Review of Preparedness and Response for 2018’s Disasters

2018 was a busy year in terms of natural disasters, with 124 federal disaster declarations addressing wildfires, mudslides, hurricanes, and tornadoes. How did the emergency management community perform in terms of preparing for and responding to these events? And what should happen next? An article by two emergency management professionals seeks to answer these questions by examining them in the context of efforts taken for the California wildfires and Hurricanes Florence and Michael. For the first disaster, the article commends the coordination that occurred among the many agencies and groups involved in the response, while also noting that the experience demonstrated the importance of maintaining a defensible space between property and vegetation. The authors similarly applauded the coordination that took place in the aftermath of the hurricanes while also describing challenges associated with “anemic” nonprofit and corporate financial support, debris management, and the determination of many residents in the most affected areas to “ride out the storm.” The article concludes with a discussion of the Disaster Recovery Reform Act of 2018 and the current political environment as it pertains to emergency management. Read the article at Domestic Preparedness.