Table of Contents
Abstract
Floods often account for the most frequent and expensive natural emergencies, which contribute to the most severe human hardship and economic loss. Most of the destruction attributed to natural disasters, apart from drought-related emergencies, is as a result of debris flow occasioned by floods and the flood waters itself. Victims of natural disaster handle the emergencies different, primarily due to different factors. The elderly, disabled, the poor and young children in the population from a group usually referred to as special set and often require specialized care. Mitigation and preparedness system developer must take into account these segments when formulating such schemes. Flooding happens mostly as a consequence of prolonged rainfall over a relatively long period of time, ice and debris jams. Flash floods caused by dam or levee failure have also been a cause of much suffering and destructions. An elaborate mitigation and prepared scheme is very essential to the residents of Rehoboth Beach city due to its low-lying location and the presence of a large population of disadvantaged residents.
Introduction
An elaborate natural disaster risk management scheme needs risk identification, formulation of risk reduction strategies and the development of programs and policies to actualize these strategies. Management of risk is a basic activity that promotes assessment of structures for minimizing but not essentially removing the overall risk. In most circumstances, it is impossible to eliminate the risk entirely. Risk management and assessment take place in several steps which include: evaluating the possibility for a threat to happen and a susceptibility examination to offer an understanding of the repercussions if an event of a given scale and regularity took place. Using this initial work, diverse mitigation procedures can be analyzed to evaluate their capability to minimize exposure to risk. Centered on a comprehensive risk evaluation, calamity management plans and precise mitigation processes can be recognized. The designated mitigation methods are then implemented.
For disasters that involve flooding, it is important to estimate the prospect or possibility that a dangerous occurrence will take place and calculate the environmental, social, and economic implications if the event occurred under the current conditions. Plans for the flood-prone zones ought to be prepared and exhaustive effects defined. A participatory procedure ought to be used that will culminate in the establishment of an acceptable risk level. Procedures can be appraised and applied to conform to this level. The complete procedure is geared towards assisting the community to understand the numerous actions that can escalate or minimize exposure to risks better. Such a process can encourage greater community contribution in the developed flooding problem solutions.
Floods usually account for the most expensive and frequent natural disasters about economic loss and human hardships. More than 85 percent of the destruction caused by natural disasters, except drought is related to debris flow caused by floods and the floods themselves. The majority of communities in the US have at one point or the other experienced flooding, which cost the nation an estimated $ 4 billion each year and an annual loss of lives of approximately 100 individuals. Flooding occurs mainly as a result of protracted rainfall over a long period, debris or ice jams, which cause streams or rivers to overflow, hence, flooding the neighboring areas or intense rainfall over short spells.
Community Description
Rehoboth Beach is a city that is located in the eastern part of Sussex County, DE, with a coastline (39 degrees 44’N and 76 degrees 04’W). It is located on the north side of Rehoboth Bay on the Atlantic coast and is bordered by two parks to the south and north, both which are owned by the state. These parks are the Wildlife Area of Gordon Pond and the state park of Cape Henlopen both, which are located in the north, and the state park of Delaware Seashore to the south. Whereas Rehoboth Beach cannot be termed as a Barrier Island, the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal that connects Rehoboth Bay to the south with Delaware Bay up in the north nonetheless disconnects it from the interior. This artificial canal exposes Rehoboth Beach in the west to the effects of rising sea levels.
The origins of the Rehoboth Beach community date back to 1872 when it began as a small Methodist religious resort and camp. Before that, it entirely comprised of farmland. The location gradually became popular with time, which led to the camp being secularized and the creation of a railway station. Ultimately, the area became incorporated in 1891, and while it remains a pleasant resort community to date, the inflow of retirees to the area has dramatically altered the demographics of Rehoboth Beach city.
Risk Assessment
For an effective risk assessment of Rehoboth Beach community, it is imperative to determine the topographic risks, the floodplain as well as the demographic risk factors. This should be done before conducting simulations in the rise of sea levels in the area. According to data relating to the 2000 Census of Rehoboth Beach, the population was estimated to be approximately 1500 individuals with 38% of them surprisingly being over 62 years of age. Canton, (2007) ascertains that amazingly, this was by far the largest mature population of all in the entire study location. In addition, an approximate 20% of this population was seen to be disabled. The census ascertained that the population that was under the age of five constituted a mere 1.3% although it emerged as the area with the least poverty rate of the entire study with only 4.9% of households living below the state poverty line. Thus, Rehoboth Beach proved to have a lesser flood risk than the other barrier islands.
The FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) rate map on flood insurance for Rehoboth Beach estimated that only about 18% of the inhabitants lie in a floodplain that is 100 years. The assessment section on land use in Rehoboth Beach reports floodplain zoning with guidelines aimed at improving the insurance rating of the FEMA flood for the entire community (FEMA, 2001). Besides this, there exists no other criterion outlined for land use in the assessment model plan that exists at Rehoboth Beach. Such oversight of these issues translates to 2.8-point score for Rehoboth Beach out of the possible 30 points at the 0.9m risk level and 2.81 points at the 2.4m level.
These results generate a 5 out of 20 risk score with the topographic risk of the beach being much less than either that of Ocean City or Chincoteague. Ocean City’s average elevation, according to USGS maps is approximately 4.6m. The same topographic maps rate Rehoboth Beach’s highest point at 12m. At the anticipated rise of 0.9m, the differential in elevation rise stands at 3.6m, resulting in a risk score of four out of ten. Though Rehoboth Beach constitutes a section of the mainland, it is inaccessible due to the presence of Lewes-Rehoboth Canal (National Fire Protection Association, 2010). There are only four canal channels that enable Rehoboth Beach to have linkage with the mainland. This phenomenon amplifies the risk factor of the access road to 8 out of 10. However, flooding usually occurs along the canals, which generates a risk score of 0.6 at the 0.9m level, which means that less than 6% of the area is inundated.
Specific risk assessment
Floods usually account for the most expensive and frequent natural disasters about economic loss and human hardships. More than 85 percent of the destruction caused by natural disasters, except drought is related to debris flow caused by floods and the floods themselves. The majority of communities in the US have at one point or the other experienced flooding, which cost the nation an estimated $ 4 billion each year and an annual loss of lives of approximately 100 individuals. Flooding occurs mainly as a result of protracted rainfall over some days; debris or ice jams, which cause streams or rivers to overflow, hence, flooding the neighboring areas or intense rainfall over short spells.
Goals and Objectives
Floods have been known to catch people unprepared since they mostly take place less than seven hours following heavy rains or a levee or dam failure. It is never certain that people will be forewarned of imminent, sudden and deadly floods. It is in this regard that the community at Rehoboth Beach needs to make prior, proper planning in case of such eventualities to safeguard their property and families.
An emergency preparedness system will not only act as a shield and forewarning to the occurrence of floods in the Beach City but will also aid in countering such a phenomenon if it was to occur. This would be made possible by the creation of levees and dams as is applicable after which flood levels behind levees should be adjusted including those that are downstream of already created dams.
According to Liao et al. (2012), this exercise should be done in consultation with the community’s technical analysis engineer and his or her team using FIS (Flood Insurance Studies) and National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) maps as a base. Where there is the presence of problematic ice jams, flood fringe boundaries at the bases should be widened to constitute flood elevations that are potentially higher. Even with shallow flood elevations, alluvial fans areas should be considered as high-risk zones considering that drainage ways and small streams in the area may not necessarily be mapped out by the NFIP.
Demographic Assessment
For an elaborate risk evaluation of Rehoboth Beach community, assessing the demographic and topographic risks is of great importance. Only after this analysis should simulations of sea level in the region be conducted. Using the year 2000 Rehoboth Beach census, the area population is roughly 1500 people, 38% if which is over 62 years old, comprising the largest population segment. Of the 1500 people, another 20% represent the disabled, and 1.3 % consists of children below five years of age. Among the adjacent areas, Rehoboth Beach has the lowest poverty rates at 4.9% of all the households. Other barriers islands are at a greater risk of floods than Rehoboth Beach. The aging population, the disabled and children below five years of age, represent a big population segment that is vulnerable to disaster and must be accorded special attention in the formulation disaster preparedness and mitigation system.
Identifying Special Populations
Canton (2007) defines special populations as groups of individuals, whose needs may necessitate specialized, customized, or additional approaches in recovery from, response to, and preparedness for extreme events. As aforementioned, the Rehoboth Beach community has an estimated population of about 1,500 people. Approximately 570 people, who constitute 38% of the total population, are above 62 years. At 62 years of age, this large group of people represents more than a third of the total population and is consequently the largest category of special persons within the Rehoboth Beach community. The other equally big category of special persons is the group with different forms of disabilities. The research indicates that approximately 20% of all the people within the Rehoboth Beach community are disabled either physically or handicapped mentally. The disabled individuals are approximately 300 persons, which is significantly a huge number given the total population.
The third category of special populations within the Rehoboth Beach community is the children aged five years and below. The research conducted indicated that this group comprised approximately 1.3% of the total population, which ranges between 18 and 20 persons. It, therefore, means for every 75 people; there is a child aged less than five years. The last category of the special population within the Rehoboth Beach community is the poor; particular the persons living below the poverty line. The research indicates that this group consists of approximately 4.9% of the total population. All these four categories listed above namely; the elderly, persons with disabilities, children aged below five years and individuals from economically disadvantaged families, including foster children are all exposed to higher risks emanating from the effects of floods if they were to occur. Their needs may necessitate specialized or additional approaches in recovery from extreme events such as floods.
Identifying the Special Populations within Rehoboth Beach Community
The main method of identifying individuals categorized in one of the four special groups is through the identification of the inability to succeed in the regular socio-economic activities devoid of special service or assistance. In this regard, a personal assessment is of paramount importance to establish the diagnostic-prescriptive process needed to provide and determine every individual’s unique requirements (Costanza, 2007). By carrying out the assessment process within the Rehoboth Beach community, the unique needs of every individual were identified, which helped in the categorizing process. The mandated assessment was a continuous process affected for the intention of acquiring the necessary information required for assisting with identifying the different needs for every household.
The first step in the assessment process involves the administering of a questionnaire. Every household was given a questionnaire, which required households to provide all names and age of all persons living in the household, as well as the physical address. They were additionally required to provide information relating to any official or non-official (documented or undocumented) disabilities. The questionnaire contained a checklist that required respondents to indicate their disabilities by checking (ticking) all that applied. Respondents were also required to indicate the medications they had been prescribed. Other entries included listing occupations of every member of the each household including listing the level of education. They were additionally required to list their annual incomes.
The questionnaire was subsequently followed by an interview and a review, as well as analysis of current information. The short interviews aimed at recording information that may have been excluded from the questionnaire. The interviews were also aimed at explaining the purpose of the exercise and why it was important for the community. The answers to questions raised in the interview kick-started the assessment process and the answers from the respondents, if written down started the process of documentation. The verbal input by the respondents was included as part of the existing data/information.
The Vulnerability of Identified Special Populations
Comprehending the needs of vulnerable and special populations necessitates commitment on the part of emergency planners, relevant officials, agencies, and advocacy groups. As aforementioned, there are four major categories of special populations within the Rehoboth Beach community area. For the disabled, some of their common needs are associated with the fundamental challenges related to their incapacity to perform certain actions or tasks during emergencies.
This could comprise a person’s dependency on electricity to maintain medical equipment and therefore not to have the capacity to move up and down a staircase, travel distances, or even move without physical assistance. Some may have difficulties hearing or reading warning signs posted during an emergency owing to hearing or sight impairment and disabilities. People with hearing impairment may fail to gain further instructions to act in an appropriate manner during an emergency. Disabilities may also prevent people from reading normal print text from televisions or receiving normal sound activity, which may interfere with the receipt of warning signals.
Children are overly dependent on caregivers. Children depend on caregivers for emotional and physical support. When disaster strikes, the children will especially look for an adult to know what to do, where to go, and how to respond. If caregivers, guardians, or parents are not prepared adequately for disasters and emergencies, children are left exposed to a huge risk of harm. Children may not have the capacity to identify family members or verbally identify themselves. Older children, on the other hand, may have difficulties reaching their emergency contacts. These difficulties in identifying safety paths put them at a higher risk of exposure. Infants are not able to walk. In addition, young children may require some help to gain balance. Children around these ages may, therefore, require special attention during emergencies. Family emergency plans need to consider these elements, including how to transport car seats, cribs, and strollers during emergencies.
Children bodies are less developed and therefore smaller, which translates to having a greater risk for harm or illness during an emergency. For instance, since children are closer to the ground, take more breaths and have a thinner skin than adults, they are more at risk of being exposed to carbon monoxide poisoning and other harmful chemical leaks, which may emanate from disasters such as floods (Steinberg, 2006). They additionally have extra dietary needs that need special mandate planning. Children additionally need adequate healthy foods and fluids to help them grow. Besides physical support, children additionally rely on adults for emotional care. Disasters such as floods and others affect children adversely, and the emotional responses and reactions of guardians and caregivers or lack of it may increase stress levels. For the elderly, they equally require emotional and physical support just like children owing to their old age. They may require support for mobility and may have challenges identifying relatives and friends.
Impoverished populations are also exposed to more risks than other populations. People living in poor socio-economic conditions may be exposed to poor adverse effects because of overcrowding and unstructured living settlements. In this regard, access to emergency services when disaster strikes may be a challenge. Poorly constructed houses may also be unable to provide adequate shelter from rain and floods. These groups may also lack basic social amenities such as proper sanitation and access roads. During floods, they may be exposed to sickness. They may also lack televisions, or radio systems, which are fundamental in informing or transmitting warnings to people in affected areas.
Additional Social and Cultural Factors
Within the Rehoboth Beach community, there are other groups, which are marginalized and equally vulnerable to the risks of floods. Besides the economically disadvantaged populations, there are equally other factors to consider including ethnicity, religion, and gender. It is of paramount importance to put into consideration that a combination of these attributes is more significant than the individual category of class, age, ethnicity, or class. Even within these categories, the most vulnerable are the elderly, disabled and children (National Commission on Children and Disasters, 2009). In particular, the elderly women belonging to a minority religion or ethnic group of the poor class may be exposed to more risks. Their exposure is based on lack of access to assets and little or no political voice to stimulate any proactive action. These particular groups are in a constant state of ‘emergency.’ They are the ‘insulted’ and the ‘neglected’ in everyday life. Religious and ethnicity groups are many times marginalized in ways that enhance their vulnerability.
Mitigation efforts
It is imperative that all the residents of Rehoboth Beach community that are tasked with preparing for and reacting to an emergency be aptly prepared and properly trained. In light of this, it is vital that they understand clearly their responsibilities and roles and the manner they fit into the broader picture. All individuals in the city who would be involved in emergency response or planning should be trained appropriately. More so, the training should not only be constricted to a chosen few. It should also cover the immediate neighboring community, voluntary organizations, and contractors who might assist in supporting the emergency response and planning.
Lack of emergency training for residents of Rehoboth Beach city would undoubtedly overwhelm them in the event of an emergency, whose impact they might be unable to recover from or handle. It is, therefore, important that the city have well-trained individuals capable of conducting emergency plans, city continuity management, and risk assessments. These three undertakings are a sure way of strengthening Rehoboth city’s emergency preparedness and its capacity to not only recover but respond effectively as well.
The most appropriate preparedness exercise and training program for Rehoboth community would be tabletop exercises. These exercises are not essentially literally based on or around a table. They normally comprise of a timeline and realistic scenario setting that could be sped up either time or real time. In tabletop exercises, simulated emergency situations are discussed. Team members involved in the exercise discuss and review the actions necessary and which would be implemented in a specific emergency. They are also able to test their emergency plan in a low-strenuous, informal environment. While implementing the tabletop exercise at Rehoboth Beach city, members will not only identify additional preparedness and mitigation needs but also classify responsibilities and roles as well. Such an exercise should generate action plans for sustained emergency plan improvement.
Either tabletop exercises are conducted in rooms that are interlinked or otherwise a single room, which simulates the detachments between coordinated responders and those that need to communicate. Each individual involved in the exercise is required to have full knowledge of the plan and can test its efficiency as the situation develops. The use of tabletop exercises would come in handy mostly for validation purposes to discern any imbalances in its application. For this reason, residents of Rehoboth Beach city would hold such training three times each year so that it could still be fresh in their minds in case disaster struck.
Hazard Mitigation Planning
Although a community can take preemptive steps to safeguard property and people through prudent planning enterprises that avoid development and growth in regions susceptible to any natural danger particularly floods, these hazards still occur many affecting people. Hazard mitigation preparation and application strategies aid the coastal communities to reduce destruction from impending storm events. As the coastal societies are at diverse phases of preparation, they must synchronize with and build upon present endeavors on the federal, state, regional and local level (Adger et al., 2005). Hazard mitigation tactics must include shrewd development processes that take into account the possible effects of climate variation and associated hastened proportions of sea-level rise. Formulation and application of danger mitigation strategies will also aid societies taking part in the NFIP’s Community Rating System (CRS) gain marks that will enable them to get insurance premium concessions for inhabitants with NFIP policies.
Furthermore, involvement in the CRS can make societies qualify for grants to fund ventures endorsed in the hazard mitigation strategies. The danger mitigation strategy is particularly essential since if a community does not possess an official multi-hazard mitigation strategy, it will not qualify for federal post-disaster mitigation endowments (Canton, 2007). A multi-hazard mitigation blueprint recognizes possible natural dangers in a community via a risk examination and decides probable effects of those hazards. In addition, the multi-hazard mitigation strategy creates mitigation objectives and outlines policies and processes that should be taken to reduce the effects of these threats on the community.
Establishment of building codes and strict adherence to federal, State and local regulations that creates minimum requirements construction, sitting in coastal communities can greatly mitigate hazards.
The property owner, builders, and developers from hazard-prone areas have the capacity to improve on the level of mitigation by providing increased levels. Developers could site building further inwards than the state’s recommended distance and elevate them above NFIP standard levels. Preservation of undeveloped wetlands and floodplains, so that those areas can be used as, erosion and flood buffers. Wetlands and floodplains can also serve as provisional floodwater storage.
After a calamity, a community can evaluate preceding zoning assessments in high-risk areas by damage and losses calculations in those areas. Under normal conditions, the community can utilize information together with the data on population to examine the impact of increased vehicles and population on the community’s disaster mitigation. For example, growth in population in hazard-prone areas will affect evacuation capabilities and measures, disaster housing levels and other recovery and response activities
Structural Mitigation Measures
Floodwalls, Seawalls, Levees, and various appurtenant structures are designed to stop storm surges and floodwaters from reaching risk areas. Significances of failure can be very grave for people living behind the assemblies because they will be subjected to quick flooding and inundation situation worse than in conditions when the floodwater rises gradually.
Dams
Barricades that hold flood flows, dams hold floodwaters before reaching areas at risk. For example, during periods of high rainfall, dams collect floodwaters from upstream, and the water gradually released to reduce the possibility of damage to communities living downstream. Nevertheless, during extremely big occasions, the storage volume of a dam can be surpassed, and unrestrained flood currents are passed downstream (Hübl at al., 2005). Levees downstream might be overwhelmed and fail. Under exceptional circumstances, dams can fail and send significant quantities of water downstream, resulting in damage or destruction of levees and communities downstream to the dams.
Spillways, channels, and Floodways
Spillways, channels, and floodways are built to convey floodwaters around a region or community in sections where the ability of a river to permit a bulk of floodwaters past a dangerous location is restricted. River channels can then be modified to accommodate the floodwaters as it increases.
Long-term impacts arising from mitigation procedures
Mitigating procedures are costly and can overwhelm the people of Rehoboth Beach City causing the community lasting economic problems. Construction of dams, spillways, floodways and channels normally occupy the land, greatly reducing the areas for development for the residents. Apart of being expensive, relocating people disrupts their socio-economic activities sometimes permanently resulting in loss of livelihood. Relocation is especially costly for vulnerable members of the society especially the elderly who might never recover well enough to continue with their normal live in the short time remaining.
Proposed preparedness system and stakeholders responsible
Flooding takes place as a consequence of extended rainfall, ice jams, and debris which make rivers and streams to overflow causing the neighboring areas to flood. Flooding can also be caused by short periods of intense rainfall. Floods often catch people unprepared especially if they are caused by a sudden dam or levee failure. Additionally, floods that are caused by heavy rains that sometimes take place long after the rains have stopped catching many residents by surprise, making it very hard to warn people of the impending deadly and sudden floods adequately. Such floods usually affect the people of Rehoboth Beach, and it is due to this that the community needs to be well prepared to tackle such eventualities to protect families and their property.
A comprehensive emergency preparedness scheme act as both a protection and warning mechanism of imminent manifestation of floods in the Beach City, but will assist in mitigating such an occurrence, in case it took place. For starters dams and levees should be built to check flood water. The water levels behind the levees should be systematically adjusted, simultaneously with those in dams downstream. Liao et al. (2012) suggested that for the exercise to be a success, the technical analysis engineer from the community should be consulted using National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) and Flood Insurance Studies (FIS) maps as a foundation. In the event of the presence of challenging ice bottlenecks, flood fringe restrictions at the base ought to be broadened to establish potentially higher flood elevation. Alluvial fans areas should be considered as high-risk zones, even with shallow flood elevations, since small streams and drainage ways in the area might not be mapped in the NFIP mapping.
We can do it today.
Description and Analysis
Rehoboth Beach residents that are tasked with preparing and responding to a disaster must be properly trained and appropriately prepared. Due to their crucial roles and responsibilities, it is critical that they appreciate them clearly. Apart of specific individuals, the training should also focus on volunteering organizations, contractors and immediate neighboring community who might help in emergency planning and response support. In the event of an emergency, the absence of emergency preparation for the inhabitants of Rehoboth Beach city would leave them in a very disadvantaged situation and might find it difficult to handle or recover from the disaster. Therefore, it is of paramount importance that the city has adequately trained people, with the proper risk assessment, emergency plans, and city continuity management capabilities. The three factors when prudently implemented would fortify Rehoboth City disaster preparedness and its ability to responds effectively and recovers well from emergencies.
The tabletop exercises have been singled out as the most appropriate preparedness and training program for the Rehoboth Beach community. A tabletop exercise is defined as an activity whereby vital persons allocated emergency management responsibilities and roles are assembled to deliberate in a safe environment, numerous replicated emergency conditions. Members of the team taking part in the exercise deliberate and appraise the necessary actions to be applied in a particular emergency. The team, therefore, gets the opportunity to try their emergency strategy in a relaxed and informal atmosphere.
In the process of implementing the tabletop exercise at Rehoboth Beach City members will be expected to pinpoint supplementary mitigation and preparedness requirements and categorize their roles and responsibilities. Such an undertaking ought to produce action strategies for continued emergency plan enhancement. Every person taking part in the exercise needs to possess full information on the strategy and can evaluate its effectiveness as the circumstances unfold. The nature of the tabletop exercise is such that, due to constant interaction and discussion, the process is easily validated to correct any application imbalances. Due to these residents of Rehoboth Beach should hold this exercise periodically to refresh themselves and keep abreast on development in disaster handling.
Preparedness Program Evaluation
The destruction caused by floods poses a major barrier to the growth of the community economic and social well-being. Consequently, it important to implement vital disaster prevention and preparedness in flood susceptible regions like Rehoboth Beach city. Such schemes must be regularly appraised to determine their usefulness mainly in the form of tabletop exercises and drills. Flooding features and patterns should be identified, and the application of the necessary preparedness measures applied.
Flood preparedness techniques are wide; they require continuous assessment and should be handled in a rational and systematic method. For example, during the implementation of the tabletop disaster scheme at Rehoboth Beach city, numerous expert views ought to be searched for because each expert might have a different point of view to contribute to the exercise. Therefore, the diverse point of view and tactics should be examined thoroughly to get the most appropriate method of the tabletop disaster preparedness scheme implementation.
Recommendations
The strategies, objectives, and goals of the 2010 Rehoboth Beach plan were distinct and well suited to the community. However, the Rehoboth Beach guidelines differ with other cities, as they are more inclined to issues regarding the quality of life and the environment than economic progress. In this regard, Rehoboth Beach’s Hazard Identification Assessment failed to score well. The plan recognized the consequences and risks associated with storm water run-off and concisely cited the need for more robust building codes to reduce flooding effects. Nonetheless, storm surge threats were not mentioned, or the threats posed by sea level rise or climate change.
Further, the study failed to address the issue of risk to property or else demand elevation studies if there was a rise in sea levels or flooding took place. Such fundamentals rely heavily on the risk factors, and the plan scored 0.9m and 2.1m respectively.
The assessment model, however, has the Rehoboth Beach scoring well. It advocates for a beach sustenance program with other sections concentrating on the protection of wetlands and backing that involves stabilization and protection of sand dunes that act as blockages to flooding. Since these are natural embankments, there exists no overtopping review, which makes Rehoboth Beach receive half acclamation for this objective.
Conclusion
Rehoboth Beach City should set up a disaster mitigation and preparedness committee comprising of the entire city stakeholders such as construction experts and city planners to coordinate the execution of the disaster management scheme. The local management committee should be in constant contact with the state and federal disaster management team to harmonize their response procedures and to seek assistance promptly in the event of being overwhelmed by the emergency to minimize and mitigate damage. The management committee should be headed by the city mayor assisted by the city’s chief planning officer. For a proper mitigation and preparedness system to be in place, residents and local government officials must play a critical role.
The city’s Technical analysis engineer is also a critical member of this committee. Frequent workshops, preferably quarter yearly to review and update the scheme should be held to keep the team abreast in all tactical and technological advances in disaster management. For Rehoboth Beach, the demographic changes ought to be continuously reviewed in light of the City’s tendency to attract elderly citizens.
The United States government has put in place an exercise program that is well cross-governmental and well-coordinated, which covers a comprehensive variation of disruptive domestic challenges that not only include natural disasters such as floods but terrorism acts and accidents as well. The program aims at examining the operational aspect thoroughly from a central response that is coordinated through various government department responsibilities including decentralized administrations all the way to the local responders from the central government.
Additionally, emergency services and the local authority have created their exercise program to examine competencies at the local level. The institution of this exercise-rolling program that is nationwide is aimed at ensuring that the country, including Rehoboth Beach city, have the finest contingency plans that can tackle a wide range of domestic emergency scenarios. The US government also liaises with international partners in emergency preparedness systems applications such as the European Union (EU), and G8 nations.
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