By Dr. Randall W. Hanifen | 06/12/2024
At times, you don't need an extensive knowledge of disaster management to successfully handle the different phases of a disaster. For instance, you can take steps to prevent or reduce predictable hazards during a disaster's mitigation phase.
However, community planning for disaster management involves more complex factors apart from the use of various emergency responders. These factors include:
- Understanding the community’s population demographics
- Knowing the capabilities of local civic and philanthropic organization leaders
- Forming relationships with local business leaders
How Demographics Affect Community Emergency Management
Understanding community demographics plays an important role in effective disaster risk reduction and management. For instance, an area comprised of affluent young citizens will have significantly different needs than a community of elderly citizens living in poverty.
For example, younger citizens with sufficient financial resources will find it easier to load a few weeks’ worth of essential supplies into their vehicles. These community members can drive to a nearby town and rent a hotel room until the disaster recovery phase is over.
If their homes are destroyed, these wealthier residents will most likely have insurance and can secure temporary housing and living expenses from the insurance company. They will not need medicines and may only need an internet connection to work.
Senior citizens living in poverty, however, have very different needs regarding preparedness and recovery. This demographic is more likely to lack the financial and physical resources to weather a disaster.
Often, these senior citizens rely on daily public transportation and may not have insurance if their homes and possessions are destroyed. They may also have trouble packing up and moving their essential items due to a poor state of health.
Consequently, local volunteers, including community emergency response teams, need to consider how they will deliver necessary services to all community members, whether they are rich, poor, elderly, or young.
For well-off young professionals, disaster managers will need to ensure they have information to relay to an insurance company and a time estimate of when they can return home. A knowledge of the community’s business sector is equally helpful since these people likely work for local organizations and will need the income.
For the elderly, disaster managers will need to plan their response efforts and recovery efforts around various needs, including:
- Providing transportation to evacuate senior citizens who do not own vehicles
- Recruiting volunteers to help the elderly gather personal belongings
- Creating a mobile pharmacy to continue supplying senior citizens with life-saving medication
- Supplying temporary housing
Leaders from Community Organizations Can Provide Assistance
Because the time between community disasters can stretch for many weeks or even years, the government cannot store all of what a community will need to recover from damage. Ideally, disaster managers should form connections with reliable civic and philanthropic leaders to establish a community approach to disaster management.
For instance, some leaders commonly work for local chapters of larger organizations, such as the Red Cross, the Kiwanis, the United Way, and the Rotary Club. These groups can help educate community members about disaster preparedness and response. They can also receive donations and ship them to local people in disaster areas, using pre-established logistical networks and volunteers.
Without these personal connections with local organizations in the community, disaster leaders would have to research how to fulfill community needs. They would also have to plan the delivery logistics and assemble all of the necessary supplies needed for recovery.
Knowing Local Business Leaders Can Aid Disaster Recovery
Community organizations and businesses rely on the economy to continue operating. Without businesses to provide products and services to local citizens, a community's ability to weather disasters would be significantly hindered, and people would likely move out of the community. Also, without the tax dollars generated by these businesses, local citizens would bear the brunt of all taxes to pay for disaster relief services.
During and after disasters, local businesses can be useful partners. Their daily operations involve logistics management and the supplies or equipment needed during a disaster, and they can often assemble volunteers. All of these factors serve as a force multiplier to the local government and disaster managers.
Form Local Relationships with Community Leaders Before Disasters Occur
As a disaster management professional, people will look to you to provide leadership during a disaster. But if you do not understand your community and have not built connections within it, you will lack useful resources to assist you. Build your relationships early, and you will be surrounded by other leaders when a disaster occurs.
Emergency and Disaster Management Degrees at AMU
American Military University (AMU) offers several emergency and disaster management degree programs designed to prepare students with the potential for leadership roles in crisis management. These programs include:
- An online bachelor’s degree in emergency and disaster management
- An online master’s degree in emergency and disaster management
- An online dual master’s degree in emergency and disaster management and homeland security
The courses in these degree programs are available online, providing flexibility for working professionals. These courses are taught by experienced faculty who have extensive backgrounds in public safety and emergency and disaster management.\
Bachelor’s Degree in Emergency and Disaster Management
This bachelor’s degree is designed for students wanting to learn how to manage disaster preparedness and crisis situations. The program is best for adult learners aiming to pursue opportunities in emergency management or enhance their current skills.
The comprehensive curriculum is designed to build students’ expertise in disaster response, recovery, and preparedness. Students will analyze risk assessment techniques, evaluate disaster planning and mitigation strategies, and study the economic impact of disasters.
Courses also includes practical exercises and case studies that simulate real-world scenarios in emergency planning and disaster recovery. With this strategy, students will develop critical problem-solving skills and apply their theoretical knowledge to practical situations so that their efforts can benefit a whole community.
Master’s Degree in Emergency and Disaster Management
The master’s degree in emergency and disaster management focuses on helping students to develop more advanced skills in emergency response and disaster management. Students will participate in research projects and case studies to enhance their critical thinking abilities.
In the courses for this master’s program, students will have the chance to participate in a variety of practical and analytical activities. They will develop and evaluate research proposals, prioritize projects, and organize emergency management functions.
Students will also formulate detailed response plans. All of these activities are intended to build students’ critical thinking skills and prepare students to pursue management roles in emergency and disaster management.
Dual Master's Degree in Emergency and Disaster Management and Homeland Security
For interested students, AMU’s dual degree program provides comprehensive knowledge in both emergency management and homeland security. This program is ideal for adult learners seeking to pursue leadership roles in public safety and homeland security.
In the courses for this degree, students will learn to develop emergency management plans and conduct exercises to test these plans, ensuring they are well-versed in both the theoretical and applied aspects of disaster response and homeland security. They will analyze historical and current case studies to understand the dynamics of emergency situations and public crises, allowing them to evaluate and improve existing protocols and strategies.
This degree program also includes mission planning, management relief operations, and public crisis management. The curriculum is designed to enhance critical thinking and decision-making skills, focusing on real-world applications.
If you are interested in community planning for disaster management and other related topics, visit our program page to learn more about our degrees and certificates.
Dr. Randall W. Hanifen is a shift commander at a medium-sized suburban fire department in the northern part of the Cincinnati area and a fire service consultant. He is also a faculty member at American Public University, teaching courses in its Emergency & Disaster Management program. He has a B.S. in Fire Administration, a M.S. in Fire Service Executive Leadership, and a Ph.D. in Executive Management of Homeland Security. He is the associate author of Disaster Planning and Control. Randall serves as the Executive Chairperson of a County Technical Rescue Team, a Taskforce Leader for FEMA’s Ohio Task Force 1 US&R team, and is the Vice-Chair of IAFC Company Officers Section. He serves as a member of NFPA 1021 Fire Officer and NFPA 1026 Incident Management committees He is credentialed as a Fire Officer by the Center for Public Safety Excellence and has been accepted as a Fellow to the Institute of Fire Engineers. Randall has provided presentations and trainings for the Ohio Fire Chief’s Association, Fire Rescue International, Emergency Management Institute, and the IAFC Board of Directors.