Incident Command System In The Management of Emergencies Essay

Incident Command System (ICS) is pivotal for the effective management of emergencies, especially, if they are large scale and affect a large number of people, as was the case of hurricane Katrina. The hurricane has caused numerous casualties and destructions, but also the hurricane has revealed the unpreparedness and poor ICS of the local authorities, which have come unprepared to manage the emergency effectively.

Katrina was one of the most devastating disasters that have struck the US within the last century and its disastrous effects have revealed pitfalls of the existing ICS. Researchers point out that by almost any measure, the response to Hurricane Katrina was a failure (Provan, Fish, & Sydow, 2007). Over 1,800 people died, and tens of thousands were left without basic supplies (Provan, K.G., A. Fish, and J. Sydow). The high death toll was the result of the poor communication of the upcoming disaster to the local population and the lack of adequate, effective steps from the part of emergency services and local authorities to facilitate the evacuation of the local population along with the enhancement of the protection of the population in New Orleans from the impact of the hurricane. Responders were warned about the potential effects days before Katrina made landfall at 6.10 a.m. on Monday, August 29 (Provan, K.G., A. Fish, and J. Sydow). Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and state emergency responders began 24-hour operations on Saturday (Provan, K.G., A. Fish, and J. Sydow). The Mayor of New Orleans ordered a mandatory evacuation by 9.30 a.m. on Sunday and opened the Superdome as a refuge of last resort (Provan, K.G., A. Fish, and J. Sydow). However, these steps were apparently too late to tackle the disaster effectively and prevent numerous causalities.

Late Monday morning levees began to overtop and breach, causing massive flooding (Provan, K.G., A. Fish, and J. Sydow). The first strike of the disaster has revealed the full extent to which New Orleans was vulnerable to the negative impact of the disaster. The local authorities were unprepared for the disaster because they could not provide the shelter for all the population that remained in New Orleans. Therefore, the evacuation should start on Saturday at the least, when the information about the upcoming hurricane and its power became available to the emergency services of New Orleans and the mayor. The mayor should start evacuation immediately that would help the local population to avoid the direct impact of the disaster and secure them.

Three major operational commands were established during Katrina, but there was no unified command that took charge of the entire response operation (House Report 2006, 189). However, they have proved to be ineffective and the poor coordination between them became one of the major reasons for the failure of ICS. The ICS did not involve the effective communication between the three major operational commands that resulted in their inability to manage the emergency effectively. In all probability, the authorities and the emergency management team did not expect such a powerful disaster and over-estimated the coordination between the three commands. As a result, resources, facilities, the staff and equipment used for the emergency management were ineffective to confront the hurricane successfully.

Thus, the poor ICS and the poor communication between three major operational commands became the major causes of the failure of New Orleans’ authorities and emergency services to manage the emergency successfully. As a result, hurricane Katrina became one of the major disasters in the US history within last several decades.

 

References:

Provan, K.G., A. Fish, and J. Sydow. (2007). Interorganizational networks at the network level: A review of the empirical literature on whole networks. Journal of Management 33, 479–516

U.S. House of Representatives Select Bipartisan Committee to Investigate the Preparation for and Response to Katrina (House Report). 2006. A failure of initiative. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.

The terms offer and acceptance. (2016, May 17). Retrieved from

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016.

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

freeessays.club (2016) The terms offer and acceptance [Online].
Available at:

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]
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