Archived: Emergency Management Basics
Quick links to emergency management cycles:
Emergency Management
Emergency management (EM, disaster management or disaster risk reduction) is the act of avoiding, and dealing with risks. It involves making efforts before, during and after a disaster happens. In general, emergency management is a nonstop process in which all individuals, groups and communities manage hazards in a collective effort to avoid or reduce the impact of the hazards.
Emergency and disaster managers have a “best-practices” strategy for minimizing the risk of disasters. It’s called the emergency management cycle. This way of thinking has proven to be an important tool in preventing or avoiding disasters. There are four stages of action in the emergency management cycle: mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery.
The following outlines how each stage relates to vulnerability, or how much we are at risk.
No effort
If we are vulnerable to the threat of hurricanes and tropical storms, and we ignore basic disaster management practices and spend no effort, then every storm that heads our way can become a potential disaster.
Now note how, with each additional stage, the potential for disaster (vulnerability) shrinks.
The end goal is to be completely safe from the threats posed by hurricanes. However, as long as any risk remains, each stage of the emergency management cycle is critical to make sure that disaster is avoided or at least minimized.
Mitigation
Mitigation is an attempt to keep hazards from turning into disasters, or to reduce the effects of disasters when they occur. Mitigation efforts focus on taking long-term actions to reduce or remove the risk.
Examples of mitigation efforts include
- moving your family inland, away from the threats of storm surge at the coast
- building coastal barriers such as “hurricane reefs” to keep high waves offshore
- making changes to your community or home to strengthen it against storms
- building water barricades (such as levees) or water-diverting structures in the coastal zone to protect against storm surges
- insuring against economic losses
- land-use planning and legislation (flood-prone areas can be designated as parks and non-residential)
- burying power lines to protect them from damaging winds
- having a weather forecasting service to warn when hurricanes may strike
All of these actions can help reduce or eliminate vulnerabilities to potential storms.
However, the first and best effort to protect against the potential threat of storms is to become informed. If there is no awareness of a possible threat, there is no reason to do anything to prepare. All of these actions need funds (time itself always translates into money), and without awareness and understanding these things won’t be taken seriously--and so will not be funded.
The Canadian Hurricane Centre (CHC) is part of the Canadian government’s strategy for lessening the possible impacts of hurricanes in Canada. The Centre exists so that Canadians (and those visiting Canada) will know what to expect about hurricane threats. One very important CHC mitigation effort is doing constant public outreach to increase awareness of the hurricane hazard in eastern Canada.
In 2005 the CHC published “A Climatology of Hurricanes in Canada: Improving Our Awareness of the Threat,” to better inform Canadians about the realistic threat of hurricanes. The complete climatology is available on this website.
Preparedness
Preparedness includes developing specific action plans to be followed when the hazard strikes. Mitigation may only go so far, and there may still be specific things to do when a tropical cyclone hits.
This action plan describes what to do before a hurricane emergency occurs:
- Learn about hurricanes – Find out if hurricanes could be a threat to you.
- Secure your home - You can do things to make your home more secure and less vulnerable to storms.
- Develop a family plan – Make sure everyone knows what to do, where to go and how to stay connected to information sources. Your family's plan should be based on your vulnerability to hurricane hazards. You should keep a written plan and share your plan with other friends and family.
- Create an emergency supply kit - There are certain items you need to have no matter where you ride out a hurricane. It’s important to keep it fully stocked with what you need, and everyone in your home has to know where it is kept.
- Information sources – Make sure that you know where to get the latest weather forecasts and public announcements from emergency managers.
Examples of other public preparedness efforts can include the following:
- developing easy-to-understand communication plans
- developing and practicing multi-agency emergency cooperation
- maintaining and training emergency services staff and operations
- developing and exercising emergency public warning procedures, especially evacuation plans and emergency shelters (can involve trained volunteer efforts)
- readying of an emergency operations centre (EOC) with an incident command system, that is well-supported by policy and practice and is routinely practiced
- stockpiling and maintaining large quantities of supplies and equipment
At the CHC an important preparedness effort is our Standard Operating Procedures manual. This guide becomes our “playbook” during tropical cyclone events. It guides what we do, when we do it and how we do it. This is updated during quieter times so that we can automatically and effectively respond when a hurricane threatens.
In 2003 when Hurricane Juan struck Halifax, the CHC staff had to evacuate the building due to the potentially dangerous conditions. But Canadians never lost service, even for a minute, because some staff had already been moved to our contingency office before Juan arrived. We were prepared so that we could continue providing essential updates and forecasts to the public.
Response
Response includes moving the necessary emergency services and first responders to the potential disaster area as the hazard threatens to change into a disaster. This phase is where all the preparing and rehearsals come to bear. A well-coordinated “all-hands-on-deck” effort ensures an efficient and successful response.
Examples of response efforts include efforts just prior to and during the storm:
- issuing storm-specific forecasts to the public
- activating personal hurricane plans and taking actions like tying down or moving loose items on property which could be picked up by the wind;boarding up windows; checking that emergency kits are well-stocked; storing drinking water in tubs and jugs; buying food that requires little to no refrigeration, checking flashlights and battery-operated equipment, filling cars and generators with gas, ensuring that generators and sump-pumps are in good working order; staying inside during the hurricane and continuing to monitor media (radio, television, websites) for forecasts or public announcements from emergency management officials, etc.
- activating emergency operations centres (EOCs)
- mobilizing the first wave of emergency services, such as firefighters, police and ambulances
- mobilizing the second wave of emergency services such as specialist rescue teams
- triaging needs for medical personnel to help minimize human losses
- mobilizing volunteer emergency response teams
Being proactive rather than reactive can help reduce certain losses. Here are two different examples that involve electricity. 1) Some communities have acted years in advance by burying power lines so that high winds can’t interrupt service (this is actually mitigation). 2) Some Caribbean countries simply shut down the hydroelectric power grid in warning areas just before a hurricane arrives to avoid transformer explosions and associated losses.
At the CHC, our forecasts of an approaching tropical cyclone are part of the response phase. In fact, in most cases, CHC forecasts trigger the responses and preparedness implementation plans of everyone from emergency managers to the general public.
In 2003 with the approach of Hurricane Juan, the CHC and the Nova Scotia Emergency Measures Organization had a difficult time getting the right response from the general public who, in most cases, were apathetic and unprepared for the storm. But not everyone took the storm lightly; here are a couple of excellent examples of a good response:
But the lessons taught by Juan turned into lessons-learned after the event, and a much better public response took place when Hurricane Kyle struck Nova Scotia in 2008. Kyle was a weaker storm that hit a less populated area, but the storm was treated more seriously and many throughout the southwestern part of the Canadian Maritimes were ready.
Recovery
Recovery attempts to restore the affected area and bring things back to normal. The recovery phase begins once the immediate threat to human life has passed. Recovery actions include rebuilding, re-employment and the repair of essential infrastructure. Recovery efforts that reduce or eliminate future risk are also mitigation efforts. Often people are more receptive to these otherwise unpopular changes when a recent disaster is still fresh in their minds.
Examples of recovery efforts include the following:
- giving medical aid
- providing relief (food, water, materials, medicine, etc.) from outside the affected area
- cleaning up the area
- rebuilding damaged structures
- reopening businesses, schools and transportation routes and getting people back to work
At the CHC, recovery efforts generally involve providing ongoing weather forecast support to recovery teams and recovery operations.
An excellent example of a mitigating recovery is seen through the lessons learned by Torontonians after Hurricane Hazel (1954). More than 80 people died as a result of the intense rainfall and flooding that took place, including more than 30 residents of one street. Raymore Drive was literally washed away when the Humber River overflowed its banks. Recovery efforts under the authority of Toronto and Region Conservation included passing land-use bylaws that prevented some flood-prone areas from being designated as residential. Many of those areas were later made into parks.
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