Based on a popular course for the FEMA Higher Education project, Preparedness and Response for Catastrophic Disasters provides important insight into plans to mitigate and respond to the devastation caused by large-scale catastrophic events. Hurricane Katrina provided clear evidence that these occurrences are both qualitatively and quantitatively d
Even before the wreckage of a disaster is cleared, one question is foremost in the minds of the public: "What can be done to prevent this from happening again?" Today, news media and policymakers often invoke the "lessons of September 11" and the "lessons of Hurricane Katrina." Certainly, these unexpected events heightened awareness about problems that might have contributed to or worsened the disasters, particularly about gaps in preparation. Inquiries and investigations are made that claim that "lessons" were "learned" from a disaster, leading us to assume that we will be more ready the next time a similar threat looms, and that our government will put in place measures to protect us. In Lessons of Disaster, Thomas Birkland takes a critical look at this assumption. We know that disasters play a role in setting policy agendas—in getting policymakers to think about problems—but does our government always take the next step and enact new legislation or regulations? To determine when and how a catastrophic event serves as a catalyst for true policy change, the author examines four categories of disasters: aviation security, homeland security, earthquakes, and hurricanes. He explores lessons learned from each, focusing on three types of policy change: change in the larger social construction of the issues surrounding the disaster; instrumental change, in which laws and regulations are made; and political change, in which alliances are created and shifted. Birkland argues that the type of disaster affects the types of lessons learned from it, and that certain conditions are necessary to translate awareness into new policy, including media attention, salience for a large portion of the public, the existence of advocacy groups for the issue, and the preexistence of policy ideas that can be drawn upon. This timely study concludes with a discussion of the interplay of multiple disasters, focusing on the initial government response to Hurricane Katrina and the negative effect the September 11 catastrophe seems to have had on reaction to that tragedy.
This book provides guidance on characterizing, recognizing, and responding to warning signs to help avoid process incidents and injuries before they occur. The guidance can be used by both process safety management (PSM) professionals in evaluating their processes and PSM systems as well as for operators who are often the frontline defense against process incidents. Warning signs may consist of process deviations or upsets, instrumentation warnings or alarms, past operating history and incidents, observable problems such as corrosion or unusual odors, audit results indicating procedures are not being followed, or a number of other indicators. Filled with photos and practical tips, this book will turn anyone in a process plant into a hazard lookout and will help prevent potential incidents before they turn into catastrophic events.
This interesting book offers an analysis of man-made catastrophes and asks why they continue to occur. 87 catastrophes or near-catastrophes, including high profile cases such as the Bhopal gas disaster, Grenfell Tower, Shoreham Air Show crash, Brumadinho dam collapse and Fukushima Daiichi, are described together with the reasons why they occurred and why over 50 different safety management approaches and techniques failed to prevent them. Featuring 63 eye opening stories from the author’s own personal experience and over 200 pitfalls in safety management approaches, this title is illustrated by 24 hypothetical cases in which the reader is asked to consider the approach they would take. Safety management techniques discussed include operating practices, personnel selection and emergency response. Safety management approaches including safety governance in organisations, along with the role of government and local authorities using the instruments of the law are extensively discussed. The work concludes with imaginative and creative ways forward with the aim to make considerable progress and to potentially eliminate man-made catastrophes for good. This title will be an ideal read for safety managers and engineers, community leaders in civic duties or labour union roles and professionals tasked with stopping and mitigating the impacts of man-made catastrophes, along with non-technical readers who are curious and concerned.
An authoritative compendium of new research findings and case studies in the application of communication theory during catastrophic events Communicating Science in Times of Crisis: Communication and Catastrophic Events addresses the practical application and research implications of communication theory in the context of man-made and natural catastrophes. Bringing together contributions by leading experts in crisis management and strategic communication, this timely collection of resources links scientific issues with public policy while discussing the challenges and opportunities for using communication to manage extreme events in the evolving media landscape of the 21st century. In this second volume of the Wiley-Blackwell Communicating Science in Times of Crises series, 15 substantial chapters explore a varied range of catastrophic conditions, such as mass violence incidents, disease outbreaks, catastrophic mudslides, cascading and simultaneous disasters, extreme weather events, diffusion of misinformation during crises, students traveling internationally during a global health crisis, and more. Each chapter focuses on a particular issue or concern, revealing the difficult choices that confront academics and practitioners across communication disciplines and presenting original frameworks and models alongside ongoing research programs. Discusses approaches for balancing scientific findings with social and cultural issues Highlights the ability of legacy and digital media to facilitate science in mitigating the effects of adverse events Examines the ethical repercussions of communication during unfolding and unpredictable events Addresses the use of social media communication during a crisis and navigating an increasingly media-savvy society with multiple levels of science literacy Covers key theoretical and practical aspects of the associated fields of risk management and crisis management Available as a standalone book or as part of a two-volume set, Communicating Science in Times of Crisis: Communication and Catastrophic Events is essential reading for scholars, researchers, practitioners, and advanced students in the fields of crisis communication, risk and emergency management, disaster studies, policy management, social media communication, and healthcare communication.
Normal Accidents analyzes the social side of technological risk. Charles Perrow argues that the conventional engineering approach to ensuring safety--building in more warnings and safeguards--fails because systems complexity makes failures inevitable. He asserts that typical precautions, by adding to complexity, may help create new categories of accidents. (At Chernobyl, tests of a new safety system helped produce the meltdown and subsequent fire.) By recognizing two dimensions of risk--complex versus linear interactions, and tight versus loose coupling--this book provides a powerful framework for analyzing risks and the organizations that insist we run them. The first edition fulfilled one reviewer's prediction that it "may mark the beginning of accident research." In the new afterword to this edition Perrow reviews the extensive work on the major accidents of the last fifteen years, including Bhopal, Chernobyl, and the Challenger disaster. The new postscript probes what the author considers to be the "quintessential 'Normal Accident'" of our time: the Y2K computer problem.
