The topic of this brief paper highlights two aspects in the Discipline of Emergency Management, which are communications and response. The first of two questions, or scenarios, assesses the real-world situation wherein an earthquake disaster models communications. The real-world case study draws from the Great East Japan Earthquake (and tsunami) on March 11, 2011. The second question of inquiry triggers the need to explain how the National Response Framework functions in disaster response.
1. The Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami shocked the world’s inhabitants in March of 2011. A Federal Communications Commission official in the late 1990s, Zenji Nakazawa, learned how to respond to this tragedy. The scenario involved a massive debris of “torn communities,” which competed with the destabilized nuclear plant in Fukushima (“Initial Observations Japan Disaster”). Immediately following the disaster the FCC joined forces with their Japanese counterparts, seeking to comprehend the dynamics in terms of operational capacities. Parts of voice and data communication-systems were down, while news feeds only partially helped the situation. Real-time live two-way communications desperately required an understanding of “how Japan’s emergency communications and response network” operated (“Initial Observations Japan Disaster”). James Miller and Nakazawa tapped into the U.S./Japan networks to open the gateway for information. Social media was a vital link, too. Haddow and Bullock state “professionals in many fields have learned that communication efforts work best when there is a symbiosis of traditional and social media” (140).
2. The National Response Framework, according to U.S. federal government sources, this entity basically functions as a collaborative “for how the whole community works together and how response efforts relate to other parts of national preparedness” (“FEMA National Response Framework”). Its immediate needs serves the nobler task of saving lives. Property protection and environmental safety, are a close second in terms of prioritization. Instituted I 2008 by FEMA, the National Response Framework coordinates agencies’ efforts, and gathers national practitioners across the field to engage in their respective roles of responsibilities during major emergencies. The partnering effort supplies help across 15 functions, also enlisting support from the National Response Framework (NRF) and National Incident Management System (NIMS). This system in the United States has been studied by Korea, to improve their stakeholder responses in times of a multitude of hazards (373).
Works Cited
“FEMA National Response Framework.” fema.gov Federal Emergency Management Agency
(FEMA), n.d. Web. 17 Oct. 2014.
Ha, Kyoo-Man, and Hyeon-Mun Oh. "A Study On A National Response Framework For Korea."
Haddow, George D., and Jane A. Bullock. Introduction to emergency management. Fifth ed.
New York: Elsevier, 2013. Print.
“Initial Observations of Japan’s Disaster Communities Response during the Great East Japan
Earthquake.” Manfieldfdn.org The Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation, n.d. Web.
17 Oct. 2014.
