4 - Communication Disaster Planninng - Sylvia C Kearney

REFERENCE: Furey, B. (2006, 01). Communications disaster planning and recovery: CHANGING PARAMETERS FOR CHANGING TIMES. Firehouse, 31, 64-67. Retrieved on Sept. 27^th, 2013 from: http://search.proquest.com/docview/229630346?accountid=14779

Buckingham, David, (2004) “Young People and Media” Briefing Paper for the United Nations Workshop on Global Media Driven Culture in New York

THEME: Public Safety Communication and Planning During Disaster

SUMMARY: A very interesting and often repeated incident is of course Hurricane Katrina. So much has been written and studies have been done to help train us all. This paper about communication disasters and planning and recovery gives details how to go about preparing for another disaster in step-by-step example.

o   Public Safety infrastructure is often overwhelmed when either a major disaster, or more than one disaster occurs. “As is often the case with transportation emergencies, no singular failure is normally to blame for creating a communications crisis. It often takes multiple concurrent disruptions for a problem to occur.” (Furey, 2006)

o   This is where communication becomes vulnerable. Some communication personnel become very stressed within a short time, especially like with Katrina, where people called for help as they were dying.

o   One of the most important points to prepare for disaster communication is to have a mutual aid plan with outside agencies that includes other resources besides communication.

o   Have a way of transporting them. And by all means, keep your fuel tanks filled at all times or fill them when they are half empty. This would also include generators etc. As someone once said, “It is better to have a half of a loaf of bread than none at all.” (Furey, 2006)

APPLICATION: NIMS (National Incident Management System) explains that you need to use the right resources for communication. If the event is happening now, News is happening now and communication has to be in place. One more issue to take into account, is the, “ . . . cultural imperialism thesis has effectively given way to a much more optimistic account of the global spread of media. Rather than global replacing the local, the two have been seen to merge in a process of ‘glocalisation’. . . .(Robertson, 1994; Featherstone, 1995) Buckingham, D. (2004).

APPLICATION in EMS: Sustainability development (SD) and the combination of the environmental, economic, and social issues are becoming an important subject when it comes to negotiating and planning disaster vulnerabilities including communications. Of course technology is becoming better and better and new plans are being worked on to help EMS and its resources to be able to communicate with each other and the media.