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contingency plans due to disaster
disaster management response plan assey
contingency plans due to disaster
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Crisis and Emergency Response This section specifies procedures for various emergency situations, including accidents that occur between school and environmental emergencies, fires, natural disasters, medical emergencies, and school intruders. Emphasis is placed on the importance of creating scenarios and exercises for practicing responses to each of these situations. During an emergency the principal and staff must be prepared to follow procedures, yet make leadership decisions according to the situation to maintain the safety of students and themselves (Jefferson County, 2008). Drills are conducted routinely to prepare, train staff and students in case of an actual emergency. Different bells whistles and codes are used to alert staff and students in the school’s audible alarm system. Practice helps staff and students to know what actions are necessary for each alert. Each procedure is designed with direct bullet statements that are easy to understand and follow. This is essential during an emergency situation when it is necessary to react quickly in order to maintain calm and order. A disaster can happen at any time, and the region will determine the type of disaster encountered. Schools are required to develop a disaster plan to anticipate any kind of threat. “When developing an effective disaster response program schools benefit from specialized guidance from organization familiar” with emergency plans for schools (Marinelli, 2013, p. 29). A thorough risk assessment of all potential threats is needed prior to the development of plans. This assessment supports schools in developing a plan addressing the schools unique needs. Marinelli (2013) suggests the minimum critical elements of an effective program should: (... ... middle of paper ... ...tings at the school. Law enforcement arrived at the school within three minutes, as officers approached the gunman he took out a handgun and shot himself in one of the classrooms. Police secured the building, ensuring no other shooters were on site, then escorted students and faculty out of the building to a nearby firehouse. As reports of the shooting made their way around town, frantic parents descended on the firehouse where the children had been taken. After hours of uniting parents with their children, (CNN, 2012) stated “by nightfall, the firehouse became a gathering point for parents and family members whose loved ones would never walk out of the school” (p.1). Figure 1 below is a graphic depiction of Sandy Hook Elementary School, it shows the proximity of the classroom to the principal office and gives a visual of just how quickly the incident transpired.
Sandy Hook is an elementary school in Connecticut that was invaded by a shooter, Adam Lanza. Twenty-eight people were shot and killed, twenty of them being children between the ages of five and ten. Before Lanza arrived, he shot and killed his mother who was a teacher at this school. The article was published the day of the shooting to the Washington Post. The article was written announce what had actually happened during this tragic event. The article was directed towards parents with kids and adults to inform everyone on the catastrophe and to hopefully make schools as safe as they could possibly be. Additionally the author also states that this is not the right time to try and discuss the gun control laws.
Bissell, R. (2010). Catastrophic Readiness and Response Course, Session 6 – Social and Economic Issues. Accessed at http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/edu/crr.asp
...grief that is too much, which caused the parents to seem happier than they really are. Conspiracy theorists got ahold of a picture of Obama with family members of the victims after the event. The theorists were convinced the massacre was a hoax when a younger sister of Emilie Parker was said to be Emilie (“Comprehensive”). The photo was not “photo shopped” it was proved to the younger sister of Emilie Parker. Not only are the theories of Sandy Hook Elementary wrong, they do not show respect for the families and loved ones who lost a part of their lives.
Haddow, G., Bullock, J., & Coppola, D. (2011). Introduction to emergency management (4th ed.). Burlington, MA: Butterworth Heinemann.
The police officers took many critical hours trying to develop a tactical plan. No one even knew when the danger had passed or how many gunmen there were, except for the people inside the school. The 911 lines were flooding with calls and jamming all the phone lines. Because of the fire alarms many people couldn’t track where the gun fires were coming from (Hasday, 32). The swat team entered through the doors farthest away from the attack.
Communities must come together in order to be aware of the steps that must be taken to reduce or prevent risk. “The guidance, programs, processes, and systems that support each component of the National Preparedness System enable a collaborative, whole community approach to national preparedness that engages individuals, families, communities, private and nonprofit sectors, faith based organizations and all levels of government.” (FEMA, 2011). Resources within a community are prioritized and customized based on community-based issues and local security programs. The resources used as the front line of defense are first responders, such as police officers, firefighters and medical personnel. The resources are provided and prioritized based on the priority of threat and risks to a specific community. Therefore, the threats and risks targeted towards a community must be analyzed and acknowledged in order to apply the correct resources to the opposing prioritized threats. Disasters and emergencies typically begin at the local level and eventually require resources from state and federal
Both man-made and natural disasters are often devastating, resource draining and disruptive. Having a basic plan ready for these types of disaster events is key to the success of executing and implementing, as well as assessing the aftermath. There are many different ways to create an emergency operations plan (EOP) to encompass a natural and/or man-made disaster, including following the six stage planning process, collection of information, and identification of threats and hazards. The most important aspect of the US emergency management system in preparing for, mitigating, and responding to man-made and natural disasters is the creation, implementation and assessment of a community’s EOP.
Haddow, G. D., Bullock, J. A., & Coppola, D. P. (2010).Introduction to emergency management. (4th ed., pp. 1-26). Burlington, MA: Butterworth-Heinemann.
A seemingly normal school day in Newtown, Connecticut, who knew that it would turn into one of the most devastating days of they would ever experience. About 2 years ago, students at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut were involved in the most devastating event of the year. According to an article by the Huffington Post, a mentally troubled man in his twenties named Adam Lanza shot 20 children and six staff members, with his mother’s weapons. His mother had apparently grown up with guns and thought it would be good to have in their house. Prior to driving to the school, he even shot his mother, but his motive is unknown. He drove to the school leaving a 12-gauge shotgun in the car, walking towards the school, he shot through the front entrance. “Lanza moved toward two classrooms of kindergartners and first-graders,” police said. Within five minutes he managed to kill 20 students ages 6 and 7 and six adults. He had fired more than 150 shots from a .223-caliber Bushmaster rifle. When police started to arrive he shot himself in the head, taking his own life. This incident was the deadliest mass shooting at a grade school in the US; in total 26 lives were lost.
Over the past decade years 200 victims have fallen due to school shootings. These numbers don’t even justify for the number of people killed in years prior to the 2000’s. Though these numbers don’t justify for the numbers of students injured or killed with other weapons, school safety is becoming a topic of discussion. As time goes on, people are bringing more attention to the subject of school safety. With the numerous school shootings in various states, lack of security in schools, and not enforcing rules for the students schools are becoming less safe.
Education of all personnel is key. Simulations like the Franklin County are great sources. Schools, hospitals, public and private companies to consider preforming drills or simulations in preparation for disasters such as. Many counties have such drills which sometime involve local hospitals, emergency personnel, and local high school students acting like victims with certain issues like head injury, burns, and other injuries which can occur. The television and radios do emergency testing which reminds watchers monthly the sound and the protocol that occurs in an emergency.
Over the past several years, a phenomenon has occurred: crises on school grounds have become increasingly common. Since the 2012 catastrophe at Sandy Hook, there have been forty four school shootings in the United States. Though almost none of these events received any significant media attention, they are still an indication that security must be taken very seriously in schools. Fortunately, most schools have begun to make changes within the past decade. In the wake of C...
Communities throughout the country and the world are susceptible to disasters. The environment and location of a community often predisposes a greater susceptibility to the type of disaster. For example Central Pennsylvania would not be susceptible to an avalanche however communities in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado would have increase vulnerability. Understanding the types of disaster for which the community is susceptible is essential for emergency preparedness (Nies & McEwen, 2011). All communities are susceptible to man-made disasters; terrorism, fires, and mass transit accidents and emergency preparedness are essential. The Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency (PEMA) is responsible for disaster planning.
The increase in unpredictable natural disasters events for a decade has led to put the disaster preparedness as a central issue in disaster management. Disaster preparedness reduces the risk of loss lives and injuries and increases a capacity for coping when hazard occurs. Considering the value of the preparatory behavior, governments, local, national and international institutions and non-government organizations made some efforts in promoting disaster preparedness. However, although a number of resources have been expended in an effort to promote behavioural preparedness, a common finding in research on natural disaster is that people fail to take preparation for such disaster events (Paton, 2005; Shaw 2004; Spittal, et.al, 2005; Tierney, 1993; Kenny, 2009; Kapucu, 2008; Coppola and Maloney, 2009). For example, the fact that nearly 91% of Americans live in a moderate to high risk of natural disasters, only 16% take a preparation for natural disaster (Ripley, 2006).
Of the four phases of emergency management, mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery, perhaps the place that individuals can make the biggest difference in their own state of resiliency and survival of a disaster is in the preparedness phase. Being prepared before a disaster strikes makes sense yet many people fail to take even simple, precautionary steps to reduce the consequences of destruction and mayhem produced by natural events such as earthquakes, volcanos and tornados (see Paton et al, 2001, Mileti and Peek, 2002; Tierney, 1993, Tierney et al, 2001).