Critical incident management operations based on an actual disaster Research Paper

Critical incident management operations based on an actual disaster event - Research Paper Example A disaster is an accidental and devastating event that occurs suddenly, causing adverse social and economic impacts in the population or environment it occurs. The effects may include physical injury, deaths, loss and damage on property, emotional and physical hardship, and obliteration of physical infrastructure as well as failure of operational and administrative systems. Before and during a disaster, emergency responders have to intervene to save lives, property and minimize the adverse effects caused by the disaster. However, the uncertainty or infrequency of disasters poses very great challenge for these responders to ascertain the effectiveness of their response strategies (Donahue & o’Keefe, 2007). Consequently, responders usually use various methods and experiences to enhance the manner they respond to similar disasters in the future. This paper will examine aspects of planning, response, recovery as well as mitigation during disasters and the manner the country can improve its response capabilities. The Three Mile high nuclear accident and Hurricane Agnes in the 1979 prompted President Carter and the Congress to establish the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as well as the Emergency Management Council (EMC). This aimed at consolidating the responsibilities for disaster preparedness performed by the different federal agencies to one single agency (Mener, 2007). This came out of the belief that it was going to eliminate the communication and the fragmentation difficulties seen during the earlier disasters. With this order from the executive, all federal agencies that had responsibilities and capabilities of providing response during disasters to co-operate with FEMA. It also provided FEMA with the task of ensuring co-ordination in disaster preparedness and aid operations. Nevertheless, the