¶ … Action Report (AAR)
The importance of this coursework has certainly been underscored over the course of the past several days as Hurricane Sandy ravaged the East Coast of the United States. While the devastation is not unprecedented on the American continent, hurricane Sandy was a contemporary anomaly for the region with respect to the severity of damages and the scope of the devastation. As Mayor Cuomo stated, after a succession of natural disasters of this magnitude, it becomes impossible to refer to hurricane Sandy as a once-in-a-lifetime event. Moreover, health care management received considerable attention in the media coverage of Hurricane Sandy. Hospitals had to evacuate patients to safer zones and -- mid-crisis -- hospitals lost power and had to move critically ill and high risk patients to different facilities. Indeed, media coverage permitted the ongoing development of a case study in the importance of effective disaster relief policies and timely political collaboration and support of federal and state emergency management.
Key Learning Points
The primary take-away for me was the recognition that natural disasters are having such devastating effects on the lives of people across the globe because of where people are located -- where they choose to live or happen to live because of economic necessity and market realities (Ripley, 2008). The primary migratory pattern of...
Ripley (2008) asserts that the population of Miami-Dade County in Florida rose 1,600% compared to the population levels of the 1930s. Regardless of how one might view the evidence supporting climate change, the bare fact of the matter is that, across the globe, we are putting more people and more assets in the path of natural disasters (Ripley, 2008). Moreover, some of the naturally occurring protections -- such as wetlands, forests, and coral reefs -- are being destroyed at the hands of mankind (Ripley, 2008).
To this awareness, I would add the importance of assessing one's own preparedness on an individual level and from a professional perspective. In an article that read like a letter to a close circle of friends and colleagues, Kathleen Baldwin did just that (Baldwin, 2005). It is difficult not to construct an emergency preparedness To Do List while simultaneously reading Baldwin's article. As an aside, I was struck by her honesty about not being able to leave her dogs behind were she faced with an imminent, threatening disaster (Baldwin, 2005). Her point that separating people from their pets -- just at the point when they are completely disoriented by having lost the stability of their quotidian lives -- seems hugely insensitive and unjust (Baldwin, 2005). Krisberg (2006) provides the perspective gained…
