Hazard mitigation is an important plan for societies and communities to devise, that can prepare them for various types of hazards. The mitigation process involves actions that can help to reduce or eliminate the risks associated with hazards. The process can have many positives to it, and with a mitigation plan in place, states will be safer and ready for anything. With any plan, hazard mitigation has certain tools involved. The tools are Preventions, Property Protection, Public Education and Awareness, Natural Protection, Emergency Services, and Structural Projects. Each tool is fundamental to hazard mitigation and each has importance. The key to mitigation involves planning and being prepared with the right plan that will help achieve the best results.
To understand the tools properly, the importance of hazard mitigation to the public must be understood. The Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000 is very important to the planning process. The act “provides the legal basis for FEMA mitigation planning requirements for State, local and Indian Tribal governments as a condition of mitigation grant assistance.” (FEMA, 2010). This act enacted by Congress, is to ensure that the assistance would lend to any state in need of it. The idea that the government would take this type of initiative for disaster planning can have very positive results for society. Essentially the federal government will help State and Local government, suffering from disasters, anyway possible. This is where hazard mitigation comes into play, since the state and local governments must first prepare themselves with the essentials tools necessary to ensure that devastation will not be the outcome of a disaster. A prepared community will not have to worry about...
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...reparing their area and its residents for potential dangers. Natural disasters have destructive effects and are virtually impossible to control, but sustainable hazard mitigation will ensure that property, natural resources and people are not left vulnerable.
Works Cited
FEMA , . (2010, October 30). Disaster mitigation act of 2000. Retrieved from
http://www.fema.gov/library/viewRecord.do?id=1935
Houlihan, A. (2007). Sustainable hazards mitigation. Informally published manuscript,
Center for Environmental Policy and Management, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky. Retrieved from http://cepm.louisville.edu/Pubs_WPapers/practiceguides/PG18.pdf
Mc Donald, C T. (2005, July 23). A comprehensive natural hazard mitigation strategy
should be the basis for sustainable development. Retrieved from http://www.carecreation.org/documents/hazard_001.pdf
Mitigation: Measures taken to lessen the consequences of disaster events upon our citizens and our
All over the world hundreds of disasters happen every year, no matter how big or how small they are, they can effect a community somewhere and can cause mutilation. A disaster is defined as “a natural event such as a flood, earthquake, or hurricane that causes great damage or loss of life” (“Disaster”, n.d) and from these disasters we get many risks. Risks are what come from a natural disaster, for instance a hurricane. A hurricane is “a rotating low-pressure weather system that has organized thunderstorms but no fronts” (“Canadian Hurricane Centre”, 2013). A hurricane can cause serious danger, harm and loss of either personal belongings or life. Hurricane Hazel, a storm that hit the Toronto are, was a huge storm for Canada which many Canadians
The Florida Catastrophic Planning (FLCP) Initiative was conducted under the auspices of the National Catastrophic Planning Process (CPP), as mandated by the Homeland Security Act of 2002, which was amended by the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act of 2007. The Act of 2007 expanded the roles and responsibilities of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in preparing for catastrophes as a result of the dismal response to Hurricane Katrina (Ruback et al., 2010). FEMA was given specific requirements to better prepare for catastrophic disasters and the FLCP planning process embodies one the first major tests of the CCP.
Federal intervention in the aftermath of natural disasters began after the San Francisco earthquake in 1906. This 8.3 magnitude earthquake killed 478, and left over 250,000 homeless. While the disaster itself was obviously unavoidable, the subsequent fires that burned throughout the city were a result of poor planning. (1, 17) In an effort to consolidate existing programs, and to improve the nation’s level of preparedness, President Carter created FEMA in 1979. Initially, FEMA was praised for improving communication between various levels of government, and multiple agencies during a crisis. (1,19)
In-order to plan for and manage the dangers associated with the various types of emergencies that occur. Managers must first identify the associated hazards that
Pre impact conditions mixed with event specific conditions combined with one another during a disaster produce physical and social impacts to a community. The impact from each disaster can be reduced by interventions through emergency management. By assessing these pre impact conditions, an emergency manager can produce social risks and vulnerabilities within their community. Integrating these social risks and vulnerabilities emergency mangers can use the four most important phases in emergency management: preparedness, planning, response, and recovery to benefit their community as a whole.
...certain risks and use that knowledge to make solid comprehensive management decisions. These decisions are designed to create a long-term plan that provides solid strategies for preventing and mitigating risk. The risk management also provides Department of homeland security and its partner’s resources and training to educate and prepare members on federal, state, local, tribal and territorial levels to prepare for disaster. Unfortunately, it impossible for our government to completely eliminate risk, whether it is terrorism or man-made or natural disasters, however, with effective risk management, we can rest assure that the risk can be brought down acceptable level where the department of homeland security and their partners are adequately prepared and have the capabilities to handle that risk and lower the potential harm that it could cause the nation long term.
Factors such as lost or damage of lives, property, financial districts, and necessary needs are considered in which determines the hazards that pose the most threat to specific location.
Once this concept is understood, preparation and mitigation within the plan can be molded to fit the disaster event presented to a community. Identification of threats and hazards to mold preparation and mitigation is key when responding to the event. Every event will reveal new types of hazards and threats, thus it is up to the emergency manager and the planning team to assess and revise the EOP each and every time this occurs. Lessons learned per event will only make the community stronger in response to natural and/or man-made disasters moving
The Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act of 1988 amended the Disaster Relief Act of 1974. This new Act created the system in place today by which a presidential disaster declaration of an emergency triggers financial and physical assistance through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The Act gives FEMA the responsibility for coordinating government-wide relief efforts. It is designed to bring an orderly and systemic means of federal natural disaster assistance for state and local governments in carrying out their responsibilities to aid citizens. Moreover, Congress' intention was to encourage states and localities to develop comprehensive disaster preparedness plans, prepare for better intergovernmental
Hazards pose risk to everyone. Our acceptance of the risks associated with hazards dictates where and how we live. As humans, we accept a certain amount of risk when choosing to live our daily lives. From time to time, a hazard becomes an emergent situation. Tornadoes in the Midwest, hurricanes along the Gulf Coast or earthquakes in California are all hazards that residents in those regions accept and live with. This paper will examine one hazard that caused a disaster requiring a response from emergency management personnel. Specifically, the hazard more closely examined here is an earthquake. With the recent twenty year anniversary covered by many media outlets, the January 17, 1994, Northridge, California earthquake to date is the most expensive earthquake in American history.
After the attack, the United States hastily constructed the Department of Homeland Security and downgraded FEMA, whose main duty was civil protection. This attracted criticism from some public administration experts that the U.S. government concentrated too much on terrorism…[After Hurricane Katrina] Critics… charged that too many government officials were not familiar with the “National Response Plan” which was implemented in December 2004 after 9/11 terrorist attack. Planning and training for large natural disasters were insufficient after the implementation of the plan. In short, too great a focus on counter-terrorism undermined capacities for natural disaster mitigation, response, and recovery in the post-9/11 United States (para. 7,
With the widespread, expensive, and life-threatening damage that can occur during natural disasters, including floods, wildfires, earthquakes, and other events, it is important that the responses to these events are quick and performed efficiently, with cost and resource optimization in mind. That way, resources are not wasted in areas that don’t need them. And, if this were to happen, other, high-demand areas would suffer. With the amount of damage and displacement of local populations that occur, the planning and deployment of nearby resources needs to address these concerns. If done poorly, poor planning can in fact work against its own goals and cause failures to occur that compromise millions in assets and endanger many people as well. Take, for example, the legendary failure of FEMA in its response to Hurricane Katrina. Yes, one of the main reasons that FEMA failed was its inability to gather resources and knowledge, but it also lacked the ability to mobilize its resources (whereas Walmart could do both of these things successfully) (Horwitz 1).
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.
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).