Emergency Management

Emergency management involves the establishment of a contingency plan that should be followed in case of a disaster. Disastrous events that necessitate the creation of an emergency plan may include sabotage, terrorism, as well as natural disasters such as floods, hurricanes, earthquakes among many others. Therefore, emergency management assists communities, businesses, and schools in mitigation of the effects of any unforeseen circumstances. For instance in the US FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) is the agency that is responsible for overseeing the national emergency management (EMERGENCY, 2002). In event of major disasters such as the Hurricanes witnessed in the year 2016 the agency lead coordination efforts. In general emergency management comprises five-step processes namely; disaster prevention, mitigation of disaster, preparedness, a response in event of a disaster as well as the recovery process. Even though disasters can be prevented not all disasters can be fully prevented. Therefore, it’s paramount to assess potential risks and put into place measures to lessen the impact of a disaster that is why disaster mitigation is important. In regards to preparedness, it is the responsibility of every citizen to be always prepared in event of earthquakes or alien attacks. The response, as well as recovery, are after-effect processes, these help communities and people to recover and rebuild their lives after a disaster.

FEMA in emergency management
Different forms can be assumed while planning for a disaster.

In regards to the government the Federal government, as well as State and local governments takes a responsibility for protecting its people. Emergency management is specifically designed to protect citizens and properties. On the other hand, businesses are also responsible for protecting their asset and employees. FEMA was created on 30th March in 1979 by Jimmy Catter. The major objective of this agency is to put together plans to respond to major catastrophes that may strike the US which may surpass the liabilities and resources of State and Local jurisdiction. This does not imply that state does not have their own emergency management agency, however, when an incidence overpowers their capacity the governor of that particular state must make a formal request to the president requesting aid from FEMA.
It is important to note that even though homeland security and emergency management do share some principles they are different. Homeland security majorly focuses on international and domestic issues while Emergency management majorly focuses on the five processes discussed above. Just like any other government agency FEMA is also subjected to high scrutiny in case of a disaster. Such scrutiny present different views for instance in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in the year 2005 the agency was criticized for its effort to respond to the emergency. Some of the issues that were highlighted in regards to how the agency responded to the emergency include lack of experienced and adequately trained personnel’s, readiness of the response team were also questioned (Hsu, 2006). Policymakers should consider disaster research while designing public policy to avoid such lack of preparedness as disaster research will greatly help in crisis management.
Natural disaster
Disasters can be of different forms this implies that different situations can be used to categorize disasters. Regardless of the type disaster, they all create a state of uncertainty and hence, the consequences associated with any kind of a disaster cannot be ignored. A natural disaster can be defined as an event that is inevitable which affect the environment. It is a disaster that results in massive loss of lives and at the sometimes, it adversely affects the economy of the affected region (Lin Moe, & Pathranarakul, 2006). The occurrence of natural disaster has a long history which cannot be avoided either can it be predicted. Natural disaster disrupts social fabrics and thus becomes dysfunctional to some extent that is why natural disaster is conceptualized as “non-routine social problem”. Can be referred to as non-routine since most often the public ignore such event until when they are articulated as dramatic. Example of a natural disaster includes Tsunami in 2004, the Haiti earthquake in the year 2010. Such disaster disrupts families, traumatize people and destabilize communities. Since such event also affects social settings some people may experience such problem personally. Victim blaming is also common in such events, most often natural disaster victims get blamed for being insufficiently prepared or living in an area prone to natural disasters such as a flood. And this may affect how a society responds to such victims in terms of compassionate aid.
For instance, if a natural disaster occurs in a region where the lives of people have already been disrupted by conflict for instance in Haiti. Since natural disaster is linked with the capacity of a society to respond. The social and state structures that are weakened by conflict may not have the capability to respond to the disaster increasing the chances of natural disaster. A good example is Somali. As a result of the long-standing conflict, the government of Somali is weak (Menkhaus, 2007). And therefore, if such a country is stricken by a natural disaster such as drought it will not have the capacity to respond. On the other hand, the absence of conflict implies that the community and state institutions would be able to manage natural disasters and maybe avoiding disasters all the same. Long-term impacts on the management of emergency at Federal, state and local levels are some of the policy implication of these discussions.
Conclusion
Emergency management involves different aspect in the protection of lives and properties such include coordinated and co-operative processes. Hence, emergency management is key on government and private levels. The emergency management should adapt to the changing circumstances to be able to provide a guide to procedures, protocols as well as in responsibilities division in responding to an emergency. Emergency management is an empirical process that should provide generic procedures to enable institutions and people in the management of unforeseen impacts. Hence, carefully constructed scenarios should be used in anticipation of needs generated by foreseeable disasters when they occur. Emergence management needs to be aligned with the needs of different sectors such as commerce, health, education among many others. Besides, a nested hierarchy is also fundamental it should extend from local emergency management to national as well as international levels.
References
EMERGENCY, F. (2002). Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Hsu, S. S. (2006). Katrina report spreads blame.  The Washington Post, (February 12).
Lin Moe, T., & Pathranarakul, P. (2006). An integrated approach to natural disaster management: public project management and its critical success factors.  Disaster Prevention and Management: An International Journal, 15(3), 396-413.
Menkhaus, K. (2007). Governance without government in Somalia: Spoilers, state building, and the politics of coping.