Significant damage and loss is experienced every year due to natural hazards such as hurricanes, tornadoes, droughts, floods, wildfires, volcanoes, and earthquakes. NOAA’s National Center for Environmental Information (NCEI) reports that in 2016 the United States experienced more than a dozen climate disaster events with damages and loss in excess of a billion dollars (NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, 2017). Identifying vulnerabilities and risk associated with disaster threats is now a major focus of natural hazards research. Natural hazards research has yielded numerous theoretical frameworks over the last 25 years that have explained important elements of risk and vulnerability in disasters (Birkmann, 2016b). However, there has been much less progress made in operationalizing these frameworks. While the theory is well established, one of the more pressing challenges before us is the lack of development of user-friendly and flexible risk assessment techniques for emergency managers (Mustafa et al., 2011). The trend in operationalizing natural hazards, theoretical frameworks has been the development of general, all-purpose, static models to measure vulnerability. However, important missing elements in the current hazards literature is the need for an operationalized risk model that is (1) simple, quick and easy to use, (2) flexible for changing conditions, and (3) site-specific for various geographic locations. Many of the current models for determining risk and vulnerability are very complex and time consuming to calculate and thus make them of little use for emergency and risk managers. In addition, little analysis has been conducted to see if a flexible risk identification measurement system could be developed. As vulnerability and risk become fluid due to changing conditions (environmental—hazard and location) and circumstances (social, economic, and political), our measurement tools need to be able to capture these differences in order to be effective. This dissertation examines whether the Pressure and Release (PAR) natural hazards, theoretical framework can be operationalized using financial risk ratio methods. Specifically, it analyzes risk ratios using key vulnerability indicators to identify escalating vulnerability and ultimately predict risk. A structured modeling approach was used to identify key vulnerability indicators and develop risk ratios. These are applied to a case study to demonstrate whether this new approach can identify emerging risk trends. My research suggests that instead of operationalizing natural hazards theoretical frameworks using the current static, aggregate index method, a flexible risk ratio method could provide a new, viable option.

The transportation system is particularly vulnerable to disruptive events, while at the same time it is the primary sector for preparedness management and mitigation. The objective of this research is to quantify the changes in vehicle movement during non-recurrent events (Hurricane Irma 2017, Hurricane Michael 2018, and the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020) by comparing with recurrent period for different categories of vehicles, with an emphasis on freight vehicles. This research sought to identify where and when different classes of vehicles were traveling leading up to hurricane landfall and post-storm re-entry. Moreover, this study aims to understand the impact of the pandemic based on different decision made by government and how this decision was affected by the changes in the daily number of cases. The most significant findings showed that the transportation system is very exposed to disruptive events and needs considerable time to recover and adapt. In addition, it was found that freight vehicle transport experience significant changes after the evacuation and the last phases of the pandemic. The less impacted vehicles are those who belong to vehicle category 9 . This category did not have many days with significant changes. On the other hand, the most affected categories were vehicles in category 5 for evacuations and vehicles in categories 5 and 8 for the pandemic. These findings indicate the vehicle category is a parameter that should be taken into consideration in various emergency event management. The guidance of each vehicle group should have a unique design in order to increase management success by the competent authorities. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (MS)--Florida Atlantic University, 2021. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

The purpose of this project was to identify the current status of education/training of rural health care providers and identify gaps in training/education to better prepare rural providers to care for victims of disasters. A survey was conducted and distributed to 21 physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants employed at rural clinic/critical access hospital. The survey consisted of quantitative and fill in the blank questions. The survey was distributed through the electronic survey engine “Qualtrics.” Participation in the survey was voluntary and responses were anonymous. The survey addressed/identified: basic demographic information, knowledge of disaster/emergency preparedness and care of victims as a first receiver, experience and education related to disasters/emergencies, perceptions of emergencies/disaster types most likely to impact their facility, future education/training preferences, and barriers to participation in disaster/emergency education/training. The survey also assessed the providers’ comfort level with suggested disaster/emergency core competencies put forth from professional emergency/trauma organizations. The response rate to the survey was 57.14%. Of those that responded 41.67% reported experience in caring for victims of disaster. Participation in previous disaster education/training was reported by 83.3% and these same respondents were familiar with their role according to the facility’s Emergency Operations Manual (EOM). The providers perceived that natural disasters were most likely to affect their community (83.33%) in relation to events from the facility’s Hazard Vulnerability Analysis (HVA). Respondents that reported having not participated in disaster education/training indicated a lack of time and new employment as barriers. For future training 66.66% of those that responded would prefer hands on training and were willing to spend one hour per year on disaster training/education. In regard to their ability to care for disaster/emergency victims, participating providers considered themselves novice (25%), advanced beginner (25%), competent (16.67%), proficient (25%) and expert (8.33%). Overall, results indicate that most respondents had experience and are currently participating in education/training. However, the majority still consider themselves novice or advanced beginner in their ability to care for disaster/emergency victims. Most felt that there was little likelihood for most disaster events to occur in their community other than natural disasters.

Almost every day, we see and hear about disasters impacting individuals and households in communities worldwide. Impacts experienced include loss of life and injury, loss of property, and more. Disasters are often devastating for those who experience them. It is for this reason that preparedness is advocated by national and international organizations such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the United Nations. And, it is for this reason that researchers have often attempted to assess how prepared people are. Yet, what is this thing they call preparedness? What does it look like? What is involved in becoming a wholly prepared person? One might have assumed that organizations like FEMA and researchers would have addressed these fundamental questions prior to recommending that people become prepared or measuring how prepared people are, but that is not the case. The absence of an understanding of what preparedness is and entails is a critical theoretical gap with significant practical implications. This research explored the basic issue of what preparedness means and entails to people in Fako Division, Cameroon—a place threated by many hazards and which has experienced many disasters. From the analysis of the 33 interviews conducted in this study, the researcher found that preparedness is a dynamic state of readiness that is dependent on context, a social process, and a process of completing activities to save lives and minimize the effects of disasters. In addition, the researcher found that Cameroonians view a wholly prepared person as a) one who would have knowledge about hazards and what to do about them, b) one who would engage others, including their families and neighbors, in discussions about activities related to hazards and what to do about them, and c) one who would engage in activities to minimize loss from hazards, sustain themselves in the face of hazards, and flee from hazards. The findings from the interview data synch to a large extent with what is implied, but not clearly stated, in the existing research literature. The researcher address this synchrony and posit a definition of preparedness and identify the theoretical components of preparedness.

Scholarship on disasters in the United States would suggest that emergency managers should play a role in hazard mitigation. Yet, little empirical research has investigated precisely what role or roles emergency managers actually do play during this phase. This study explored the role of county-level emergency managers in hazard mitigation and the factors that might influence those roles. Data for this study was collected through 42 in-depth, telephone interviews with county- level emergency managers in FEMA Regions III, V, and X, which includes the Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, and Pacific Northwest regions of the United States. Grounded theory was utilized in order to organize and analyze the data. The data suggests that emergency managers play several roles within mitigation: a generic role, a support role, an administrative role, a promoter role, a public educator role, and a planning role. These roles are explained by a number of factors, including conceptual confusion, response and preparedness orientation, financial resource factors, planning factors, additional resource factors, competition between mitigation and development, resistance to mitigation, and engagement in mitigation. It is also important to note that emergency managers spend only a small amount of their time in mitigation. The results of this study suggest that there is a gap between the theorized role and the actual role that emergency managers play within mitigation. Closing this gap will likely require additional resources for mitigation and county-level emergency management, as well as greater consistency in defining mitigation through policy and education.

The first line of defense for the threat of an oncoming hurricane are meteorologists. From their guidance, warnings are drafted and evacuation plans are made ready. This study explores uncertainty that operational meteorologists encounter with hurricane prediction, and more importantly, how meteorologists translate the uncertainty for the public. The study is based on a web survey of individual meteorologists, in cooperation with the National Weather Association (NWA). The survey received 254 responses with an estimated 18% response rate. Specifically, the study focuses on three key areas: displaying uncertainty in hurricane track forecasts, perceived relationships between the public and the media and message characteristics on various platforms (e.g., television, web, and social media), and reliance on numerical weather prediction in the forecasting process. Results show that tracking graphics are varied between their use and usefulness and meteorologists think that they have a bigger role in information dissemination than previously thought. / National Science Foundation (NSF) Grant CMMI1520338

A research report submitted In partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Commerce in Accounting, School of Accountancy University of Witwatersrand, 2018 / This paper explores the change in auditors and whether it enhances auditor independence and credibility of financial statements. In recent years due to financial crises and accounting scandals, the rotation of a company’s auditors, after long standing relationships, have come into the limelight. The independence of auditors has come into question and the credibility of financial statements. Interviews were conducted to gain an understanding of how an audit client, referred to in this report as the Company, changed its auditors. The interviews gained an understanding of how the Company: • Made the decision to change and appoint new auditors • Determined whether this change enhanced independence and • Created processes in order to manage the changeover. The Company carrying out the change was analysed in order to understand the processes which were put in place to manage the change. Understanding the criteria and skills required from the new auditor was also investigated. The study finds that the process of appointing and transitioning to new auditors is a comprehensive and rigorous task. This process requires proper and careful planning, risk identification and process and project management. Throughout the process, the Company met with business its operations and provided feedback to members of the boards to ensure gaps were filled and targets and milestones were met. The onboarding of the new auditors required engagement with both the auditors and different functions and businesses of the Company. The success of this project required intense planning and incredible momentum, which the study shows, over the period of time in which the change took place. It required integration with all businesses of the Company and the group finance function. / PH2020

The use of social media and other communication technologies have created a new ecology of public messaging. As it is a core task of government to inform its residents about risks, public managers and emergency managers, specifically, must understand this new ecology if they are to effectively communicate with the public. A challenge of this new media environment is the differential access of members of the community to various technologies. Partial proportional odds regression (PPO) provides a strategy that is useful to separate effects of access from effects of use. This article illustrates the use of PPO regression to separate access and use effects based on a survey which followed a series of severe weather events in the spring of 2016. The survey includes an address-based sample of residents in the state of Oklahoma to ask about the use of various communication technologies to share information about the weather system (among other subjects). We find that age and work status are related to access while income, gender, race and exposure to extreme weather are related to use of various communication media. This information provides emergency managers with a stronger foundation for developing a portfolio of information options for their communities.

Mass-casualty incidents (MCI) cause a sudden increase in demand of medical resources in a region. The most important and challenging task in addressing an MCI is managing overwhelmed resources with the goal of increasing total number of survivors. Currently, most of the decisions following an MCI are made in an ad-hoc manner or by following static guidelines that do not account for amount of available resources and number of the casualties. The purpose of this dissertation is to introduce and analyze sophisticated service prioritization and resource allocation tools. These tools can be used to produce service order strategies that increase the overall number of survivors. There are several models proposed that account for number and mix of the casualties, and amount and type of the resources available. Large number of the elements involved in this problem makes the model very complex, and thus, in order to gain some insights into the structure of the optimal solutions, some of the proposed models are developed under simplifying assumptions. These assumptions include limitations on the number of casualty types, handling of deaths, servers, and types of resources. Under these assumptions several characteristics of the optimal policies are identified, and optimal algorithms for various scenarios are developed. We also develop an integrated model that addresses service order, transportation, and hospital selection. A comprehensive set of computational results and comparison with the related works in the literature are provided in order to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed methodologies. / Ph. D.

The local fire station typically is responsible for responding first in an emergency.  Emergency response in the era after 11 September 2001 is an important topic to consider. In the big picture, it is a complex web of federal and national resources that are brought to bear on a diverse set of problems.  In the smaller picture, individual managers cope with pressures to provide efficient response, but a response that is embedded within the needs of the local community.  In both these pictures, the tensions between individualism and nationalism are discerned.  This dissertation examines these individuals at the local county level in more detail.  Using grounded theory, it describes the strategies that emerged to integrate the actions of career and volunteer first responders.  It finds that legacy organizational design and individual motivations are important influences on these integrating strategies.  Most interestingly, it finds that the founding debate between the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists still has influence on these managing strategies.  Local managers are able to blend these distinct visions of government.  Each of these influences is described as they were manifested in the study interviews and observations. / Ph. D.