Earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, and tornadoes are natural hazards that man may be able to predict but unable to stop on the other side bombs, nuclear accidents, terrorist attacks and wars are manmade hazards, that cannot be predicted, but there is the possibility of preventing them. Even with all the different hazards in the world one of the keys to surviving them is effective emergency management preparedness.
Through the years, disaster preparedness has seen many changes and many meanings; to be able to enhance future disaster preparedness we need to look at the past and the present, in order to see the future.The media has talked endlessly about several terms since the events of September 11 (Sebastian, 2007). These terms are Homeland Security, FEMA and emergency management (Sebastian, 2007). To understand where we are today in emergency management preparedness, we need to look at the history of emergency management preparedness.
The first governmental emergency management intervention in the United States occurred in 1803 (Sebastian, 2007). This is when a Congressional Act was passed to help a New Hampshire town recover from a destructive fire (Sebastian, 2007).In the early 1930’s The Flood control Act of 1934 gave the U. S.
Army Corps of Engineers increased authority to design and build flood control projects. In addition, the Reconstruction Finance Corporation and the Bureau of Public Roads were both given authority to make disaster loans available for repair and reconstruction of certain public facilities after disasters. During the 1950’s, the Cold War era, the principal disaster risk was the potential for nuclear war and the radioactive fallout that would follow.During this time in the United States, there were few natural disasters to be concerned with and prepare for but the increases of manmade hazards were a threat. The Civil Defense programs increased across numerous communities to help protect them against manmade hazards/disasters.
Communities had a civil defense director; States had an official who represented civil defense in the State government hierarchy. These representatives were primarily retired military personnel, and their operations received very little political or financial support from State and/or local governments (City of Columbia, MO, 2007).However, they received Federal support for these civil defense activities, which was supported by the Federal Civil Defense Administration (FDCA), this organization had minimal staff and financial resources and whose main role was to provide technical assistance. In the 1960s and the 1970s, emergency management strategy changed and focused more on natural disasters. In response to the new threats to U. S.
citizen security, the Kennedy Administration created the Office of Emergency Preparedness (Sebastian, 2007).This agency was responsible for handling natural disaster planning and response, while the Department of Defense was in charge of civil defense issues (Sebastian, 2007). The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) established by President Carter in the 1970s to centralize emergency management activities. During the 1980s and 1990s, emergency management and disaster preparedness would change its focus between natural hazards and manmade hazards.Project Impact had finally ushered in an era of all-inclusive emergency management planning strategies (Sebastian, 2007).
After the terrorist attacks in 2001, President Bush created the Office of Homeland Security that would be in charge of developing plans to protect and respond to large geographical areas that could come under attack. In 2002 Homeland Security Act was passed. This act reorganized the emergency management system within the United States.However, while the reorganization impacted FEMA, state level and local level emergency planning agencies, its main function would be to focus on preventing, responding to and minimizing damage from terrorism (Haddow & Bullock, 2006). Emergency management or disaster preparedness is the discipline of dealing with and avoiding risks.
This discipline involves preparing for disaster before it occurs, disaster response and supporting, and rebuilding society after natural or manmade disasters have occurred.In general, any Emergency management is a continuous process and actions taken depend in part on the perceptions of risk of those exposed. Effective emergency management relies on thorough integration of emergency plans at all levels of government and non-government involvement. Activities at each level affect the other levels. What worked or did not work during past hazards need to be identified, reviewed, revised and practiced so same mistakes are not repeated this is what history teaches us.
