PrintPolicy, Natural Hazards, Disasters, and the Emergency Management Cycle
Let’s go over some emergency management terminology to begin.
Policy
A policy is a principle or set of principles that guides decisions and tries to produce sensible, positive outcomes or to avoid the negative effects of some behaviors. A policy can apply to governments, businesses, other groups (such as sports teams or college courses), and even individuals. Policies are often established by governing bodies and implemented by executive officers. Many levels of government, schools, etc., have recently developed policies to help guide people through the COVID-19 pandemic.
Policies can only suggest ways for people or groups to do the right things or to avoid doing the wrong things, while rules or laws can use punishment as enforcement. We have all become familiar with the heated debates about mask-wearing during the pandemic. These arguments underline the difference between policy and rule of law.
So, tsunami and hurricane storm surge policies aim to help the public avoid or minimize harm from these natural hazards and recover quickly and efficiently from them when they strike.
Natural Hazards
Natural hazards are geophysical events that pose threats to human life or health, to the natural or built environment on which people rely for life support, and to things that people value, such as economic wealth or material possessions. Natural hazards are potentialities; that is, they have not yet happened but could occur at some time in the future.
Disasters
When a natural hazard such as a tsunami or hurricane does become active, it can trigger a disaster. Natural disasters are the major adverse human events resulting from natural hazards. Disasters are typically associated with loss of life, impaired human health, destruction of the natural and built environment, financial damage, and loss of land and possessions. The severity of the disaster is a function of the magnitude of the geophysical event coupled with the vulnerability of the people and place, which was the topic of Module 11.
Emergency Management Cycle
The emergency management cycle is used to understand appropriate human preparation for, and response to, disasters, including those resulting from a coastal hazard. The emergency management cycle can be divided into four stages: mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery.
Mitigation
Mitigation includes all efforts that a person, household, community, or any other social unit takes to make a disaster less likely to happen or to reduce the negative effects if a natural hazard were to occur. Mitigation activities occur well before a natural hazard strikes and can be structural, such as building a sea wall, or non-structural, such as developing a warning system.
Preparedness
Preparedness, in contrast to mitigation, can take place right before the natural hazard strikes. Its goal is to make sure that the individual or community knows which tools to possess and how to use those tools, what actions to undertake. The actions can also continue during the hazardous event, or immediately after disaster strikes. In preparing for a hurricane, for instance, important preparedness activities may include planning for evacuation, including knowing when to evacuate, which destination to evacuate to, and what evacuation route to take.
Response
Response is the emergency assistance that takes place during or immediately after a disaster. Its purpose is to save lives, treat injuries, and reduce property damage while meeting the most fundamental needs — water, food, shelter, and medical aid — of the people affected by the event. The response period is stressful both to emergency managers, who face limited time, information, and resources, and to the public, who face evacuation, family separation, and the loss of property and loved ones.
Recovery
Recovery is the stage during which individuals, families, communities, and governments repair and reconstruct what has been damaged by or lost in the disaster. At the same time, recovery presents an opportunity to reduce the risk of a similar catastrophe in the future – in other words, to start mitigation activities and thereby start the emergency management cycle again.
In reaction to the disaster, governments usually provide substantial resources for recovery, including economic recovery, housing recovery, and individual, family, and social recovery, and possible mitigation of potential future natural hazard events. In addition, funds and assistance come from many other sources, including non-profit organizations, faith-based organizations, and volunteers.
