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After the occurrence of a hurricane, assessing damage is extremely important for the emergency managers so that relief aid could be provided to afflicted people. One method of assessing the damage is to determine the damaged and the undamaged buildings post-hurricane. Normally, damage assessment is performed by conducting ground surveys, which are time-consuming and involve immense effort. In this paper, transfer learning techniques have been used for determining damaged and undamaged buildings in post-hurricane satellite images. Four different transfer learning techniques, which include VGG16, MobileNetV2, InceptionV3 and DenseNet121, have been applied to 23,000 Hurricane Harvey satellite images, which occurred in the Texas region. A comparative analysis of these models has been performed on the basis of the number of epochs and the optimizers used. The performance of the VGG16 pre-trained model was better than the other models and achieved an accuracy of 0.75, precision of 0.74, recall of 0.95 and F1-score of 0.83 when the Adam optimizer was used. When the comparison of the best performing models was performed in terms of various optimizers, VGG16 produced the best accuracy of 0.78 for the RMSprop optimizer.

This study aims to provide a more robust understanding of the elements involved in emergency managers’ decision-making processes when issuing hurricane evacuation orders. We used the principles of the theory of bounded rationality to formulate research questions for understanding decision-making during uncertain times (i.e., hurricane evacuation orders). We then conducted 20 semi-structured interviews with county emergency managers in Florida to understand how this decision-making process unfolds. Results showed that emergency managers consider two primary factors in their decision-making process, including fixed and random factors. Fixed factors refer to elements and information that are known to emergency managers and do not change drastically from one hurricane to another (e.g., homeless population, poor housing structure). Random factors, on the other hand, refer to elements involved in hurricane decision-making that cannot be precisely predicted (e.g., storm surge). Random and fixed factors then blend in with other elements (planning, collaboration, and information assessment) during the response phase of an emergency. The interplay among these elements can ultimately influence emergency managers’ hurricane evacuation decisions. Although the existing research has made significant strides in studying many aspects of emergency managers’ decision-making processes, there have been limited discussions about the various factors that emergency managers consider for issuing hurricane evacuation orders. Our study highlights the broader implications of information interpretation, situational uncertainty, and collaboration for emergency management organizations responsible for making decisions about hurricane evacuation orders. Using the theory of bounded rationality, this study dissects both fixed and random factors influencing evacuations. In doing so, it has the potential to assist emergency managers in developing more sustainable hurricane evacuation plans in the future.

This study examines the factors that are likely to influence emergency managers’ willingness and ability to report to work after a catastrophic event using the Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake threat as an example. The population approached for participation in this study was state-level emergency managers in Oregon and Washington, the areas anticipated to be the most impacted by the Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake. Concept mapping was utilized to elucidate factors influencing emergency managers’ ability and willingness to report to work following a catastrophic earthquake, as well as to identify specific strategies for addressing these factors to facilitate reporting to work. The six-step concept mapping process (i.e., preparation, generation, structuring, representation, interpretation, and utilization) is a structured and integrated mixed-method process that employs both qualitative and quantitative components to gather ideas and concepts of participants, and subsequently produces visual representation of these ideas and concepts through multivariate statistical methods (Caracelli and Green in Eval Program Plan 12(1):45–52, 1993; Kane and Trochim in Concept mapping for planning and evaluation, Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, 2007). Results influence across a wide range of the levels of the ecological framework for both ability (transit barriers and infrastructure impacts, family/pet health and safety, social support and preparedness, work-related influences, personal health and resources, professional obligations, and location) and willingness (family/community preparedness and safety, emergency management responsibility and professionalism, motivation to come to work, transit barriers and infrastructure impacts, professional contribution, physical and mental health, worksite operations: structure and process, family first, personal contribution and history).

This study is an investigation of how emergency managers (EMs) make critical evacuation decisions, using Superstorm Sandy as a case study. A total of twenty-three in-depth interviews were conducted with EMs in New Jersey and New York. Including different locations with different characteristics within the Sandy impacted area adds geographical and socioeconomic contexts, which enhances the overall understanding of the decision-making process both temporally and spatially. Grounded Theory, a qualitative data analysis method, was used to determine the various factors influencing decisions. A major contribution of this research to the hazards field is the creation of a decision-making model fitted specifically to the role of EMs. This model highlights the complexity and individuality of decision making by illustrating the wide variety of factors, including those of the municipality, individual EM characteristics and positions, and Sandy’s uncertainty, that influenced EM decisions. How decisions were influenced by these factors was not uniform across the region studied. Many factors, such as prior storm experience and knowledge of the town, proved to be more influential in the decision-making process than was weather information, such as forecasts. This model further distinguished between making a decision and actually taking action, exploring the different triggers associated with turning a decision into action.

In April 2014, the city of Flint, Michigan, began using water from the Flint River. The official reason to break Flint's long time contract with the Detroit Water and Sewage Department was financial efficiency; it was presented as a cost-cutting measure. Flint residents began immediately complaining about their water, complaints that were ignored. Thanks to the local activists, it was eventually discovered that the water was indeed corrosive, the city failed to treat it, and lead leached from the pipes into the water drunk by the city's children and families. By September 2015, the city was acknowledging the size of the health crisis this entailed, and in October 2015, Flint switched back to Detroit water. It was too late: the damage was done, and Flint's children have shown persistently high levels of lead—poisoned by a series of decisions that would never have been made in a majority white city. It is also now clear that relevant officials knew that the switch to the Flint River was in fact more expensive, both in the short term and the long term, than remaining with the Detroit Water and Sewage Department. Using Vesla Weaver's concept of frontlash, I argue that a technocratic ideology combined with a certain version of racism, resembling settler colonialism, is the cause of the tragedy.

Although certain critically ill patients in emergency departments—such as those experiencing trauma, stroke, and myocardial infarction—often receive care through coordinated team responses, resource allocation and care delivery can vary widely for other high-acuity patients. The absence of a well-defined response process for these patients may result in delays in care, suboptimal outcomes, and staff dissatisfaction. The purpose of this quality improvement project was to develop, implement, and evaluate an ED-specific alert team response for critically ill medical adult and pediatric patients not meeting criteria for other medical alerts. Lean (Lean Enterprise Institute, Boston, MA) principles and processes were used to develop, implement, and evaluate an ED-specific response team and process for critically ill medical patients. Approximately 300 emergency nurses, providers, technicians, unit secretaries/nursing assistants, and ancillary team members were trained on the code critical process. Turnaround and throughput data was collected during the first 12 weeks of code critical activations (n = 153) and compared with historical controls (n = 168). After implementing the code critical process, the door-to-provider time decreased by 62%, door to laboratory draw by 76%, door-to-diagnostic imaging by 46%, and door-to-admission by 19%. A year later, data comparison demonstrated sustained improvement in all measures. Emergency nurses and providers see the value of coordinated team response in the delivery of patient care. Team responses to critical medical alerts can improve care delivery substantially and sustainably.

The importance of weather, climate, and water1 information is rising because of the need to serve more elaborate societal needs, minimize growing economic losses, and help countries adapt to climate change. Weather, climate, and water affect societies and economies through extreme events, such as tropical cyclones, floods, high winds, storm surges, and prolonged droughts, and through high-impact weather and climate events that affect demand for electricity and production capacity, planting and harvesting dates, management of construction, transportation networks and inventories, and human health. The key players are the National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs), which are the backbone of the global weather and climate enterprise. By international agreement under the auspices of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), they are the government's authoritative source of weather, climate, and water information, providing timely input to emergency managers, national and local administrations, the public, and critical economic sectors. The report underscores the urgent need to strengthen NMHSs, especially those in developing countries, and provides cost-benefit estimates of the return that countries can hope to achieve. It also offers a recommended approach that has been tested and implemented in Europe, in Central and South Asia, and countries in other regions. The NMHSs make a significant contribution to safety, security, and economic well-being by observing, forecasting, and warning of pending weather, climate, and water threats.

The following research examined emergency managers’ perception of higher education as it pertains to preparedness, readiness, and effectiveness in their job. The current literature explained that further research was needed to look at issues such as preparedness, self-confidence, readiness, effectiveness of training received, and training needs of the emergency manager. There is little research conducted on the perception of emergency managers and their highest level of education. The overarching research question that guided this study was the following: What are the perceptions of emergency management graduates regarding the effect of their higher education studies on their level of preparedness, self-confidence, and readiness in critical incidents? To assist in answering this question, the following supporting questions were included – (a) According to emergency management graduates, what is the impact of their discipline-specific education on their ability to perform as emergency managers? and (b) in what ways do emergency management graduates feel emergency management degree programs prepare them to respond to incidents and emergencies? The research methodology used in this study was phenomenology. For this study, the target population was emergency managers who graduated from an emergency management program. The sample in this research included 12 graduates of emergency management higher education degree programs who were currently working as emergency managers in two different jurisdictions in a Mid-Atlantic U.S. state. From a review of the data, commonalities were identified and organized using thematic analysis. The thematic analysis included preparedness, self-confidence, and readiness. Based on the findings of the study, it was concluded that emergency managers gained their preparedness, readiness, and self-confidence from their emergency management college education.

Emergency managers are responsible for protecting lives, property, and the environment. Decisions are made based on the availability of information provided to emergency managers from the disaster site. Communication between first responders and emergency managers is crucial for obtaining situational awareness for decision-making purposes during disasters. The purpose of this qualitative explanatory case study was to understand the perspectives of emergency managers regarding the use of social media in obtaining situational awareness and providing disaster-specific information necessary for emergency managers to make informed decisions during disasters. The theoretical framework for this study was based on Endsley’s situational awareness model and Rowley’s data, information, knowledge, wisdom hierarchy. Data were collected from semistructured interviews with 11 participants. The results of the 6-step thematic analysis revealed the disaster-specific information emergency managers need to make informed decisions, current situational awareness strategies, the perspectives of emergency managers regarding social media, and training gaps associated with social media and its use for situational awareness. Findings may be used to promote positive social change to improve the use of social media in disaster response operations that aid emergency managers in meeting response priorities, including protection of life, property, and the environment.

This chapter contains sections titled: How to Become a Crisis Leader Become the Expert Become a Trainer Become a Facilitator Use it or Lose it Ultimate Goal Conclusions