Disaster Analysis: Police And Fire Departments
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Date
1989
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Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION
Background of This Report
The Disaster Research Center (DRC) at the University of Delaware
in the fall of 1985 initiated work under Contract EMW-85C-1981 on a
five year project focusing upon community and organizational response
to natural and technological disasters. During the First Phase of the
project where the work extended over a year, the DRC undertook a
comparative study of the responses of local emergency management
agencies (LEMAs) during the emergency time period of disasters. The
Final Report on the First Phase of the work (Wenger, Quarantelli and
Dynes, 1987) reported on both the extensiveness and effectiveness of the disaster response by LEMAs in six communities. An empirically
grounded eightfold typology of local emergency management arrangements
was developed, and the effectiveness of the various types was studied
in relation to such variables as disaster experience, disaster
planning and federal assistance. In general, we found a strong
positive relationship between prior disaster experience and both the
extensiveness and effectiveness of LEMA response. A similar pattern
was discerned for prior disaster planning. In addition, we found that
various forms of federal assistance can have positive, salutary
effects upon local community response. The Second Phase of the research has shifted the focus of study
from LEMAs to local police and fire departments. As was the case in
the work in Phase One, there are actually two distinct although
related project activities, i.e., the field work on the organizations
being studied and the work on the computerization of the DRC library and data base. In this Final Report we discuss the major empirical findins we have generated with regard to the response of local police and fire departments to disasters; another Final Report summarizes our work on the DRC library and data base ( see Quarantelli, 1989).
Keywords
Disaster Analysis, Police Departments, Fire Departments, Community Response, Organizational Response, Natural Disasters, Technological Disaster