Discuss the role of the Emergency Manager and the Fundamentals of Essay - 1

Discuss the role of the Emergency Manager and the Fundamentals of Emergency Management - Essay Example In other words, disaster mitigation and risk-reduction measures are needed for a good response. However, one must realize (and be realistic enough) that most disasters cannot be seen in advance or forecasted with any degree of certainty. From an emergency response perspective, it can be said there are no real measures of success (if based on the number of lives saved or in the minimization of damage); but one should always look at each disaster as something unique that cannot be neatly categorized. What is meant here is that disasters are chaotic events and luck is a big part of the outcome. A disaster is not a linear-progression event that can predicted with high degree of precision and therefore is hard for anyone to control completely. Moreover, disasters can easily deteriorate into a catastrophe if the wrong response is employed (like in Japan). This portion talks about the role of the emergency manager and the fundamentals of any emergency management program. It is vital to know these two things for any disaster response to be effective in terms of limiting the damage, saving lives and in the recovery efforts after. Role of Emergency Manager – the primary role of the emergency manager is to prepare a populace for a disaster, whether man-made or natural disasters. In this regard, the manager must implement a disaster preparedness plan to help the people prepare, devise an early warning sign or system to notify people in advance (this is also to prevent panic resulting from rumors and the usual miscommunication in an emergency situation). For this, the manager must put into place a crisis communications plan as a preventive measure and at the same as a pro-active orientation. This team should be composed of the highest local official (or a designated alternate) who can make the decisions, members of the team who can be contacted and authorized to disseminate vital information and also designate a chief of an Incident Command System (ICS) put