More specifically what do they do to prepare, respond to, recover from, and mitigate and prevent emergency situations in the community?
Different positions in different jurisdictions have different responsibilities for emergency management. Emergency Management is all about reducing the impact of disasters on communities. It’s a holistic approach that isn’t just about responding to an emergency.
One key concept of emergency management is PPRR (prevention, preparedness, response and recovery) which describes a spectrum of activities:
Prevention/Mitigation
This is about assessing and reducing disaster risks. Activities include researching natural and ‘man-made’ disasters, constructing physical mitigation works (such as levees and firebreaks), establishing warning systems, land use planning (eg. stopping people from building on floodplains) and building codes (eg. mandating fire-proof building materials).
Preparedness
This is about getting the emergency services and the community ready for disasters. Activities include preparing emergency plans, training first responders, educating the community on how to prepare and what to do in a disaster.
Response
This includes actually responding to a disaster and ensuring that the emergency services have the right resources (equipment and people) to do their job. Emergency management professionals aren’t usually in charge of responding to a disaster, but act as an executive officer, providing expert advice to someone with the decision making authority
Recovery
This is about getting a community that has been impacted by a disaster ‘back on its feet’. Activities include, collecting and distributing donations and goods, distributing government relief payments, assisting with reconstruction tasks and much more.
Generally emergency management professionals work in state/provincial and federal/national governments. In local municipalities and counties the work is often done by someone with other responsibilities, however larger municipalities and major cities will usually have dedicated emergency managers.
Obviously one person doesn’t do all of these activities, but emergency management is a very broad profession and emergency managers are involved in influencing the outcomes of many things done by governments, businesses and individuals.
Hope this helps.
January 30th, 2010 at 8:52 am
The do not prevent emergency situations. They are responsible for a cohesive plan for each time of emergency.
References :
January 30th, 2010 at 9:03 am
Different positions in different jurisdictions have different responsibilities for emergency management. Emergency Management is all about reducing the impact of disasters on communities. It’s a holistic approach that isn’t just about responding to an emergency.
One key concept of emergency management is PPRR (prevention, preparedness, response and recovery) which describes a spectrum of activities:
Prevention/Mitigation
This is about assessing and reducing disaster risks. Activities include researching natural and ‘man-made’ disasters, constructing physical mitigation works (such as levees and firebreaks), establishing warning systems, land use planning (eg. stopping people from building on floodplains) and building codes (eg. mandating fire-proof building materials).
Preparedness
This is about getting the emergency services and the community ready for disasters. Activities include preparing emergency plans, training first responders, educating the community on how to prepare and what to do in a disaster.
Response
This includes actually responding to a disaster and ensuring that the emergency services have the right resources (equipment and people) to do their job. Emergency management professionals aren’t usually in charge of responding to a disaster, but act as an executive officer, providing expert advice to someone with the decision making authority
Recovery
This is about getting a community that has been impacted by a disaster ‘back on its feet’. Activities include, collecting and distributing donations and goods, distributing government relief payments, assisting with reconstruction tasks and much more.
Generally emergency management professionals work in state/provincial and federal/national governments. In local municipalities and counties the work is often done by someone with other responsibilities, however larger municipalities and major cities will usually have dedicated emergency managers.
Obviously one person doesn’t do all of these activities, but emergency management is a very broad profession and emergency managers are involved in influencing the outcomes of many things done by governments, businesses and individuals.
Hope this helps.
References :
I’m an emergency manager - I work specifically in mitigation.