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Examining Disaster Management
Helms School of Government, Liberty University
HLSC 600: Introduction to Disaster Management
Dr. Jimmy Johnson
20 November 2022
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Examining Disaster Management
Over the years the country has come well aware of what disaster are, the way most will
describe them are things that have some kind of destruction done to an area. Disasters are
concentrated occurrences that cause great risk and damage, upend social order, and interfere with
society's fundamental functioning. Disasters impact all geographical and socioeconomic groups.
In the United States, it seems that fewer people are being killed or injured by natural disasters,
but more infrastructure and property are being destroyed (Rubin & Sylves, 2020). The way that
has been apply to help prevent or less the damage of a disaster is by using some kind of disaster
management (Rubin & Sylves, 2020).
Phases of disaster management include mitigation, readiness, response, and recovery.
The state claims that efforts made to lessen or completely eliminate the possibility of a disaster
occurring are referred to as mitigation. The responsibility for disaster mitigation and prevention
falls on everyone, and should be practiced in the workplace, households, and schools. With
mitigation you need to include risk assessment and post-disaster movements, this will help with
keeping the mitigation phase ahead. Since disasters do happen, being prepared entails taking
steps like creating disaster plans, taking part in drills, storing up on food, water, and medical
supplies, and setting up warning systems (Phillips et al., 2018). All the actions that are taken to
help keep the response phase moving correctly are risk assessments, and the disaster plans
together. This is making sure that the threats were detective early enough, to the plans to either
shelter in place or evacuate. The recovery phase is made to help repair from the disaster and get
pre-pare for the next one that could happen (Das, 2018). The recovery moves partly into the
mitigation phase when repairing the damage done and possibly fixing the areas for they can with
stand the next disaster.
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With all the disaster that have occurred over the years the government knew they needed
to step in to help keep the public safe as they can. This would take the already agencies that were
taking care of the disaster that have happen and creating a single agency to help control the feral
government portion. The creation of Federal Emergency Management Agency or (FEMA) in
1979 was the solution. The agency FEMA was able to help maintain the safety of the public and
became very proficient with taking care of the needs of the public. FEMA was able to keep the
disaster areas taken care of with all the personnel needed for the deployments and temporary
workers to maintain an area for many years. This would include many of the private contactor’s
volunteers, and reservists either from the military or other organizations. This would be seen in
the many times that FEMA assisted the different states with all of the disaster that occurred from
the hurricanes the South gets hit with to the earthquake and tournedos that happen on the West
coast (Rubin & Sylves, 2020).
Local Government
The way that local government works with disaster management is that they do what is
needed for the local areas that they deal with on the more common base. But even the local
government gets help for the federal government like FEMA with help. The local agency helps
with mitigations and preparation of many different actions. The main one is the evacuation plans
for the public. The FEMA side of helping the local government is mostly with financial aid, and
personnel to help with responding and recovering (Rubin & Sylves, 2020).
Terrorism
More prevalent with the society that we live in today the one manmade disaster we see
more often than not is some form of terrorism. With terrorism action being on the raise over the
last few decades we have saw that terrorism is fell under disaster management. The emergency
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management departments would deal with terrorism from the early 90’s until the present time.
The FEMA agency would be tested along with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) during
this time work along side by side. The bombing happening all over would test the limits of both
of the agencies working together. With the FBI working on what fully happen and the
investigation and the FEMA working on helping the local agencies with responding and recover
from the acts (Rubin & Sylves, 2020).
In the early 2000’s America suffered one of the largest and most horrendous attack that
has ever happen on United States soil. The World Trade Centers and Pentagon was attack with
plans from terrorism. This world creates the War of Terrorism that is still being fought today by
the military and agency assigned to do so.
Factors Affecting Relief Demand
With the communities that can be under a great deal of stress after disasters the need for
disaster relief is impacted by several different causes. There are several types of disasters
depending on their regularity, familiarity, duration, intensity, impact, potential for damage, and
the length of the warning period for communities. A community needs less aid when a calamity
just has a small impact area. In a similar vein, disasters with a wide reach result in more
problems that need for disaster aid. Infrastructure is more severely damaged (Das, 2018).
The need for help is impacted by emergency sheltering. Following a tragedy, emergency
shelters are transient. There are various sorts of emergency housing, claims. Emergency
sheltering is spontaneous and driven by necessity, taking place "in the immediate pre- and post-
impact phases" (Das, 2018 p. 154). Usually, groups like the American Red Cross or unofficially
by friends, family, or neighbors offer temporary refuge. Food, sleeping quarters, and other
necessities are needed for this form of home. Although temporary, this kind of lodging can be
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used by people for weeks until they can obtain more long-term housing. Temporary sheltering is
distinct from temporary dwelling. This sort of housing implies that there is a need for more
permanent housing and that it is more temporary housing than shelters. Last but not least,
permanent housing refers to acquiring a home after a disaster when a person or family no longer
needs a place to live (Das, 2018).
Special Needs Populations
During disasters, special needs groups confront unique obstacles. Higher socioeconomic
vulnerabilities are associated with greater disaster damage in American Gulf Coast counties
(Karaye et al., 2019). People who were more likely to rent their homes, are often of African
American descent, or females, and experience deteriorating physical health felt the brunt of
Hurricane Katrina's effects. The people with lower incomes were those who resided nearest to
the breached levees. Following Hurricane Katrina, a poll of locals who stayed put revealed that
55% of these people did so because they lacked a car or other means of transportation.
Additionally, societal vulnerabilities like poverty, preexisting medical issues, and minority status
"influenced most evacuation decisions in Hurricane Katrina" (Karaye et al., 2019, p. 5).
Minority groups, according to Das, have limited access to information about
emergencies. It has been demonstrated that failure to evacuate prior to a storm can result in
fatalities from both direct causes (trauma, drowning, and carbon monoxide poisoning) and
indirect causes (complications brought on by the worsening of long-term medical conditions,
such as diabetes or cardiovascular disease) (Karaye et al., 2019).
Age
During calamities, senior adults encounter numerous difficulties. Seniors typically sustain
more injuries during a disaster than do younger people because of their advanced age, physical
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limits, and disabilities (Das, 2018). According to Karaye, elderly people are constrained by
physical limitations and poor physical condition when being evacuated. Despite the risks, elderly
people may refuse to leave their home due to worries about scheduling medical appointments or
access to their durable medical equipment (Karaye et al., 2019).
Income
The ability to access housing and the safety of housing are directly correlated with an
individual's income. Due to the fact that they are on a fixed income, elderly people frequently
reside in homes that are disaster prone. Affordable housing is frequently found in older masonry
buildings that are inadequately reinforced in earthquake-prone cities. In the event of an
earthquake, these constructions are more likely to collapse. Additionally, people with lower
incomes have fewer financial reserves, are more likely to be jobless or disabled, and are less
likely to have disaster insurance (Das, 2018). Low-income people may be unable to move to
higher ground or seek refuge during a storm if they do not have access to a personal automobile
or another form of transportation (Karaye et al., 2019).
Low- Income Housing Tax Credit
The most popular method of financing for subsidized housing in the United States is the
Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) (Mehta et al., 2020). In order to "leverage federal tax
credits for private investment in the construction of affordable housing," the LIHTC program
was established in 1986. (Mehta et al., 2020, p. 77). When a disaster strikes, low-income people
are frequently the ones who are most severely affected, but they also receive the least amount of
federal disaster aid, which is normally given to homeowners (Mehta et al., 2020). Following a
disaster, it's crucial to get back to normal activities, which includes reestablishing a permanent
home.
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When a disaster strikes, lower-income, non-white neighborhoods typically experience
more damage, and low-income renters are more likely than homeowners to reside in homes that
were constructed to comply with laxer building rules. Because it takes longer to build affordable
housing after a disaster than it does to fix high-income housing that has been built to code,
people with lower incomes are forced to leave their low-income neighborhood or risk seeing
poverty levels increase there (Mehta et al., 2020).
Faith-Based Organizations
For a better capability for disaster preparedness and response, faith-based groups and
other nonprofit organizations frequently work together with municipal health authorities.
According to Adams, et al. (2020), local health departments rely on community and faith-based
organizations because they are familiar with their locality and its cultures, resources, and
structures; churches are familiar with their congregants and their families, and schools are
familiar with the students who attend their facilities. Due to their experience and understanding,
outside agencies are able to gather information that can be useful before, during, and after a
crisis.
U.S. policy texts promote community-based collaborations between governmental and
nongovernmental organizations. FEMA presents a framework for putting the whole-community
strategy into practice, which includes recognizing a community's requirements. When partnering
with local faith-based organizations, local health departments carry out four types of tasks. For
the design, promotion, and dissemination of catastrophe information resources and materials,
communication and outreach are crucial. Second, resource sharing happens when local health
departments employ the services, facilities, and volunteers provided by neighborhood faith-based
organizations for disaster response and preparation. Third, improving local health departments'
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capacity enables them to provide training and collaborate with neighborhood faith-based
organizations on disaster preparedness. This enables neighborhood faith-based organizations to
support their community during a crisis. The final component of partnership planning is
community-based planning between neighborhood faith-based organizations and municipal
health agencies. As a result, community-wide preparedness and response plans are created and
implemented, community faith-based groups participate in community drills, and the local health
department and community faith-based organizations continue to coordinate before and after a
disaster (Adams et al., 2020).
Christians are expected to lend a hand to people in need. "Be prepared to assist God's
people when they are in need. Be eager to show hospitality at all times (Rom 12:13, New Living
Translation, 2004). Particularly faith-based groups place a strong emphasis on bringing Jesus'
commands to those who are suffering. Being kind and loving to those who are wounded and in
pain can be a crucial component of their healing. Faith-based groups that welcome those in need
into their homes are living out Jesus' own words. "Yes, the gate, I am. I will save those who enter
through me. They will be able to roam freely and locate lush pastures (John 10:9, New Living
Translation, 2004).
Debris Removal
The process of recovering from a disaster includes the removal of debris. Because it is
expensive and time-consuming to clear debris, Crowley and Flachsbart (2018) claim that
managing disaster debris has been connected to disaster prevention. Ineffective debris clearance
techniques lead to the waste of community resources that may be used more effectively
elsewhere (Crowley & Flachsbart, 2018).
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The huge amount of waste makes disaster debris disposal challenging. Five to ten times
as much solid waste is produced by a community annually as disaster debris. "In the past, a key
goal was to move the debris generated by disasters from an originating site to its eventual
destination as quickly as feasible," claim Kim et al. (2018 p. 674). Debris from disasters impedes
clearance efforts and other procedures (Kim et al., 2018).
Recovery and reaction are the two stages of the debris removal process (Kim et al.,
2018). The primary goal of the response phase is to clear any debris from evacuation routes,
while the recovery phase entails clearing any debris from public highways that was not cleaned
during the response phase. After a disaster, waste is sometimes processed, repurposed, and
disposed of at a temporary debris management site (TDMS). Typically, one million cubic yards
of waste require 100 acres of land, but this property must be free of playgrounds and swamps due
to environmental harm and community consequences, and it should ideally be situated where
noise, pests, vermin, and odors won't have an impact on the neighborhood (Kim et al., 2018).
Mental Health and Disasters
"With the development of technology, media exposes people to natural disasters more
promptly, and frequently produces a sense of preoccupation, anxiety, and excitement
surrounding the calamity," claims (Bobbitt, 2018, p. 56). Disasters have a physical and material
impact on people, but they can also lead to psychological problems that need to be handled. The
American Red Cross was the first organization to realize the need for disaster-specific mental
health care (Bobbitt, 2018).
Counselors are required to comprehend and be trained on the impacts that crisis, tragedy,
and trauma have on an individual, according to the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and
Related Educational Programs (CACREP) (Bobbitt, 2018). According to the American
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Counseling Association's (ACA) Code of Ethics, mental health counselors are required to
comprehend trauma and to take measures to shield their clients from unneeded emotional,
physical, or psychological trauma (Bobbitt, 2018).
Purpose of Disaster Mental Health Interventions
Interventions in mental health have three objectives. To start, an individual needs
immediate support to lower their stress. Acute support also improves reaction comprehension,
lessens unfavorable coping mechanisms, and broadens the individual's understanding of other
resources that are available to them. Second, prompt assistance enables customers to manage the
ongoing pressures brought on by a natural disaster. When the client-counselor relationship is
established, immediate support is provided. Lastly, throughout continued therapy. The client and
counselor can focus on the client's unique requirements while receiving ongoing treatment
(Bobbitt, 2018).
Impact of Disaster on Clients
Disasters have an impact on people on many levels, leading to problems with their
emotions, minds, behaviors, and spirits. Anxiety, shock, wrath, fear of both dying and dying,
sleep problems, social exclusion, a change in appetite, bereavement, loneliness, posttraumatic
stress disorder, and an increase in suicide rates are all common reactions to tragedy (Bobbitt,
2018). In times of disaster, women often have more emotional trouble than men do (Das, 2018).
Disasters also have an impact on communities. According to Bobbitt (2018), communities
affected by disasters must deal with widespread mourning, economic upheaval, disorientation,
and destructive behaviors.
Impact of Disaster on Counselors
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Counselors are impacted by the tragedies they assist others in overcoming. Those who
assist others in a tragedy frequently experience vicarious trauma. Working with and interacting
with someone who is under a lot of stress might result in vicarious traumatization, claims Bobbitt
(2018). When a counselor is exposed to a lot of the sorrow and pain of their clients, compassion
fatigue sets in. The ability to demonstrate empathy is typically reduced as a result (Bobbitt,
2018). Compassion fatigue in counselors makes them feel as though their workplace offers little
to no emotional support. Compassion fatigue affects counselors in a variety of ways, including
poor self-care, sleep disturbances, a decreased capacity to maintain normal levels of functioning,
and a loss of hope. These people frequently quit their jobs before they should and experience
boundary and ethical violations with clients (Bobbitt, 2018).
Conclusion
Communities and people are affected by disasters in many different ways. Effective
disaster management is crucial because it has an impact on how a community prepares for a
disaster, handles the event, and manages the recovery process after a disaster. Communities that
effectively prepare for a disaster and lessen its effects are more likely to survive the destruction
than communities that are completely unprepared. Communities and individuals can effectively
be fully prepared for the disasters they will encounter by having a disaster plan in place.
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References
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Crowley, J., & Flachsbart, P. (2018). Local debris management planning and FEMA policies on
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