midterm Flashcards
Describe and briefly discuss the “Disaster Stage Model.” How might natural and technological disasters differ?
- Predisaster- state of system before disaster
- Warning- precautionary activity
- Threat- change in conditions that causes survival actions
- Impact- the “holding” stage, switches from the individual to the community
- Inventory- individual takes stock
- Rescue- non-professional relief, local and unorganized
- Remedy- organized and professional relief
- Recovery- individual rehabilitation and readjustment
Natural disasters can’t be controlled, but technological disasters are caused due to loss of control
Identify and briefly discuss the major units of analysis commonly used in disaster research.
Individuals: how people are affected on a personal level
Households: how families or groups living together cope with disaster
Organizations: how they plan for disasters, and how they help recovery
Communities: the collective response of the place affected
Intergovernmental systems: big-picture, how systems such as healthcare are impacted by and respond to disasters
Identify and briefly discuss the “emergency management cycle.”
- Preparedness: planning and warning
- Response: pre-impact prep, post-impact aid
- Recovery: restoration, reconstruction, support
- Mitigation: adjustments made for safety of community
Identify and discuss the main purpose of early disaster research (as funded by the government).
During World War 2, the government wanted to know how the public would react to the possibility of nuclear war
Briefly define and contrast the differences between hazards, hazard agents, and disasters.
- Hazards- a natural process that could potentially threaten the things people value (ex. Hurricane, tornado)
- Hazard agent- hazards that are found that could actually happen (ex. Hurricane Sandy)
- Disaster- when a hazardous event impacts the human environment, and it’s worse than the community can handle
List and discuss four mitigation techniques used for natural hazards.
- Building plans- Requiring new construction to be able to withstand disasters
- Weather monitoring- using technology to see if a natural hazard is forming and where it’s going to go
- Upkeep- maintaining things such as dams and levees
- Identifying vulnerable areas and not building there, or evacuating them when a disaster is imminent
. Identify and describe four dimensions of disaster resilience.
- Robustness- how disaster-resistant the buildings (and institutional processes) are to withstanding harm
- Redundancy- having more than one system in place so that if one fails, the system can still function normally
- Resourcefulness- deploying resources in creative ways to solve problems, either anticipated or unanticipated
- Rapidity- how quickly systems return to normal after a disaster
Compare the etiology of natural and technological disasters and describe how these etiological differences might affect individual and community responses to disaster.
- Nature etiology: caused by the environment (ex. Tornado, hurricane), out of human control, anticipated
- Technological etiology: caused by human error (ex. Industrial accident, chemical spill), could’ve been prevented, mostly sudden
- While natural disasters bring communities together, technological disasters cause distrust and blame toward the industry that failed.
What is a “therapeutic” community and why do disasters involving contamination tend to elicit the opposite—a “corrosive” community?
- Therapuetic community- when the community comes together in a time of crisis to support each other
- A technological disaster causes a “corrosive” community because it ends with someone to blame and causes uncertainty in the community
Discuss the “claims-making” process and explain why this process is more obvious in technological disasters.
- “Claims-making” process- A group vocalizing their demands and/or complaints against another party
- This would be more obvious in technological disasters due to the community affected having the ability to locate the party that did something wrong and make their claims directly; when in a natural disaster, the victims can’t blame any real person or group
Identify and discuss two unique features of the Katrina disaster
- The start of the “looting” trend
- Storm defense mechanisms (levees) failed (letting water in, then holding it in, counterintuitive to its original use)
Identify and briefly discuss two ethical issues associated with conducting disaster research.
- Disrupting the community’s attempts to recover post-disaster by moving into the town and using their resources (food, hotel rooms) that could be scarce
- Reliving: like PTS (post-traumatic stress, like a veteran). Making the victims relive the event by asking triggering questions, researchers should try to avoid re-triggering if they can help it
Define resilience and vulnerability and discuss how the two are related
- Resilience- the ability to prepare and plan, adapt to, or recover from a disaster
- Vulnerability- the characteristics of a person or group and their situation that influence their ability to prepare and plan, adapt to, or recover from a disaster
- Resilience can undo the effects of vulnerability
Who are the vulnerable and what makes them so?
- The ones whose situations and characteristics influence their abilities before, during, and after a disaster
- Location (below sea level, Hurricane Katrina)
- Infrastructure (quality of build, policies/codes)
- Social characteristics (age, gender, race, health, etc.)
Identify and discuss the major characteristics of a disaster-resilient community
strong community relationship and ability to work together, strong disaster-resilient infrastructure built for the area, system backups in place to keep things running, abilities for rapid recovery and problem solving
