If an emergency or disaster overwhelms local capabilities, aid is requested from larger agencies with additional resources. The role of public relations in emergency management is typically as the public information officer who promotes community preparedness, delivers official statements, and responds to media inquiries. Smaller county and city emergency management departments are often departments of one, responsible for managing the response efforts and communicating with the public.

The emergency management process includes four interlinked phases: mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. Mitigation includes the strategies and tactics enacted to prevent or reduce losses in a disaster. Preparedness includes the development and testing of emergency plans through continuous exercise and evaluation. Response includes the immediate actions taken just before, during, and after an actual event. Recovery consists of those activities that continue beyond the emergency period to restore critical community functions.

FEMA has established the Emergency Management Institute to offer comprehensive training for emergency managers who are often current or former police officers or firefighters. The institute now also offers a higher education conference to better incorporate the latest research into emergency management education, training, and practice. In 2007, FEMA's Emergency Management Institute convened a working group of emergency management practitioners and academics to outline core principles of emergency management. The working group determined that in order for emergency managers to promote safer, less vulnerable communities with the capacity to cope with hazards and disasters, emergency management must be comprehensive, progressive, risk driven, integrated, collaborative, coordinated, flexible, and professional. The International Association of Emergency Managers, a nonprofit educational organization representing more than 5,000 emergency managers worldwide, has since endorsed these principles.