A personal peeve of mine has been for a number of years the term "Emergency Management."  What is it I dislike about this term?  I dislike it for the passive-re-active nature of it and the mindset that it breeds.  In some ways the poor response to hurcane Katrina in New Orleans was due to the mindset that the job of officials was to re-act to a major emergency, rather than taking procative steps to amielorate the damage done by taking proper precautions before hand.  I would like to see "Emergency Management" replaced by the term it has largely superceded, Civil Defense.  The Intelectual concept behind Civil Defense is that one must have and maintain the capability to re-act to emergencies the best protection and response is to be prepared ahead of time and to take steps that limit the damage and suffering that a major emergency can cause.  If one takes the problems at the Superdome as an example the technology (extremely low tech at that) and capability to prevent many of the problems has long exsisted as a response to the needs of the cold war.  In the '60s and 70's the federal government located and stocked public fallout shelters across the US.  The basic needs that had to be met were the same and simple, robust and inexpense solutions were found and deployed before they would be needed.  If the superdome had been so stocked many of the issues relating to basic first aid, clean water, sanitation and food would have been avoideed.  Certainly the ration for fallout shelters was the absolute bare minimum but with modern technology a much better and fully balanced diet could have been prepositioned and ready to feed those in need.

     Why then were these measures not taken in New Orleans?  Govermental incompetence at the city, parish and state level certainly played a large part.  But what is left unsaid is that "Emergency Managers" are trained to think only of how they will react to a situation and little to no thought is given to preventing it in the first place.  Furthermore the concept of "Emergency Management" seperates those in governemnt charged with responding to disasters and emergencies from the skills and abilities of the public at large.  The backbone of Civil Defense in the US during the cold war was the participation of civilian volunteers from all walks of life in dozens of capacities to reinforce first responders in time of need. Even with proper planning the New Orleans police force would have been well served by a few hundred civilian auxillaries called up before the storm to provide additional manpower in the aftermath.  In the end the mindset of people has a real affect on how they do their jobs, and what those jobs are called has a direct and major bearing on that mindset.

For a good overview of US Civil Defence go to the  Cold War Civil Defense Museum.

Posted by: raging tachikoma at 01:08 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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