r

Write a 100 word minimum response to Cox. Use outside reference as well.

Cox,

Ah, Beautiful South Florida.  I am born and raised and second-generation South Floridian.  I love the diversity that is a part of South Florida and how we bring together so many different ways of life.  The ways that I see that this affects preparedness is that with so many different people with so many different experiences and ways of thinking that there can be a very different perspective on preparedness based on what your cultural experience is.  If someone from Ohio moves to South Florida and is now the neighbor of another person that just moved here from the Bahamas the reaction towards community hardening in preparation for a Hurricane is going to be vastly different.  Someone from Ohio with no experience of what the impacts of a storm like that can be and someone who just went through the devastation of Hurricane Dorian won't understand how the person from Ohio isn't more prepared.  Community hardening and preparedness at the government level is a discussion I just got done having with my roofing contractor neighbor.  The City of Fort Lauderdale now requires that the home that is getting a new roof gets a minimum of 15% of the roof hurricane strapped.  15% is applicable to the overall cost and can significantly affect the cost of that roof in general.  The requirement is frustrating for some as they would prefer not to pay that much.  On the flip side people that have experienced total roof loss and know the effects are willing to do more than 15%.  Our ability to harden our communities has a great deal to do with our willingness and our cultural/experiential background to disasters.  As an example, the whole world will now be more understanding about the idea of preparing for a pandemic in ways that most would have scoffed at since they had no experience with such an event.  The challenge to emergency management is connecting the communities and getting buy-in by helping people understand why these issues are important and attempting to take the lessons learned from all of the backgrounds that people bring with them and using them to your advantage rather than as a divider. The more diversity and cultural appreciation we can have the more we can learn the lessons of each person's history and apply them to help us grow.

“Cultural differences are notable in crises. Any crisis, regardless of type, size, cause, and location, can affect multiple individuals and communities and highlight their culture in an unstable and time-sensitive setting. For example, different languages may be spoken on site between responders and community members. Moreover, diverse organizational, ethnic, or religious customs or experiences can be present, such as different ages, marital statuses, experiences, and abilities among the people involved in the crisis.  Cultures provide essential information in emergency management (Florida Center for Public Health Preparedness [FCPHP] 2017; Bergeron 2014). Firstly, culture indicates which services are necessary for specific groups exposed to a crisis (FCPHP 2017; OMH 2013). Services and goods necessary for females in crisis may be different from those for males. The same logic applies to different language groups. Demographic and geographic information will help managers identify at-risk populations and services necessary to them. Secondly, the cultural background of a community reveals what services/goods are accepted or desired by a particular group of people (OMH 2013). Individuals with distinct cultural backgrounds may require different kinds of services. For instance, should the crisis necessitate relocation, then some survivors who share a strong communal culture may not want to be relocated to shelters that separate family members regardless of the reason for separation. Lastly, culture indicates the way people perceive the emergency situation and obtain crisis information (OMH 2013). Researchers have found some ethnic groups tend to avoid information from formal sources, such as government officials, preferring informal sources, like family or friends.”  (Yeo, Li, Shin, & Haupt, 2017)

Write a 100 word minimum response to Scott. Use outside reference as well.

Scott,

Communities throughout the nation experience all different aspects of culture that effect preparedness and responses during emergencies. Due to living in Naples Florida, Naples has some of the same challenges. One of these challenges that our area is custom to is the elderly population. “According to the U.S Census bureau, nearly 1 out of 5 Florida residents is age 65 or over — the highest proportion of any state — and health officials warn they may face special difficulties in an emergency situation” (Welch 2017). The elderly population effects the impact on the Community preparedness and response especially during hurricane season (good time to talk about this due to it being hurricane season ).  

 

During Hurricane Irma, I was able to actually experience these challenges that the elderly population brings to our area, One of those challenges were during the evacuation process. Being a first responder, the primary responsibility is to make sure the citizens are safe. By doing this we  needed to assist many elderly residents from their home into public shelters. Our county has a special shelter that is assigned to the elderly population and the special needs citizens. This shelter needed to be hurricane cat 5 proof. The shelter also needed to have a generator just in case power was lost. Another challenge is that the shelter needed to be located in a grid that when power was lost, it would be turned out within a few hours of losing power. 

 

To assist those members that may have questions about where the closest shelter is and or the evacuation routes, Collier County created a link that will answer most of the questions. Also if someone would like to create a detailed disaster plan www.floridadisaster.org (Links to an external site.)  will be able to assist and its free.

 

Another challenge that our area faces is the cost of living. The cost of living has a major impact on the community due to Naples being above average when it comes to purchasing homes. Naples has, “the highest housing prices in Florida, affordable housing continues to be a critical issue for the County. Even with the highest median (half above/half below) family income in the state ($71,800 as of June 2011), the County’s middle-income families still struggle to obtain housing due to a lack of bank lending, job stability and overall tightening of the credit markets.” https://www.colliercountyfl.gov/Home/ShowDocument?id=38918 (Links to an external site.)