A cadre of professionals: Credentialing emergency managers to meet the disaster challenges of the future

This paper underscores the need for the emergency management field to professionalize further and mentions how this could be accomplished through direct state licensing, Associate Emergency Manager and/or Certified Emergency Manager credentialing, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Independent Study courses, or other state certifications such as the Illinois Professional Emergency Manager credential, in that particular state and as found in other states. This paper identifies the strengths and weaknesses of each approach and then reviews Drabek’s recommendations on how emergency managers may hone their professionalism through the acquisition of knowledge, skills, and abilities. The authors of this work add professional experience and in-person training to this list and discuss the implications of findings for research and practice by identifying several questions that will need to be addressed in the future. The overall recommendation of our article is that more efforts will be required to understand professionalism through research activities and collaboration across all types of emergency management organizations at the local, state, and federal levels—especially if we ever truly expect to enter licensing like professions such as medicine, law, engineering, accountancy, and teaching.

When disaster management agencies create disaster risk: a case study of the US's Federal Emergency Management Agency

PurposeDisaster management agencies are mandated to reduce risk for the populations that they serve. Yet, inequities in how they function may result in their activities creating disaster risk, particularly for already vulnerable and marginalized populations. In this article, how disaster management agencies create disaster risk for vulnerable and marginalized groups is examined, seeking to show the ways existing policies affect communities, and provide recommendations on policy and future research.Design/methodology/approachThe authors undertook a systematic review of the US disaster management agency, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), examining its programs through a lens of equity to understand how they shape disaster risk.FindingsDespite a growing commitment to equity within FEMA, procedural, distributive, and contextual inequities result in interventions that perpetuate and amplify disaster risk for vulnerable and marginalized populations. Some of these inequities could be remediated by shifting toward a more bottom-up approach to disaster management, such as community-based disaster risk reduction approaches.Practical implicationsDisaster management agencies and other organizations can use the results of this study to better understand how to devise interventions in ways that limit risk creation for vulnerable populations, including through community-based approaches.Originality/valueThis study is the first to examine disaster risk creation from an organizational perspective, and the first to focus explicitly on how disaster management agencies can shape risk creation. This helps understand the linkages between disaster risk creation, equity and organizations.

Army Urban Augmentation Medical Task Forces for COVID-19: Part 1—Development

ABSTRACT This article describes how the U.S. Army developed a new ad hoc medical formation, named Urban Augmentation Medical Task Force for the Department of Defense (DoD) in response to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 pandemic in the Continental United States during the spring of 2020. We review the role of the DoD support of the Federal Emergency Management Agency as a part of Defense Support of Civilian Authorities.

Hemodialysis Clinics in Flood Zones: A Case Study of Hurricane Harvey

Introduction: Hurricane Harvey (2017) forced the closure of hemodialysis centers across Harris County, Texas (USA) disrupting the provision of dialysis services. This study aims to estimate the percentage of hemodialysis clinics flooded after Harvey, to identify the proportion of such clinics located in high-risk flood zones, and to assess the sensitivity of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs) for estimation of flood risk. Methods: Data on 124 hemodialysis clinics in Harris County were extracted from Medicare.gov and geocoded using ArcGIS Online. The FIRMs were overlaid to identify the flood zone designation of each hemodialysis clinic. Results: Twenty-one percent (26 of 124) of hemodialysis clinics in Harris County flooded after Harvey. Of the flooded clinics, 57.7% were in a high-risk flood zone, 30.8% were within 1km of a high-risk flood zone, and 11.5% were not in or near a high-risk flood zone. The FIRMs had a sensitivity of 58%, misidentifying 42% (11 of 26) of the clinics flooded. Conclusion: Hurricanes are associated with severe disruptions of medical services, including hemodialysis. With one-quarter of Harris County in the 100-year floodplain, projected increases in the frequency and severity of disasters, and inadequate updates of flood zone designation maps, the implementation of new regulations that address the development of hemodialysis facilities in high-risk flood areas should be considered.

SEISMIC EVALUATION AND RETROFIT ON AN EXISTING HOSPITAL BUILDING

The nonlinear pushover analysis was used to evaluate an existing 8-storey reinforced concrete framed hospital building under seismic force and presented in this manuscript. The ‘Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital' is one of the important hospitals at Delhi-India, it was selected for this research. The three-dimensional frame model was used to model the building with a fixed base. The beams and columns were modeled by using three-dimension line frame elements with the centre lines joined at nodes. Diagonal strut elements were used to model the brick masonry infills. The slabs were considered as rigid diaphragms. The plastic hinge rotation capacities as per Federal Emergency Management Agency 356 (FEMA 356) with Performance Levels were adopted in this study, considering the axial force-moment and shear force-moment interactions. The nonlinear pushover analysis of the selected building was done with infills and it was observed that the infills (due to their small number in the considered building) do not make any appreciable effect on the performance level, except their failure at an early stage. The Capacity Spectrum Method (CSM) and Displacement Coefficient Method (DCM) were used to estimate the performance point of the building. The values of various coefficients as per Federal Emergency Management Agency 440 (FEMA 440) were adopted. The DCM was observed to give slightly higher target displacements, as compared to CSM. It was observed in the nonlinear pushover analysis that the unreinforced masonry (URM) infills collapse before the performance point of the building for the Maximum Considered Earthquake (MCE). As the intervention inside the functioning hospital is extremely difficult, it was explored whether it is possible to safeguard the infills by stiffening the building by providing external buttresses. Two cases of retrofitting schemes with 1.2m wide and 3m wide buttresses in transverse direction were used and analysed. It was found that this is not a practicable approach, as the infills collapse even with 3m wide buttresses.

IDENTIFIKASI JALUR DAN TEMPAT EVAKUASI TSUNAMI BERDASARKAN FEMA P646 PADA OBJEK-OBJEK WISATA PANTAI DI KABUPATEN GUNUNGKIDUL (Studi Kasus: Pantai Nguyahan, Ngobaran dan Ngrenehan)

ABSTRAKJumlah pengunjung maksimal objek wisata pantai di Kabupaten Gunungkidul antara Tahun 2014-2017 sejumlah 18.369 jiwa per bulan, sehingga jika terjadi tsunami potensi korban sangat besar, maka untuk meminimalkan korban jiwa saat terjadi tsunami diperlukan suatu kebijakan untuk pengurangan risiko terhadap bencana tersebut dengan strategi penyelamatan yang komprehensif dan upayanya menyediakan Sistem Peringatan Dini Tsunami. Tujuan penelitian adalah menentukan tempat evakuasi tsunami pada objek-objek wisata pantai di Kabupaten Gunungkidul berdasarkan FEMA P646 dan membandingkan dengan hasil penentuan tempat evakuasi tsunami yang dilakukan oleh BPBD Kabupaten Gunungkidul kesesuaian dengan pedoman FEMA P646. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode kuantitatif dengan teknik analisis deskriptif yaitu menganalisis jalur dan tempat evakuasi (TE) dengan berpedoman dengan FEMA P646 untuk menentukan tempat evakuasi tsunami, ketinggian elevasi merupakan bahan dasar dari analisis yang dilakukan. Oleh karena itu, perlu dilakukan pengumpulan data ketinggian elevasi, waktu tiba tsunami, proyeksi jumlah pengunjung untuk menunjang analisis. Titik evakuasi (TE)/titik aman dibutuhkan dalam proses evakuasi, maka analisis mengenai area evakuasi tersebut perlu dilakukan. Proses analisis dilakukan dengan terlebih dahulu menentukan ketinggian elevasi titik aman. Ketinggian elevasi titik aman dapat berupa titik yang berada di luar jangkauan gelombang tsunami ataupun area yang berada di dalam area genangan tsunami. Hasil penelitian ini adalah nilai ketinggian titik kumpul/titik aman 25 meter dari permukaan laut menjadi dasar untuk menyelamatkan diri, jika dihubungkan dengan kecepatan orang berjalan (kondisi lemah), maka waktu kedatangan/waktu tiba tsunami didapat tidak lebih dari 1 jam, hal ini masih dalam batasan sesuai dengan Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA P-646, 2008), lokasi titik kumpul/titik aman evakuasi tsunami tersebut bisa digunakan penyelamatan pertama korban tsunami dengan mempertimbangkan waktu kedatangan tsunami, sedangkan pada BPBD untuk penampungan korban tsunami menggunakan fasilitas umum walaupun jaraknya jauh dan mengindahkan waktu kedatangan tsunami.Kata kunci: elevasi, evakuasi, identifikasi, pantai, tsunamiABSTRACTThe maximum number of monthly visitors to the tourism coasts in Gunungkidul Regency between 2014 and 2017 is 18.369 people. Those Indian Ocean beaches that are in the southern sides of the Island of Java are prone to tsunami disaster. However, there were no systematic and scientific study to make analysis of the tsunami disaster mitigation to those tourism beaches. Therefore, a series of policies with comprehensive rescue strategies and efforts to minimize the risk of the tsunami disaster is required. The purpose of this study was to determine places of tsunami evacuation for the tourism beaches in Gunungkidul Regency based on P646 of FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) and compare them with the result of the determine places of tsunami evacuation conducted by BPBD (Local Disaster Management Authority) of Gunungkidul Regency, Yogyakarta. This purpose also includes the want of the authors to implement the method of this study to be the policy of tsunami mitigation for similar tourism beaches in the Special Territory of Yogyakarta as well as similar beaches in Indonesia. This study uses quantitative method with descriptive analysis technique that is analyzing the paths and places of tsunami evacuation based on P646 of FEMA. Given location elevation is the basic ingredient of the analysis, and therefore, elevation data, tsunami arrival time, projected number of visitors to support the analysis need to be gathered. The analysis of the evacuation areas is required to determine the evacuation places that are safe points in the evacuation process. An elevation of a safe point elevation can be a point that is beyond the reach of tsunami waves or safe areas within the tsunami pool areas. The results of this study are the height of the gathering point / safe point 25 meters above sea level to be the basis for saving themselves, if connected with the speed of walking (weak condition), then the arrival time / arrival time of the tsunami is not more than 0.5 hours. This is still within limits in accordance with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA P-646, 2008), the location of the gathering point / tsunami evacuation safe point can be used as the first rescue of tsunami victims by considering the arrival time of the tsunami. On the other hand, BPBD accommodate tsunami victims using public facilities even though they are far away and heed the arrival time of the tsunami.Keywords: elevation, evacuation, identification, beach, tsunami

Hurricane Harvey Hospital Flood Impacts: Accuracy of Federal Emergency Management Agency Flood Hazard Areas in Harris County, Texas

Objectives. To compare the flood impacts experienced by Harris County, Texas, hospitals with Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) flood hazard areas and Hurricane Harvey’s inundation boundary. Methods. One year following Hurricane Harvey, we created a novel data set of Hurricane Harvey’s flood impacts in Harris County hospitals. We then mapped the hospital flood impact data in ArcGIS alongside FEMA flood hazard areas and Hurricane Harvey’s inundation boundary to classify each hospital’s location in high flood-risk areas and in areas purportedly affected by Hurricane Harvey. Results. Of the 66 hospitals for which flood impact information was ascertained, 16 (24%) hospitals experienced flood impacts during Hurricane Harvey. Of these 16 hospitals, 5 (31%) were located outside a FEMA flood hazard area and 8 (50%) were located outside Hurricane Harvey’s inundation boundary. Conclusions. FEMA flood hazard areas did not accurately predict all areas of Harris County, Texas, that flooded during Hurricane Harvey or which hospitals experienced flood impacts.

Risk assessment of threats in Czestochowa county based on the FEMA methodology

The article presents a description of the methodology of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which allows for a detailed assessment of each threat separately, in a numerical manner. The FEMA methodology uses four criteria: history of the event, vulnerability, probability and maximum threat. The aim and method of research was determined and the risk analysis of threats in Częstochowa County was estimated on the basis of FEMA methodology. The conducted research allowed to draw attention to the advantages and disadvantages of the FEMA methodology.