Revise your group’s emergency response plan (2-3 new pages) and submit individually.
In addition to revising the group’s plan, address the following questions in 1-2 pages:
What were the most significant challenges that you experienced while drafting the emergency response plan? Explain in detail.
How did you overcome these challenges? Explain in detail.
What best practices do you think are essential for successful emergency response planning? Explain.
How were those best practices utilized in your planning process? Explain.
- Be sure to reference all sources using APA style.
Below is the group’s emergency response plan that needs to be revised in 2-3 additional new pages and also respond to the 4 questions above.
Dallas Community Flood Response Plan
- Student’s Name
Course #: HLS 480
Unit 4 Group Work
Instructor:
- Institutional Affiliations:
- Table of Contents
- Introduction……………………………………………………………………..……..3
- Planning Committee……………………………………………………………….…..3
- Component Parts of the Plan………………………………………………………..…3
Participating Agencies………………………………………………………………….4
Subject Matter Experts……………………………………………………………..…..5
- Emergency Management Phases……………………………………………………….5
- Preparedness……………………………………………………………………..…….5
- Response……………………………………………………….………………………..5
Recovery…………………………………………………..…………………………….6
- Challenges in Responding to Flood Hazards……………………………………………6
Solutions to the Challenges………………………………………….…………………..6
Recovery Goal……………………………………………………………………………6
Recommendation…………………………………………………………………………7
Conclusion……………………………………………………………….……………….7
References………………………………………………………..………………………8
Dallas Community Flood Response Plan
Introduction
The central location of the Dallas community keeps it at risk of various natural disasters like floods, hail, severe storms and lightning, tornados, earthquakes, among other natural disasters. Of all these disasters, flood is the most common natural disaster that the Community has been experiencing for decades, as indicated in the Community’s risk profile. This paper will major in developing a specific flood response plan to help mitigate future dangers associated with the flood hazards in Dallas. The report will address everything about the response plan such as the response committee membership, components of the response plan, disaster management phases among other details concerning flood management in Dallas.
Planning Committee
The planning committee will comprise one representative from TDEM. This representative will communicate the plan’s objectives to the states’ authority. One member from the governor’s Office will represent the states’ government in the disaster management plan. Director of the City of Dallas Office of Emergency Management, one representative from the Dallas County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, will represent the City’s emergency management team. The committee will also comprise Dallas County Health and Human Service representatives. Also, Dallas Health Services Department and North Dallas Health Centre representatives will be included in the committee. These representatives from health departments are essential when it comes to healthcare plans for the affected individual. Two representatives from Dallas City Management will also be present in the committee to present the City Management’s opinion. All these representatives in the committee will lead to a successful structure of a good response plan.
Component Parts of the Plan
The committee will settle on the best response plans that will help in the flood hazard. Components of the response plan will include Evacuation plans. The evacuation plan will major in how the victims will be evacuated from the flood-affected areas if the flood is experienced. Search and rescue are other components that the committee will consider when designing the flood response plan. The committee will decide on the methods applied to search for the victims and possibly rescue them wherever the flood has locked them. The other component is first aid and immediate assistance. This involves the way the victims will be assisted and immediately after being rescued from the flood. The assistance includes temporary sheltering, relief food, and medical services. The response plan also has the emergency fund components that address how the emergency funds will be acquired to fund successful flood response in case of occurrence. Lastly, the plan will also consist of restoration components that address some activities to minimize the effects of floods, such as contracting dams and other diversions within the Dallas Community (Kim & Park, 2019).
Participating Agencies
Agencies such Texas Department of Emergency Department may be more involved in the flood response plan, especially in the rescue and evacuation part of the plan. The states’ agency has experts and enough resources to fund a flood rescue and evacuation activity fully. Also, the agency may actively be involved in supporting the response plan. Texas Department of Public Safety is also another agency that may actively affect flood response since the agency’s main aim is to ensure that the public is safe. The agency may actively involve in search and rescue activities and also in restoration activities. On the other hand, agencies like Dallas Health Department may be less involved in the response plan since it may only involve giving first aid and other minor medication to the victims. North Dallas Health Centre may also be less actively involved in the flood response plan since it may only provide medications to the victims (Texas Department of Emergency Management, n.d).
Subject Matter Experts
To ensure that the plan will best help in solving the flood disasters in Dallas Community, Subject Matter Experts will be involved to certify whether the response plan is perfectly structured or not. Particularly, the plan will be submitted to the Texas Department of Information Resources, where one of the experts will check the plan’s details to ascertain the plan’s credibility. This entity will analyze the components or the flood response plan and comment on whether the plan will solve the intended problem or revise the plan. Also, the services of experts from the American Red Cross will be needed to comment on the rescue and evacuation components of the plan. The comment will be significant since experts from American Red Cross are more experienced with issues related to disaster response strategies. The Subject Matter Expert’s tasks include verifying facts and information so that the plan’s deliverables match the demands of stakeholders, regulations, rules, requirements, and best practices. SME’s comments will ascertain whether the plan will be effective or not (Alberts, 2007).
Emergency Management Phases
Preparedness
In this phase, actions like construction of dams, waterways and good drainage system within Dallas is the priority. The constructions will ensure that floodwaters flow away in case a disaster occurs. Another action is to put in place evacuation plans and resources to help whenever the flood hazard occurs. Public awareness is also a necessary action to prepare for the hazard. Informing Dallas residents on how to prepare for floods disasters will help mitigate the effects of floods within the Community (Hoffmann & Muttarak, 2017).
Response
The actions in this phase include the actual search and evacuation of the victims affected by the flood. The victims will be transported to rescue centers and other hospitals based on their status. The rescue team will also consist of medical experts who provide first aid services to the victims (Cretney, 2016).
Recovery
To restore things to a normal state, actions such as reconstructing the destroyed infrastructures and other facilities. This may be costly, but it is a mandatory action. Giving the affected individuals financial assistance to settle in the raised grounds is another recovery action that can be taken to restore victims to their original stature (Zhang et al., 2017).
Challenges in Responding to Flood Hazards
Both the Dallas community and the flood responders encounter several challenges associated with flood response and management. The major challenge is the financial shortage. Many people living in Dallas sometimes lacks funds to facilitate their movement to raised grounds. As a result, they maintain residing in flood-prone zones. Responders may sometimes lack enough finances and resources to help victims effectively. Lack of public awareness is another challenge that hinders flood response in Dallas. Residents are not aware of what to do when a flood occurs due to a lack of public awareness (Tullos et al., 2016).
Solutions to the Challenges
Flood responders can partner with the American Red Cross to avoid the lack of adequate funds and resources. Collaborating with independent entities like Red Cross make the response activity manageable with ease since these bodies are well equipped with all necessary resources that might be needed when responding to flood disasters. FEMA’s action of urging Americans to donate funds to help in managing Texas flood is also a solution to this financial constraint. The fund can be used to relocate residents to higher grounds. The City’s authority is also doing more public awareness to inform the Community more about flood management.
Recovery Goal
Short term goal
The Community’s short-term recovery goal is to ensure that all affected individuals restore their initial state before the flood.
Long term goal
The Community’s long-term goals are to manage land uses in flood-prone areas to avoid the emergence of new flood hazards.
Recommendation
I recommend that the plan focuses on completely solving the problem of floods in the Dallas community instead of majoring in the response plan. Developing a long-term solution mitigate the effects of floods in Dallas will solve many issues in the Community, such as lack of finances to respond and recover from floods effects. The long-term solution will also eliminate life and property loss resulting from the flood. Apart from flooding, the committee should consider other hazards since solving one problem and leaving others pending is the same as doing nothing.
Conclusion
Floods have been a problem among people living in the Dallas community, and residents have been longing for a solution to this problem. To respond to Community’s problem, a flood response committee has come up with a response plan that will help minimize effects when the flood occurs in the future. However, the fight against flooding should not be left to the committee alone since this issue is a collective problem that is affecting the entire Community, for this reason, all stakeholders in the Community, right from authorities to ordinary citizens, should participate in flood management to achieve the goals Collectively. If everybody behaves responsibly and stated actions kept into practice, the Community will benefit from the flood response plan.
References
Alberts, D. J. (2007). Stakeholders or subject matter experts, who should be consulted?. Energy Policy, 35(4), 2336-2346.
Cretney, R. M. (2016). Local responses to disaster: The value of Community-led post disaster response activities in a resilience framework. Disaster Prevention and Management.
Hoffmann, R., & Muttarak, R. (2017). Learn from the past, prepare for the future: Impacts of education and experience on disaster preparedness in the Philippines and Thailand. World Development, 96, 32-51.
Kim, J., & Park, C. (2019). A comparative study on the importance of the components of community disaster resilience on disaster response. Journal of the Society of Disaster Information, 15(3), 339-346.
Texas Department of Emergency Management, (n.d). Texas Department of Emergency Management. Retrieved from https://www.tfma.org/page/TDEM/Texas-Department-of-Emergency-Management.htm
Zhang, W., Wang, N., & Nicholson, C. (2017). Resilience-based post-disaster recovery strategies for road-bridge networks. Structure and Infrastructure Engineering, 13(11), 1404-1413.
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