Management
If you want to truly prepare for disaster you need to take a systematic approach, otherwise you will risk preparing for the wrong things, preparing ineffectively, burning out, or just failing.
Academically, disaster response has been broken into four phases. Some of these phases blend into each other and don’t always have a well-defined beginning and ending. By looking at preparedness through the lens of the four phases you can better understand what is going on and how best to deal with the situation at hand.
Those phases are:
• Mitigation
• Preparedness
• Response
• Recovery
Mitigation
Mitigation is the process of eliminating a threat, and if that is not possible taking action to limit the impact of that threat. It is generally the first aspect of emergency management because the best way to deal with a threat is to prevent it from ever happening.
Government mitigates threats by doing large-scale projects, like buying homes in areas prone to flooding and building parks.
For preppers, mitigation may be moving to an area not prone to disasters, buying insurance, storing fuel safely, and ensuring that bookshelves don’t fall in an earthquake.
Mitigation activities tend to run hand in hand with preparedness activities, because things you can’t prevent need to be prepared for.
In cyclical emergency management, mitigation also occurs toward the end of the recovery phase when rebuilding after a disaster allows for new designs and technology to be used to prevent the disaster from occurring again.
Going around the problem is much easier than fixing the problem.
Photo courtesy of iStock.com/sssstep.
Preparedness
Preppers tend to focus on the preparedness phase, and do not break up their actions into the four phases; however, preparedness is only one piece of the solution to becoming disaster-resilient.
In the preparedness phase, plans are made to response to an emergency. Those plans are tested, and the lessons learned from them go back into making better plans.
Additionally, once plans are made, resources are gathered to make the plans viable.
Gear is not bought simply because it is labeled tactical or has the term survival in its name. Each piece of gear has a part in the preparedness plan, is inventoried, tested, and trained on.
Training is accomplished in the preparedness phase. Having great plans is useless if nobody knows what they are or can’t accomplish the tasks laid out in the plan.
When making plans, stay realistic and try not to make specific plans when a more general plan will suffice.
Keep in mind President Eisenhower’s thoughts on planning: “In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.”
Once you know what you have and what you need you should create plans to deal with threats with what you have. As you make these plans it is best to keep your plans generic as possible. In the emergency management world we call this “all hazards” planning. You do not need a specific food storage locker for a drought and a second for an earthquake. Canned tuna does not care what prompted you to open it. A plan for getting to your out of state sibling’s house can work for a variety of events.
Some things need specific plans, and if this is the case feel free to create such plans, but the more generic and flexible your main plan is, the better you will deal with an emergency.
All Hazards Approach vs. Specific Threat Planning
A tendency many preppers have is to get really deep into prepping. It is a good feeling to take charge and to make changes that make you feel more safe and secure. This is evident in the planning for disaster response and reaction.
As a former emergency management planner charged with writing plans to deal with large scale emergencies, I understand the pull to make specific plans.
However, during his time as a General, President Eisenhower made his famous observation that plans were useless, it is the planning process that is essential.
What he meant was that during emergencies things go wrong. Items you planned for may not be available, the tornado may not follow the path you planned for, and the bad guy may not react like you rehearsed.
Rather than making specific plans for specific threats, it is better to take an all hazards approach whenever possible. I don’t have a pantry of food for losing my job, another for earthquakes, and another just in case the other guy’s candidate got elected. I have stored food. If I can’t get to the grocery it is there when I need it. Why I need it is secondary.
A well-stocked pantry works for a variety of disasters.
Photo courtesy of Salvation Army USA West.
Build a plan that is flexible and works for a variety of situations and you will be much better prepared than if you have a thousand complicated plans no one can remember.
However, that being said, there are specific threats that need some specialized planning. Some examples are:
• Hazardous Material/CBRNE (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and Explosive) Threats
• Earthquakes
• Floods
These specific threats will receive special attention in the basic threats section.
Response
As with Mitigation and Preparedness, which are very similar with one phase beginning while the other is still occurring, Response and Recovery operate in much the same way.
In the response phase, the disaster has occurred and people have to deal with events that are out of their control. By definition, a disaster exceeds the ability to deal with it using the community’s resources. That is a useful definition and allows for something to be considered a disaster in one place but not in another.
Disasters take many shapes and types, and it doesn’t have to impact a large amount of people to be a disaster to you.
Photo courtesy of iStock.com/inhauscreative.
With that definition comes the chasing of resources. When the disaster occurs more things are needed than are available, but as responders begin to regain control and resources from other areas arrive, the disaster stabilizes and if more resources arrive, then eventually there are more materials in an area than are needed and at that point recovery officially begins.
Functionally, recovery can start much earlier, and in many cases, decision-makers keep recovery needs in mind as they begin response.
During the response phase, information is a key resource. Initial information is often wrong, confused, and fragmented. This makes decisions harder to make.
In order to keep track of actions and decision-making priorities, emergency managers use a system called LIPP Priorities.
LIPP Priorities
LIPP is an acronym that stands for:
• Life Safety
• Incident Stabilization
• Protection of Property
• Protection of the Environment
In a perfect world, decisions that are made would serve all of the above. Unfortunately, that is not how disasters work. If you have to make a decision, ensure that the decision will be in the best interest of saving lives. If possible get as many other priorities served by the decisions as you can. But don’t let a lower level priority override the higher ones.
Stabilizing the incident is greater than protection of either property or the environment as long as the disaster is out of control and lives, property, and the environment are at stake.
Lives come first. Next we choose to protect property, and the environment is last.
Incident Command
One thing that FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) gets right is incident command. This is a system that allows for the smooth control of the multiple parts involved in disaster response. A Homeland Security Presidential Declaration mandated it after the 9/11 attacks.
The incident command system is based upon wildfire management systems that came from Marine Pacific war-fighting in World War II.
I find that the incident command principles readily adapt to being used in business, in event planning, and in personal disaster response with a team or a family.
Incident Command Principles
• Unity of command
• Span of Control
• Common terminology
Incident command can take many shapes, but it all involves managing resources and people to fix a problem.
By Bob McMillan from the FEMA Photo Library via Wikimedia Commons.
• Management by objective
• Flexible and modular organization
• Incident Action Planning
Unity of Command
Everyone reports to only one supervisor; each person reporting to a single person eliminates getting conflicting orders from other supervisors. This increases accountability and improves coordination efforts.
The lead supervisor responsible for the disaster is called the incident commander.
Span of Control
With unity of command, span of control ensures that each supervisor is not overburdened with more staff than they can effectively manage. Each leader only has between three and seven direct reports, with five subordinates considered ideal. Each person only reports to one supervisor.
Since the Incident Command System (ICS) is mandated for every responding organization that received federal funding of any sort, police, fire, EMS, public works, Hazmat response, animal control, and all other types of organizations use it.
Each organization brings its own terms, command structures, and methods of operations. ICS uses a single set of defined terms so that all responders are on the same page.
Management by Objective
Incidents are managed by working towards specific objectives. Objectives are ranked by the LIPP priorities and should be written as specifically as possible. The priorities must also be realistic, attainable, and time-sensitive.
These objectives are accomplished creating an incident action plan that outlines the basic framework of action and then building individual tactics to best meet the objectives.
Large scale disasters can take decades to recover from.
Photo By Greg Henshall, FEMA Photo Library.
Flexible and Modular Organization
The Incident Command structure can expand and contract as needed by the incident scope, resources, and hazards. The command structure is built from the incident commander down with positions only being activated as needed.
Incident Action Planning
Incident Action Plans (IAPs) ensure that everyone is working toward the same goals. At the end of each operational period (typically a 12-hour shift) the progress toward those goals are evaluated and a new plan is created to ensure the LIPP goals are being met.
I have taught Incident Command training for several years, and have seen how it makes an organized effort out of the chaos of a disaster scene. While I haven’t taken it to the extreme, I have a coworker that used the incident command system to plan and manage a family trip to Disneyland.
There are free online courses in incident command, and I recommend taking the basic 100 level courses to everyone.
Recovery
Recovery is the phase where we try to get back to normal pre-disaster life. In this phase, the federal government may give grant funds or low cost loans to individuals and communities to rebuild.
For preppers, we restock, rebuild, mourn, and get on with life.
Recovery can take years; there are places that even now have not recovered from Hurricane Katrina.
In order to make plans, you need to have a grasp of basic threats your plan may need to address. The next section will introduce some basic threats found in North America.
