The study shows the importance of the lakou, which is a spatial manifestation of the familial social structure in the Haitian culture, through the analysis of post-disaster temporary settlements, showing that through their own devices endogenous inhabitants create the lakou in post-disaster temporary settlements. The methodology was qualitative through interviews, observations, and site mapping, and qualitative coding was used to uncover the emergent themes. This study establishes the importance of the lakou in community vibrancy and demonstrates how the lakou adds to the resilience of the survivors living in such settlements. The unprecedented transformation of the lakou from a kinship based settlement pattern to a more inclusive non-familial pattern points to the importance of the spatial and social manifestation in the development of community in a settlement. It is conjectured that this resiliency factor can be useful in the process of turning a post-disaster settlement into a successful permanent settlement.

An improvised nuclear device (IND) is considered by the DHS to be the most catastrophic terrorist incident that could befall the United States, causing severe economic damage, extensive property damage, and enormous loss of life. Effective response to an IND is best accomplished with preparation including emergency operations plans (EOP) specific to an IND and training for staff on how to respond. The literature documents several areas of weakness in U.S. health services' preparation that affects entire communities and puts lives at risk. The purpose of this study was to assess the strengths, weaknesses, and gaps in Detroit, Michigan hospitals' EOP for responding to an IND terrorist attack. The conceptual framework used systems theory to look at how an event's complex individual components work as parts of a larger whole. Specifically, the interconnections that the individual parts of an event have on the outcome were assessed as means of evaluating the IND EOP that Detroit area hospitals have in place. This qualitative study consisted of an interview approach with the emergency management representatives of Detroit hospitals responsible for EOP development. Data analysis was completed using categorization based on research questions to look for commonalities and trends. This study revealed gaps that the 5 participating Detroit hospitals have in their preparation, training, and staff knowledge in response to an IND. Implications for positive social change, at local and national levels, include creation and dissemination of an improved model for disaster planning and training in the hospital setting, which correlates to improved community response and community care for health service organizations and throughout health services as a whole.

No description available.

The occurrence of devastating natural disasters in the past several years have prompted communities, responding organizations, and governments to seek ways to improve disaster preparedness capabilities locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally. A holistic approach to design used in the aerospace and industrial engineering fields enables efficient allocation of resources through applied parametric changes within a particular design to improve performance metrics to selected standards. In this research, this methodology is applied to disaster preparedness, using a community's time to restoration after a disaster as the response metric. A review of the responses from Hurricane Katrina and the 2010 Haiti earthquake, among other prominent disasters, provides observations leading to some current capability benchmarking. A need for holistic assessment and planning exists for communities but the current response planning infrastructure lacks a standardized framework and standardized assessment metrics. Within the humanitarian logistics community, several different metrics exist, enabling quantification and measurement of a particular area's vulnerability. These metrics, combined with design and planning methodologies from related fields, such as engineering product design, military response planning, and business process redesign, provide insight and a framework from which to begin developing a methodology to enable holistic disaster response planning. The developed methodology was applied to the communities of Shelby County, TN and pre-Hurricane-Katrina Orleans Parish, LA. Available literature and reliable media sources provide information about the different values of system parameters within the decomposition of the community aspects and also about relationships among the parameters. The community was modeled as a system dynamics model and was tested in the implementation of two, five, and ten year improvement plans for Preparedness, Response, and Development capabilities, and combinations of these capabilities. For Shelby County and for Orleans Parish, the Response improvement plan reduced restoration time the most. For the combined capabilities, Shelby County experienced the greatest reduction in restoration time with the implementation of Development&Response capability improvements, and for Orleans Parish it was the Preparedness&Response capability improvements. Optimization of restoration time with community parameters was tested by using a Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm. Fifty different optimized restoration times were generated using the Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm and ranked using the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution. The optimization results indicate that the greatest reduction in restoration time for a community is achieved with a particular combination of different parameter values instead of the maximization of each parameter.

No abstract available. / Thesis (LL.M.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2006.

Natural hazards are the reality of today&amp / #8217 / s world, which considerably affect people&amp / #8217 / s living conditions. As they cannot be prevented, the basic precautions should be taken before the occurrence to protect people. At this point, the preparedness for any threat is really important, which does decrease destructive effects of the hazard for communities and shorten recovery interventions. In terms of preparedness, identification of vulnerable people in the community gives an important contribution for better planning in disaster management. In this respect, this thesis aims to develop a methodology in order to define vulnerable groups in terms of their social conditions for any possible hazard, with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology. Moreover, the thesis aims to find out an interrelation between hazards and vulnerability, to build awareness about identification of socially vulnerable groups in the pre- and post-disaster planning. A case study area is selected in earthquake-prone Pendik, Istanbul, in order to find the contribution of the assessment. A study is carried out to describe social vulnerability levels in the study area using GIS. Criterion standardization, weighting and combining are accomplished by multi criteria evaluation methods. These calculations are supported with five explorative spatial data analyses to understand global trends and spatial interactions of the study data. The objectivity of the assessment and the complicated structure of the study data are also discussed. The main outcomes of the methodology and its applications in the case study area show that, the southeast part of Pendik is socially vulnerable to any possible hazard.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Linköping : Linköpings universitet, 2006. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.

Dissertation (Ph.D.)--University of South Florida, 2006. / Title from PDF of title page. Document formatted into pages; contains 396 pages. Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Objetivo: Este estudio tiene como propósito: conocer, analizar y describir cómo los enfermeros gestionan los riesgos y desastres en la pandemia del COVID-19 en el hospital General Ambato. Materiales y métodos: El escenario seleccionado para este estudio fueel Hospital General Ambato, con la participación de 25 enfermeras, tanto del área de cuidado directo como del área administrativa. Para la recolección de datos, se utilizó una entrevista semiestructurada, la cual fue validada por juicio de expertos y se realizó un estudio piloto. Posteriormente, se llevó a cabo un análisis de contenido temático con la información recopilada. A lo largo de la investigación, se siguieron principios éticos y se mantuvo el rigor científico necesario. Resultados: A través del análisis y la discusión de los datos, se obtuvieron las siguientes categorías: (I) Percepción de la importancia de la gestión de riesgos, (II) Resultados de la amplificación social del riesgo en la pandemia COVID-19, (III) Gestión del talento humano de enfermería en riesgos y desastres, y (IV) Respuestas psicológicas de enfermería en la gestión de riesgos y desastres. Conclusiones: Este estudio revela que la gestión del riesgo de desastres en el ámbito hospitalario durante la pandemia implica la organización, planificación y aplicación de políticas y estrategias destinadas a prevenir nuevos riesgos. Además, destaca que las enfermeras poseen los conocimientos y habilidades necesarios para desempeñar este rol. El estudio también describe un modelo conceptual que permite comprender cómo las enfermeras pueden ejercer sus funciones como gestoras de riesgos y desastres a nivel hospitalario. Se recomienda que el gremio de enfermería sea incluido de manera activa en la preparación, respuesta y recuperación ante las amenazas que enfrenta una institución. Esto permitirá aprovechar su experiencia y contribuir de manera significativa a la gestión de riesgos y desastres en situaciones de pandemia. / Objective: This study aims to comprehensively understand, analyze, and describe the strategies employed by nurses in managing risks and disasters amidst the COVID-19 pandemic at Ambato General Hospital. Materials and Methods: The research was conducted at Ambato General Hospital, with the active participation of 25 nurses spanning both direct care and administrative domains. Data collection comprised a meticulously crafted semi-structured interview, which underwent validation through expert judgment, along with a preliminary pilot study. Subsequently, a meticulous thematic content analysis was applied to the amassed information, and ethical principles were consistently upheld throughout the research, ensuring the maintenance of requisite scientific rigor. Results: The process of data analysis and ensuing discussions led to the identification of the following key categories: (I) Perception of the significance of risk management, (II) Outcomes of the social amplification of risk in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, (III) Human talent management within the nursing domain amidst risks and disasters, and (IV) Psychological responses of nursing professionals in the context of risk and disaster management. Conclusions: This study underscores that effective disaster risk management within the hospital setting during a pandemic necessitates meticulous organization, planning, and the implementation of targeted policies and strategies to preemptively address emerging risks. Furthermore, it accentuates the fact that nurses are equipped with the requisite knowledge and skills to proficiently fulfill this pivotal role. The study introduces a conceptual model elucidating how nurses can actively serve as effective risk and disaster managers at the hospital level. It is strongly recommended that the nursing profession be actively engaged in the preparation, response, and recovery phases in the face of threats encountered by an institution. Such active involvement is poised to harness their expertise and make a substantive contribution to the field of risk and disaster management, particularly in the unique context of a pandemic.

Despite the effects of natural disasters on small business owners, the owners' communication strategies to alleviate loss to their companies' profitability remain problematic. The purpose of this qualitative descriptive multiunit case study was to explore what communication strategies some small business owners developed and implemented for facilitating resuming their business operations after a natural disaster. The targeted population consisted of 2 small business owners located along the Belmar Boardwalk in Belmar, New Jersey. The conceptual framework for this study was Coombs' situational crisis communication theory. The case data collected were from semistructured interviews and company documents. Employing member checking and methodological triangulation increased the assurance of the study's credibility and trustworthiness. The data analysis consisted of separating the data into groupings, identifying major groupings, assessing the information within the major groups, and developing thematic interpretations. The 4 validated themes that emerged were communication, community, disaster recovery, and stakeholders (employees). The findings from this study may contribute to social change by providing communication strategies that small business owners can use to mitigate losses from disasters, and facilitate businesses' and communities' recovery for reducing further losses.