Four Phases of Emergency Management

"mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery" - FEMA

The Wikipedia article on Emergency Management excellently covers the four phases of Emergency Management: mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. Most people focus on preparedness and response giving little thought to mitigation and recovery.

Mitigation is an attempt to know the risks and deal with them before an emergency strikes. For example, during earthquakes damage or injury is caused by book cases and other tall furniture falling over. You can prevent this by attaching the top of the furniture to the wall with hooks and tie downs. At our house, storm water pours down a hill and straight into our basement. We mitigate this by building up ridges and channels to deflect the water around the house. We also have long rain gutters to take rain water to the sides of the house and away from the foundation.

Preparedness includes training, communication plans, drills, and stockpiling of supplies. These are all covered by earlier blogs posts.

Response has been the focus of the blog this week. It covers the first responders (fire, police) and the NGOs (non-government organizations) like the Red Cross who try to save lives during the first 3 to 7 days.

Recovery gets little press time, except when it's negative. Phone and electrical lines must be restrung, sewers and water lines repaired, roads and bridges fixed, and so on. Recovery can also be delayed by red tape. The Gas Company will want to check for leaks before turning the gas back on. A housing inspector may have to certify your house or apartment for occupancy for you can legally return. Access to your neighborhood may be restricted by the police until they decide it is safe. Your insurance company will need to inspect and photograph before you can begin rebuilding. Recovery can be a long and slow process taking weeks, months, and (with New Orleans) years.

BOTTOM LINE
Learn about each phase of Emergency Management. Mitigation efforts now can save you future grief. Plan for a long recovery.