Focus Magazine
Jan/February (Vol. 34 , No. 10)
HEALTH REPORT
An Inclusive Approach to Emergency Prepardness
by Gail C. Christopher
More than 23 million Americans live in areas where a hurricane catastrophe is not a matter of “if,” but “when.” According to long-time national oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (noAA) meteorologist Joseph golden, the five places in the United States at the greatest risk for calamities and hurricanes are: tampa Bay, Florida; mobile, Alabama; houston, texas; New York City, New York; Long Island, New York; and Miami, Florida. A fifth of those living in these cities— millions of men, women, and children—are poor, and if the lessons learned from hurricane Katrina hold true, many will not have the resources they need to save themselves when disaster hits.
Congress and the Bush administration must re-evaluate threats to domestic security and the allocation of resources to FEMA and local jurisdictions in light of placed based population vulnerabilities. to that
end, public health leaders with strong community networks should be included in related decision making processes. African Americans and members of other communities of color, who suffer disproportionately high levels of poverty and the attendant health and socioeconomic disparities, have the most to lose if preparations do not include them—and perhaps the most to gain from effective inclusion in preparedness strategies.
The leaders of the nation’s most diverse and most vulnerable communities must focus on two primary areas as they address issues of preparedness and recovery: public health capacity and communication. these two areas provide the foundation for all other aspects of disaster recovery and community resilience. Both require regional and community collaboration and cooperation, and demand immediate investment in new technologies and training for first responders.
The Hidden Opportunity
The process of optimizing disaster preparedness and response capacity offers unique opportunities for healing some of this nation’s deepest wounds and racial divides. the lack of diversity
and equal representation of persons of color in the health care and public safety systems hampers response capacity within communities of color. At the time of the 9/11 disaster African Americans constituted only three percent of New York City’s firefi ghters. Images from Katrina projected
far too few persons of color among the first responders and volunteers. Such racial disconnects undoubtedly hampered evacuation and recovery efforts, and local and state governments have a renewed imperative to ensure more diverse health care and public safety workforces. indeed,
effective emergency response requires well-trained responders from diverse backgrounds, as well as proper coordination of at least twelve different agency-based emergency support functions (eSF): transportation; Communications; public lands and engineering; Fire Fighting; information and planning; mass Care; resource Support; health and medical Services; urban Search and rescue; hazardous materials; Food; and energy (Figure 1).
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