Sep 15, 2013

Standardized Emergency Communication Equipment Makes Successful Disaster Response Easier

By Dawn Williams


How well a community reacts when faced with a disaster is largely dependent on knowledge and training. The people elected or selected into positions which will have to deal with such crises must have the unique skill set designed for such events. One of the most critical capabilities necessary is accurate verbal interaction, which requires emergency communication equipment.

Social animals, from lions to elephants, rely on a leader to help everyone survive in a crisis. In Severe drought, the matriarch elephant leads the group as far as it takes to get water. Similarly, when roaming lions attempt to take over a pride, the pride depends on the dominant lion to fend off the attack off, and human societies have an analogous response.

Leaders of every community have a responsibility, legal and moral, to prepare for the unknown, to help each group be as ready as possible to survive and recover. Whether a crisis is a natural phenomenon like an earthquake or wildfire, or of human sourcing as in war, preparation is an inherent responsibility of leadership. As human settlements became more complex, it meant that there is much more to prepare for and protect.

Over the years, each community has developed a way to set themselves up to handle the variety of likely problems they may face. Some of these methods come from the experience of long time residents, others from shared experiences with other communities, and some from books. Private companies also have their own internal methods for handling crises.

For the most part, the responsibilities and tasks are assigned to people who do something entirely different as a job. When an emergency occurs, the ease of response and recovery depends in large part to the skills of those individuals assigned to act. How well these individuals can actually respond is a matter of training, exercises and experience.

If there are military organizations in the community, they have experience in handling all manner of disaster, through a detailed exercise program designed to keep their abilities honed and practiced. Their ability to help in civilian crises is limited by policy, but with proper precoordination, an understanding of how they can help is easily accommodated. Unfortunately, cities, military organizations and private corporations usually develop their systems without much coordination.

When a contingency occurs that is small enough the an individual group can handle it alone, their systems and experience serve them well and the responses are often accomplished efficiently and well. But the nature of contingencies is that they are often too large for an individual organization to contain. Sometimes the event simply involves more than one organization at a time.

Following such major catastrophes as the Oklahoma bombing and Hurricane Katrina the after action analysis led to the development of a nation-wide formal process called National Incident Management System. With all military and government entities required to participate and private organizations encouraged to, standardization has come a long way. The key to being able to work together for mutual assistance was standardizing and training on emergency communication equipment.




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