Emergency management protects communities by coordinating and
integrating all activities necessary to prepare for, respond to, and
recover from threatened or actual natural disasters, acts of terrorism,
or other man-made disasters. The profession and the academic discipline
that addresses this 'management' of emergencies and disasters is called
emergency management.
An emergency is any unplanned event that can cause deaths or significant
injuries, shut down business or disrupt operations, cause physical or
environmental damage and/or threaten reputation or revenue.
Emergencies and disasters come in all shapes and sizes. They include
hurricanes, earthquakes, hazardous materials incidents, flooding,
structure fires, tornadoes, terrorism, protests, human epidemics,
volcanic eruptions, drought, heat waves, power outages, computer system
failures and many, many more.
Whatever the event, effective coordination among federal, state, country
and local government, the private sector, non-governmental
organizations (NGO's) and volunteer agencies- before, during and after
an incident- is crucial to effective emergency management. The role of
the emergency manger is to promote coordination among all of these
parties.
Two recent natural disasters seemed more devastating than any before, in
fact more powerful hurricanes had struck New Orleans before. Why did
this disaster seem to create more damage than before? The difference is
that we have changed the way we live. We overdeveloped the coastal area,
stripping the land of natural buffers like wetlands and trees that
formed protection in the past.
Even the tsunami in southeast Asia could have been a far smaller
tragedy, had the Indian Ocean had a tsunami warning system like the
Pacific Ocean- and had people known the basic warning signs of a
tsunami. Learn more about this at
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/earth/anatomy-tsunami.html
Dr. Jop is challenging his students to solve a problem
related to evacuating low lying areas during Hurricane Katrina. Try this
problem that is similar to the ones are solving in this picture.
Your coastal emergency management team has been advised that a hurricane
is heading up the coast, and is predicted to make landfall near a small
coastal islands that has 1200 residents. Your team needs to evacuate
using busses that hold 30 people to a higher location 25 miles away?
Use the information below to figure out a plan.
8% refuse to leave, you will leave them behind on the island
10% are special needs and elderly who need to be accompanied on the bus with an aide.
How many total people will be on the buses?
How many buses will you need?
To learn more about the emergency management of Hurricane Katrina click
here. http:// www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/earth/anatomy-katrina.html
Find out how hurricane winds are measured try this activity
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