Question W5

Part 1: Read the Module and articles by Wachtendorf (2003), Harrald (2006), and Drabek & McEntire (2002).  What are the key issues for organizations in dealing with disasters?

·  Agility and Discipline: Critical Success Factors for Disaster Response By John R. Harrald The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science Vol. 604, Shelter from the Storm: Repairing the National Emergency Management System after Hurricane Katrina (Mar., 2006), pp. 256-272 (Pay particular attention to the organization typology – page 268)

· Kendra, J. & Wachtendorf, T. (2003).Creativity in Emergency Response to the World Trade Center Disaster. In Natural Hazards Research and Applications Information Center, Public Entity Risk Institute, and Institute for Civil Infrastructure Systems. http://www.riskinstitute.org/peri/images/file/sept11book_ch5_kendra.pdf

· Watch video referred to in this article http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDOrzF7B2Kg

· Drabek, T. & McEntire, D. (2002). Emergent Phenomena and Multiorganizational Coordination in Disasters: Lessons from the Research Literature, International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters, 20(2), 197-224. http://www.ijmed.org/articles/574/download/

(Keep separated can be one document separated by references) 

Part 2: 

Read the article and view the video about   the activities of Wal-Mart during Hurricane Katrina. Describe a few of the   key activities of the WalMart Corp. in response the difficulties encountered   by in interfacing with government agencies.  In your opinion and based   on this one case study, do large private corporations have advantages over   governments in the response to crisis emergencies? 

Barbaro, M. & Gillis, J. (2005, September 6). Wal-Mart at Forefront of Hurricane Relief. 

o http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/05/AR2005090501598.html

o AND http://news.walmart.com/news-archive/2005/09/04/media-information-wal-marts-response-to-hurricane-katrina

o AND http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TJ7Mkw3rME