Why Preparation Is Critical in Managing Disaster

It is an unfortunate fact that disasters occur routinely around the world. These disasters are both natural and man-made and include everything from oil spills to tsunamis. Preparing for these disasters is the number one thing people can do to manage the disasters' effects. This becomes evident with an examination of how preparation influences those involved in disasters and the opportunities the preparation provides.

Response

• When you prepare well for a disaster, you ensure that you will have the appropriate resources and tools to respond to whatever is happening. For example, a school can carry out an bomb threat evacuation if a school knows exactly how many buses are needed to transport students away from the school. Without this ability to respond, your chances of keeping people calm, organized and safe diminish.

Stability and Task

• Disaster preparedness plans tell people exactly what to do in a given emergency. This contributes to the emotional and mental stability of people during a crisis. For example, if a person has the responsibility of administering food and water, then that person can concentrate on that task rather than the actual disaster. Conversely, the people who are getting the food and water can feel better because they know help is coming. Thus, a group avoids panic, keeping the disaster from seeming even worse.

Risk Identification

• Part of disaster management is recognizing the risk level for each disaster. When you identify the disasters for which you are most at risk, you then can spend more time preparing for those disasters. Preparing in this way is a much better way to manage disaster because people are less likely to treat the disaster plans you do formulate as "one more protocol," and because you avoid stretching your emergency resources too thin over an excessive number of plans. In order to plan based on disaster risk assessment, however, you need to be willing to do research that will back up your risk assertions.

After Disasters

• The Small Business Administration (SBA) reports that one out of every four businesses that experiences a disaster won't reopen its doors. This means preparing for a disaster involves more than just looking at the disaster itself. It also involves formulating a plan for after the disaster strikes. For example, if the CEO is unable to perform his duties, is there someone ready to take on the CEO duties? Disaster management thus has to include both short and long term preparation goals.

Cooperation

• As the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) points out, disaster preparedness does not mean that a person has to take on all the responsibilities for handling a disaster. In fact, disasters are better managed if preparedness plans establish cooperative efforts between different individuals or agencies. If a person or group prepares for disaster well, then these groups all will work together to manage separate parts of the disaster so that the disaster as a whole is controlled.