CJA 375 Leadership Lessons

MULTI-AGENCY EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT PAPER 1

MULTI-AGENCY EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT PAPER 6

Multi-Agency Emergency Management

Blake Jepsen

University of Phoenix

CJA 375

4/25/18

The 1989 San Francisco Earthquake

On 17th October 1989, a magnitude 6.9 earthquake hit the San Francisco Bay area, killing 67 people and damaging property. The disaster was the most powerful and destructive in the record. On that day, the Bay Area was full of the Oakland’s Athletics and also the San Francisco Giants who had the World Series. They were preparing for the game that was scheduled for the same day. As the game was almost started and the stadium was full, another part of the bay was in a quake and sixty-seven people perished while more than 3000 were injured. The San Francisco's Marina District suffered an extensive damage. The quake caused the gas mains and the pipes to burst sparking the fire. The upper level of the road at the south also collapsed smashing cars and one other person was killed (Caneva & Delaney, 2016).

The fire chief set up an Emergency Operations Center minutes after the earthquake with the help of the mayor and the city manager. There were not enough trucks in the city and the fire department delayed to respond as many of the trucks that were available were not fully functional. The fire chief also called other fire departments asking for truck companies that were available. However, the fire department was able to acquire all the necessary resources to contain the fire. The California Highway Patrol was also there to respond to the trapped people and help out with coordinating the fire emergency calls with the fire department. The police reported that there were problems with the receiving of emergency telephones. This delayed the response time. However, the Port Patrol Police were present and they tried as much as possible to contain the people (Caneva & Delaney, 2016).

Response activities are often taken immediately following the disaster. It is therefore important to have the necessary command outline. The Incident Command System is a structured developed that allows flexibility while defining clear roles and functions to help navigate through a crisis (Caneva & Delaney, 2016).

The structure provides a crisis action planning that is accountable for the safety and actions of all the personnel involved in a crisis response. It lists the organizational charts, roles, responsibilities and response action guides. The size of the disaster normally and its impact often determine the positions in the structure with roles and responsibilities becoming more specific as the size of the disaster increases. The ongoing risks of the crisis normally assist the structure to determine the threats and estimate the potential course in order to develop strategic goals and tactical objectives (Caneva & Delaney, 2016).

The objectives of the incident management system are to assign roles and responsibilities at the face of a disaster. It is also responsible for receiving communication from the emergency operations from which the coordination and support of incident management activities are directed.it also enhances the decision-making time. They are advantageous in the face of the pressure of time constraints and the decision may impact a series of actions done through the lifetime of the organization and community (Whiple 2007).

Disasters often have extraordinary demands on the decision-making systems. During a crisis, decisions are deemed to be made by intuition which is based on the leader’s consciousness to avoid unwanted outcomes of decisions, there should be 0roper planning and strategy formulation based on predictions and risk assessments (Whiple, 2007).

Disasters often demand preparedness which enhances readiness in the organizations and also the community. Preparedness often reduces the response time required to contain the disaster. Planning involves identifying data requirements, developing data sets and sharing the data in all sections of the organization or community. It also involves deciding and acquiring the necessary resources required in a disaster management including the necessary people resources (Bath, 2017).

The leaders also take strategic decisions that require them to determine the priorities to be taken first during a crisis. This demands a strategic plan which normally involves predicting the future disasters and placing them according to the likelihood of happening. It also involves financial allocation of a budget that will support such an emergency response. It is also important to include important roles and responsibilities which include particular people and what their roles will be when it comes to the response to disasters (Bath, 2017).

Leaders will also be expected to make tactical decisions that demand the operational response to the disaster. This includes readiness where a ready operational response is available. The plan should include the process of responding and also the procedure that should be taken. For example in a fire emergency at a certain organization, the leaders should come up with a plan that guides the occupants on how to respond to such situations. There should also be drills that allow the people to experience such disasters and to let them practice the actions that they can take (Bath, 2017).

One of the challenges of disasters is that they require action from agencies and organizations that may not work closely or may not have a good working condition. The best way to solve this is to call upon agencies and also response organization in the strategic planning and decision-making process so that they also have their input. A combination of knowledge and experiences is needed to make strong decisions which can be improved by this training (Bath, 2017).

Leaders are also not well trained to act in disaster management and they are forced to consult with the disaster management departments. This may affect the response time as the consultation and decision-making process may take a long time. It is therefore important to train the leaders about disaster management and also the members of an organization on how to respond in the face of a crisis (Bath, 2017).

In conclusion, ignorance is a major issue when it comes to disaster management. People do not oversee the future and therefore ignore the fact that disasters happen from time to time and that it is important to get ready and be prepared for such situations. It is therefore important that the relevant authorities reduce their response time and have a ready plan.

References

History.com Staff. (2009). San Francisco Earthquake of 1989 - Facts & Summary HISTORY.com. Retrieved from https://www.history.com/topics/1989-san-francisco-earthquake

Whiple, C. G., (2007). 3 Emergency Management Framework." National Research Council. Successful Response Starts with a Map: Improving Geospatial Support for Disaster Management. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/11793.

Caneva, D. C., & Delaney, J. B. (2016). Incident Command System - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics. Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/incident-commandsystem

Bath D. (2013, September 20). 7 Ways the Response to a Devastating Earthquake Has Changed. Retrieved from http://www.govtech.com/em/disaster/7-Ways-Response Loma-Prieta-Earthquake.html