An Emergency Management Coordinator and Their Responsibilities

An Emergency Management Coordinator and Their Responsibilities The Emergency Management field is a rather unique and at times a very stressful field. An Emergency Management Coordinator may have many different roles within the emergency service community. An Emergency Management Coordinator has to create plans such as mitigation, and how to prepare the community for a potential catastrophe. Successful emergency management requires specialized skills. EMCs help communities by assessing potential hazards and training emergency response teams, they also work together with government entities that deal with cleanup efforts and medical aid after a natural disaster, hazardous accident or terrorist attack has occurred. As society has become more integrated, those skills include coordinating an increasingly complex array of organizations, resources and personnel. Add to this the high expectations that citizens tend to place on emergency mangers, and the challenge can seem very overwhelming. Now that we have a basic understanding of who and what an Emergency Management Coordinator is I want to take a look at the realities of their duties in the face of disaster/emergency situations. Whether they may be faced with hurricanes, earthquakes or bomb threats, emergency management coordinators (EMCs) must assess the situation quickly, brainstorm possible solutions and delegate duties accordingly. Some of the major duties for EMCs include supervising search and rescue, obtaining food and shelter for survivors and organizing other relief efforts. And depending on your geographical location this job can mean different things in relation to the amount and severity of such threats. An EMC is not off the clock when things are calm and there is no emergency situation to tend to. The laundry list of duties and responsibilities that an EMC much take on is quite extensive and includes, but is not limited to the following: Supervises, coordinates, and maintains the daily operations of the local Emergency Management Agency (EMA). Maintains the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) in a continuous state of readiness. Maintains coordination with local and state governmental departments and agencies, utilities and industry during any type of emergency. Prepares and revises the county Emergency Operations Plan (EOP). Assists local government departments/agencies in the preparation of the departments SOPs in support of the EOP. Reviews and makes recommendations to businesses, industry, hospital, and nursing homes on the preparation of their emergency plans to ensure they are workable within the framework of the local and state plans. Develops and coordinates mutual aid agreements with other agencies and adjacent counties. Prepares and manages the local EMA budget. Prepares the required budget and staffing patterns paperwork for GEMA, which qualifies the local EMA for GEMA and FEMA funds. Organizes and coordinates local training for public safety and volunteer first responders. Supervises and monitors the actions of the Volunteer Search and Recovery Squad. Prepares scenarios and procedures and coordinates training for local government officials, industry, utilities, and volunteers in conjunction with the exercising of emergency plans. Ensures the EOC is staffed with knowledgeable qualified personnel and makes training and exercises available to these personnel. Through newspaper articles, radio programs, television, speaking engagements, and seminars, makes the public aware of the emergency plans and procedures that are in place and the publics part in making these plans and procedures work. Working with the Red Cross and DFACS, ensures that adequate facilities are available to shelter citizens should the need arise. Coordinates with the school system officials for the development of tornado warnings and school shelter plans. On a 24 hour basis, responds to hazardous material incidents, bomb threats, severe weather alerts, and other natural or man-made emergencies. Manages the daily operations of the Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC) and answers citizen inquiries concerning hazardous materials. Responds to water and land search and recovery efforts utilizing the EMA Volunteer Search and Recovery Squad. Interprets and applies all federal and state directives that apply to emergency management and departments supporting EMA. Answers inquiries from citizens concerning emergency plans and procedures. Ensures that all special needs citizens, registered with the Department of Health, are evacuated if the need arises. Also coordinates the transportation needs of the nursing homes. Utilizing computer models and various weather service products, stays abreast of current weather conditions and advises city/county administrators and/or department heads of any action that may be needed. The amount of responsibility that and EMC has is pretty substantial, and it is because of them that when disaster strikes we have the ability to get the help and services that re needed to start the processing of cleaning up and rebuilding. Because of the importance of this position I believe that the individual tasked with having to develop emergency plans has to be one of focus and drive with the best interest of the community at heart. But other than having a focus and drive there are other qualities that make for a really good EMC. One of the most essential qualities an emergency manager must have is professionalism. According to Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) training, professionalism is imperative because emergency managers must work with a wide variety of people to coordinate, organize and get things done in a crisis situation. They must treat other people fairly and kindly, and find the balance between cordiality and a sense of urgency. Emergency managers must als o be able to have empathy but follow the rules and federal guidelines regarding emergency assistance (FEMA). Another important quality is to have great communication and organizational skills. Being a great listener is also important so that they may quickly understand all the facts pertaining to an emergency situation, and be able to efficiently communicate and delegate tasks to subordinates and community leaders. This may also entail using a wide variety of communication mediums appropriately and effectively. These types of leaders must perform well in high-stress situations, and remain calm at all times. This is not an ideal position for someone who loses his temper quickly. Along with the essential professional and personal qualities, the emergency manager must understand and be proficient at the actual management activities. For example, he must plan and coordinate the emergency procedures with local contacts, such as the police and fire department. He must also know the process of contacting state or national officials for more help if necessary. Other types of emergency management ac tivities include working with weather bureaus, transportation authorities and criminal law agencies, (EHow). The way an EMC responds to a disaster is highly dependent upon the source of the disaster and the level of damage it has caused. Natural disasters, such as earthquakes, floods or hurricanes, demand actions and solutions vastly different from those caused by warfare. Spills of toxic or hazardous materials or nuclear power plant malfunctions require different approaches to minimize negative effects. No one disaster will be entirely the same as another, so the response may not be able to be handled them same way. The key concept of an EMC is PPRR which stands for: Prevention/Mitigation- Assessing and reducing disaster risks. Activities include researching natural and man-made disasters, constructing physical mitigation works (such as levees and firebreaks), establishing warning systems, land use planning (e.g. stopping people from building on floodplains) and building codes (e.g. mandating fire-proof building materials). Preparedness- Preparing the emergency services and the community ready for disasters. Activities include preparing emergency plans, training first responders, educating the community on how to prepare and what to do in a disaster. Response- Actually responding to a disaster and ensuring that the emergency services have the right resources (equipment and people) to do their job. Emergency management professionals arent usually in charge of responding to a disaster, but act as an executive officer, providing expert advice to someone with the decision making authority Recovery- Getting a community that has been impacted by a disa ster back on its feet. Activities include, collecting and distributing donations and goods, distributing government relief payments, assisting with reconstruction tasks and much more. There is no single model for emergency management, either in organization or in size. Nationwide, there is great variety. For example, emergency management may function as a separate organization. In an ideal situation, the emergency manager answers directly to the jurisdictions chief executive, giving the executive direct access to unfiltered information from the emergency manager. In many communities emergency management is a function within the fire/rescue, public safety, or law enforcement department. Often it is part of a volunteer department. Staff size may run the gamut from a single part-time or shared position, to a full-time employee, to a full-time director with a large staff, each with assigned areas of responsibility. In any community no matter what the size people look to emergency management for certain things. For example, they expect: A safe and resilient community. In most jurisdictions this entails communitywide preparedness; up-to-date emergency plans, and a training and exercise program to support those plans; and strategies for preventing, protecting against, and mitigating the effects of disasters. Effective response and recovery when incidents do occur. Information about the risks the population faces and the actions they should take. Ethical conduct (FEMA). Because the emergency manager takes on a higher profile during emergencies, a common perception is that all emergency management responsibilities are related to responding to emergencies. In reality, emergency management is not just about the core functions involved in response. It includes a broad array of program functions, and much of the work is of a nonemergency nature. Core functions are those that are critical to a successful emergency response (FEMA). Emergency managers are responsible for the following core functions: Direction, control, and coordination Communications Warning External affairs/Emergency public information Population protection Mass care, emergency assistance, housing, and human services Public health and medical services Logistics management and resource support In addition to the emergency core functions, the emergency manager directs the day-to-day emergency management program that enables the jurisdiction to build and sustain needed capabilities and maintain a state of preparedness. Examples of nonemergency program activities include: Ongoing monitoring of threat/hazard information. Developing and updating plans. Recruiting and training staff. Planning and coordinating exercises. Budgeting, accounting, and grant writing. Building relationships across the community. Educating the public. Organizing for hazard mitigation. Soliciting public input on recovery planning. Documenting, reporting, and managing information. (FEMA) As you can see the amount of responsibility that an EMC takes on is great, the reality is that no matter what is going on from one day to the next the job of an EMC doesnt just revolve around the time of a disaster taking place. Each and every day there is a job to be done and people to keep in the loop and make sure that everyone is doing their job so that when disaster does strike everyone can be ready. The Emergency Management field is a rather unique and at times a very stressful field. An Emergency Management Coordinator may have many different roles within the emergency service community. An Emergency Management Coordinator has to create plans such as mitigation, and how to prepare the community for a potential catastrophe. Successful emergency management requires specialized skills. EMCs help communities by assessing potential hazards and training emergency response teams, they also work together with government entities that deal with cleanup efforts and medical aid after a natural disaster, hazardous accident or terrorist attack has occurred. As society has become more integrated, those skills include coordinating an increasingly complex array of organizations, resources and personnel. Add to this the high expectations that citizens tend to place on emergency mangers, and the challenge can seem very overwhelming.

Prime-Time Television Program Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Prime-Time Television Program - Essay Example This paper discusses how Coca-Cola Company has incorporated social media to ensure that it’s commercial reach large number of customers globally. The key Coca-Cola commercial that I liked is the Mirage--Super Bowl ads 2013. This commercial portrays three groups of people racing for a bottle of Coke in a dry land (Super Bowl 2013 ads 2013). It is interesting to note how the three groups of people look thirsty in a place that has no water and the only solution to their thirsty is a cold bottle of Coke. As the individuals continue to run Coke on its side increases it speed. Consequently, the individuals increase their speed up to the point they catch up with the bottle of coke. This is followed by sharing the drink that they take in an enjoyable way thus creating a strong friendship among themselves. In my opinion, the commercial has played a major role in ensuring that the company reaches its target market. For example, the racing individuals are of different ages thus indicating that the company targets all the consumers regardless of their ages. Similarly, young people who are key consumers of Coca-Cola products can freely interact with the characters that are featured in the commercial through social media. David 25 argues that in this way the company has ensured strong positive relationship between its products and the consumers. Having been held in a desert, the commercial indicates that the company is not only targeting cold places but also it has adopted various strategies to ensure that the needs of consumers residing in dry countries are catered for. As the demand of Coca-Cola products increases, the company has embarked on improving its production by the use of modern technology. The speed with which the Coke bottle was emulating depicts the haste at which Coca-Cola C ompany is putting in place modern technology as a way of ensuring that the needs of its market are effectively met. Social media is a major advertising

History of Automobile Industry in Michigan Essay

History of Automobile Industry in Michigan - Essay Example South-east Michigan comprises the population of 4.9 million people with the economic footprint extending well beyond the geographical parameter of south-east Michigan and the city of Detroit. Automobile production including the production of its components has spread beyond the geographical boundaries of Michigan encompassing southern state and southern Ontario. The automobile industry has the rich history embedded in the growth of the industrial organization and syndicalism, having a closed link with the history of the United Auto Workers. The versatility and socio-politic dynamism and the organized labor movements had been responsible for laying the grounds for the development of the strong automobile industry. The transport itself had its most crucial role in the growth of the automobile industry. Michigan’s location towards the Western frontier without the flow of the natural rivers and the need to reach the potential markets of fur, iron and copper ore, lumber, and agricu ltural products without natural rivers gave the impetus to develop the cheap and best transportation alternatives. Earlier the only means of transportation were ships across â€Å"Lakes Huran and Erie to eastern markets and from the Upper Peninsula via Lakes Michigan and Superior.† The shipping was greatly developed over the Great Lakes, which was connected to Michigan’s hardwood forests, which in turn led to the building of the shipbuilding firms. The increase in the growth of the lumbering also led to the expansion of the railroad network throughout Michigan. Helped by the federal and land grants, this network was completed by the late nineteenth century and by the year 1900, approximately more than 6,900 miles of track crossed Michigan.

Psycho (the movie) Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Alfred Hitchcock's Contribution To Cinema - Essay Example Aristotle, in the Poetics, while attempted to provide definition of tragedy, provided a great deal of emphasis over purgation of â€Å"pity† and â€Å"fear† and as a tragedy effectively provides an emotional outlet to such human sensibilities, is also capable of attaining appreciation of the audience: â€Å"Tragedy, then, is an imitation of an action that is serious and complete, and which has some greatness about it. It imitates in words with pleasant accompaniments, each type belonging separately to the different parts of the work. It imitates people performing actions and does not rely on narration. It achieves, through pity and fear, the catharsis of these sorts of feelings† (Aristotle; Cited in Shields 385). Despite the fact that context of the topic of discussion does not really provide sufficient scope to evaluate that how successful the movie Psycho (1960) is as a tragedy, however, relevance of this definition seems quite evident as explicit evidence can be cited, indicating the fact that behind development of a successful commercial film, Hitchcock has relied considerably on the features of purgation as well as providing attention over psychological state of the audience, as pointed out in the classical definition itself. It would be wrong if the success of the Psycho is evaluated entirely from the commercial perspective. The director, in an interview though, has admitted that the film was made on a budget of â€Å"eight hundred thousand dollars† and till the date of interview â€Å"it has grossed some fifteen million dollars† (Hitchcock; Kolker 21), however, it cannot be denied that in order to attain such a great success from artistic, aesthetic and commercial perspective the directorial ingeniousness regarding the art of filmmaking and perceiving audience’s psychology played a very vital part.

How the Media Affects Diet, Nutrition and Exercise Essay

How the Media Affects Diet, Nutrition and Exercise - Essay Example Many multidimensional models of messy eating (e.g., Garfinkel & Garner, 1982) count mass media under the heading of "sociocultural (risk) factors" without a huge deal of concentration to mechanisms of influence. In more detailed analyses media are interpreted as instruments of propaganda in the service of patriarchy and big business (Bordo, 1993; Wolf, 1991). Whatever theoretical harmony exists seems to revolve around two points. First, mass media both support and reveal body shapes, styles of clothing, and other images that signify ("embody") intricate themes of gender, race, class, beauty, identity, desire, success, and self-control in postindustrial societies (Bordo, 1993; Gordon, 1990; Kilbourne, 1994; Nichter & Nichter, 1991; Stice, 1994). ... nd research and the many complex effects being proposed, we examine the relation between mass media and messy eating by addressing some supposedly simple questions (after Harris, 1994): 1. What rationale is there to deduce that media help provide a "context" in which the mechanism and syndromes of messy eating thrive 2. Do content analyses prop up arguments about the nature and degree of messages that might add to messy eating 3. To what amount are females between the ages of 9 and 25, the population at risk for eating disorders, exposed to those mass media containing toxic messages 4. What is the status of the proof from association and tentative studies examining the effect of mass media or media images on that population 5. Which theories within the field of mass communication, developmental psychology, and social psychology might direct theory and research toward an understanding of media effects 6. What are the particular implications of existing work on mass media for research on the etiology of eating disorders The "mass media" are openly supported institutions and forms of communication that produce messages designed for a very huge, very assorted, and fundamentally unidentified audience (Gerbner, Gross, Morgan, & Signorielli, 1994; Harris, 1994). The messages serve many purposes, including entertainment, education, government, and, certainly, engagement of huge groups of people so that advertisers can sell them products. Children, adolescents, and adults interact with a wide variety of mass media, including television, music delivered by compact discs and radio, and telecommunications available through personal computers. In fact, books and articles about eating disorders in and of themselves constitute a form of mass media that may be

Drug abuse Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Drug abuse - Research Paper Example This research paper will seek to explore the above three topics in drug abuse so that by the end of the paper, the researcher will provide recommendations on how to reduce drug abuse in the American society. The commonly abused drugs are alcohol, cocaine, marijuana, heroin and tobacco. This research paper will analyze and examine the health effects it has on the user. Further, it will analyze the short term and long term effects of the drugs so as to give a clear understanding on the effects of drug abuse. The paper will also research on the effects of the drugs to the non-abusers. Non-abusers can be the family members of the abuser, the community around or even the whole country. The research paper will create more emphasis in knowing the different causes of drug abuse for different groups of people. After understanding the causes of drug abuse and the effect it has on the society, the paper will also seek to evaluate the effectiveness of the available control measures. A person begins to experience massive deterioration in health with the starting of use of illicit drugs. The different health costs that were incurred in America in the financial year 2007 lists the number of patients who had been admitted to the hospital and the reason or the cause of their admission. It was found out that the subtotaled health cost rounded up to $11,416,232. The detailed description when given was found to be specialty treatment included $3,723,338. The specialty treatments included a huge population undergoing detoxification, residential, outpatient whose primary abused substance is an illicit drug. It was also noted that most of the people who were the patients of drug abuse were found out to be affected by diseases such as HIV, hepatitis C, hepatitis B, tuberculosis, poisoning and the likes. The latest census reports that about one million of the people of America are living affected by HIV and AIDS due to drug

Public relations Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Public relations - Essay Example Jacquie L’Etang, the leading British theorist of PR, describes this situation in his â€Å"Public Relations and the Rhetorical Dilemma† publication. He emphasises that â€Å"public relations needs more public relations to increase public understanding of its role in society† (L’Etang 34). Public relations are seldom referred to in a positive way in the media. This concept is typically defamed as a mere propaganda and industry of spin which is busy trading in deceitful information and lies (Miller, 2003). Others publicly acknowledge the pragmatic mission of PR by saying that it is just an art of getting material into the press without paying for it, specifically, â€Å"the art of getting favourable coverage without paying for it† (â€Å"How to Get Free Publicity†). These approaches seem to be widely applied when the public needs to be manipulated against a certain governmental or corporate project. PR is announced pure propaganda and spin and the message is quickly dismissed. At the same time, while PR gets frequently referred to as spin or propaganda, this understanding of the phenomenon is one-sided and obviously lacks objective consideration. To make matters worse, this understanding is too simplistic and conceals the essential component of PR. Namely, PR is targeted not just at corporate interest advocacy, but at the advocacy of public interest, too. Apparently, the simplified interpretation of PR prevents public from realizing how PR makes up a part of normal information management practice in democracies and its role in getting public support for some practices that are beneficial for the general public as well as businesses. By drawing on contemporary critical sources on PR, our aim is to adequately examine the work of a PR practitioner, explore the sphere of PR objectives, compare the views of critics and advocates of public relations, and discuss ethical considerations in today’s PR. In addition, this pap er attempts at producing a new objective understanding of PR and its role in modern society. It has already been mentioned that critics of PR generally refer to it as propaganda or spin. Propaganda in this respect has a clearly negative connotation and gets perceived as a pejoratively loaded concept. While it was not so in the distant past (research shows that propaganda was a term used to speak about contributing much into mobilization of the general public opinion), the term propaganda started to be applied differently after the World War I. In the period of lost ideals and widespread disillusionment, propaganda began to be seen as a tool of democracy advocacy (Tye 94). For instance, Edward Bernays considered propaganda important for democracy functioning because it advocates the developments in governmental policies or some new approaches in business. In the following years, the concept of propaganda developed even more to denote psychological manipulation of the audience by the repetition of a few simple points. In this case, the audience was perceived as a passive receiver and as â€Å"a vulnerable and persuadable lot at risk from propaganda† (Brooker & Jermin 5). Understanding public relations in terms of propaganda reduces PR to â€Å"the deliberate and systematic attempt to shape perceptions, manipulate conditions, and direct the behaviour and achieve the response that furthers the desired intent of the propagandist† (Jowett & O’Donnell 4). The propagandistic underpinnings of PR were formulated by Lasswell (1995) and other scholars accepting