31 Aug 620 Wk 8 Replies
Thread: Emergency management is playing an increasingly important role in public administration. Whether caused by severe weather, terrorism, or civil unrest, public administrators face the challenge of anticipating and effectively addressing problems that are, by their very nature, unexpected. After you read Exercise 9, conduct your own research into major emergency management incidents that occurred in the United States during the last 50 years. Select one that you consider to have been relatively well-managed, and one that was not well-managed. Applying concepts from Exercise 9 and your own research, explain how the emergency management incidents you selected were well-managed and poorly managed. What did the public sector officials do right? What could they have done better?
APA citations/references required
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Reply to the following response with *** 300 words minimum, including direct questions to the post ***. (please make response as if having a conversation, respond directly to some of the statements in below post. This is not providing an analysis of the original post. Respectfully address it and even ask clarifying or additional questions.)
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1.
Emergency management is a vital part of a public administrator. Emergency management occurs when an emergency such as a natural disaster, active shooter, or any issue with mass casualties. A plan must be in place for when an emergency occurs (Miller, 2019). It would be up to the city or county manager to ensure that all the agencies within the organization have the equipment, personnel, and training needed to respond to an emergency. That would include the police department, fire department, and emergency medical services (EMS) (Dresang, 2017).
The first thing to do at an emergency is to set up and command center once the immediate threat is addressed (Miller, 2019). In the case of an active shooter, the first responding officer(s) are to go directly to where the shots are being fired. They cannot wait for back-up or the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team to show up. The more time that elapses, the more people could be shot and killed. This change was made after the mass shooting at Columbine High School. Students and teachers died while waiting for officers to enter the building. It was not the officers’ fault because that was the protocol at the time (Captain Byron Caylor, personal communication, June 25, 2019).
Outside agencies are often involved in emergency management situation (Miller, 2019). It is vital to train with the surrounding agencies for that reason. Everyone needs to be on the same page and know their role(s). Communication and knowing who is in charge of what is very important to a successful response to an emergency (Dresang, 2017). Everyone responding to the emergency has a role and they must know it and be able to perform their duties without interference as it could cause lives if they do not. The Parkland High School shooting was a cluster from the start. The deputy working at the school took cover outside of the school when the shots were being fired instead of doing his job and going to the area the shots were being fired. As an administrator, you should make sure that the people you have assigned to certain duties know the parameters of those duties and they can perform those duties (Dresang, 2017). “Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus”… Philippians 2:3-5 (ESV).
References
Dresang, D. L. (2017). The public administration workbook (8th ed.). London, UK: Routledge.
Miller, R. (2019). Emergency Management in Public Administration
. Retrieved from
2.
Emergency management is a important piece of public policy/administration. Its priority is mainly to find an effective, efficient, appropriate and coordinated response to disasters.Policy should spell out the roles and functions of each government institution and agency, as well as individuals, in the management of disasters.[1]
According to our book it stated some key steps in emergency management in order to maximize the chances of an effective response:[2]
· Designate an incident commander. Most states have designated the chief of the community fire department as the incident commander in emergencies, although the public health officer is the incident commander if the emergency is bioterrorism or is fundamentally a biological threat. The most important point is that someone needs to take responsibility as the one in charge.
· Establish a command center. The command center is in part a place where agencies, private organizations, volunteers, the media, and others can go to get information and instructions. The command center is also a steering committee that consists of representatives of key, relevant organizations and serves to advise and work with the incident commander.
· Keep records. Records of what happened and who was affected are critical. There is often a need to share this information with the families of victims or suspected victims. In addition, this information is important to relief agencies and insurance companies so they can be sure to serve the right people. Issues of legal liability and criminal prosecution also require good records.
All of them are needed to ensure the best practices, methods and resources were used during any of the difficult trying times and disasters.
The 2018 volcanic eruption at Kilauea, Hawai’i caused massive destruction of property and infrastructure, but happily no loss of life. Much of that can be pinned on the excellent work done by the US Geological Survey and the Emergency Management teams in Hawai’i.[3] This was great and well managed due to the facts that all the public officials involved were able to get people to safety.
The Parkland school shooting was not well-managed at all. A teen gunman opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle at his former high school in Parkland, Florida. 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, went inside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School killed 17 people, 14 others were wounded. The former school resource officer, Scot Peterson, who remained outside during the deadly shooting is the sole reason why this massacre was not well managed. He did not do his due diligence and his civic duty to go in and protect those people and innocent children. As a public official, Peterson, didn’t service his role as a official.
Refereces
[1] Adesanya Omoniyi Adekoya, (February, 2016). Ethical Public Administration in Emergency Management. Retrieved from https://patimes.org/ethical-public-administration-emergency-management/
[2] Dennis Dresang, (2017). The Public Administration Workbook. Routledge. New York. 8th edition. Retrieved from https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781134816156/cfi/6/10!/4/2/2@0:0
[3]Erik Klemetti, (December, 2018). Kīlauea’s 2018 Eruption Was the Largest in the United States for Almost 40 Years. Retrieved from http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/rockyplanet/2018/12/12/kilauea-2018-eruption-largest-united-states-40-years/#.XRwG9etKjIU
3.
Emergencies are situations that usually happens when are the least expected and anticipated. Better yet, when they occur, most of the agencies involve or part of the area may not be fully capable of supporting the needs of the city or state at stake. “Emergency management is a quick, immediate response to a single unusual event and does not have the kind of existing structures and processes that are associated with most organizations” (Dresang, 2017, p.161). The Bible says, “And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming” (1 John 2:28, New International Version). “The 2017 Atlantic Hurricane Season was one of the most active seasons in U.S. history, causing widespread damage to, or destruction of, critical infrastructure, livelihoods, and property” (FEMA, 2018). The two major disasters that will be covered here are Hurricane Irma and Harvey (Florida or Texas) and Hurricane Maria and Irma (Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands).
Now, it was mentioned how difficult of a year was 2017 for the Federal Emergency Management Agency where they were able to apply all the lessons learned from previous years national disasters (FEMA, 2018). “Recent decades have produced fresh theoretical frameworks for understanding risk, more accurate methods for measuring and calibrating risk, and more effective means of assessing and interpreting these measures to enable emergency managers to mitigate risk” (Comfort et al., 2012, p.546). However, there will always be room for improvement, no matter how prepared they think they are. With this in mind, there were many flaws and good things that happened during the response to Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands, in contrast to Florida and Texas that had a well-managed emergency response. Starting with Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands, FEMA (2018) noted the following that was not managed correctly: 1) better open-source information and preparedness data, 2) FEMA entered with a low force strength during the hurricane season, 3) FEMA had too many assumptions of Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands’ capabilities, 4) there were too many misplaced logistical support, and 5) the limited sea transport and communications. However, FEMA also did great things for the preparedness by establishing headquarters in different areas. FEMA response to Hurricane Maria represented the most extended sustained air mission of food and water delivery in the Agency’s history.
Now, Florida and Texas had some significant problems, but what they were praise for was the fact they had the fastest and largest evacuation/sheltering mission in the United States history (FEMA, 2018). With the direction of FEMA of creating their internal plans for major disasters resulted on “Florida jurisdictions issuing evacuation orders for a record-breaking 6.8 million people, contributing to one of the largest sheltering missions in U.S. history. Florida housed a peak of 191,764 people in nearly 700 shelters across the State” (FEMA, 2018). The combination of FEMA, State, and Local cities showed that preparedness it is not one person effort but a team effort with the results and feedback from their major disaster event face during 2017.
In conclusion, the unprecedented combination of multiple, large, and complex disasters such as hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria required FEMA to adapt to evolving disaster response and recovery needs (FEMA, 2018). The data collected showed that 90% of a territory or state of the United States with zero preparedness could be affected by a major disaster. However, even though Florida and Texas had severe damage, they were able to sustain the initial impact of the disaster. The Bible says, “Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of your wings, I will take refuge, till the storms of destruction pass by” (Psalm 57:1-2, New International Version). “Building a culture of preparedness within our communities and our government will support a national effort to be ready for the worst disasters at the individual; family; community; state, local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT); and federal levels” (FEMA, 2018).
Reference
Dresang, D. L. (2017). The public administration workbook (8th ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.
Comfort, L. K., Waugh, W. L., & Cigler, B. A. (2012). Emergency Management Research and Practice in Public Administration: Emergence, Evolution, Expansion, and Future Directions. Public Administration Review,72(4), 539-548. doi:10.1111/j.1540-6210.2012.02549.x
FEMA (2018). 2017 Hurricane season FEMA after-action report. Retrieved from https://www.fema.gov/media-library-data/1531743865541-d16794d43d3082544435e1471da07880/2017FEMAHurricaneAAR.pdf
Homeland Security. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.dhs.gov/
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