Planning- Responding To The Scene
Preparedness is vital with regard to the effective management of emergencies. According to Phelan (2008), response is a factor of preparation. Therefore, how well our team is prepared is going to affect our response to the emergency in one way or the other. The first thing our team is going to do is plan. The plan we come up with must be flexible in such a way that it will give various responders from a variety of groups as well as organizations room to operate. It is said that the planning and preparation stage with regard to an emergency can be expressed as an equation with several items. Hence preparedness is a function of cooperation, communication training as well as planning.
In the emergency scenario before us, a ten square mile grid has been affected most by extreme temperatures affecting the city which we are aware are registering an upward of 115 degrees during the day. In this 10 mile grid, we have knocked out electrical power and with that in mind; electricity is not expected to be restored for at least 24-72 hours.
The most logical way to deal with both chaos factors i.e. chaos factor one and chaos factor two will be divide the team into two with each team addressing a specific chaos factor. For instance, team A will deal with chaos factor 1 while team B can be allocated chaos factor 2. However, for these two groups of teams, there will be measures put in place to ensure they work effectively and under one command. This will be a deliberate attempt towards avoiding conflict or overlap of duties. This central command will allocate specific duties for each team. Team A will be responsible for relocation of senior citizens while team 2 will be responsible for containing the brush fire in collaboration with relevant departments and entities.
Canton (2007) notes that duty overlap causes resource wastage and makes the whole operation very inefficient and as such, there is an obvious need to put in place mechanisms to avoid overlap of duties within these two teams in the field. For both teams, flexibility will be emphasized by coming up with adaptable procedures. According to Alexander (2002), procedures that are rigid in one way or the other end up hindering and slowing the response. Before dispatching the two teams into the field, I will also ensure that communication mechanisms are in place. This is because throughout the management of the disaster, there will be grave need for a consistent flow of reliable, consistent as well as accurate information if the process is to succeed.
With regard to resources, there will be an independent unit which will facilitate the allocation of the same within the two teams on a need base. This team will also be responsible for sourcing funds from well wishers. There is a definite need to harmonize the fund rising and resource allocation activities i.e. place them under one function so as to avoid unnecessary wastage of funds.
Next, with effective communication modalities in place both teams shall be enhanced so as to welcome cooperation. Cooperation is vital as no emergency can be handled effectively by a single entity or organization (Perry et al. 2006). With that in mind, the teams on the ground will have to work with a variety of entities including but not limited to the police, other organizations providing emergency services as well as fire departments.
References
Alexander, D.E. (2002). Principles of emergency planning and management. OxfordUniversity Press US
Canton, L.G. (2007). Emergency management: concepts and strategies for effective programs. Wiley-Interscience
Phelan, T.D. (2008). Emergency management and tactical response operations: bridging the gap. Butterworth-Heinemann
Perry, R.W. & Lindell, M.K. (2006). Emergency Planning. Wiley
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