University of Nebraska at Omaha Emergency Management Discussion

Scenario:

You are the emergency manager for a locality in California. It is midsummer, and due to an unusually dry summer and several record breaking heat waves throughout the summer season itself, dozens of wildfires have begun to spring up throughout the state. This seasons dry spells and heat waves have been made even more hazardous because in the previous season, unusual amounts of rainfall have increased vegetation throughout areas of the state that are usually more desolate. This large amount of vegetation has dried up in the heat and drought, creating a greater amount of fuel for wildfires.

It is a Sunday morning in your jurisdiction, and despite widespread warnings of the increased fire hazard, a fire was started when a couple used colored Tannerite explosives for their gender reveal celebration. While this activity in normal conditions may not have been considered as hazardous, the fire quickly spread out of control due to the conditions. At this time, this is the fourth fire not classified as contained in your state.

You are in the early response phase with the fire only a few hours old, with hopes to have the fire contained within 36 hours. While the fire was started in a field over a mile away from town, it has moved quickly due to moderate winds and is quickly approaching residential areas. The nearest structures happen to be homes in a low income neighborhood on the outskirts of town, largely populated by Spanish speaking immigrants, a community who the local government has a contentious relationship with and has struggled with outreach. Trust in low in this community towards local officials. While you have gone through official and unofficial channels to warn residents of this area, evacuations are not taking place at the rate you would hope to see.

You have activated the EOC, and the fire cheif has taken over the response and fire containment on the ground. The red cross and other non-profit organizations have begun to reach out, offering a vareity of services for victims. You have connected with a regional non-profit that provides translation and other types of services to low income naighborhoods in the area, but they are not due to arrive and provide services for at least another hour or two.

So far, all press releases for the county have been made in English and Spanish with ASL interpreters regarding initial response efforts. Communications and warnings have also been released on Facebook and Twitter, with EMS alerts in English going out to phones in the geographical area. Police officers have driven through several main neighborhood roads with loud speakers, warning residents of the danger and need to evacuate in both English and Spanish.

Through the EOC, you have begun to set up temporary shelters for those evacuating, but they are not yet up and running. There is a general attitude among many government officials and responding agencies that those who do not listen to the evacuation warnings “get what they deserve”, and it is making it difficult for you to gather momentum within the local government and many responding agencies to address the problem that this community is facing in a timely manner. This attitude has already caused several arguments between workers of responding organizations present at the EOC.

Discussion question:

According to Kapucu (2006, p. 210), “Communities that have strong working relationships on a daily basis generally function better in emergency situations because of increased trust. Building trust among public, private, and nonprofit organizations can best be done prior to emergency situations. Sharing information, willingness to collaborate, and shared values are important factors for network formation. Operationally, because structured communication channels may not work in emergencies, boundary spanners can play a significant role in effective communications in emergency and crisis management. Boundary spanners are organizational members who link their organization with the external environment (Burt, 1992; Williams, 2002). Boundary spanning primarily concerns the sharing and exchange of information. Thus, the fundamental task of boundary spanners is to make decisions concerning information gathered.”

In this scenario, there is a great amount of conflict between responding organizations, particularly those belonging to the local government, and the population currently at the highest risk from the fire. Attitudes differ greatly regarding this community and their lack of immediate response to the event.

What role does trust between the community and organizations play in this scenario? What could have been done differently before the event took place (or perhaps in the future) to increase trust and communication between organizations AND between organizations and this at risk, low trust population?

You should use specific examples, and directly reference the reading assigned in module 12 (Kapucu, 2006, Bharosa & Jahnssen, 2010) in your answer.