City Emergency Management

[Sean McAndrews]

     https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/05/us/houston-harvey-disaster-lesso...

     In the wake of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, cities’ emergency management officials took hard looks at their own plans and cross-examined them to Houston’s. The article by Adam Nagourney and Jess Bidgood of the New York Times discuss how city emergency preparedness officials have learned from Harvey and how they plan to develop their own because of it. But disaster preparedness does not stop there. A disaster is anything that causes social disruption. This is where recent events in Brussels, Istanbul, Paris, and London come to mind. Man-made disasters are the other major component to disaster preparedness.

     How cities and organizations in the United States handle emergency preparedness and response can vary from the rest of the world. Preparedness that occurs on the city-level as well federal-level plan for disasters though “All-Hazard” planning. Organizations have different individual plans for a tornado vs a bombing, however the planning occurs under one organization whereas in some nations each disaster may have its own. 

     Because of the amounts of disparities between natural disasters and man-made disasters, organizations must approach situations through some sort of model or approach. One prototype that is used is called the SMAUG model. This takes into account the Seriousness (in regard to lives and dollars), Manageability, Acceptability, Urgency, and Growth (of the disaster). Cities and organizations may use this model to prioritize planning for a disaster.

     There are several phases to how a city responds to a disaster. The phases are prevention, mitigation, preparedness, local committee planning, preparation measures, response, and recovery. Cities must reasonably plan for each level in able to be fully prepared. This is where city emergency planners can look at the response in Houston and see where flaws lie.

     The New York Times article cites several city emergency planners’ reactions to Houston from Chicago, San Francisco, Miami, Seattle, and New York. Most have said that Harvey initiated extra planning efforts in their cities. Nagourney and Bidgood mention problems that were faced in Houston such as emergency planning cooperating with officials over water and sewer systems as well as people displacement, and shelter planning. Interestingly, because of Houston several emergency planners are now planning on having phone banks and computer chargers in their shelters.