Principles of Emergency Planning and Management

Alexander David E.

Description

David Alexander provides a concise yet comprehensive and systematic primer on how to prepare for a disaster. The book introduces the methods, procedures, protocols and strategies of emergency planning, with an emphasis on situations within industrialized countries. It is designed to be a reference source and manual from which emergency mangers can extract ideas, suggestions and pro-forma methodologies to help them design and implement emergency plans.

Sujets

• Gestion et management
• Risk assessment

Informations

• Publié par: Dunedin Academic Press
• Date de parution: 01 octobre 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781780465296
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

Principles of emergency planning and management
David Alexander
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
 
Ai miei medici con affetto, stima e gratitudine.
Prof. Giampiero Bellesi, Prof. Sergio Boncinelli, Dr Paolo Fontanari,
Prof. Paola Lorenzi, Prof. Massimo Marsili, Dr Sergio Pittino
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgements
1 Aims, purpose and scope of emergency planning
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Long-term planning
1.3 Planning for the short term
2 Methodology: making and using maps
2.1 Introduction
2.2 The emergency planner’s choice of methodology
2.3 Cartographic methods
3 Methodology: analytical techniques
3.1 Modelling
3.2 Risk analysis
3.3 Loss estimation
3.4 Resource analysis and inventory
3.5 General and organizational systems analysis
3.6 Field exercises
3.7 Use of information technology
4 The emergency plan and its activation
4.1 The process of planning
4.2 Disseminating the plan
4.3 Testing and revising the plan
4.4 The integration of plans in theory and practice
5 The plan in practice: emergency management
5.1 Management styles
5.2 Alert procedures, warnings and evacuation
5.3 Search and rescue
5.4 Communications
5.5 Transportation
5.6 Engineering
5.7 Shelter
5.8 Emergency food programmes
5.9 The care of vulnerable and secure groups
6 Specialized planning
6.1 Emergency medical planning
6.2 Veterinary plans
6.3 Emergency planning and schools
6.4 Terrorism and crowd emergencies
6.5 Emergency planning for industries
6.6 Emergency planning for tourism
6.7 Planning for libraries and archives
6.8 Protecting fine art and architecture
6.9 A plan for the mass media
6.10 Psychiatric help
6.11 A note on the integration of plans
7 Reconstruction planning
7.1 Temporary measures
7.2 Restoration of services
7.3 Reconstruction of damaged structures
7.4 Development and mitigation
8 Emergency-management training
8.1 The cause-and-effect model
8.2 The concept-based approach
8.3 Scenario-based methods
8.4 Trends in disaster education and training
9 Concluding thoughts
 
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
Preface
There is a curious paradox about disasters. On the one hand they are extraordinary events that require special organization and resources to tackle the damage, casualties and disruption that they cause, and on the other hand they are sufficiently frequent and similar to each other to be normal, not abnormal, events. Although emergency powers and special measures are needed when disaster strikes, the requirements and exigencies are predictable enough to be planned for. Indeed, disaster planning is both eminently possible and an obligation of the civil authorities responsible for the safety of workers, patients, inmates and members of the public.
The field of civil protection (known as emergency preparedness in the USA ) is relatively new and rapidly evolving. It was born out of the civil defence organizations that were set up at the beginning of the Cold War with the perhaps futile aim of protecting the population and vital institutions against the effects of nuclear attack (its earlier origins can be found in the air-raid precautions brigades of the Second World War, and in pre-war measures to protect civilians against armed aggression). In the 1970s the emphasis began to shift to disasters not caused by warfare, and this gradually led to the creation of an entirely new field concerned with the provision of aid, relief, mitigation and preparedness measures to combat natural disasters (e.g. floods, hurricanes and earthquakes) and technological ones (e.g. radiation emissions, transportation accidents and toxic spills). Society has become progressively more complex and, apparently, more willing to put its wealth at risk. Disasters have thus become inexorably more frequent and more costly. At the same time, increases in connectivity and communications power have given disasters an increasing sense of immediacy to people who are not directly involved in any particular event but can follow it through television images, newspaper articles or Internet distribution.
Increasing public interest in disasters is gradually being turned into demand and support for official efforts to mitigate them. To begin with, continuing high levels of casualties and steeply increasing costs of disasters have made catastrophe prevention socially and economically imperative. Future risks are heavy and pose serious questions about how damage will be paid for in times of increasing fiscal stringency. At the same time, virtually all cost–benefit studies carried out on sensible programmes of disaster preparedness and mitigation have shown that the benefits outweigh the costs, often by two or three times, in terms of damage prevented and lives saved. Further impetus has been given by conferences, publications and rising academic interest in the field of disaster prevention and management. At the world level or through national committees, many initiatives have been launched under the aegis of the UN ’s International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (1990–2000) and its permanent successor, the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction ( ISDR ).
Emergency and disaster planning (herein treated as synonymous) took off in the 1990s and began to spread at all levels of government, industry and society. Demand for training courses and trained personnel has accelerated to the point that, at the time of writing, it far exceeds supply. As a result, civil protection is practised in many places by people who are not adequately trained. Emergency plans written under such circumstances can be haphazard, partial or unworkable. In a certain proportion of cases, lack of expertise has led to a total lack of planning. But emergency management cannot be improvised, even though much can be learned from the impact of each disaster that occurs. Advance plans are needed wherever there is a chance that catastrophes will occur, which means most places in the world. The plans must be robust, durable and flexible, capable of being tested and modified, and functional in difficult circumstances.
My aim in writing this book is to provide a general introduction to comprehensive disaster plans, with some reference to more specific sorts of plan, such as those needed for factories and hospitals. The methodology described is not intended to be specific to any level of government or any particular set of legislation. Instead, it provides a blueprint that can be adapted to jurisdictions of various sizes, at various levels, and which are subject to various laws. Taken too literally, the prescriptions outlined in this book might seem to be a counsel of perfection, which would require huge resources and vast amounts of time to realize, and be hopelessly unwieldy. Hence, the measures described need to be taken selectively, by adopting the suggestions that are appropriate to each given situation and leaving the others until conditions are more propitious.
The book begins by introducing a rationale for emergency planning, which provides a context of motivation and justification for what is to follow. The second and third chapters describe methods used in developing, implementing and applying a plan: in effect it assembles the tools of the trade and explains how they are used. Chapter 4 begins with a review of the structure of a generic emergency plan and moves on to explain how one is activated, tested, revised and updated. Disaster plans are living documents that need constant attention to ensure that they remain functional as conditions change, knowledge about hazards and risks increases, and the balance of available resources alters. Chapter 5 is devoted to a review of what is needed during emergencies and how they are managed during both the crisis period and the subsequent initial phase of recovery. This book is not intended to be a treatise on disasters per se , as there are plenty of other works that fulfil that role. However, what actually happens in disaster is obviously the substance of what needs to be planned for and managed. Hence, it must be treated systematically as a series of events, developments and evolving needs. The sixth chapter describes particular sorts of disaster planning and management: for medical facilities, industrial plants, libraries, art treasures and architectural heritage, to manage the press, and to guide post-disaster reconstruction. Chapter 7 deals with the longer term of reconstruction planning, and Chapter 8 offers some reflections on training methods for emergency planners and managers. The threads are drawn together in Chapter 9 , which offers a brief conclusion and some observations about what the future holds in store for emergency planners and managers.
Although I have tried to be comprehensive in my treatment of the subject matter, it is impossible to cover all eventualities in this field. Hence, individual situations will inevitably suggest ground that has not been covered herein. For the rest, I have endeavoured to make this a practical guide, not an academic treatise. Thus, aspiring disaster planners and managers are urged to acquire a grounding in theories of emergencies and hazards. Disasters are complex events and to understand them one needs a comprehensive multidisciplinary training. Theory needs to be learned, because it is, in the words of the eminent sociologist of disasters, Thomas E. Drabek, the road map that enables us to navigate our way through complicated emergencies. The rewards for learning this material are reaped in terms of greater security, more lives saved and more damage avoided.
David Alexander
San Casciano in Val di Pesa
February 2002
Acknowledgements
The author and publisher wish to acknowledge the following sources, from which the illustrations listed are derived:
Figures 3.4 and 3.5 Source: “Managing the response to disasters using microcomputers”, S. Belardo, K. R. Karwan, W. A. Wall