Understanding Disasters and the Impact on Emergency Management

Early 2000s Disasters and the Impact on Emergency Management
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Early 2000s Disasters and the Impact on Emergency Management
Emergency management involves activities associated with responding and avoiding human-caused and natural hazards. In the United States of America (USA), it is highly decentralized. Multiple jurisdictions, governmental agencies, private entities, and non-governmental organizations are included when responding to disasters. The four primary phases of emergency management are preparedness, mitigation, response, and recovery. Mitigation activities identify hazards and risks and eliminate or reduce their impact through structural measures. For example, it might include implementing zoning rules to restrict the construction of floodplains. Preparedness enhances the ability to respond to calamities by following steps to ensure that entities and personnel are capable of responding to a broad range of potential disasters. For instance, it includes planning, training, and procuring relevant resources, such as water, medications, and food. The response involves activities meant to safeguard property, protect the environment, save lives, and meet human necessities (Lindsay, 2012). Additionally, recovery entails activities intended to repair damages and restore essential services caused by a disaster. The paper discusses and analyzes the interagency response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, 2005 Hurricane Katrina, Wilma Rita, and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill without forgetting their impact on comprehensive emergency management, including mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. Moreover, it delves into the consequences of the lack of interagency cooperation on comprehensive emergency management.
On 11th September 2001 at 8:46 am, the USA approach to national security was significantly transformed. An airliner with 10,000 gallons of fuel hit the World Trade Center’s (WTC) North Tower in Lower Manhattan. Another airliner plowed on the South Tower at around 9:03 am. A third airliner hit the western side of the Pentagon at 9:37 am. A fourth airliner crashed in a field in southern Pennsylvania at 10:03 am. In particular, it aimed at the White House or the Capitol but was forced down by some passengers who knew that the USA was under a terrorist attack. Over 2,600 individuals died in the WTC, 256 passengers on the four planes died, and 125 passed away at the Pentagon (National Commission on Terrorist Attacks, 2004). The 9/11 terrorist attack claimed more lives than the Pearl Harbor incident. Indeed, it was a wake-up call for the USA to stay alert not only to combat natural calamities but to bolster national security agencies to prevent terrorist attacks. For example, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) came up with an “all-hazards approach,” which recognized numerous kinds of disasters that might need preparedness, mitigation, response, and recovery.
Non-governmental organizations, volunteer and private agencies, federal, state, and local governments joined hands to help the USA, which was under terrorist attack. The most significant lesson obtained from the 9/11 attack...