Essay and Jounral

Unit VII Essay

To prepare for this assignment, you will need to review information regarding the differences between Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita using the CSU Online Library. You can also utilize resources relating to the topic from the Internet. (Please note that unrestricted sites such as Wikipedia and Dictionary.com are not acceptable reference sources for academic papers.)

Analyze the information that you find regarding the hurricanes and their devastating aftermaths, which resulted in the most costly natural disasters in U.S. history. Make sure that you include the following information in your case study:

1. Differentiate the Hurricane Rita disaster from the Hurricane Katrina catastrophe in 2005.

2. Discuss how Louisiana’s diverse waterway system and levee system could be used to identify this area as a potential location for a flooding event or for hurricane-related hazards.

3. What type of additional hazards did these hurricanes cause?

4. What were the destructive consequences of these hurricanes?

5. What was the emergency response to these hurricanes, and how could they be changed regarding responses?

6. How are flood-prevention strategies being utilized to help mitigate future disasters in these areas?

7. How could emergency managers use such strategies to mitigate the effects of other hurricanes in such densely populated areas as in Louisiana and Texas?

8. How did these hurricanes and flooding events make a political impact upon FEMA response and U.S. governmental policies and procedures pertaining to disasters in the United States?

9. How was volunteerism impacted and changed after these two natural disasters took place?

10. What were some of the moral and ethical obligations that were faced by the emergency managers in both of these natural disasters? How could some of the pitfalls that took place during these emergency responses have been mitigated?

Your essay should be at least three pages in length in 12-point, double-spaced Times New Roman font. Please use APA style for all in-text citations and references that you use. A minimum of three references should be used, two of which should come from the CSU Online Library.

Journal

Imagine that you are the emergency manager within your community. Your community has just experienced a major flooding event, and you must deal with the aftermath. Reports have been coming in regarding deaths, food shortages, and hospital shutdowns. You have been asked to begin making decisions regarding dead body management, allocating resources for food supply rations, and rendering of medical care. Describe the process you would follow when beginning to make such decisions.

Your journal entry must be at least 200 words. No references or citations are necessary.

Need original and unplagiarized work, please do not accept if cannot return quality work. Please read assignment fully

Week VII study guide is attached for guidance.

MSE 6301, Risk Management 1

Course Learning Outcomes for Unit VII

Upon completion of this unit, students should be able to:

1. Analyze the concept of risk within emergency management.
1.1 Interpret moral and ethical issues that an incident commander may face during a large-scale

disaster.

4. Examine how disaster events in U.S. history have altered the traditional risk perceptions of
emergency management.
4.1 Differentiate between two natural disasters and the emergency response to them.
4.2 Discuss how prevention strategies can be used to mitigate future disasters in other areas.
4.3 Identify how disaster events can affect government policies and procedures.

Course/Unit
Learning Outcomes

Learning Activity

1.1
Unit Lesson
Chapter 11
Unit VII Essay

4.1
Unit Lesson
Chapter 10
Unit VII Essay

4.2
Unit Lesson
Chapter 10
Unit VII Essay

4.3
Unit Lesson
Chapter 10
Unit VII Essay

Reading Assignment

Chapter 10: Building an Effective Emergency Management Organization

Chapter 11: Evaluation and Professional Accountability in Managing Disasters

Unit Lesson

Moral and ethical decision-making in the context of disaster and emergency management will be critical for
leadership to learn ahead of time. The role of accountability needs to be clear for emergency management
and leadership to take control of the situations that will present themselves in the times of crises (Hunt, 2011;
Kapucu & Özerdem, 2013).

A professional leader and member of emergency management must be willing to undertake the meaningful
duties of professional leadership, belong to a society of professionals that are task oriented for completion,
and identify the ethical standards that are impacting leadership decisions and the community. A professional
leader should also be willing to create a standard body of operations that will impact laws, guidelines, and
operation procedures during planning phases for emergencies. Finally, a professional leader in emergency
management should be willing to administer changes to those guidelines and standards when applicable to
the groups involved in the emergency management field. These changes may also include new methods and
developments that have occurred in disaster management (Peerbolte & Collins, 2013).

UNIT VII STUDY GUIDE

Moral and Ethical Decisions and
Contingency Crisis Management

MSE 6301, Risk Management 2

UNIT x STUDY GUIDE

Title

The ever-changing emergency management field requires professionalism and education, as well as trained
and skilled specialists to work in the field. Community leaders are being held more accountable for actions
taken during disasters, the ability to handle emergencies, and being able to train and educate professional
members and those in the community who are impacted by these hazards. More formal, academic training
and education is expected for future leaders within the emergency management field. During emergencies,
the ability to make decisions and manage the event can make the difference between life and death for
community stakeholders and those who are working in leadership positions during the event
(Peerbolte & Collins, 2013). Emergency managers need to have competencies in the areas of large-scale
disaster management, understanding the various ways to provide community assessments and be
transparent about those assessments with community stakeholders. They also must implement different
strategies during a crisis, and in planning to handle crisis situations, have a working knowledge of the policy
process (Kapucu & Özerdem, 2013).

Every disaster, whether large or small, has accountability for emergency managers. The community
stakeholders are at risk in the event of a disaster, and they also have a right to know what leadership,
emergency managers, and their elected officials are deciding when managing the problems that are occurring
during the event. During the height of a disaster, leadership and emergency managers are at the high-point of
tension and decision-making efforts that will make an immediate impact on the situation (Hunt, 2001). The
need to provide an effective, well-balanced response during an emergency, along with the need to have
accountability, is critical. The ability to set standards, work effectively with others in the community,
communicate with stakeholders, and evaluate performance-based standards against moral and ethical
decision making is imperative to the leadership being successful in a major event. Overall, disaster and
emergency management decisions differ compared to those in normal corporate-management decisions due
to the different situations, conditions, and demands that are presented (Hunt, 2011).

Emergency managers are faced with making moral and ethical decisions instantaneously in the field when
disaster strikes. The emergency management profession requires guidance from leadership, but also requires
compliance of moral and ethical codes and standards for managing an event. In the terms of liability for the
emergency manger, there are two areas that require specific attention: damage to life and property, and the
failure of government responses and procedures (Hunt, 2011). Ethical codes are established for compliance
and the proof of professionalism in the emergency management field, but there are also areas where those
who are not in compliance fail to meet the needs of the community during a disaster, both morally and
ethically, can be punished legally for negligence. These include corruption in local government, abandonment
of public office during an emergency, misappropriation of funding, and overall negligence in planning for
events for community stakeholders. Unfortunately, in some communities and states, these aforementioned
practices have been considered acceptable behavior (Hunt, 2011).

Ethical decision-making is more than just making the decisions between right and wrong. In the emergency
management and disaster contexts, it involves saving lives, protecting property, respecting people, respecting
the law, and being able to remain flexible when there are changes taking place during an event. These
standard levels have an impact on the community, and having the ability to maintain integrity and handle
situations will have a lifetime impact upon the community. Emergency management officials must also be
cognizant of being held to professional standards. Leadership during times of crisis will make immediate
decisions impacting thousands or more within a community. This professionalism can be found in the
commitment to life safety, duties performed prior to a disaster, training, education, communication,
management of government funding, and being able to implement policy and procedures for collaboration to
occur during an event (Hunt, 2011; Kapucu & Özerdem, 2013).

Effective disaster management will require training, education, comprehension, application of lessons
learned, moral and ethical decision-making, and collaboration. Collaboration is the most effective means of
working alongside one another during a disaster, but it also shows how the communities can make decisions
together impacting life safety. Furthermore, the collaboration between communities and local jurisdictions can
promote moral and ethical decision-making guidelines; formation of memorandums of understanding for
assistance; reduction in the duplication of efforts, budgeting, and financing; and creating a contingency plan
for recovery efforts within the disaster stricken communities (Kapucu & Özerdem, 2013; ten Brinke, Kolen,
Dollee, van Waveren, & Woutees, 2010).

Relationships, whether within communities or with other adjoining community partners, require trust building
and interdependency. Moral and ethical decisions will be made when there is collaboration, forethought, and
ability to handle emergency situations that are not directly related to policies. Administration, emergency

MSE 6301, Risk Management 3

UNIT x STUDY GUIDE
Title

managers, community stakeholders, and political parties should convene in order to discuss both international
and local relief efforts that present themselves. (Kapucu & Özerdem, 2013; ten Brinke et al., 2010).

References

Hunt, M. (2011). Establishing moral bearings: Ethics and expatriate healthcare professionals in humanitarian

work. Disasters, 35(3), 606-622.

Kapucu, N., & Özerdem, A. (2013). Managing emergencies and crises. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett.

Peerbolte, S. L., & Collins, M. L. (2013). Disaster management and critical thinking skills of local emergency

managers: Correlations with age, gender, education, and years in occupation. Disasters, 37(1), 48-
60.

ten Brinke, W. B. M., Kolen, B., Dollee, A., van Waveren, H., & Wouters, K. (2010). Contingency planning for

large-scale floods in the Netherlands. Journal of Contingencies & Crisis Management, 18(1), 55-69.