The Emergency Management Continuum, also sometimes referred to as the preparedness cycle, is arguably the de-facto process, the bread and butter, and the (non-legislative) foundation of Emergency Management. The continuum is the process in which everyone should approach all hazards, incidents, emergencies and disasters, and while still broad, is really the best layman's "definition" that I can give to best describe Emergency Management. As an Emergency Manager, it is my belief that, with a basic understanding of each phase, an individual or a small to medium size business can make a huge impact into their success during an incident, or disaster.
The Emergency Management Continuum consists of four phases and is meant to be utilized in a manner where an incident occurs between preparedness and response. These phases are Mitigation, Preparedness, Response and Recovery. These phases are meant to be used as a never ending cyclic process of action and evaluation. This is why, while preparedness is part of the continuum, some people refer to this cycle as "the preparedness cycle". Each phase has its own set of sub-steps or phases that are followed as well, which we will get into further in this series.
We will take a much deeper dive into each phase as this series continues but we should take a moment to define and understand each phase for context here.
Mitigation: Mitigation is any action or activity that is designed to reduce or eliminate the probability of a disaster all together, or a long term solution designed to reduce the vulnerability of a population, community or piece of critical infrastructure. An example of a mitigation activity would be the adaptation of the use of building codes in California that are designed specifically to combat the effects of earthquakes and wild fires. Another example would be the use of community education and emergency management awareness community programs such as Stop the Bleed, First aid/CPR, Fire Safety etc.
Preparedness: This phase includes the process of identifying equipment, training, personnel and other resources needed to combat a variety of potential incidents. This phase should also include the development of specific plans designed to deliver necessary capabilities for an event, as well as developing a system to identify threats, vulnerabilities, and identify key resources and partners. Perhaps the most important part of this phase is collaborating with other stakeholders and exercising the group capabilities to identify any shortfalls or deficiencies.
Response: This is the phase that most people are familiar with because this phase often receives the most coverage and scrutiny from the media. Response activities are activities that occur immediately after an emergency or disaster and are focused on short term needs. Most activities are designed to provide emergency assistance to casualties and are typically handled by emergency services such as Fire, Police and Ambulance services. However, individuals and businesses practice response activities by evacuating during a fire or flood, performing first aid for an injured person and more.
Recovery: As you could probably guess, this phase covers all aspects related to what happens once the disaster or event has passed. This is where we attempt to restore our environment or community to a point that is as close to normal as possible, or better than it was before. During this phase we can start to plan and think about how we could implement some mitigation strategies for the future, however, we are mainly focused on post event clean up, filing insurance claims, utilizing (hopefully pre-planned) strategies to care for displaced populations, and similar activities. The recovery phase is typically the part of the continuum that takes the longest and has the highest associated costs.
Next in our series we will take a deeper dive into mitigation. If you would like more information about anything in this series or with Emergency Management in general feel free to contact Nick at 240-397-9038. Services are available for individuals and businesses in the Mid-Atlantic area at www.emp2c.com
コメント