What Does Emergency Management Do?
Most people haven't had direct experience with Emergency Management, but when a disaster happens, we expect that someone, or some group of people, will coordinate the response. Beyond that, Emergency Management is a big mystery. Disaster response is certainly one component of Emergency Management, but there's much more.
In any given year, only a small amount of time involves actual disasters. The rest of the time is spent getting ready.
Preparedness
The best way to get through a disaster is by being prepared. Emergency Management actively helps to prepare citizens, businesses and organizations and responders for potential disasters in our community. This includes developing emergency response plans, coordinating training and exercise for responders, and providing emergency education tools like this website for our community.
Mitigation
We can't stop many disasters, but we can do things that reduce their impact. Mitigation is the effort to reduce or eliminate the impacts of a hazard in our community. For example, we build flood levees to minimize the impacts of increased river levels during a heavy rain. Mitigation may also include changing zoning laws to avoid construction in high-risk areas, or making structural changes to buildings to make them more resistant to a hazard.
Response
This is the part that most people actually see - emergency personnel responding to an incident. Emergency Managers usually get involved in the response at our Emergency Operations Center (EOC). During a disaster, this facility is staffed by people coordinating and supporting the responders in the field.
Recovery
After the immediate response to a disaster ends, recovery begins. The goal of recovery is to return the impacted area as much as possible to its previous state. In a major event, recovery is often the longest and most expensive part of the process.
