Disasters may feel like an event with a clear beginning and end, but FEMA and other disaster recovery organizations train their members to treat disasters as cycles.
The commonly adopted incident management cycle includes phases for planning, managing, and recovering from disasters such as hurricanes and other severe weather events, pandemics, economic crashes, and more. By treating the disasters your community may face as inevitable cycles, you never stop preparing for the next event. A continual approach puts you in the best position to react to whatever is next.
Below, let’s look at each step in the incident management cycle to see how it all works.
Mitigating Barriers to Recovery and Response
Think of mitigation as long-term solutions to minimize the effects of a disaster.
For instance, updating building codes and zoning, conducting long-range analyses; or even implementing a public education program are all ways communities can mitigate the effects of an incident.
Depending on the type of disaster, the mitigation phase is often the longest phase. It could stretch months or even years. Robust, long-term strategies rule this phase as more time and resources can be devoted to finding solutions for it.
Getting Prepared
The best way to handle a disaster is to be as prepared as possible before a crisis hits. The preparedness phase is the planning period where you and your community figure out how to specifically respond to a probable incident.
Creating preparedness plans
Conducting emergency exercises or trainings
Assessing risk levels within the community
Implementing warnings or creating communication strategies
Depending on the situation, this phase may be a few weeks or days to just a few hours. While you can prepare for many things during the mitigation phase, it’s only during the preparedness phase that you receive specificity to accurately prepare for the disaster that is just ahead.
A Swift Response Effort
provide care to the affected population
assess needs
and maintain the safety of those affected
The primary focus is on immediate, temporary needs; how can we put a bandaid on the problems until a permanent solution can be implemented?
Interconnectedness and communication between all parties are vital at this stage, because a rapid response could be the difference between a successful response effort and failure.
Putting it Back Together: Recovery
Returning support systems to normal
Instituting temporary housing
Disseminating public information
Offering counseling and advising programs
Studying economic impact
Re-opening businesses and events
Repairing damages
Verity Handles Each Step in the Incident Management Cycle
Verity’s incident management system is specifically designed to handle every step of the Incident management cycle. Our tool guides you through each phase, helping you understand what’s happening on both a macro and micro-economic level.
After the smoke clears you can use the data you’ve collected over the lifetime of the crisis to devise mitigation strategies to help improve response efforts for the next incident. For municipal-serving economic organizations, Verity is a trusted tool for mitigating and learning from economic disasters in your community.
To see how Verity can improve your organization, schedule a demo today.