Emergency Management, 2nd Edition

INTRODUCTION

“I cannot imagine any condition which would cause a ship to founder. I cannot conceive of any vital disaster happening to this vessel. Modern ship building has gone beyond that.”

—Captain Edward John Smith, Commander, HMS Titanic

When on Friday, 24 February 2006, the White House issued a report entitled, The Federal Response to Hurricane Katrina: Lessons Learned, one salty emergency manager observed “It ain't a lesson learned until you correct it and prove it works. Until then, it's just an observation.” The White House report was just one of several released around the same time, all saying essentially the same thing: as a nation, the United States is not prepared to deal with catastrophe.

How is this possible? The United States has been in the emergency management business for over 50 years. There are volumes of social science reports on human behavior in disaster. There are detailed records on historical disasters that have occurred in the past 300 years and geological records going back to prehistory. Millions have been spent on building the capacity to respond. Since September 11 there has been an even bigger push to strengthen and enhance emergency response capabilities. And yet, in the biggest test in US history, the system failed at all levels of government.

Despite vows to improve things, little has changed. Hurricane Sandy in 2012 highlighted weaknesses in key infrastructure. The multiple disasters in 2017 severely taxed the United State's ability ...