Mitigation involves many elements including risk assessment and mitigation efforts, but
prevention should come even before mitigation. Preparedness is another one of the four key
emergency management functions. Preplanning is part of preparedness as well as response.
You have just been appointed the new emergency manager for your agency. Before you, no one
did anything in this area. Your boss calls you in and wants to know where to start and what to do
regarding these functional areas. (He or she is concerned with the agency itself, not so much the
community or customers you serve at this point.)
Tell us what you would tell your boss and how you would go about this task. Be specific and
detailed.
Your boss is going to move forward based on what you tell him or her. This includes many things
such as planning, resources, and budgeting. You only get one chance to get it right with your
boss to start all of this off correctly. Be detailed. (For this post, you do not need to cover response
and recovery functions.) What does the Bible say about mitigation and preparedness?
Disasters pose a serious risk to the health and well-being of people around the world. In recent
decades the actual damage and loss observed has shown an increasing trend. Natural (such as
earthquake or hurricane) and man made (such as a industrial accident or terrorism) disasters
caused roughly 1.5 trillion of economic damage and claimed the lives of nearly 750,000
individuals globally, and affected almost two billion others between 2006 and 2015 (Houston,
Schraedley, Worley, Reed, & Saidi, 2019). These statistics show that emergency managers have
to take an enterprising approach to protect their agency and community by developing efficient
disaster management strategies.
As a newly appointed emergency manager, I would have to create a plan from the ground up. To
complete this task, everyone must understand the four phases of emergency management. The
cost of this would be minimal and we would only need the budget in the materials that would be
necessary for the trainings (paper, pens, first aid, cpr, etc.). As the emergency manager I would
secure essential financial resources by providing a budget that was specific to the agency
emergency response plan. It would be my responsibility to ensure that employees know and
understand their role in an emergency. Once everyone grasps the concept of emergency
management functions then I can move to assessing the risks and setting goals. The four phases
of emergency management are mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery. The mitigation
phase refers to management activities for preventing or decreasing future emergencies and
repercussions with long-term benefits (Sun, Bocchini & Davison, 2019). This can also include
educating and informing the related stakeholders about hazards and potential mitigation
strategies. The preparedness phase comes into action when an emergency or a disaster is likely to
take place. It corresponds to preparatory activities before a disaster to save lives and help
response and rescue operations, such as posting emergency contacts and preparing evacuations
(Sun et al., 2017). If plans and strategies are developed beforehand then the response phase can
be easily put into action. The response phase happens during a disaster, usually involving
evacuating threatened areas, firefighting, search and rescue efforts, shelter management, and
humanitarian assistance (Sun et al., 2017). After a disaster, the recovery phase refers to repair
and reconstruction efforts to return to a normal functioning level.
After explaining the four phases of emergency management, I would do a risk assessment on the
agency. Risk comprises what might happen or what is likely to happen given a certain set of
conditions. Risk can be calculated by the hazard causes and the level and magnitude of exposure
to the harm (Nemeth, 2017). The three principle variables of risk defined by the Department of
Homeland Security are a threat, vulnerability, and consequence. Before creating a plan, I would
set up simulations or exercises that would show where the agency stood as far as responding to
emergencies (exposing weaknesses). After evaluating the agency, I would then focus on the areas
that they need help in. The first thing to do when developing an emergency action plan would be
to select threats and hazards. I would do this by generating a list of threats and hazards that
reflect the intended purpose of the risk assessment for the agency. Threats and hazards would be
selected from three categories natural hazards, technological hazards, and terrorism. Threats and
hazards would be chosen based on a series of questions. Is the threat or hazard caused by
external factors outside the agency? Is the threat or hazard the result of either discrete events or
persistent phenomena? Does the threat or hazard have the potential for serious influence on at
least one of the following: (1) health and safety of employees; (2) security of infrastructure; and
(3) infrastructure integrity. After completing a risk assessment on the agency, I would then
construct new plans to fit the agency. The plan would focus on disasters that are more likely to
happen at the agency. After the construction of new plans, I would then create a training program
that every employee would have to take to go over the new plans. The training program would
consist of a three hour class and employees would be split up by department. Once everyone is
trained, I would go over all the exercises again and compare them to the first assessment. I would
repeat these steps as much as it was necessary until I was satisfied with the results.
1 Peter 5:8 states, “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a
roaring lion, seeking someone to devour”. Throughout scripture, the concept of being physically
and mentally prepared are evident. Understanding the concept of preparedness is much more
than anticipating events. It also pertains to guarding our hearts to the enemy who is looking to
destroy us and our testimony as believers. Being prepared and looking with anticipation is how
we are to live our lives as Christians; especially pertaining to the return of Jesus.
References
ESV Study Bible. (2008). Crossway Books
Houston, J. B., Schraedley, M. K., Worley, M. E., Reed, K., & Saidi, J. (2019). Disaster
journalism: Fostering citizen and community disaster mitigation, preparedness, response,
recovery, and resilience across the disaster cycle. Disasters, 43(3), 591-611.
Nemeth, C. (2017) Homeland Security: An Introduction to Principles and Practice 3rd edition.
Book
Sun, W., Bocchini, P., & Davison, B. D. (2020). Applications of artificial intelligence for disaster
management. Natural Hazards (Dordrecht), 103(3), 2631-2689.
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