Browsing by Author "Trainor, Joseph"
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Item A Brief Summary of Search and Rescue Literature: A Report to COT Netherlands(Disaster Research Center, 2008) Trainor, Joseph; Aguirre, Benigno E.; McNeil, SueThe accumulated of research on search and rescue (SAR) allows us to identify repeating patterns that should be considered in the development of an effective plan for national emergency response: (1) SAR is not simply an organizational activity, it necessarily includes the social and collective behavior of volunteers; (2) Preexisting and emergent organizations, social statuses and social identities, such as neighborhood and work place relationships and family and neighborhood social identities, serve as a basis for the emergence of new SAR groups and constitute the fundamental concepts and categories that are needed to understand and improve SAR activities; (3) SAR activities do not emerge from a vacuum; as an example of the principle of continuity advocated by Quarantelli and Dynes (1977), there are always elements of the traditional social structure embedded within collective behavior entities, and their emergent division of labor, role structure, and activities are also dependent on prior social relationships and forms of social organization in the community or region; (4) Breakdown models of social organizational patterns in disaster are not useful to understand SAR. Television reports and misinformed reporters often misinterpret throngs of people moving seemingly at random at the sites destroyed by various hazards, and assume that the people were disoriented immediately after impact and had lost their ability to enact social roles. Despite these reports, scientific research shows the absence of widespread confusion, lack of coordination, and panic (Aguirre, 2005). The seeming disorganization and aimless movement of people is the result of their individual and collective acts as they try to accomplish multiple individual and collective goals under severe time constraints (c.f. Fritz & Mathewson, 1957). Creative problem-solving and rationality is a more accurate way of understanding their actions (Aroni & Durkin, n.d., p. 30). In short search and rescue (SAR) activities are part of the complex emergency response system that emerges in response to disasters.Item A Brief Summary of Social Science Warning and Response Literature: A Report to COT Netherlands(Disaster Research Center, 2008) Trainor, Joseph; McNeil, SueFor more than five decades, researchers have explored the dynamics of warnings and warning response in the disaster context. This report is intended to briefly summarize findings related to this topic. The ultimate goal is to provide a basic understanding of how social science research related to warnings and evacuations might inform policy makers and emergency managers. Before we begin discussing the details of warning messages, the first and most important issue for readers to note is that the decision making processes of most evacuees and even non-evacuees are rational and calculated. Contrary to media depictions and other’s perceptions of the public that suggest animal-like, irrational, or antisocial behavior it is important that we begin this discussion knowing that people typically “rise to the occasion” during disasters. Although it would be wrong to suggest that people never make irrational decisions it is important that we begin this summary by recognizing that when we look at the broad patterns of human behavior documented through scientific/empirical studies, people who are experiencing a disaster far more often than not act in very rational and predictable ways. This finding above all others holds true in social science research. It is important to recognize this truth because it allows policy makers and emergency managers to move beyond the notion that the problem with warning and response is “getting people to be rational and do what we say” and instead allows us to move towards understanding “how can we change our approach so that it takes into account how people process warning information. While the difference may seem subtle, in practice it is quite important. The first sees overcoming irrationality as the problem while the second sees the institutional/organizational approach to warning as the problem.Item Disaster Realities in the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina: Revisiting the Looting Myth(Disaster Research Center, 2006) Barsky, Lauren; Trainor, Joseph; Torres, ManuelItem The Disaster Research Center (DRC), Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice, University of Delaware(2006) Rodriguez, Havidan; Trainor, JosephItem Household Residential Decision-making in the Wake of Disaster: Report of Results Prepared for Oakwood Beach Residents(Disaster Research Center, 2015-07) McNeil, Sue; Trainor, Joseph; Greer, Alex; Mininger, KelseyThis report presents the findings of a questionnaire mailed to Oakwood Beach residents during the summer of 2014 focusing on housing damage, decisions, and repair following Hurricane Sandy. Researchers from the Disaster Research Center at the University of Delaware worked to complete this study. As researchers, we were interested in exploring the different elements that influenced how residents decided where to live after Sandy. Little research exists to help explain how households decide where to live after a disaster. Getting better information about how people here made and are making these decisions is important both for this community and for communities that will face these kinds of disaster in the future. We hope that this information will lead to better policies and programs that improve the disaster recovery process.Item Household Residential Decision-making in the Wake of Disaster: Report of Results Prepared for Sea Bright Residents(Disaster Research Center, 2015-07) McNeil, Sue; Trainor, Joseph; Greer, Alex; Mininger, KelseyThis report presents the findings of a questionnaire mailed to Sea Bright residents during the summer of 2014 focusing on housing damage, decisions, and repair following Hurricane Sandy. Researchers at the Disaster Research Center at the University of Delaware worked together with the Borough of Sea Bright to complete this study. As researchers, we were interested in exploring both the condition of the housing stock and the different elements that influenced how Sea Brighters decided where to live after Sandy. Little research exists to help explain how households decide where to live after a disaster. Getting better information about how people here made and are making these decisions is important both for this community and for communities that will face these kinds of disaster in the future. We hope that this information will lead to better policies and programs that improve the disaster recovery process.Item The Indian Ocean Tsunami: A Preliminary Assessment of Societal Impacts and Consequences(Disaster Research Center, 2005) Rodriguez, Havidan; Wachtendorf, Tricia; Kendra, James M.; Trainor, JosephItem ‘Inspired to Action’: Immigrants’ Faith-Based Organizations’ Responses across Two Pandemics(Journal of Immigrant and Refugee Studies, 2022-02-12) Maduka-Ezeh, Awele; Bagozzi, Benjamin E.; Gardesey, Mawuna; Ezeh, Ikwesilotuto T.; Nibbs, Farrah; Nwegbu, Somawina; Mai, Ryan; Horney, Jennifer A.; Trainor, JosephSources of disaster resilience represent important (but understudied) dimensions of the interplay between immigrants and disasters, as do immigrants’ disaster response activities. Using key informant interviews, we examine immigrant faith-based organizations’ (FBO) responses to two contemporary pandemics. Additionally, we assess for the presence of disaster-relevant social capital in immigrant FBOs. FBOs were found to possess key components of social capital and to actively engage in pandemic response activities, including provision of health risk communication, education, leadership, infection control measures, cash and in-kind contributions, advocacy, and psychosocial support. For immigrant communities, FBO-based social capital contributes to effective disaster and pandemic responses.Item NSF LEADING ENGINEERING FOR AMERICA'S PROSPERITY, HEALTH, AND INFRASTRUCTURE (LEAP-HI) MITIGATION AND INSURANCE FULL PROJECT REPORT: STAKEHOLDER PERCEPTIONS OF MITIGATION AND INSURANCE(2021) Slotter, Rachel; Trainor, Joseph; Nibbs, Farrah; Davidson, RachelThis report summarizes the insights developed during a stakeholder engagement meeting held on September 15th, 2019, as part of a National Science Foundation-funded project. The broader effort focused on providing a scientific framework for evaluating the risks of hurricanes to residential communities and public policies to manage them. One of the primary objectives is to develop a tool that directly supports the management of natural disaster risk and promises long-term societal benefits through improved quality of life and economic competitiveness; we envisioned this meeting as a way to better understanding how practitioners think about mitigation and insurance incentives and options. As a result, representatives from the home building and insurance industries, relevant government agencies, and academia were invited by our team to discuss mitigation and ensure our work aligned with practical needs.Item Reporting for Duty? A Synthesis of Research on Role Conflict, Strain, and Abandonment Among Emergency Responders during Disasters and Catastrophes(Disaster Research Center, 2011) Trainor, Joseph; Barsky, LaurenThe aim of the following report is to provide a systematic and scientific analysis of research on whether or not emergency responders will be willing to report for duty in the case of a catastrophic disaster. Through the report we focus on the prevalence of three of the key issues employees might face during a particularly serious event including: role conflict, role strain and role abandonment. In the discussion that follows, we summarize findings and conclusions from over one hundred reports, articles, documents, and analyses related to these issues. The research is not easy to decipher given the variety of different hazards, methodologies, and foci that researchers have. After careful consideration however; it is possible to draw several conclusions on which we provide more detail in the report‟s body.Item Social Scientific Insights on Preparedness for Public Health Emergencies(Disaster Research Center, 2008) Trainor, Joseph; Aguirre, Benigno E.; Barnshaw, JohnIt is common for governmental agencies to plan for emergencies. It’s human nature that we want to reduce our exposure to the dangers around us. While risk reduction happens at many levels (e.g. individual, family, organizational, community, and state) government agencies play a key role in ensuring the safety and security of the citizenry. The Delaware Health and Social Services agency (DHSS) is no different. With a mission to: "improve the quality of life for Delaware's citizens by promoting health and well-being, fostering self-sufficiency, and protecting vulnerable populations," disaster response neatly falls into the agencies prevue. Equally important, the agency strives to be a self-correcting organization working to retool and keep pace with changing client needs and a changing service delivery environment. Such a vision requires informed decision-making. As a result the Division of Public Health’s Disaster preparedness section contracted the Disaster Research Center at the University of Delaware to produce a document that provides sound knowledge from evidence based assessments of planning and response to public health emergencies. The goal of this effort is to maximize the ability of DE officials to prevent, avoid, respond, and recover from major public health emergencies through a review of the evidence based research related to this topic. This report will cover a number of issues, but it focuses most directly on social science insights that can be of value to planning and response processes. Pursuing to contract specifications, this report consists of three parts. The first part presents some of the most important research themes in disaster science. The second part presents an annotated bibliography of public health and disaster. The third part provides answers to a series of questions Division of Public officials asked DRC to answer. The first two sections are based on research findings. In the final section we provide our expert opinions based on scientific knowledge, but not in every instance drawn exclusively from research findings.Item Strengthening Flood Management Through US-Dutch Cooperation: Learning from a Large Scale Flood Exercise in the Netherlands - Part II: Findings(Disaster Research Center, 2009) Rosenthal, Uri; Engel, Karen; Zannoni, Marco; McNeil, Sue; Trainor, Joseph; Harrald, John R.; Shaw, GregIn the light of increasing cooperation between the United States (US) and the Netherlands, particularly between knowledge institutes, the Ministry of Public Works, Transport and Water Management in the Netherlands requested COT Institute for Safety, Security, and Crisis Management (COT), to initiate research with a number of US disaster research institutes. COT took this challenge and developed the research project Learning from a large scale flood exercise in the Netherlands. The primary objective of this research project is to enhance knowledge in the Netherlands of strategies to effectively deal with (possible) floods by exchanging knowledge regarding key processes, best practices, and complexities of flood disaster management and identify areas, within this field, that necessitate additional research. Against this background representatives from two US institutions, Disaster Research Center (DRC) at University of Delaware and the Institute for Crisis, Disaster and Risk Management at George Washington University, provided a US perspective. The objective of the exploratory project was to develop background knowledge for, participate as observers in, and derive lessons learned from the Dutch flood-exercise week “Waterproef”, organized by the Flood Management Taskforce (TMO, Taskforce Management Overstromingen) in November 2008. In this report we present the findings of the project.Item Strengthening Flood Management Through US-Dutch Cooperation: Learning from a Large Scale Flood Exercise in the Netherlands - Part II: Process Report(Disaster Research Center, 2009) Rosenthal, Uri; Engel, Karen; Zannoni, Marco; Ebbinkhuijsen, Sanne; McNeil, Sue; Trainor, JosephIn response to a request from the Directorate General of the Ministry of Public Works, Transport and Water Management in the Netherlands to COT a network of institutions with expertise in emergency management, risk and disasters was initiated in September 2008. Representatives from two US institutions, Disaster Research Center (DRC) at University of Delaware and the Institute for Crisis, Disaster and Risk Management at George Washington University, provided a US perspective. The objective of the collaboration was to develop background knowledge for, participate as observers in, and derive lessons learned from the Dutch flood-exercise week “Waterproef”, organized by the Flood Management Taskforce (TMO, Taskforce Management Overstromingen) in November 2008. COT served as the coordinating institution. This report is part II of a larger report. Part I of the reports focuses on the outcome of the project. In part I the observations are presented based on papers, interviews, refection meetings and the expert meeting. Part II gives a brief overview of the various activities in this project. This includes a description of the activities during the Waterproef week (November 3-7) in addition to a number of observations that were discussed throughout different ‘reflection’ meetings. It must be noted here that the issues raised are not part of an evaluation. The issues raised are a number of observations that were discussed; the issues raised are first impressions. This second part of the report also includes the papers that were written during this project. Furthermore, we need to express that this report is confidential and should be treated as such.