The role of response or relief agencies is critical in any disastrous scenario, be it in the form of earthquake, hurricane, flood, famine, war, air crash or terror attack. All these catastrophes lead to the loss of human life and resources, sometimes minor while massive in certain situations.
The after affects are yet another affair, which can also be short-term or long-lasting. From a road accident to a vast scale bomb blast, aid from individuals, private or government organization is involved.As the calamities are often on a huge scale, these agencies mostly specialize in a specific relief activity to prove to be effective and efficient. Since the catalog of disasters is countless, the services required to tackle with each are numerous as well.
As for instance, the challenges and functions of an agency in case of a hurricane are not the same as at the time of a bomb blast. Although the nature of every tragedy can be different, the common relief efforts comprise of safety measures, preparation before calamity, emergency evacuation, medical aid, food supply, shelter, recovery and re-habilitation.The effectiveness of a relief organization depends on how well planned it is with regard to its strategic management. Owing to the unfathomable technological advancement, many measures can be taken to remain safe from these hazards in the present era, yet human precautions and defense efforts prove to be fruitless at the hands of fate or sometimes brutes disguised in the from of humans. There are four major functions of these agencies: mitigation, preparedness, reaction and revitalization.
Mitigation aims at the long term prevention of a calamity by taking precautionary measures and figuring out the effects of disasters. The second function is to be prepared to tackle and manage a crisis situation. The agency makes strategic plans to manage the disaster by confirming inventory, shelters, footstock, evacuation medical aid etc. Once the agency is prepared with all these requisites, they react and put the plan of action into work. It includes all the services related to rescue and providing safety to the victims, followed by revitalization of the sufferers and the affected site or resources.In the U.
S, FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) is the central organization for crisis and relief management. It is the National Response Plan which determines as how to put the relief efforts to work in the light of Homeland Security Act of 2002. The Federal government is mostly responsible for extending monetary and technical aid and assistance in this regard. Federal Emergency Management Agency encompasses the state by one of its ten regions; the government plans crisis management programs within each state or region.Besides FEMA, some of the major response agencies of the United States include the Adventist Community Services (ACS).
It is responsible for distributing clothing, bedding, and foodstuff. In critical situations, ACS extends mobile distribution units along with bedding, clothing and food. The American Red works in disaster relief activities. Its services include providing foodstuff, shelter, first aid, medical aid, clothing and emergency transportation besides numerous other services for the revival of the victims.The Catholic Charities USA Disaster Response aids the crisis management process by addressing the public about the crisis and emergency needs of the victims. It focuses on long-term and continuous revival services; providing temporary shelters and counseling the workers and the sufferers.
The Major response agencies and their functions in terror response In the terrorist attack disaster, after 9/11 in particular, the United States government has dedicated specific bodies who will manage disasters of this nature.The increasing terror threat from a number of terrorist organizations has enveloped the masses into an inescapable fear. The US has devoted some agencies that work in coordination and share various roles and responsibilities for terrorism response management. Department of Justice (DOJ) or Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Department of Defense (DOD), Department of Energy (DOE), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) are some of the agencies managing the growing issue and threats of terrorism.DOJ’s or FBI’s core function is directly related to developing and executing policies related to thwarting or minimize terror threats.
The responsibility of prosecuting the criminals also falls into its share. Federal Emergency Management Agency, the leading crisis management organization of United State, is designated to manage and coordinate federal disaster management in co-ordination with other governmental and local bodies. Delegating personal for advisory purpose and establishing suitable association with SIOC (Strategic Information and Operations Center) fall into its duties.Department of Defense acts as a supporting body to the FBI. For emergency management, its responsibilities include technical operations, and all kinds of other assistance required by FEMA.
Department of Defense specializes in fighting against terrorism; the US Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious Diseases, Technical Escort Unit, and US Marine Corps Chemical Biological Incident Response Force and other DOD wings deal with terrorist attacks and threats. Department of Emergency extends technical assistance to FBI and also assists FEMA in various operations.Environmental Protection Agency also acts as a support unit to FBI and FEMA. EPA’s services encompasses many vital functions including threat assessment, on-site safety, protection, prevention, decontamination, consultation, agent identification, hazard detection and diminution besides many other support responsibilities. Department of Health and Human Services also extends helping hand to FBI and FEMA for technical assistance in terror crisis management.
Some of its services to FEMA are mass immunization, mass prophylaxis, casualty management and medical aid. Major elements in a mass fatality management planAll these bodies deal with crisis management in mass fatality management; measures to identifying, anticipate, taking preventive measures for terror threats are some of the roles being performed by them in mass fatality management plan. They also ensure the heath and safety of the victims and provide allsorts of facilities in such crisis. In the light of the laws of US, the Federal government is authorized to deal with all sorts of issues related to terrorism.
Besides crisis management, another duty of these agencies is consequence management in a mass fatality occurrence.It is primarily concerning mass disaster management mission, which comprises of health, safety protection and emergency assistance to everyone affected by terrorist attack. Federal Emergency Management Agency manages and takes charge of these actions in case of a terrorist hit on a massive scale. Challenges and limitations The intelligence or response agencies of the US incessantly appraise various terrorist threats, both local and international.
The foreign intelligence is in charge of keeping an eye on the terrorist attacks whose roots are clutch in foreign world to the country.In this state of affairs, one of the most imperative challenges these agencies are faced with is as how to fight terrorism by formulating strong connection between terrorism, the strategies and resources of the response agencies. The strategies so far have been based upon assumptions rather than real hazards. For this reason, the desired results are often not achieved. After September 11, U.
S has become the centre of terrorist attacks. The ghost-like terrorists have made the situation worse since they may appear at anytime, at any place.You do not know if the person sitting next to you in the restaurant or a public transport may blow himself up at any instant! Besides planning and formulizing safety measures, these government agencies are encountered with numerous tests, as this fear of terrorist attacks has spread like epidemic. The easy and fast access to information through internet has also mounted challenges for the response agencies.
Information about various activities of states and government is easily accessible and shared in no time. This provides a bridge to the terrorist organizations and facilities their activities all as much as it helps these agencies.Moreover, the problem of monitoring the financial systems of these terrorist organizations as a big challenge in itself, as they keep on employing various channels of financial aid which facilitates their movements. Ensuring the liberty of masses and their security at the same time is yet another challenge faced by these organizations. We have been long hearing about the war on terror, but since 9/11 this has increased not reduced. Osama Bin Ladin, considered to be at the top of the terrorists list, is still nowhere to be found and the activities of Al Qaeda are still very strong.
The war on Iraq added fuel to the fire, as the Anti-American feelings spread all the more, increasing the challenges for the response agencies by manifolds. Not only this, the focus on war for oil, geo-politics, ethnicity, the maltreatment of numerous expatriates across the globe, bias on the bases of religion and culture, and many other factors have aggravated things for the US all the more. Though many actions have been taken, numerous agencies established, yet the terrorist activities are on the rise.There are some crucial issues which these agencies or the US government have not yet been able to put their finger on. It is noteworthy that the case of this terrorism is Anti-Americanism, but these agencies are lacing in focus approach, thus being unable to sort this issue out.
Conclusion We can extract from the above discussion that although the US government has established a basic framework to deal with terrorism by formulating various response agencies and defining their roles, there is lack of focus and realistic approach to deal with this kind of capricious threat.There is need of better coordination between these agencies as in some cases it was discovered that this insufficiency was a cause of some critical issues. A realistic and profound strategy is required to be formulated on the national level, which would be based on unbiased analysis of the root causes of Anti-Americanism. It is this very factor, at least on the out front, which is the cause of all these terrorism movements in our part of the world.Since dealing with terrorism is all about crisis and emergency management, the roles and responsibilities must be made crystal clear before the occurrences of any terrorist incident. Federal programs to deal in such situations should be unambiguous and well co-coordinated.
Even some fundamental issues pertaining to the definition of terrorism, weapons of mass destruction etc. require clarity as the response agencies are not standing on the same platform of understanding in this context. As the terrorist attacks are mostly on massive scale, the preparation and strategies should be targeted accordingly for maximum outcome.
