Aid | Disaster Rally

How to Organize a Community Emergency Response Team for Disasters

In this post we will detail the basics of how an emergency response team (ERT) functions, the components of such a team and how you can organize one in your community as a prevention and preparedness technique. In case of emergencies of any kind, putting together a response team as fast as possible is crucial to the community’s ability of moving past the crisis. There are, on one hand, professional disaster management services which specialize in providing urgent intervention and relief to the affected communities. Such services are usually summoned in case of large scale accidents, earthquakes, tornados, floods and other natural disasters, or in case of artificial or man-made disasters such as bombings, attacks and other disruptive events.

On the other hand, there are the less official intervention agents coming from one of the multiple non-governmental organizations specializing in humanitarian relief actions, charity work and so on. Disaster management and emergency management are one of the most important areas of work for such NGOs, and therefore many of these organizations have an emergency response team on standby and ready to be sent on the field. The active focus of each may differ according to the organization’s main field of activity, of course, and many times the services of several emergency response teams are necessary for a crisis to be successfully handled.

For example, there can be an emergency response team responsible with psychiatric intervention, or a correctional emergency response team (in league with the police or local sheriff department) when the threat currently handled is coming from a human attack, or a team comprised of computer security experts when dealing with a cyber-attack or cyber-threat, etc. Most emergency response teams must involve (at least partially) members which work within official state infrastructure services (police staff, hospital staff, a corrections officer). In case of a major national threat, the dispatched emergency response team even involves some members of the secret service, in coordination with the civilian teams.

To keep a long story short, the exact duties and responsibilities (and, hence, the exact componence) of an emergency response team depends on the type of threat or disaster being handled. The only thing which remains the same is the unwritten rule that no matter what the threat handled is, the official intervention teams stand a much better chance of averting further threat if they benefit from the help and involvement of local citizens. Therefore, one of the best things you can do for the safety and well-being of your town or neighbourhood is to be ready of putting together a local citizen emergency response team.

How a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Should Look Like

First of all, check with your local office for emergency response and see what forms of emergency response are already put in place and how you can get involved. As far as we know, local emergency management, even of coordinated by official infrastructure services (police and hospital staff and so on), could always use more volunteers. You can inquire about what roles are currently most needed and see if you already have the required skills, or, if not, if you can obtain those skills through a training session. Most local authorities organize such seminars and workshops for training citizens to fulfil a particular role in order to be able to assist within an emergency response team. If you check out the available seminars, you may end up with an extra skill set or two in the end.

But in order to organize your own emergency response team for your local area (a suburban neighborhood, or for your campus, etc.), you need to consider these particular steps. Such a team, comprised from citizens who usually hold unrelated jobs and take on their emergency roles only when the need arises, is usually called an incident response team. Here are the requirements (laid out as steps) for it:

Write down the layout of a basic emergency response team. You will need your team to contain the following: at least 3 certified medical volunteers (able to perform emergency help until the actual medical teams arrive), 1 or 2 organizing members (the unified command system), 1 person specialized in recruiting (for enlisting more ad hoc volunteers), and 1 person in charge of the supplies and their distribution.
After you put together a chart with these required roles and make sure there are people to fill them out, you can start thinking further. You will need some emergency supplies (blankets, non-perishable food enough to feed a few dozen people, 10-20 first aid kits etc.) and a main storage space, which will also serve as your organizing center.
If you have new volunteers joining your emergency response team in addition to the basic members (outlined above), you should ask them to obtain a certification in an extra area of intervention (volunteer firefighting, nursing, management of hazardous substances, hostage situation management and so on). The more different roles are fulfilled by your team, the better prepared you will be to tackle on whatever may come your way.
Last, but not least, you should also create a protocol for each major type of emergency situation, so that your team members know exactly what to do and how to proceed with their tasks, even when central organization may not be available (due to phone lines being off and so on).

Emergency Response Team Training and Jobs

Since we mentioned above the necessity for your team to obtain certifications in various intervention areas, let’s take a brief look at what these main intervention areas are and how you can obtain some further training (and maybe even a job in the field).

First of all, you need to know that while you may find a company which offers emergency management training, the best such trainings are still offered by state infrastructure services. In order to make sure a certain certificate is indeed officially recognized by national or local authorities, you need to make sure the workshop or course offered bears the official logo of a state service. Of course, one of the best sources of training for members of a CERT (community emergency response team) is the government’s own special programs. You can find more about each branch of governmental training for CERTs by visiting their main portal here.

Second of all, don’t forget that once you become certified in the field and gain some experience in organizing a community emergency response team, you can start considering an actual job in emergency management. There’s no reason why you shouldn’t get paid for your expertise, especially if your activity becomes a full-time involvement. You can look up opportunities for an emergency response team coordinator here, or for more general members of such a team here. Of course, these are just starting points: there are plenty of other portals which host employment opportunities for emergency response team specialists. To look for more, simply browse regular job engines, in a similar way as you would start your searches if this was any other job. Local teams who are just starting their activity could benefit from your experience, so maybe the greater good would be to spread your knowledge.

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Emergency Management and How It Works

To understand emergency management, you need to be aware that a disaster can take place at any given moment, no matter where you live on the globe. Just think about it; a misplaced match can lead to a terrible house fire or an earthquake can leave your community devastated. Even though we can’t avoid them at all times, emergencies can and should be prepared for. This is where emergency management kicks in. You’ll find an emergency management department, county authority or some sort of division in most states, all for a very good reason. Without proper planning, an emergency can result in irreparable damage, with no possible forms of recovery. What you can do to avoid this is learn about emergency management and how it works.

Our guide will walk you through everything you need to know about being prepared for any emergency. You’ll understand why your emergency management plan is crucial, what institute you need to contact for help and even how you can undergo training, programs and online courses to become an emergency manager or get a masters degree in this field. Without further ado, learn what the deal with emergency management is and start rethinking your safety priorities.

Emergency Preparedness

When speaking of emergency management, we have to include emergency preparedness in the equation. It focuses specifically on getting ready for disaster and, frankly, being prepared for the worst. The Homeland Security Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the National Incident Management System (NIMS) define the idea of preparedness as a permanent cycle to ensure a fast and safe response in cases of emergencies, with the following key points:

Plan
Organize
Train
Equip
Exercise
Evaluate
Action

To put it simply, you have to be ready at all times, from all points of view, for a tragic emergency that might take place. When planning for an emergency, you must consider the fact that disasters can be manmade or natural. In the former situation, prevention measures tend to guarantee safety more than the latter, where man is not in control. For example, you can avoid the disastrous results of an accidental fire by having an extinguisher and an evacuation plan all set up beforehand.

Emergency Management Cycle

The description of emergency management also goes hand in hand with a specific cycle. Known as the ‘phases’ of emergency management, these four stages can narrow down damages to a minimum. Even more importantly, they can effectively save lives.

Phase 1 – Mitigation

The first step in emergency management is mitigation. To put it in a nutshell, mitigation involves the identification of risks and doing what you can to minimize them from the beginning. This could mean building dams to avoid floods, rebuilding certain structures that are made of weak materials or identifying all the weak points in a building.

Phase 2 – Preparedness

The second phase focuses upon getting prepared for a disaster. What makes it different from mitigation is that it stresses on getting ready for the third phase, response. This phase involves outlining a plan, getting supplies together and running through drills to see if preparedness is adequate.

Phase 3 – Response

Response, the third phase of emergency management, refers to the instant actions that need to be performed when an emergency takes place. The response should unfold according to the preparedness plan, with evacuation and essential operations.

Phase 4 – Recovery

The final phase of emergency management is recovering from the disaster or emergency that took place. It usually involves reconstruction and caring for those affected by the incident. This is the phase where state authorities, international organizations and other certified sources can play a vital role in speeding up recovery.

Emergency Management Director

In addition to learning the basics about emergency management, you can also look into job opportunities or forms of certification in the field. There are various degrees or new certificate programs that can help you reach this goal and become an emergency management director or specialist. The salary for a professional in this area can range anywhere from $33,370 to $116,900, as the BLS informs us.

If you decide to pursue a career in emergency management, you’ll most likely be working for local or state governments, hospitals, universities / schools or in the electric power generation, transmission and distribution industry. The states with the highest employment level are Texas, California, New York (NYC), Virginia and New Jersey (NJ). Even though states like Colorado, Florina, North Carolina, Washington or Indiana don’t have such a high level, you can still find emergency management jobs in these areas.

Emergency Management Organization, Office and Association Examples

Thankfully, there are an abundance of organizations that can help out with emergency management in times of need. These organizations can be national or international and are willing to provide disaster victims with supplies, support and shelter.

One of the most significant organizations for emergency management is FEMA, but also NIMS. All Red Cross branches can be consulted in times of emergency, as well the United Nations for large scales. A few other organizations are the International Association for Disaster Preparedness and Response (DERA), the Center for Excellence in Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance (COE) or the Citizen Corps.

It is best to search for emergency management organizations in the city or state that you live in for immediate help.

How to Prepare for Emergencies at Home or Work

Now that we know the fundamental aspects of emergency management, it’s time to conclude with a few ways in which you can prepare from emergencies at home or at the office.

Kits & Supplies – make sure you have plenty of nonperishable food and water stored, as well as basic supplies like batteries and flashlights.
Plan – create a plan that is clear and easy to follow. Make sure that you take all aspects of any emergency into consideration. As an alternative, you can create several plans with specific instructions for different emergencies.
Training – go through the plan several times to see if any aspects need to be upgraded.

Stay safe and always prepare.

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All You Need to Know about Disaster Response Services

When disasters and, generally speaking, disruptive events occur, people respond to the threat and contain it the best they can. The official terms surrounding disaster management (like disaster relief and disaster response) often vary and people confuse them or use them interchangeably, but there is actually a pretty strict delimitation when it comes to all sides of this support process.

Here is a brief overview of how the various sides of disaster management work and intertwine:

Disaster Management – this is the widest aspect, referring to the entire cycle of emergency management;
1. Emergency Planning – this phase refers to identifying risks before the disastrous event even occurs
2. Disaster Response – the second phase of the cycle, comprising immediate assistance services, such as search and rescue, distributing supplies, providing emergency medical care and so on. Also called disaster relief by some.
3. Disaster Recovery – the last phase of disaster management, taking place after the immediate emergencies of the second phase have been dealt with. This phase focuses on making sure the affected lives return to normal as fast as possible.
Business Continuity – this part focuses on disaster recovery for businesses, ensuring that companies affected by disasters can pick up their normal activity as fast as possible and that the temporary disruption doesn’t prove to be the end of the company as well.
1. Disaster Recovery Services – a sub-set of business continuity, this part of a BCP (Business Continuity Plan) focuses mostly on IT system and the protection of virtual protocols and data.
2. Business Contingency Management – a post-disaster set of plans and activities, destined to make businesses more resilient and able to cope with future disruptive events (preparedness training).

Disaster response, therefore, is an emergency stage of activities destined to bring some relief to those affected by a disaster, and is one of the main focuses of humanitarian actions and organizations everywhere.

Disaster Response Jobs and How to Get Involved

If you’re tempted of getting involved more into disaster response activities, first of all we need to congratulate you for your noble intentions, and second of all, to provide you with an overview of how to start. Before looking for opportunities on how to get involved, you need to decide how much time you can dedicate to this: do you want to be involved on and off, as a volunteer, or do you want to make an actual profession out of it?

If you want to get involved as a volunteer, you can do this on a low-key mode, with your local emergency response team (every area has one, so do a quick search and you should be able to get in touch with your local emergency management force in no time). There are also the major international organizations who are always looking for more volunteers to join their operational forces. We will give you more details about what the best humanitarian action organizations are and how to get in touch with them and see what you can contribute with, in the section below.

As for disaster response jobs and careers, this side of the intervention field is also full of opportunities. Since people working in disaster response are basically super-heroes, trained to not only do their job flawlessly, but also do it under considerable time pressure and without all the usual tools and props, serious certification is required. Usually, the certification one needs in order to be a licensed emergency management team member comes from FEMA. This government agency also provides the training required for the major specializations needed. Here are just a few examples:

Medical emergency response staff (nurses and field doctors);
Bomb alert engineers;
Data backup scientists;
Communications officers;
Search and rescue team members (including firefighters);

You can find out more about the training offered by FEMA’s Emergency Management Institute (EMI) here.

A Few Disaster Response Organizations

Humanitarian and disaster relief organizations are active all over the world, and the international ones usually focus more on the countries where the government lacks the resources to provide proper disaster response on its own. Since most acts of disaster response are aimed first and foremost at meeting people’s most basic needs, and therefore a central government that isn’t able to help the people affected by disaster really needs all the help it can get. The most important thing about disaster response, though, is that it’s always an organized and systematic activity, no matter who is the central authority behind the organization (either a national government or an NGO). There can be spontaneous interventions for disaster response, but they are usually on a local neighborhood scale and will either fizz out or become part of a larger scheme.

Without further ado, here are the major disaster response organizations you should know about:

The Red Cross – The Red Cross is an international organization with a strong presence in its U.S. branch, so basically whenever natural disasters have struck us in the past few years (tornados, hurricanes and floods), the Red Cross has provided a huge relief for those affected. Find out more about how you can get involved here.
The United Nations (UN) – Another great international organization that handles very varied types of disaster response and humanitarian work, besides various other responsibilities in diplomacy and so on. The UN also has some pretty high-end emergency management jobs for those of you who already have experience with humanitarian work and emergency relief coordination.
The Catholic Relief Services – One of the most important Christian organizations present in the U.S., the CRS welcomes all kinds of volunteers for their wide array of humanitarian actions, beyond disaster response (donations, doing some hunger relief actions from the charity fund and so on).
The Lutheran Disaster Response (LDS) – The other major Christian organization that provides disaster response nationally and internationally, the LDS welcomes plenty of volunteers and professionals altogether.
World Renew (WD) – One of the most active organizations in the field of disaster response and humanitarian work, WD has a very complex layering of projects and activities in which you can get involved with.

Last, but not least, if you’re willing to try going abroad for a disaster relief work experience, the first step you should make is to read this guide on what skills you need and where to start. Good luck!

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What Is Disaster Recovery and What Can You Do Yourself?

In case of a natural or human-induced disaster striking an area, the fast recovery from the unfortunate event is a priority for everyone. The recovery must optimally be realized with as little human and financial costs possible so that the area can resume its previous state and even be better prepared and less vulnerable to similar future events. So, what is disaster recovery as officially defined and provided by various services and organizations? There are two main sides to this recovery: the humanitarian part, referring to people and communities and which is usually known as disaster relief, and the part focusing on ensuring the survival and continuity of a business, usually known as disaster recovery.

Sometimes, the two terms are used interchangeably, since they aren’t that different in meaning, but for the sake of differentiating between the two types of disaster management services, a great part of the world has started respecting this distinction between disaster relief and disaster recovery. Our present article will focus on clarifying the disaster recovery aspect for businesses, and also, address some FAQs about disaster recovery along the way.

What is Disaster Recovery?

Disaster recovery can be defined as a set of procedures and policies set in place in order to ensure the continuance of infrastructure (and/ or of business activity) in the aftermath of disruptive events. The more the world came to rely on technological infrastructure, the more we started to realize how vulnerable we would be left in case this infrastructure failed, and since the 70s, disaster recovery systems have been specifically created to assist with this issue.

Since disaster recovery focuses first and foremost on ensuring the restoration of IT and technological infrastructure and data, it represents only a subset of the more general business continuity systems. These comprise of a vaster array of policies which ensure other aspects required for an activity to be resumed (finding alternate office space, financial recovery from damages and so on).

As businesses started realizing their huge dependence on IT technologies (and especially since internet speed and real-time response became an integrative part of almost any business), services which offer disaster management and recovery have become more and more popular and needed. So, what is disaster recovery from this point of view, of commercial services marketed and offered to IT-reliant businesses? Usually, all service providers specializing in disaster recovery for businesses offer this:

Full cloud storage and online backup for your business information, data, sensitive data like login details and company track records etc.;
An initial evaluation of the risk your business faces in case of disaster and tips on how to minimize that risk;
A disaster recovery plan to be activated in the wake of a disruptive event, prescribing the client (the business trying to protect itself from disaster) the steps to follow for continued functionality and on to a full recovery;
The availability of limited office space and computer systems to allow the affected business to resume its activity at least partially until their workspace is restored;
A cyber security diagnostic in case the disaster was not caused by a natural event (like an earthquake or a tornado and so on), but by a specific cyber-attack which led to a potentially dangerous breach;
Various service packs offering increasing levels of assistance with the aftermath of the disruptive event.

Disaster Recovery FAQs

1. What Is Disaster Recovery for Businesses Beyond the Backup Service?

Initially, disaster recovery service providers focused mostly on cloud storage backup, but today’s service packs offer much more than that. First, they diagnose the specifics of the business that is trying to protect itself from disaster, then they formulate some options and service packs adapted to suit the needs of that business. This can include everything IT-related, like ensuring a preservation of layers of access according to the company’s hierarchy and so on, but also non-IT services. Such non-IT services can include the provision of office space and minimal infrastructure required for the business to get back into work, even if for the time being the company is still dealing with the aftermath of disaster and its actual office space and work environment and compromised.

2. What Other Aspects of Disaster Recovery Should I Consider as a Business Leader?

You should consider disaster recovery beyond the simple aspects of cloud storage, as well as depending on the specifics of the business you are running. After all, what is disaster recovery if not a tailored approach meant to get your company back in business as soon as possible? A few general ideas useful to all businesses would be these: increasing the security and diminishing the risk of data loss, protecting both your physical and virtual assets with the help of comprehensive insurance, and creating reliable procedures for getting back on track as fast as possible.

3. What Is Disaster Recovery as Business Continuation and What Services Should I Look Into?

As mentioned above, disaster recovery confined to IT and cloud backup is but a small aspect of protecting your company and ensuring your business continuation. This second concept is a more loosely defined set of services and measures, impossible to pin down because the nature of each business can be drastically different and, therefore, the business continuation plan must be adapted to each individual case. There are usually three levels of a sound business continuation plan:

Resilience: the purpose of these measures is to minimize the damage and ensure that the business activity can continue up to a certain point in spite of the disruptive event;
Recovery: the purpose of these procedures is to ensure a fast recovery of the degree of functionality lost in the disaster and bring the activity back to full capacity;
Contingency: Ensuring that the people and the infrastructure of the business become more flexible and able to cope with unforeseen aspects of whatever disruptions and disasters may come. This third layer of measures and procedures is meant first and foremost to deal with the potential inadequacy of the first two (the resilience and recovery plans and measures). To increase the effectiveness of contingency, this part of the business continuation strategy must also include the thorough testing of the other parts of the plan.

What Can You Do Yourself For a Better Disaster Recovery?

First of all, as a business owner or leader you should try to familiarize yourself as much as possible with the actual risks you are facing in case of the various types of disasters which can strike your business. Identify your potential losses and this way you will know exactly what your protection priorities should be. If you’re not sure how to identify security risks yourself, don’t worry: it’s quite common to enlist the services of a disaster recovery consultant in this stage of planning.

The bottom line is to start asking yourself not simply ‘what is disaster recovery?’, but increasingly ‘what should my business recovery plan contain?’ Consultants from the recovery service provider you will hire can only help you with the technical details you may not be aware of, but only you can intimately know the priorities and vital functions of your business, so you are in the end the most qualified planner for your business continuity.

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Top Lutheran Disaster Response Organizations You Should Know About

Lutheran disaster response organizations are actively involved in relief missions around the world as well as in the United States. There are several non-profit Lutheran disaster relief organizations that are qualified and prepared to provide both immediate and long-term aid to survivors of disasters, refugees of war, and people suffering because of hunger or poverty.

Many Lutheran disaster response organizations are constantly striving to collect, organize, and transport essential supplies and aid to those in need. These non-profit organizations are funded by public donations made by both members and the general public. However, volunteers can also help these organizations immensely by offering their services or working on community support projects when help is needed.

List of Lutheran Disaster Response Organizations

Here are some of the top Lutheran disaster response organizations that you should know about if you are interested in supporting disaster relief efforts in the United States and around the world or if you are simply looking for more information concerning these organizations and how they operate.

1. Lutheran World Relief

The Lutheran World Relief organization aims to collaborate with local partners in order to provide lasting solutions to poverty, conduct emergency operations when they are required, and rapidly deploy aid where it is needed. In its efforts to help affected communities recover from emergencies, the Lutheran World Relief organization provides emergency kits containing essentials that survivors need in the immediate aftermath of the crisis. They also offer cash programs that support survivors and an Early Recovery and Livelihoods Rehabilitation program to help people in affected areas get back to work and become self-sufficient again as soon as possible.

As the Lutheran World Relief organization has expanded its efforts to several countries across the world, there is a country office for the organization in each of the countries in which it is active. Thus, an Emergency Preparedness Plan exists in each of these offices, detailing how and when the organization can respond to emergencies. The organization also pre-positions items such as emergency kits and quilts in warehouses that are supported by the United Nations. These U.N. Humanitarian Response Depots allow the organization to quickly ship items to where they are needed once an emergency takes place.

2. The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America has set up the Lutheran Disaster Response program in order to help the people whose lives have been affected by disasters. The Lutheran Disaster Response is involved in disaster response operations both in the United States and around the world. The faith-based organization collaborates with other disaster response organizations and religious entities both in the United States and in other countries.

The community-oriented disaster response initiative that the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America has created focuses on providing immediate relief as well as long-term support to those affected by a disaster. The organization provides emotional and spiritual support for survivors of the disaster. It coordinates volunteers through its local affiliates and helps communities build their assets in an effort to promote disaster risk-reduction. The Lutheran Disaster Response program aims to not only offer immediate relief, but to also focus on providing long-term recovery efforts in the months or ever years following the disaster.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America has also organized a Domestic Disaster Response program that focuses its efforts on providing immediate and long-term aid to U.S. citizens affected by natural disasters such as floods, wildfires, or earthquakes.

In addition to the Lutheran Disaster Response program, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America is also providing a Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service. By partnering with Lutheran social ministry organizations and with Lutheran congregations, this service has been welcoming refugees to the United States since 1939, and it has helped more than 379,000 refugees throughout its years of activity.

The Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service aims to aid people that are caught in conflict areas and that are facing persecution by helping them access resources for basic human needs. The service also advocates for their rights and needs. It is working with foster care programs to help minors affected by war and conflict, and it provides legal assistance to those in need.

3. The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod

The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod in another institution that has organized a Disaster Response initiative offering two major training programs in disaster preparedness. Mercy in Action is a program designed to help congregations train to be prepared in case of a disaster and to respond appropriately should one occur. The Lutheran Early Response Team (LERT) program is focused on training individual Lutheran volunteers in disaster relief and response.

The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod offers financial aid and people resources to help recovery efforts in the months and years following a tragedy. The Disaster Response ministry strives to provide both immediate and long-term support to those suffering because of natural or man-made disasters and can also offer Christian care, counseling, and support for those in need.

4. The Lutheran Social Services of Central Ohio

The Lutheran Social Services of Central Ohio has set up a Disaster Response Services program aimed at providing disaster preparedness training courses and disaster response coordination throughout the state of Ohio and in its surrounding areas. The system created to protect communities against disasters has a 3-step program that is followed in order to ensure that survivors receive the best possible support.

The Disaster Response Services program has three stages: first response, emergency relief, and long-term recovery. The Lutheran Social Services organization provides disaster response coordination of volunteers using the network of Lutheran churches in the area. It also offers coordination of volunteers meant to provide spiritual and emotional care. The organization manages the collection and distribution of just-in-time donations and the functionality of a disaster response database that people can use to find and access additional resources.

The Lutheran Disaster Response Services program coordinates community outreach efforts to help rebuild or refurbish affected homes. The program also organizes the collection, assembly, and distribution of flood buckets, health and personal hygiene kits, and school kits.

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