RESPONDING TO A META-DISASTER FOSTERING A 'WHOLE COMMUNITY' APPROACH TO EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT

摘要

FEMA recognizes that it takes all sectors of a community to effectively prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate against any disaster. It cannot just be the government - we need to leverage the volunteer, faith and community-based organizations, the private sector, and the public, including survivors themselves, to ensure an effective response. We must work together to enable communities to develop collective, mutually supporting local capabilities to withstand the potential initial impacts of these events, respond quickly, and recover in a way that sustains or improves the community's overall well-being. This collective capacity requires embracing innovative approaches from the full spectrum of community actors to expand the existing practices, capabilities, institutions, and organizations that manage the community to enable this social infrastructure to meet community needs when an incident occurs. FEMA, through the Whole Community Planning Initiative, will foster a national approach to emergency management that is built upon a foundation of proactive engagement with neighborhood associations, businesses, schools, faith-based community groups, trade groups, fraternal organizations, and other civic-minded organizations that can mobilize their networks to build community resilience and support local needs in times of catastrophe. Initial steps have already been taken at headquarters - private sector representatives work in our operations directorate to allow visibility into how large retail chains can assist in the distribution and procurement of goods.