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Institute for Crisis, Disaster, and Risk Management Crisis and Emergency Management Newsletter Website |
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April
2009
Volume
16
- Number 3 |
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Effect of Recession on
Emergency Management At The State And
Local
Levels.
Daniel S Nanor Emergency management is the organization and management of resources and responsibilities for dealing with all aspects of emergencies, across the phases of mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery. It also “involves plans, structures and arrangements established to engage the normal endeavors of government, voluntary and private agencies in a comprehensive and coordinated way to respond to the whole spectrum of emergency needs” (ISDR). Emergency management at the state and local levels is funded by the state and local governments respectively mainly from tax revenues – their main source of income. In charge of emergency management at state and local levels are their respective emergency management directors. But with the current economic recession, which officially began more than a year ago, state and local governments are experiencing shrinking budget as the result of lower tax revenues. The consequence have prompted many of these governments to cut funding for their respective emergency management programs and to also cut funding for Emergency Services Sector (ESS) departments and agencies especially the fire and police services and the EM service. These departments have been told to lower expenses (costs) thereby in many cases resulting in lay offs of their trained personnel. As regards the fire service, Lori Moore-Merrell, at the IAFF, said “the ramification of cuts in staffing and/or mobile resources increases the risks of three potential outcomes –economic loss, injury or death of firefighters and injury or death of civilians” (Fire Rescue 1 News). With lay-offs comes the specter of ‘doing more with less.’ By cutting funding for emergency management, some programs such as routine training and exercise for first responders, agencies, and the private sector are being put on hold. The procurement of needed equipment is affected; some could either be scaled down or eliminated completely. Mitigation programs are impacted, affecting the retrofit of buildings, the issuance of bonds to pay for mitigation (due to lack of credit), and further land-use planning. Invariably, these decisions are making citizens more vulnerable to hazards and threats as risks increase. It is in the light of this that emergency management leadership and the leadership of ESS departments and agencies are being asked by their political leaders to think of new approaches to weather this recession storm. Another effect of recession, though remotely, on emergency management is the spiraling increase in abandoned homes due to foreclosures. These homes are being occupied by homeless people and squatters and also destitute individuals and their families thereby causing overcrowding conditions and the use of unsafe heating appliances. This is a fire hazard and may cause conflagration- an emergency nightmare. The strategy for mitigating this foreclosure problem is for emergency management to encourage appropriate agencies within its governmental structure to work with lending institutions as well as housing and community organizations to develop methods toward the prevention of home foreclosures. But amid this gloomy situation is a ray of light, as the federal government’s $787 billion economic stimulus bill earmarked nearly $8.8 billion in the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund. Money from this fund could be used to rehire laid off EM staff. Reference: International Strategy for Disaster Reduction- Terminology:: Basic Terms of Disaster Risk Reduction. http://www.unisdr.org/eng/library/lib-terminology-eng-p.htm Hold The Box- Recession Effects on Emergency Services http://holdthebox.blogspot.com/2008/12/recession-effects-on-emergency-services.html Fire Rescue 1 News-Jamie Thompson (Economic Downturn Hits Fire Departments) http://www.firerescue1.com/print.asp?act=print&vid=435894 Fire Rescue 1 News-Jamie Thompson (Foreclosure Challenge Fire Department) http://www.firerescue1.com/print.asp?act=print&vid=439214 |