Emergency Management
It is no secret that the emergency management response of the city needs to improve, especially when it comes to winter snowstorms and related issues. With that in mind, it becomes necessary to focus on how to help both businesses and residences who may have people trapped in them. Additionally, people can easily become trapped in their cars, and without food or water they can be at serious risk. With the freezing temperatures, the danger in which these people find themselves is extremely significant, and not something they can easily ignore or extricate themselves from. Of course, there is more than just people to consider. The safety of structures, the clearing of roadways, and the proper functioning of city services are all issues that can come about when snowstorms and other natural disasters hit a city (Howitt & Leonard, 2009). Individuals who work for city agencies need the ability to do their jobs, and they also need the equipment to do so. The agencies, conversely, need qualified people they can trust to do what is needed for the people of the city during and immediately after an emergency (Howitt & Leonard, 2009).
To improve emergency management capabilities significantly, there are many options that can be considered (Buchanan, 2000). Some will work better than others, especially if there are high costs involved that may render some of the choices completely impractical. In order to make sure the city considers the implementation of options that make sense, it is vital to analyze a number of different suggestions. People who are able to think outside of the box are needed when it comes to ensuring that emergency management is efficient, and that it is forging ahead in such a way that allows for the most assistance for the people who need it and the highest level of capabilities from the agencies and individuals who are contracted to help people in their particular times of need (Buchanan, 2000). Until and unless the people and the agencies work together on all facets of the emergency response, very little will get done (Howitt & Leonard, 2009).
Making the switch in focus is not always easy, often because people spend so much of their time in Mode R. They may forget how to adjust things for Mode C, and they may also not be sure what constitutes a crisis to the point that the switch needs to be made. Additionally, training is not always adequate, especially for people who are relatively new to the agency. For these people, there are serious concerns that they may have missed out on something very important that would have taught them how to handle a crisis that requires Mode C (Howitt & Leonard, 2009). For the city and its emergency services that deal with winter storms, training is one of the biggest areas on which they need to focus. Because the winter storms are common enough to be problematic but not common enough to require a high level of time spent in Mode C. On a regular basis, the workers designated to deal with these storms can become lax. Training can also be forgotten if it is not used frequently enough to help the trained person remember it (Suttmeier, 2011).
However, training is not the only issue these workers and the agencies that employ them are facing. The equipment they have should also be examined (Buchanan, 2000). If anything is outdated or does not work correctly, it should be repaired or replaced. There may be machinery that is not helpful, and that could be sold and the proceeds used toward machinery that would work better for the intended purpose. For those agencies that are not sure about what they need, contacting similar agencies in areas with higher levels of winter storm emergencies can help them decide what they should purchase and what they can forgo. That can make a significant difference in the success that is seen by agencies that are not used to dealing with a particular type of problem, but that realize they need to do more than what they have been previously considering when it comes to crisis situations…
