Sign Up Now
Get instant access to over 1 million+ study documents
OR
Already registered? click here to login
By creating your account, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and student honor code.
Emergency Management
Hurricane Andrew made landfall in South Florida in August, 1992. Andrew had already devastated parts of the Caribbean, killing three in the Bahamas en route to Florida. Andrew struck just south of Miami, at Homestead, but did significant damage in Miami and the rest of South Florida. Hurricane Andrew killed 23 people in Florida and caused $26.5 billion in damage, mostly due to winds (Rubin, 2012). The disaster was declared as a hurricane, since the damage was primary due to the winds.
The President at the time was George H.W. Bush. The FEMA Director was Wallace Stickney, but Bush appointed Secretary of Transportation Andrew Card to head the recovery effort. This was a deficiency in the response, because Card had no experience in disaster management, and moreover created problems for FEMA. One thing he did was to insist that FEMA pay money directly to people, rather than utilize the channels by which they normally issued disaster relief, something that caused confusion (Rubin, 2012).
FEMA would ultimately pay out $290 million in federal assistance to 108,000 people who were affected by Andrew, and spend more than $746 million to repair public infrastructure. FEMA was able...
The move was not particularly successful, owing to Card's lack of experience in the area, however. Reports at the time also noted a slow delay, whereby officials were ready to deliver aid, but the delay from the President in ordering the relief meant a delay in rolling it out. There was apparently a breakdown in communication and coordination at different levels of government in the aftermath of Andrew with respect to the aid program (Pear, 1992). The Pentagon had been tracking the hurricane and was ready to deliver aid even before the storm hit, but was unable to do so without authorization, as the people in charge seemingly were unaware of the Army's level of preparedness.
The appointment of Andrew Card was also quite contentious. He was appointed in the aftermath…
References
FEMA (2012). Hurricane Andrew 20th anniversary is a reminder to prepare for emergencies. Federal Emergency Management Administration. Retrieved May 31, 2015 from https://www.fema.gov/news-release/2012/08/22/hurricane-andrew-20th-anniversary-reminder-prepare-emergencies
Pear, R. (1992). Hurricane Andrew: Breakdown seen in U.S. storm aid. New York Times. Retrieved May 31, 2015 from http://www.nytimes.com/1992/08/29/us/hurricane-andrew-breakdown-seen-in-us-storm-aid.html
Rubin, C.B. (Ed.). (2012). Emergency management: The American experience 1900-2010 (2nd ed.). Boca Raton, FL:CRC Press.
Despite there being a "Federal Response Plan" in place, the bureaucratic machinery took a long time to activate. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which was supposed to implement the Federal Response Plan, was hardly in a state to respond adequately to the situation. The Agency was still geared to respond primarily to a massive nuclear attack and saw its main responsibility as distributing federal loans and grants to help
Emergency Management Disasters are political occurrences; they can either destroy or glorify politicians. The spectacular temperament of disasters calls for the involvement of these chief executives and they test their leadership merits. How politicians control these rare occurrences can frame how their whole term in office receive judgments. During his last White House Press Conference, President George W. Bush was asked about the mistake he made during his reign, and among
A b) Event management People react differently when faced with disaster, some may respond and follow the disaster response plan without a problem, other may forget key instructions and follow their own plans, the most dangerous situations however, are when individuals freeze and fail to act when disaster strikes. Response before, during and after a disaster can be the difference between life and death. (Bridegan et al., 1997) Failure to heed
If experiences like these are shared through media, it can help to educate others so that they will be more prepared hen a similar situation occurs, it may even possibly given them the opportunity (depending on the situation) to avoid a dangerous situation or prepare themselves more efficiently.(Col & Chu, 2001, p.592) Especially now it is important for education to take place to prepare people for all of the things
Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Response for Natural Disasters or Terrorists Attacks in Florida Emergency management has been described regarding the phases by using words such as prepare. Mitigate, respond and recover. For this paper, we are going to examine the underlying concepts, variation, limitations, and implications of emergency management phases. Moreover, we are going to look at the various preparedness and response strategies applied by the State of Florida when dealing
According to the Congressman, there is a basic lack of interoperability across more than 80% of the United States' first responders. They are not able to communicate with each other, and are therefore also not able to launch adequate rescue operations, particularly during times of large-scale emergencies. According to the report, it was found that at least 121 of the 343 fire fighters who died could have been saved had